Welcome to the special edition of From the Politics Desk. Tonight, a reporter inside the room at home brings you highlights from President Donald Trump’s second term speech.
Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every day here.
– Adam Walner
A key takeaway from Trump’s speech to Congress: a focus on culture war and GOP unification
By Sahil Kapur
President Donald Trump has been applauded by Republicans for his administration’s swift early actions, promoting his newly imposed tariffs, but he elicited a wave of protest from Democrats when he spoke to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
Leaning towards a culture war, Trump opposed transgender rights, the pronouns and diversity of “them/them” and fairness and inclusion programs. He celebrated the crackdown on transition. He repeatedly taunted his predecessor, Joe Biden, with the former president imposing “an insane and extremely dangerous open border policy” and offering little to the Democrats in the way of olive branches.
Our takeaway from the speech and how that sets the rest of Trump’s 2025.
Trump defends his tariff move. Trump said a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican products is “to protect the soul of our country.”
This is a sign of how Trump has changed the traditionally unprofessional trade GOP, but the party is unsure about the impact of tariffs on prices and the broader economy.
“There will be a bit of a hindrance,” Trump added. “But we’re fine with that. That’s not that much.”
Summary of the “big and beautiful bill” agenda: Trump spent quite a bit of time on issues ranging from trans athletes to government efficiency jobs. But the biggest thing that Congress works this year is the massive tax and spending bills, and Trump has outlined his priorities.
Trump reiterated his call to cut taxes later this year and include several campaign trail tax promises in the bill. Congressional Republicans are working on the feasibility of those proposals.
What was missing: Some troubling issues were little or completely missing from the speech, reflecting the broader goal of bringing together the Republicans.
The return of Israeli and American hostages held by Hamas in Gaza was mentioned, but Trump did not dig far deeper into the broader issues facing the Middle East. Also, once the GOP budget and spending plans were formed, Medicaid was not mentioned. This is a large portion of the federal budget that could be a target for change. And Trump didn’t dig into the cuts of federal workers that caused unrest among some Congressional Republicans and tumultuous people.
Read the rest of the takeaway here →
Democrats’ quiet protest over Trump’s speech was hidden by one explosion
Scott Wong and Frank Thorpe v
Democrats in the House and Senate quietly protested Trump – rejecting applause, continuing to have signs calling him a “king” and a “liar,” and for some, leaving the address entirely.
Rep. Al Green of D-Texas did not obtain a memo.
After Trump said he had won the mandate to Congressman, the progressive Lavre Larzer Rose began swinging his wand at Trump and screamed repeatedly: “You have no obligation!” The military sergeant quickly removed the green from the meeting room.
That wasn’t what the Democratic leaders wanted. They had not brought props before the joint speech and warned members of the Rank and File before maintaining the message. The focus should be on government efficiency of Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, as well as federal workers fired by everyday Americans who have been hurt by their policies and cuts.
But it’s hard to line up all Congressional Democrats. From the moment Trump walked to the floor of his house it was clear that this was not a regular speech to Congress. Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, a top Democrat on the new Doge subcommittee, quietly held the sign behind Trump’s reading: “This is not normal.”
After he greeted Trump, Rep. R-Texas Lance Gooden arrived across the aisle, ripping the sign from Stansbury and threw it into the air – all on live television.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats stood when Trump walked down the central aisle but didn’t praise him.
D-Mich. Rep. Rashida Tlaib brought an eraseable whiteboard into his room and scribbled various messages on Trump all night. For example, “No King,” “That’s a lie,” “I’ll cut off Medicaid.”
See more details from the interior house →
More coverage
For now, it’s all from the political desk. If you have feedback – Likes and dislikes – Email PoliticsNewsletter@nbcuni.com
And if you’re a fan, share it with anyone. They can sign up here.
