Cyprus Mail 5 March 2025 - by Reuters News Service
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| President Donald Trump's delivers his speech to a joint session of Congress |
Trump vows more tariffs, dividing Republicans
A triumphant President Donald Trump told Congress on Tuesday that “America is back” after he reshaped U.S. foreign policy, ignited a trade war and ousted tens of thousands of government workers in six tumultuous weeks since returning to power, drawing jeers from some Democrats who walked out in protest.
The primetime speech, his first to Congress since taking office on January 20, followed a second day of market turmoil after he imposed sweeping new tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China.
At 100 minutes, the speech was the longest presidential address to Congress in modern U.S. history, according to The American Presidency Project.
World leaders were watching Trump’s speech closely, a day after he paused all military aid to Ukraine in a stark reversal of U.S. policy. The suspension followed an Oval Office blowup in which Trump angrily upbraided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in front of TV cameras.
Takeaways from Trump’s address to Congress
FOREIGN POLICY GETS SHORT SHRIFT
The opening weeks of Trump’s presidency have been dominated by foreign policy, with several cabinet members engaging in furious shuttle diplomacy throughout Europe and the Middle East in a bid to wind down the Ukraine war and the conflict in Gaza.
But you wouldn’t know it from Trump’s speech on Tuesday, which was focused almost entirely on domestic affairs.
The president waited until the end of his address to discuss the Ukraine war, the Middle East or national security generally. And when he did, he largely repeated his greatest hits, reiterating his intention to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal and describing the war in Ukraine as a bloody war of attrition that needs to be stopped.
He did make two pieces of news, however.
Trump said he received a letter earlier in the day from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying he was ready to sign a proposed critical minerals deal between the two nations, just four days after an Oval Office meeting between the two leaders devolved into a nasty public argument.
Trump also said the mastermind of a 2021 bombing during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan had been detained. While Trump offered few additional details, a White House official identified that individual as Mohammad Sharifullah, a high-ranking member of ISIS in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
APPEALS TO CONGRESS
Since taking office on January 20, Trump has disrupted and upended foreign and domestic affairs through the use of trade policy, diplomacy, immigration controls and executive orders.
As with any administration, Congress will now have to do some heavy lifting, beginning with the massive tax cut and border bill Trump is seeking to pass. He also asked Congress for funding to build a massive “Golden Dome” missile shield over the country and ultimately to balance the budget.
Unlike his predecessor, President Joe Biden, who sought dialogue with Republicans and bipartisan victories, Trump did not look to enlist support of Democrats for his agenda. Instead, he largely mocked and dismissed them during the speech as if he were still a candidate on the campaign trail.
In response, several Democrats either turned their backs to Trump or walked out of the chamber. By the time Trump was finished, their side of the aisle was half empty.
Trump used the speech as an opportunity to highlight some easy early wins to please his conservative supporters.
But the next months likely will tell a more complete tale about the early arc of his second term, as he tries to push his legislative agenda through and keep his promises to bring an end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
PROTEST IN PINK
Before Trump’s speech on Tuesday, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi advised her Democratic colleagues not to become part of the story.
That didn’t work out so much.
Shortly after Trump began his remarks, Democratic Representative Al Green from Texas stood up and shouted that the president did not have a mandate.
“Sit your ass down!” Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican, shouted at Green, who remained standing.
The ruckus did not end, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson directed the sergeant at arms, in charge of maintaining order in the chamber, to escort Green out.
Some other Democratic lawmakers found an unobtrusive way to show protest with a collective fashion choice: pink clothing.
Multiple female lawmakers, including Pelosi, donned outfits in that hue for the Republican president’s speech, creating a show of unity and solidarity in a room otherwise dominated by blue and gray suits.
The color choice was different but the aim was similar to Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address, when Democratic women wore white to celebrate 100 years of women having the right to vote, projecting a picture of calm displeasure during the president’s remarks.
EGGS IN BIDEN’S BASKET
The No. 1 issue that helped get Trump elected was inflation and the cost of basic goods like groceries. On Tuesday, it was a subject the president was not eager to discuss.
When he did, he put the blame on Biden’s administration while providing little detail on how he would bring down, for example, the cost of eggs.
“Joe Biden, especially, let the price of eggs get out of control,” Trump said.
Egg prices are at an all-time high, but largely because bird flu outbreaks have led to shortages by wiping out millions of hens.
“Secretary, do a good job on that,” Trump said, presumably to Brooke Rollins, the new secretary of agriculture.
Beyond that, Trump didn’t have much to propose in terms of bringing down costs other than what he said during the election campaign: increased energy production and cutting what he calls fraud and waste in the federal government, both of which may affect inflation indirectly over time.
Trump drew cheers when he introduced tech billionaire Elon Musk as the spearhead of the effort to downsize the federal payroll and spending. Trump credited Musk with identifying “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud,” an assertion that far exceeds even what the administration has claimed so far.
Trump spent more time discussing his actions on hot-button social issues and conservative talking points, each of which earned him rousing applause from the Republicans in the chamber.
They included renaming the Gulf of Mexico and a mountain in Alaska, making English the official language of the country, ending government diversity programs and preventing transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams.
All of those were a result of Trump’s executive orders and came at a stroke of his black Sharpie pen. The price of eggs: That’s harder.
DIFFERENT NUMBERS
Trump began his address in an expansive and celebratory mode, suggesting that he had turned voter attitudes around since taking office on January 20. But he still may have real work to do to win over skeptical viewers at home.
“For the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction — an astonishing record 27-point swing, the most ever,” Trump said.
Trump may have polls of his own that support his boast, but Reuters/Ipsos polling does not. The most recent poll, taken over the two days ahead of the speech, had 49% of Americans saying the country was on the wrong track compared to just 34% of those who said it was on the right one.
With Trump levying steep tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and inflation still not tamed, the president is getting low marks on economic concerns, with only 1 in 3 Americans approving his handling of cost of living issues, the poll found.
Overall, Trump’s approval rating is holding steady at 44%. That’s only slightly higher than Biden’s during much of his latter time in office, the man Trump assailed throughout the evening.
The pause in aid to Ukraine has threatened Kyiv’s efforts to defend against Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion three years ago, and further rattled European leaders worried that Trump is moving the U.S. too far toward Moscow.
Trump devoted only a few minutes of his speech to foreign policy. He signaled a willingness to press ahead with a minerals deal with Ukraine that was set aside after last week’s disastrous White House meeting.
“Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace,” Trump said. “Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”
And he repeated his promises – though without adding detail – to bring peace to the Middle East and expand the Abraham Accords, deals signed during his first term that established relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors.
While Trump has appeared to fault Ukraine for starting the war, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found 70% of Americans – including two-thirds of Republicans – say Russia was more to blame.
Trump vowed to balance the federal budget, even as he urged lawmakers to enact a sweeping tax cut agenda that analysts say could add more than $5 trillion to the federal government’s $36 trillion debt load. Congress needs to raise the nation’s debt ceiling later this year or risk a devastating default.
The speech shared some of the hallmarks of Trump’s campaign rallies. Trump repeatedly assailed his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, attacked immigrant criminals as “savages” and promised to ban what he called “transgender ideology,” all while peppering his remarks with exaggerated or false claims.
DEMOCRATIC PROTESTS
“To my fellow citizens, America is back,” Trump began to a standing ovation from fellow Republicans. “Our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed, and perhaps will never witness again.”
Democrats held up signs with messages like “No King!” and “This Is NOT Normal,” and about half the Democrats had walked out by the end of the speech.
One Texas congressman, Al Green, was ordered removed after he refused to sit down.
Trump, a political brawler by nature, reveled in the disagreements.
“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,” he said after Green’s ejection.
The speech took place in the House of Representatives, where lawmakers huddled in fear for their lives four years ago while a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory over the then-incumbent Trump.
The lawmaker Democrats chose to give their rebuttal speech, moderate U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin, invoked an iconic Republican president in criticizing Trump.
“As a Cold War kid, I’m thankful it was Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s. Trump would have lost us the Cold War,” Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who won election in Michigan in November even as Trump carried her state, said, referring to President Ronald Reagan. “Donald Trump’s actions suggest that, in his heart, he doesn’t believe we are an exceptional nation.”
MORE TARIFFS COMING
Trump praised billionaire businessman Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, which has downsized more than 100,000 federal workers, cut billions of dollars in foreign aid and shuttered entire agencies.
The president credited Musk with identifying “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud,” a claim that far exceeds even what the administration has claimed so far. Musk, seated in the gallery, received ovations from Republicans.
Trump reiterated his intention to impose additional reciprocal tariffs on April 2, a move that would likely roil financial markets even more.
“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries,” he said.
On this point, many Republicans remained seated, a signal of how Trump’s tariffs have divided his party.
Trump’s 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, two of the country’s closest allies, and an additional 10% on Chinese imports deepened investor concerns about the economy. The Nasdaq Composite is down more than 9% from its record closing high on December 16.
Trump, who has often taken credit for market increases, did not mention this week’s downturn. He also barely addressed stubbornly high costs, blaming Biden for the price of eggs and saying he would bring down inflation via increased energy production.
Just one in three Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, a potential danger sign amid worries his tariffs could increase inflation.
Trump called on Congress to pass a sweeping $4.5 trillion plan that would extend his 2017 tax cuts, tighten border security and fund massive deportations.
Trump noted that his administration had already launched a border crackdown, citing February’s record-low total of 8,300 migrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border. Those arrests are often used as a proxy to estimate illegal crossings.
The Republican tax proposal calls for $2 trillion in spending reductions over a decade, with possible cuts to education, healthcare and other social services.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that Trump’s full tax agenda, including elimination of taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits, could cost between $5 trillion and $11.2 trillion over a decade.
