President Donald Trump entered the House chamber Tuesday night donning his purple tie in an apparent attempt at political unity.
Division Amidst Unity
The bipartisanship ended there.
Within minutes of Trump taking the dais, Democrats interrupted the president’s first joint address to Congress with jeers and boos — and Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was forcibly removed from the chamber at the direction of Speaker Mike Johnson for a breach of decorum. Trump, in turn, complained that Democrats wouldn’t acknowledge his accomplishments, bragging that he had done more in 43 days than other presidents had in eight years, calling former President Joe Biden the “worst president in American history,” and lambasting several of his predecessor’s signature policies using the kind of inflammatory rhetoric he is best known for.
A Call for Celebration
“I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud,” Trump said. “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease — a disease that would wipe out entire nations — or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded.”
“So Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America? For the good of our nation?” Trump said.
Partisan Polarization
Congressional Democrats did not bite. Several of them, wearing shirts that said “resist” on their backs, stood up and walked out instead.
The president’s grievance-fueled, culture-war-focused address was a stark contrast to his first address to Congress in 2017, in which he signaled unity and bipartisanship as he attempted to demonstrate that he would be a president for all Americans after a tumultuous campaign. The Tuesday night speech was more indicative of the emboldened posture Trump has taken during his first month and a half in office, eager to upend Washington and caring little about who, or what, gets hurt in the process.
Fanning the Flames
It was a red-meat speech that appeared more intent on ginning up the president’s MAGA base than appealing to the broader coalition of people who came together to elect the president — to say nothing of the more than 75 million people who voted for his opponent. The address was reminiscent of his many grievance-fueled campaign-trail speeches, not indicative of a president focused on putting the past aside and focused on governing.
It’s uncommon for a president to mention their predecessor by name in an address to Congress — let alone mention them 16 times. He laid into the “ridiculous Green New Scam” — his nickname for Biden’s environmental policies — and the prior administration’s “insane electric vehicle mandate.” He said the Biden administration’s immigration policy had been allowed to “destroy our country.”
Provocative Policies
He called Biden’s economic policy a “catastrophe” and said it caused “an inflation nightmare.” He complained that Biden had been allowed to “viciously prosecute” him, saying that it had worked out “not too great” for Democrats, prompting some of those in the chamber to hold up signs saying “false.”
But it didn’t stop there. He struck his campaign trail opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, too. Trump claimed that a recent $500 billion investment in infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence from OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank wouldn’t have happened if Harris won.
Threats and Taunts
At one point, Trump appeared to directly threaten Democrats who are thinking of opposing congressional action to extend his 2017 tax cuts. He said that if they didn’t, “I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office.”
“I’m doing a big favor by telling you that,” he added.
And he cajoled Democrats when they failed to applaud for his Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. While members of the opposing party typically stand to acknowledge members of the Cabinet and shake their hands, Democrats largely snubbed the Cabinet as they entered the chamber.
Stoking Controversy
“With the name Kennedy, you would have thought everybody over here would have been cheering,” Trump quipped. “How quickly they forget.”
Biden and Democrats were hardly the only ones taking hits from Trump. Biden and Democrats. He telegraphed his new tit-for-tat strategy with reciprocal tariffs on other countries — “whatever they tax us, we will tax” — and the media, one of the president’s favorite punching bags, got a shout-out too.
And though he mentioned both the economy and immigration — two priorities that polling shows are top of mind for Americans — he spent far more time talking about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. He spent several minutes reading through a long list of government spending cuts to programs promoting “LGBTQI+” policies in Lesotho, a “left-wing propaganda operation” in Moldova and male circumcision in Mozambique — earning laughs from Republicans in the chamber.
“Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it, I believe,” Trump said, referencing Democrats. “They just don’t want to admit that.”
Resisting Responses
Some Democrats, like Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), responded by getting up and walking out, or holding signs that said “Musk Steals,” “Save Medicaid” and “Protect Veterans.”
And then there was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
When Trump called her Pocahontas, one of his longtime nicknames for her, she sat there stone faced, defiantly clapping.
