The president hailed his first six weeks, vowing to press on with his polarizing bid to reshape the US government and end the Ukraine war – whatever the cost [Getty]
Donald Trump declared that the “American dream is unstoppable” on Tuesday in an address to Congress met with Democratic hostility as he touted radical policies and hailed billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
With Musk, the world’s richest person, among those attending the primetime televised address, the 78-year-old Republican said after less than two months back in power he is “just getting started.”
“America is back,” he declared.
Almost every line got loud applause from Republican Party members, including on two occasions when Trump singled out Musk, who stood up to salute the Congress.
But protests also began within minutes.
One Democratic congressman, Al Green, was ordered ejected because he refused to stop heckling, claiming Trump has no mandate to dismantle healthcare programs, and shaking his walking stick at the president.
Other Democrats silently held up placards including “False” and “Musk steals” and “That’s a lie!”
The president hailed his first six weeks, vowing to press on with his polarizing bid to reshape the US government and end the Ukraine war – whatever the cost.
However, in what often sounded more like a campaign speech than an address to the whole nation, he made no attempt to reach out to opponents.
He got big cheers from supporters on pronouncing that his culture war on diversity programs and transgender rights meant “our country will be woke no longer.”
Trump also set out his vision on the economy — even as the trade war he launched against Canada, China and Mexico is prompting jitters on world markets and threatening to raise prices at home.
He claimed that he was trying to resolve an “economic catastrophe,” despite actually inheriting the strongest developed economy in the world from his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.
The event marked a triumphant comeback to the US Capitol for Trump – just four years after his supporters stormed the building to protest his 2020 election loss, which in an unprecedented act of defiance he still refuses to fully accept.
Quest for power
Trump is pushing to extend presidential power to its limits, with the popular vote behind him and a Republican-controlled House and Senate doing his bidding.
Aided by tech tycoon Musk, Trump has cracked down on the federal bureaucracy, firing thousands of workers, shuttering entire agencies and decimating foreign aid.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the theme was the “renewal of the American dream and the renewal of the American dream is underway already.
“Look at all that President Trump has accomplished in his first month as president,” she told Fox News.
But there are early signs in the polls that Trump’s sweeping cuts and his failure to tackle inflation are hitting his popularity.
Trump is also upending US foreign policy with his pivot to Moscow over the Ukraine war, which has stunned Kyiv and allies alike.
Days after a televised row in the Oval Office with Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump will then lay out his plans to end the gruelling three-year conflict — despite fears that he is giving Russia what it wants.
“He’s going to dive into foreign policy, talk about his intention to end the war in Ukraine,” Leavitt said.
Trump had said on Monday that he would “let you know” during the speech about the fate of a minerals deal with Ukraine that remains unsigned after Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous visit.
Leavitt said Trump would also discuss his “plan to bring all the hostages out of Gaza” — the Palestinian territory he has proposed that the United States should take over, sparking outrage across the Middle East.
The US president will finally ask Congress for funds to support his plan for mass deportations of undocumented migrants, some of whom his administration has already dispatched to Guantanamo Bay.
Democrats have so far struggled to counter Trump’s flood-the-zone strategy and his hogging of the news cycle with constant press conferences.
The Democratic rebuttal to Trump’s address will be provided by new Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin, a 48-year-old former CIA analyst and rising star in the party.
