President Donald Trump’s first address to the nation delivered no major surprises, though it certainly contained various major talking points. In the 100 minute speech, Trump largely remained focused on many of the policy issues that he has spent the first 50 days of his administration tackling, including foreign policy, tariffs, DOGE, and more. Throughout the address, Democrats were observed for their resistance throughout the speech, but a lack of unity hindered their attempts to challenge the president.
Within the first minutes of the speech, it became clear that Trump was not going to receive the same amount of adoration from the entire crowd as he would expect for his regular campaign speeches. Rep. Al Green (D, TX) became a thorn in the side of the President within seconds of the start of his speech, repeatedly heckling him about his calls for Congress to defund Medicare and Medicaid. This resulted in House Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA) calling the Sergeant at Arms to remove him from the chamber, a demonstrative show of force and power that has rarely been seen at presidential addresses throughout history. Other Democratic members in the audience held small paddles, with messages such as “Save Medicaid” or “Dump Musk” that appeared to have little effect on the president or the Republicans in the chamber.
Trump touted many of his accomplishments throughout his address, from bringing home American hostage Marc Fogel from Russian captivity, to signing executive orders only recognizing the male and female genders, to banning transgender women from women’s sports, to significantly decreasing illegal migrant crossings at the Southern border.
However, he made various false claims throughout his speech. When discussing the border, Trump claimed without evidence that former President Joe Biden let illegal immigrants who were “murderers, gang members, drug dealers, and [from] insane asylums” into the country. He also claimed that America has experienced a strong economic boom since his return to the presidency, when in fact, stock prices are rapidly decreasing and tariffs have incited a trade war.
Trump made repeated references to Democrats’ unwillingness to stand or applaud throughout his speech. At one point, Trump claimed that he could find the cure to the most devastating disease, and the Democrats still would not smile, clap, nor cheer.
In between it all, Trump found time to shout out various invited guests in the audience, giving each one a ceremonial recognition. For instance, Peyton McNabb, a women’s volleyball player who got traumatic brain injury from having a ball hit her face that was thrown by a trans woman athlete, was told that all schools that allowed trans women to play on women’s teams would lose federal funding. Alysson Nugaray, a mother of a 12 year old girl Jocelyn who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant, received the news that a wildlife sanctuary where she lived in Galveston Bay, TX, would be renamed in her daughter’s honor.
This article also appears in our March 2025 print edition.
