WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, in a joint address to Congress on Tuesday night, is expected to lay out his efforts to rapidly slash the size of the federal government in ways critics warn oversteps his authority and threatens lasting damage.
The speech comes as Trump is making a sharp break from the previous administration, both on the international and domestic fronts. On Friday, Trump and Vice President JD Vance had a heated confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, rocking international relations and prompting concerns from critics that the White House is moving away from a democratic ally and hewing closer to Russia, an authoritarian adversary.
Tuesday’s speech — Trump’s first address to Congress of his second term — gives him the opportunity to further justify the shake-ups, both at home and abroad, to lawmakers and the public, and to preview what’s coming next.
The president plans to use the address to tout what he views as his administration’s initial successes, while also hosting guests who the White House said benefitted from Trump’s first term, according to an administration official and a senior White House official.
The president is likely to focus his remarks on immigration, new tariffs and the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to slash budgets and fire federal workers, as well as the administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government, a senior administration official told NBC News last week.
“There will be a lot of surprises and a lot of made-for-TV moments,” another administration official said.
In his last joint address to Congress, his 2020 State of the Union address, Trump awarded right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom — the country’s highest civilian honor. (Limbaugh, 70, died a year later.)
Trump may not travel the country to amplify his message in the days after the address, as is typical for presidents, according to a White House official. The official said that the president and his team believe he’s accomplishing much of his agenda from the White House, adding that they were comfortable with him explaining his message to Americans from his perch in the Oval Office.
“The priority is making sure business here at the White House is settled,” the official said, adding that post-address plans could change.
Instead, Vance will travel outside of Washington to highlight the key points in the president’s address, a senior administration official said. He will begin with a trip to the southern border on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for the vice president. Vance is expected to tour a processing facility in Eagle Pass, Texas, becoming the highest-ranking Trump administration official to visit the border so far during Trump’s second term.
Vance played a key role in Friday’s combative meeting with Zelenskyy, an unprecedented public confrontation of a U.S. ally that was later cheered by current and former Russian officials. The move was slammed by Democrats, and many Republicans have since doubled down on the administration’s criticisms of Zelenskyy.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, of Michigan, will deliver the Democratic response to the joint address. The president’s opposing party typically selects someone considered to be a rising political star to lay out the party’s priorities and perspectives on the administration. Slotkin won Michigan’s competitive open Senate seat in November, outperforming then-Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid.
Slotkin’s speech will lean into her security background as a former CIA analyst, according to a source familiar with her speech, who said her background gives her a unique perspective on the Oval Office confrontation between Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy. The senator will also highlight a proactive economic vision and discuss what Democrats see as the path forward, the source said.
Members of Congress also typically invite guests to presidential joint addresses in an effort to highlight specific issues.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., asked the Democratic caucus to bring guests who “have suffered under the Trump administration’s policies,” according to a spokesperson. The spokesperson said that Schumer planned to bring two Medicaid recipients, a child with spinal muscular atrophy whose survival was credited to a National Institutes of Health program and two fired federal workers.
Trump’s State of the Union speech in 2020 echoed campaign speeches, touting his economic and migration records just a month before the country ground to a halt because of Covid. At the end of his remarks, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of the president’s speech.
