Transcript of WATCH LIVE: President Trump's Joint Address to Congress | NBC News NOW

Country that the dramatic shakeups he's made in Washington in his first 43 days.

During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put, America.

First are right for America.

Our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.

Tonight in the face of fierce opposition from Democrats. Whatever Doge is doing, it's not democracy. The president will try to justify the drastic cuts he's made to the federal workforce.

One of the most important, important initiatives.

Is Doge and defend today's major tariffs and the trade war they sparked that could raise prices for Americans.

Tariffs 25% on Canada and 25% on Mexico. What is his plan for peace in.

Ukraine after that fiery confrontation in the Oval Office?

You're gambling with World War Three.

And after pulling military aid. And what is next for the war in the Middle East? Tonight, the eyes of the nation on the US Capitol as President Trump gets set to take the stage and speak directly to the American people.

This is an NBC News special, President.

Trump's address to a joint session of Congress. Now live from Washington, here are Tom Yamas and Hallie Jackson. And good evening. It's going to be a big night in politics night and for the country. I'm Hallie Jackson, joined by Tom Yamas as we are less than an hour away from President Trump's address to this joint session of Congress, first chance of his second term to make a primetime pitch to the American people. But don't call it a state of the union. Right. He hasn't been in office long enough to declare the state of our Union just six weeks into his historic second term. And it's been a very busy six weeks, consequential and controversial as the president looks to undo the status quo here in Washington, doing more than he did in the first months of his first term to reshape foreign policy and the federal workforce and entering the nation into a full on trade war by following through on his promise to slap new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. Those tariffs, Tom, hitting just today. Yeah. And you know, Wall street has some thoughts about that. Let's take a look. I want to show you exactly what's happening because the president often has bragged about Wall street and the markets, but look at this.

They've really dipped since that tariff announcement and completely wiping out all of the gains the markets have made since Election Day. Remember, a big reason the president won the election was because of the economy. But these new tariffs are adding to uncertainty to the point that a top advisor is talking about a compromise to the tariffs that we could learn about. TOM and that's not all he needs to talk about tonight. HALLIE that's right, Tom, you got a couple of key people who are looming over tonight's speech. Elon Musk and Vladimir Zelinsky. One of them will be in the chamber today. We're going to watch for our cameras to try to pick up Musk there as he has become the face of this directive from the president to slash spending, slash the size of the federal workforce, firing thousands of people. Already that's led to fiery protests and anger at town halls led by some Republicans in their home districts. Then overseas, Ukraine a major focus and the possible next steps in the war there. Less than a week after that Oval Office blow up between President Trump and Zelensky, US Military aid frozen for now, even as Zelinsky says he's ready to talk asap.

TOM oh yeah, he's making that very clear. And we are tracking every movement tonight. Our cameras spread out across Washington, D.C. and the capital region as well from the president's departure at the White House all the way as he walks right into the chamber. We're going to bring you every moment live and our team of correspondents and analysts are going to break all of it down. We've got Kristen Welker, Steve Kornacki, Peter Alexander, so many more. But I want to start with Gabe Gutierrez at the White House where the president gave is making some of those last minute preparations. I want to bring you in here to the conversation, Gabe, because there's a lot to get to here. I'm told by a senior administration adviser that the president is going to talk about his accomplishments. He's going to shift to the economy. He's going to talk immigration and he's going to talk foreign policy, not to mention a few surprises. Yeah, certainly hallel. A lot to keep track of. And as you mentioned, White House officials are likely putting the finishing touches on that speech right now. And the president set to depart the White House in less than half an hour, making a short trip to Capitol Hill.

But this is a television president. He knows just how many people will be watching tonight. White House officials say to expect some made for TV moments. And there is so much at stake domestically and around the world, as you mentioned, Hallie, we will be watching to see what President Trump says about tariffs. Just a short time ago, his commerce secretary sailing saying that those tariffs could be scaled back against Canada and Mexico perhaps tomorrow. We're waiting to hear more on that. And then also slashing the federal government. The president expected to tout his accomplishments in that respect. Elon Musk will be on hand watching the speech as well, since something else we're watching, the war in Ukraine. People around the world, leaders around the world will be looking at this very closely, just as we hear from President Zelensky speaking about potentially getting back to work on this minerals deal. It's unclear when or if the White House will sign that. And then finally, illegal immigration, it's expected to be a top part of this speech. One White House official telling me about an eighth of the speech, and it's because the president sees that as one of his largest successes.

Illegal border crossings have dropped dramatically since President Trump took office. And so we expect him to really latch onto that as he tout his accomplishments in a variety of different ways. Gabe, so much about this speech, as you know, matters of course, related to what is said, but also what it looks like, the optics in the room. And let's mind, people, that right now, Republicans control, of course, two of the three branches of the federal government here, the executive branch, the legislative branch. Behind President Trump tonight, you are going to have his vice president, a Republican speaker of the House. That is not something that we saw when President Trump was in this same setting four years ago in his first term. Yeah, certainly. And look, the president's term so far, 43 days into it, he has largely bypassed Congress. He's essentially gotten Republicans to get behind his agenda. And something else that we expect today is that he plans to plans to go directly to Congress and push for more funding for border security. His borders are. Tom Homan, as recently over the past couple of weeks, been essentially begging Republican lawmakers for more funding for his mass deportation plan.

But as we look right there at the lawmakers gathering ahead of this speech, certainly the optics will be there that President Trump standing with a united Republican Party, at least at this point. And Democrats are still sorting out how they will respond to this, by and large, as they seek to try and get their hands around this Trump term so far. Gabe Gutierrez live for us there outside the White House on the North Lawn. Gabe, thank you very much. All right. Right now, as you know, how the lawmakers are starting to file into the Capitol, getting ready to hear President Trump address a joint session of Congress six weeks into his presidency. I want to get right to NBC News chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles, the man who knows Congress best for us. Ryan, talk to us about what you're hearing there from your sources. What are people expecting to hear and do we think there'll be Any heated moment or heated moments or surprises? Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing we're looking for tonight, Tom, is how do Democrats express their displeasure with the early days of the Trump administration? This Trump administration 2.0. And of course, we've seen in the past that during Joe Biden's term that there were certain Republican members that did not have any fear to heckle or jeer President Biden during his speech.

Democrats, though, have been told by their leadership to not follow that act, to instead demonstrate their disappointment with Donald Trump in different ways. And we're going to see that manifest itself inside the chamber by the clothes that they're wearing, by the fact that many of them, many of these congressional Democrats have decided to skip the speech entirely. There will also be quite a bit to watch in terms of the reception that Donald Trump gets, both from Republicans and Democrats. Keep in mind, the first time that he came into this chamber to address a joint session of Congress, this was in 2017. At that time, he'd won the presidency, even with some people within his own party openly opposing him as President of the United States. There were a lot of skeptics, to put it mildly, mildly, within the Republican Party of Donald Trump and who he is. That's not the case eight years later. He firmly has the Republican Party behind him. Expect him to get a rapturous amount of applause from Republicans on each point he makes, whether it be on the economy, on tariffs, on immigration, and of course, even on his now controversial stance as it relates to Ukraine.

All of this will be quite the split screen moment where you have one side of the chamber fully embracing everything Donald Trump has to say, while the other side of the chamber will likely be sitting down for most, if not all, of the speech. Tom and Ali Ryan, you've done a couple of these in your career. Talk to us about the temperature tonight for this one. I have to say, going into this one, I don't know if we've ever seen a level of polarization like the one that we're going to experience inside that room tonight. Obviously, there were many Republicans that were unhappy with the Biden administration. They made that clear throughout their experience within those speeches. But it is at a different level right now. And it's not just about Donald Trump in what he personifies, but it's also what he's done in these first few weeks of the Trump administration. Many Democrats feel helpless about the way that he's gone about trying to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, the way that he's handed over that authority to Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency because they don't have power, not in the House or the Senate, of course, not in the White House.

This speech tonight may be one of their only opportunities to demonstrate their unhappiness with the way that Donald Trump has conducted himself in the early days of his administration. Of course it will be symbolic. It won't impact the decisions that he's making at all. But Democrats have few opportunities right now to make their voice heard. And tonight may be an opportunity to show that to a wide scale of Americans during this speech tonight. All right. Ryan Nobles for us tonight. Ryan, we thank you for that. We will keep this dream team of political journalists rolling here, bringing in our chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander, our moderator of Meet the Press, Kristen Welker, who is joining us as well. Okay, friends, here we go. Let's get into it, right. First time we're seeing President Trump in this kind of setting in his second term here. Kristen, Gabe laid out what we can expect to hear from the speech, but as you've been talking to many of your sources, I know behind the scenes, what do Republicans feel like they need to hear from him, that he needs to deliver on tonight? Is it the economy?

Is it a fulsome foreign policy message? Both, Hallie, because first, let's take the economy. Right. Why was President Trump elected? Because most voters wanted him to bring down prices. We haven't seen prices start to fall now. He's only been in office for six weeks. His approval rating actually higher. Maybe a honeymoon period in the eyes. Absolutely. Look, his approval rating kind of hovering where it was when he was inaugurated. It's higher than at this point in his first term, but lower than where most presidents traditionally are. But if you look at the polling, most Americans say he needs to do more to focus on the economy. Consumer confidence is down. So there are a number of indicators when, if you talk to Republicans privately are making them somewhat nervous. So they want him to come out, give a robust defense of his tariffs, of his budget bill, that right now is kind of slowly making its way through Congress. And then he has to address this unrest on the world stage. The standoff with Ukraine, which has a number of frankly, hawks concerned that the United States is realigning itself away from Ukraine and away from its traditional allies and towards Russia.

So I think he's really got a heavy lift tonight, but I anticipate that he will spend a fair amount of time touting those different decisions. Let's stay on Ukraine And Peter, I know you have new reporting tonight. That minerals deal that became so contentious. Right. There's no new sort of movement, if you will, on that. And then also President Zelensky coming around on Twitter as well and sort of changing his tune once that military aid was cut off. Well, you think about how far we've come in eight years, right? The first time the president gave this speech eight years ago, he talked about trying to get rid of the trivial fights. Think about all the fights we have right now, not just with Canada and Mexico, but with Ukraine as well. And Tom, to your point, right now it looks like both sides are trying to sort of find some rapprochement, if you excuse my French here. Right. Trying to get things going again, trying to get this peace deal going. Donald Trump said he needed to hear from Volodymyr Zelensky that he wanted peace right now. Zelensky effectively said the exact, those exact words in a statement he posted on X today as it relates to that minerals deal.

That's what blew up when Zelensky was shown the door literally in the West Wing on Friday just a matter of days ago. Now it appears that they are back on track to kind of come up with some minerals deal. The president certainly would like to make some theatrical announcement as early as tonight. Whether that happens, we wait to see. But nonetheless, this would be the first step toward trying to end the war overseas. But recognize, think about how different our relationship is to our allies. This 80 year alliance with Europe, it looks like it's on the life support at this point. You also talk about typically you would sometimes see maybe the president, perhaps his cabinet members get out after a speech like this, hit the road, take that message across America. That's not what we expect from the president himself. Right. He'll deploy one of his surrogates on that. Yeah, it looks like JD Vance will make some of the travel. But think about it. Donald Trump has the biggest megaphone in the world. He loves a rally and he has sure used it effectively from the White House. He holds court for an hour.

I've been in the room for an hour and a half sometimes. And he monopolizes media in that way. So there isn't the same sense that he needs to go out there and show voters what he's doing. He's going to try to capitalize on what's happening tonight. But to Kristen's point, a couple things that strike me again as we look back to when he did the joint address eight years ago and doing it now eight years ago when Tom, you bought a dozen eggs, $1.46, you paid on average. This time around, you're paying close to $5. That is real pocketbook stuff for a lot of Americans right now. A lot of this stuff has the potential to be noise. I don't think foreign policy, though it matters to a lot of people in the chamber, hits people in the gut. It does hit you in the gut when you start talking about prices for real food. And Kristen, the theme of the speech is renewing the American dream. On Peter's point, the American dream has gotten very expensive, Right. And not all of it is President Trump's fault. He's been in office for 40 days. But it's expensive to have an omelet, right?

Everything is getting pricier and pricier. How does he make that argument? He's a master marketer, master salesman. Things are going to be tough. Things are expensive, but I can bring it back down. It's a challenge because remember what he said during the campaign, he said he was going to bring prices down on day one. That has not happened. And so he's got to explain to the American people, I need you to hold on. He has imposed all of these tariffs again against the United States largest trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China. And talk to any economist of any stripe, and they will tell you that prices are going to go up on a range of different goods, goods including likely cars. And so I think that he is going to defend his tariffs. He's going to say, hang in there with me and ultimately prices will start to come down. But again, when you talk to folks on Capitol Hill, even those in his own party, they are skeptical about the timeline. They say, yeah, he's got about six months, maybe a year, if Americans don't start to see prices come down, he's going to have some real political backlash potentially.

Kristen Welker, Peter Alexander, we're glad to have you with us. I know you'll be with us throughout much of the night right here on NBC News now. Thank you both very much. Appreciate it. All right. Joining us now is Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina. Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining our special coverage here tonight on NBC. I guess my first question to you is what are you hearing from your constituents? Right. We have been seeing these town halls all across the country, voters upset with some of the things Republicans have been doing, the White House has been doing. What are you hearing from your voters? Oh, okay. Well, first of all, when you talk about the town halls and any protests, are people upset at them. That is a complete organization campaign by Democrats, by the left to do this. I've seen it online. I hold town halls a lot and I plan on holding town halls in person and over telephone in my district. My district supported Donald Trump. He won overwhelmingly in my district. He won overwhelmingly across every state in the country. There was a mandate here. So this is some built up narrative by the left to try to take Donald Trump out post election.

And it's not real, it's not right. Everyone that I've talked to is happier than they've ever been. They're excited about the future and they appreciate the truth and the honesty. Even if some people didn't even vote for him, they appreciate what he's done to cut, to look at the cuts that need to happen and waste fraud and abuse. This is real. These are real dollars. We're talking about billions of dollars. NBC is reporting tonight that Republican officials have told Republican lawmakers to sort of pause these town halls because they have not been going as planned. Do you plan on holding town halls? Are you holding town halls right now? I actually, my first town hall is in the next week or so I believe on March 11th. So I don't shy away from tough questions. I answer all the questions. Even if the left wants to organize against me. I invite everyone, show up, let's have a conversation. Let's have that discussion. Ask me the very toughest question you can and I will answer it. That's how I've always been. I don't shy away from the tough interviews. Look, I'm on NBC News tonight. I don't shy away from tough interviews.

I don't shy away from tough network networks. I don't certainly shy away from tough questions from anyone. But I've seen online Democrats and people on the left trying to organize to show up to protest at my town halls and it's like, give it your best shot. I'm here for it. You talk about the conversations, Congresswoman, that you're having back at home here in Washington, in Congress, so much of it in my conversations with voters who supported President Trump, even today, I hear a lot about the economy. I am sure you do, too. I know Tom does as well. So when we talk about the impact of these tariffs potentially, I know you said fairly recently that you believe that Canada and Mexico basically made their beds and can lie in it. Right. I wonder now how you see the possibility of the president's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, suggesting there is some kind of compromise on the horizon as soon as tomorrow on tariffs. Is a compromise on tariffs something you would support? Well, look, I believe that the use of terrorists as a negotiating tactic is working. We've seen what Canada has done to shift their position.

We've seen what Mexico has done. They just turned over 29 cartels, gang leaders. And so the threat of tariffs is actually working. And so if there's a compromise, if the use of them is helpful to the American economy and therefore the American people, then we'll support it. And that's what we're seeing today. And in fact, I met with the president over the weekend to talk about his speech tonight. And I think there's going to be a lot of hope that will be left in the laps of every single American across the country. And the work that he's done the first 30 days place, it's historic. What do you say to the people of Ukraine tonight, Congresswoman Mace? The soldiers on the front lines who, who need that military aid from the US it's been put on pause. Do they deserve America's help in this war against Russia that invaded them? Well, there was a deal on the table. Zelensky showed up and he decided to walk away from that deal. And my understanding is in some of the mainstream media reporting, legacy media reporting, is that some Democrats, some on the left, told Zelensky to show up and to walk away from that deal.

We've had Starmer, we've had, we've had Macron, we've had people, leaders, presidents, prime ministers from other countries come to the White House and understand that this is the Trump Doctrine and that now is the time to do the deal. And Zelinsky is ignored, that he knew that there was a deal on the table, it was a very good deal for Ukraine, and he decided to very prematurely and immaturely walk away from that deal that Trump was ready to sign that would help Ukraine. That was all on him. And so I believe personally that Donald Trump wants peace and Zelensky wants war. That's all I can gather from his behavior at the White House on Friday. On the domestic front, Congresswoman, in addition to the lawmakers who will be in the chamber tonight, we understand that Elon Musk will also be there, as you know, a close friend, a confidant of President Trump's. When you look at some of the public polling around what Musk has done with Doge with some of these cuts, but he lags behind the popularity right now, the approval ratings of President Trump. Do you have any concern about the Musk factor in the White House and in the government right now being a drag for voters.

I just saw Ellen on Saturday at Mar A Lago. No, I don't. Everyone that I have talked to about Doge, everyone I have talked to about Elon Musk, support Elon Musk. They support Doge. They want to know what we're wasting our money on. And in fact, I just had a hearing the other day. We spent $26 million making animals transition to another gender, so to speak. We spent over $1 million, $1.1 million studying Russian cats on treadmills. Some of the waste, fraud and abuse that we see in the American government. It would make your heads explode whether you're Democrat or Republican. He's exposing that. He's organizing it. He's, he's showing what and how we can save money by not being stupid with taxpayer dollars. I fully support Elon Musk. I fully support Doge. And I hope they can find more waste, fraud and abuse to save the taxpayers money so we can give that money back to taxpayers. That would be a great idea. Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina, we thank you so much for being here tonight. Thank you. Let's bring in now former Democratic Senator and NBC News political analyst Claire McCaskill, who is joining us now.

Senator McCaskill, good to see you. Thanks for being back on with us. Sure. Let me ask you about sort of the Democratic pushback now to the first 43 days, the first six weeks of the Trump administration. I had a conversation with one Democratic member today who said to me, hey, kind of a lackluster start, but they feel like Dems are getting their footing is how to create a cohesive strategy to focus on really visceral issues to voters, whether that's the economy and these tariffs, whether that's something like Medicaid. You see the guest list and you see a lot of folks, Democrats looking to push that point here. What do you think is the most effective strategy for Democrats? Is it, as James Carville suggested, rollover and play dead? Is it hold up signs in the chamber? What do you, what do you recommend? Well, I think showing deference to the people they represent is what's most important right now. The people that are being dismissed without cause, none of these people are being fired on merit basis. They're just firing everyone they think they can get away with. And most of them don't work in Washington.

And these senators and congressmen are going home and they are hearing from people who are worried about whether or not there will be a Social Security office in their community or whether there'll be a rural hospital after the Medicaid cuts. You know, the president promised a lot of stuff. He promised all of it on day one. Clearly, that has not happened. And I think he's had a really bad day. He's lost the Wall Street Journal opinion page. He's lost the business community. And frankly, I predict his numbers won't be that good tonight in terms of how many people watch this speech. Hmm. We also have joining us right now, Hogan Gidley's a former White House deputy press secretary to President Trump. And Hogan, I want to put up some, some graphics on the screen for our viewers here. These are some polls, right? Because I want you to listen to these and see them if you can, and talk to us about where you think the president's head. So this first, the approval rating at a high mid to high 40s, as you can see there. But the same polls also show that there is some concern about the president's priorities.

52% saying he hasn't paid attention to the country's most important problems. In The CNN poll, 82% saying they'd like to see the economy become a higher priority. In the CBS YouGov poll. How should Trump address all this, you think? I think tonight you're going to hear a lot of what he plans to do for the future, taking a victory lap on some of the things being able to secure the southern border, for example, save lives, prevent illegal aliens from flooding into our communities and draining our resources sources, of course. But he's also going to talk about his vision for the future and the economy. Let's not forget we had record low inflation the first time around with Donald Trump. Joe Biden came in and reversed all that. We had record high inflation. So now he's been in the office for a month and some change, coming back to the, to the table and understanding what the American people want, how they want it. He's trying to implement those policies now. It's going to take some time. Yes, but the American people trust Donald Trump. That's why they gave him the keys to the castle and of course gave replacement Republicans control of the House and the Senate.

Senator, to the point that Hogan's making here, you know, I think about the timeline sometimes, right. Because as Hogan laid out, still early days relatively in the Trump administration. But you know that in the building just a couple of blocks from us, the countdown's already on to the midterms. Right. And the earnest start to campaigning that we will see in less than a year from now. So how much of a quote, unquote, honeymoon period. Do you think President Trump will or should get, and what will Democrats do on that front? Well, I think, listen, I was around and took a lot of incoming at the Tea Party town halls when the right was really upset and they were showing up. And then I was for the Obamacare town halls. And you know what the Democrats said then? They said, oh, people are paying people to go there. That wasn't true. Those people who showed up were people who were in those communities and they were upset about spending and earmarks, which, by the way, the Republicans have brought back. And, you know, they were upset about the Affordable Care Act. They thought it was too much change too quickly.

So this is really coming up from the bottom. People are upset, and I think when they hear that thousands of veterans have been fired without cause, that makes everybody go, well, wait a minute, this is really sloppy and incompetent fire. People who aren't doing their job take time to do it on merit. Nobody has any problem with shrinking the federal government, but shrinking the services of Medicare and Social Security and cutting Medicaid, that is going to come home to roost in plenty of time for the midterms. And I predict that's what the midterms will be about. As we speak to Senator McCaskill and Hogan Gidley, we are also looking at live pictures both outside the White House and on Capitol Hill as well as we await the president to arrive to address the joint session of Congress right now. Earlier, we were also seeing the White House waiting for the first couple to leave the White House. Hogan, you know, I asked this in the last hour, and I'm curious, which would you think because you know the president so well he's not going to run for reelection. Right. We should probably not expect a message of unity here.

To be fair, President Biden at times used these moments to sort of attack the Republican Party as well. But since he's not running for reelection, do you think that's a superpower or, or do you think that's sort of a gateway to temptation to be incredibly reckless? Well, first things first, let me take issue with some of the things the senator said. Republicans have not said a word about cutting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. In fact, Donald Trump ran on that issue, won on that issue, to make sure you protect that for the American people. So that's off the table. But what I do think is the opportunity for Donald Trump is to explain to the American people not just what he's done, what he wants to accomplish. But to talk about opening that golden age of America, as he likes to say, about restoring the amazing things that this country has to offer, restoring her to her greatness. This is the uplifting and unifying message he's going to talk about. And if you can't be on the same page of securing our southern border, if you can't be on the same page of reducing taxes for the American worker, and if you can't be on the same page of stopping wars all over the world, what are you doing?

I mean, the Democrats, Democrats, for whatever reason, are now on the record in support of, in defense of wasteful government spending. They're on the wrong side of plastic versus paper straws, for heaven's sakes. They have taken all the wrong policies, glommed onto the 20% as opposed to the 80% of Americans and where they are and what they want. You're going to see Donald Trump outline that vision that is very popular that allowed him to win the swing states and, of course, the popular vote, take control of the House and the Senate. He's got a short time to do it. It because the senator is correct. The midterms are coming and I'm in the Capitol tonight and everyone's already talking about the upcoming election. That's why doing this quickly, Donald Trump wants to deliver for the American people now. So it does give congressmen, does give senators things to run on in the upcoming election. And by the way, his legacy is at stake, too. He wants to give whoever the nominee would be on the Republican side for president a good platform to run on and build on as well. Hogan Gidley, we thank you for that.

Again, at any moment here we are waiting for the president and the first lady to depart the White House into the beast and head right over to Capitol Hill. And we'll thank Senator Claire McCaskill as well. So, Tom, these are the, these are the moments right in the lead up to a speech like this. And just to remind folks what you're going to see coming out those doors, coming out this area here, you will see, of course, the president and the first lady. They will make their way that very short trip. If you're in a presidential motorcade, of course, down Pennsylvania Avenue to the United States Capitol, see some of the staff members coming out. Now, we understand that the president has been working on a speech. I was told he was making edits late into the night last night on this thing. And there's a lot of things that we're wondering about. This, as Peter was alluding to will he announce that a mineral deal has been struck, that both sides have agreed to this. Will he announce any movement on the tariffs as you alluded to as we heard from Howard Lutnick, teasing something that's going to be announced tomorrow?

And also there are cameras here. There are reporters there. There are microphones there. You never know what to expect from President Trump. Will he say something even before he heads to the Capitol? Here's one thing I can tell you, you can bet on Tom that the reporters who are there will be shouting some questions to see if they can get him to stop at least once he gets to the Capitol. You know that scene, he walks down the aisle. You've got people who line up members of Congress to try to get that moment with President Trump, any president as they're walking down in. And then of course, at 9:00 Eastern, just a few minutes thereafter, the president will begin his speech. After that, the Democrats Democratic rebuttal, too. And as there are questions remaining about who is the leader of the Democratic Party right now, it is there's no question who's the leader of the Republican Party. Everyone is aligned behind President Trump when it comes to the Republican Party in both the House and the Senate. And here you see the doors open more Elon Musk. Looks like Elon Musk and it is walking out.

We knew he would be, of course, at the Capitol tonight in the chamber. Looks like he'll be riding in the motorcade with President Trump. And it looked like he was wearing a blue tie. So maybe he's, maybe he's striking a bipartisan tone, notoriously often wearing this sort of dark MAGA cap and T shirt in the Oval Office previously. We're going to keep this live shot up and bring in our white Vaughn Hilliard, who's joining us now. Actually, we'll pause here as President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump walk out. Hear those flashes going off all of those cameras. Hundreds of shots being taken right now. Photographs, we should say of the president as he enters the beast, as he heads over to the Capitol right now. The first lady, he simply just held up the fist. How he did, he got in, he's ready. He's ready to get to work and get to business, speaking to the American people. He is. He's about to begin, of course, that trip down Pennsylvania Avenue. Let me bring in Vaughn Hilliard. It's often fascinating to watch, Vaughn. We've seen in the past sometimes presidents will pull out a copy of the speech for a final look before they go down.

You See him there with the first lady. And he will have, of course, the White House has laid out a number of guests who will be in the box, in the room watching the speech. And, you know, before we get to Vaughn, I'm just sorry, I have to go back to this. The president does not make mistakes when it comes to public images like this, that he had Elon Musk walk out just before him. I mean, he's staying married to sort of this tag team, if you will, of Elon Musk, one of the world's richest men. Sometimes he is the world's richest man, depending on what day of the week it is in his stock price. But it is incredible that he has stayed this long with the President and that they're side by side. He's going to have him walk out right before he and his wife walk out. I had somebody mentioned to me today in one of my phone conversations here that pointing out that Elon Musk's popularity rating currently drags behind where President Trump says. And perhaps that is a reason why President Trump has not, in fact, soured word on Elon Musk here as Musk has become the face of those Doge cuts.

It's a great point, Tom. Let's bring in Vaughn here as the motorcade, it's making its way down Pennsylvania Avenue. And Vaughn, we talked about the people in the room, not just Musk, but others who will surround, of course, be, be perhaps referenced in the speech by President Trump. Right. Hallie, in so much of what you and Tom were just talking about is, I think, a lack of shyness from the president on the promises that he made during his 2024 campaign and during his transition. And that was to execute on not.

Only having Elon Musk come in and.

Effectively not only downsize the federal workforce, but go in and make massive cuts to the federal budget. It was just two weeks before the election in which Elon Musk from Madison Square Garden up on the campaign rally stage for then candidate Trump, said that he sought to cut 2 trillion out of the annual $6 trillion billion federal budget. And the tariffs is another example. You know, I was talking to some farmers earlier today out in Iowa who told me that this is exactly what President Trump promised. And we saw this during his first administration. We saw farmers lose money on their crops. And just like we've seen in the last two weeks in the lead up to this tariff announcement, we have seen the price of corn and soybeans plummet here. We've seen the stock market over the last 24 hours dropped significantly. And in so many ways, it's very reflective of what we saw in 2018, when he also initiated trade wars with Mexico, China and Canada. That was the stock market's biggest drop dating back to 2008. And yet what we heard from farmers back during his first administration and what we are hearing in this first month of his second administration is almost sort of this patriotism and this idea of that the president is fighting for better trade deals to cut down on illegal immigration and that there are some sacrifices that are going to stand in the way.

But at the same time, it is striking just hours before this address tonight, to hear Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau openly acknowledge in front of cameras that he expects the citizens of his country to continue to boo the Star Spangled Banner in his words, not because they are opposed to Americans, but they are opposed to the policies intended to hurt his people in Canada. And this is a moment in time where he is going to go out on in front of Congress and make the declaration that he is executing on the promises that he laid out to the American public and that they voted him in office back in November to take on. Vaughn Hilliard. Thank you very much for that. Appreciate that. I want to bring in now Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette from Colorado as we're taking a live look, of course, inside the Capitol. Congresswoman, I know that you will not be attending the joint address tonight. You are boycotting in part because of that blow up, of course, between President Zelensky of Ukraine and President Trump. Can you tell us more about your decision? Sure. Usually I do go to these joint addresses because I respect the office and I've done that under Democrats and Republicans.

But I don't think Donald Trump respects the office. He has wreaked havoc on the American people and he's wreaked havoc on our allies abroad. That meeting last Friday in the Oval Office where he very childishly went after President Zelensky and then cuddled up with Vladimir Putin was shameful. And I think that what the president should be doing, instead of working with his billionaire pal Elon Musk to just slash and burn the federal government, he should be working with us to stabilize the economy and to bring down prices for Americans. That's why they voted for him instead. What they're talking about is cutting, cutting taxes for billionaires again and taking it out of Medicaid and other health care. And I can't stand for that. And that's why I won't be going tonight. You know, I do want to ask you about the Democratic rebuttal tonight. Right. Because I think there's a lot of symbols and sort of signs being sent out to the American people tonight with this response. Talk to me about what you hope to hear from Democratic Senator Lee Slotkin there in Michigan, a state that President Trump won, one of those key blue wall states, but also speaking from Detroit.

Well, I served with Senator Slotkin for many years in the House, and she's solid. She's no nonsense. She cares about working people. And like me, she cares about her constituents, many of whom get their health care for Medicaid. And don't let any of these Republicans fool you when they say they want to cut taxes or they want to cut taxes and they want to take that money out of the budget. They're not saying the word Medicaid, but like they told my subcommittee, I'm the chair of that or the ranking member of the health subcommittee in the House, they told us to cut $880 billion out of our committee budget. The only place that goes is Medicaid. Congresswoman, we saw a very quick glance at the floor, of course, at the chamber just a moment ago that has since gone down. But you saw that, of course, the seating configuration. And we've talked about the optics here, Congresswoman, that President Trump will have two Republicans seated behind him because, of course, Republicans control Congress, Republicans control the White House. If Democrats want to change that, of course, in 2027, in 2028, they've got to get control of at least one chamber of Congress.

So let me ask you this. It's a bit of political intrigue, but NBC News can report that Pete Buddha Judge, of course, the former Transportation secretary, has met with Minority Leader Schumer to talk about the possibility of running for that hotly contested Senate seat in 2026 that will be open. You think he's somebody who could, who could get it done? Is he, is he somebody who you see is one of the future leaders of this party who could help Democrats win some control? Well, I have enormous respect for Secretary Buttigieg, and I'm sure there are other, many other people, but we have to get from here to there first. And you mentioned it, the Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. And so they need to show the American public that they're standing up for them and not just cutting taxes for their rich billionaire friends and corporations on the backs of middle Americans. That's going to be what we're going to be talking about for the next two years. That's how we're going to take the House and send it back. Before we let you go, in just 10 days from now, you think there will be a government shutdown or will Congress manage to avoid it?

Well, the Republic, it's up to the Republicans. They control everything they can. They can work with us to keep an operating government. They did that before, and we were able to do it. But if they're not going to work with the Democrats, and apparently they haven't even talked to the Democratic leadership about it, then they're going to have to do this with their own votes and they're going to have to demonstrate to the American public that they actually have their interests at heart. Congresswoman, before you go, we are just waiting now on the president's motorcade to arrive at the Capitol. I do want to ask you here if you could look into your crystal ball. Do you think the next Democratic nominee for the presidency will be inside that chamber tonight? You know, we have a really, we really have a very deep bench on the Democratic side. And if the Republicans do what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to do, which is to gut our economy, to give tax breaks for the rich, then I think that what people are going to be seeing in two and four years is they're going to be saying, is my life better?

Are prices lower? Are egg prices lower and gas prices? And what about inflation? And I think, I think they're going to be looking at the Democrats to see where they go. And I think we have many talented people. Some of them may well be in the chamber tonight. Congresswoman, to get, thank you so much for being with us tonight. We appreciate it. Great to be with you. We're seeing our first images inside the chamber right now. There's the vice president, the Senate majority leader. Who else are we seeing here behind him? Senator Tom Cotton there, as well as who I could see. Of course, J.D. vance will be heading to the border tomorrow to try to continue to push the president's message that he'll deliver tonight. And here it is, the motorcade pulling up. And this is always that, that kind of iconic and dramatic photo once the president starts making his way down this aisle. There's Chuck Schumer, of course, top Democrat in the Senate, making his way past Senator Amy Klobuchar there in the blue as well. So they're heading in. The speech is just about now, 20 minutes from beginning. And you see Byron Donald's there as well.

He is somebody who's been a, you know, Florida guy, President Trump and the president has pushed his support behind him for the governor's mansion. Of course, Governor Ron DeSantis has his own thoughts on that, possibly his wife, which would be an incredible primary race if that were to happen. You know, it's interesting as we look at the vice president, right. He really sort of had that moment last week when he took on President Zelensky and sort of turned the temperature in that room in the Oval Office on, on Ukraine aid, on what he said was the Ukrainian president not being grateful to the U.S. s help in their fight against Russia and sort of changed. It was interesting how you could make the argument that one meeting sort of turned the world around, especially global politics, and how the US Was viewing Ukraine and how we were going to help Ukraine moving forward. It certainly laid bare the realignment that President Trump has pushed, with some critics suggesting that Zelensky did not do a service to his country by, quote, unquote, taking the bait. Of course, you're seeing Zelinsky now saying he is ready to try to get to the table, able to make a deal.

You see Congresswoman Mace. Yeah. Speaking with Vice President. The vice president there while we look at some of these live pictures, because it's always fascinating, right, to be a fly in the wall in this room to see who's talking to who. Let's also bring in Steve Kornacki, because part of this, Steve, in many ways, is the first. Can I. Can you call it kind of a report card for President Trump? It's still early days, only 43 days in, when you look at the relative scope of his four years in office. But talk through sort of where he stands with his approval ratings here hovering roughly in the mid-40s. Right. Yeah, we were talking. You were talking about this, I should say, a few minutes ago, to some of all of those polls that are out there right now. One way of looking at it is if you take them all and you average them together. Exactly. Trump, with an average approval rating of 47%, disapprove of 49%. Now, look, compared to presidents historically, if you're talking about, like, Reagan, Clinton, the Bushes, these are low numbers early in a presidency. But compared to Trump's first presidency, this is nothing new.

In fact, if you look at it at this same point in his first term, he was actually doing worse than he's doing right now. These numbers are an improvement from where he was eight years ago. And if you look at his entire first term, this is basically the average of his entire first term. Again, it was 44 proof, 53 disapproved so he's doing a tick better by his own standards. Obviously, the speech tonight is his opportunity to move these numbers a bit. You look on Friday, but the country really just split right down the middle on that. I thought this was interesting, though. They asked, which side do you support, Russia or Ukraine? Now, you have 52% for Ukraine. You have almost no support for Russia, but Look at this, 44% saying they're on neither side, neither Russia nor Ukraine. So when you see Trump's policy towards Russia and Ukraine having about 50% support, a lot of it's coming from those folks right there. Also, obviously, Doge Elon Musk, you just showed him the efforts to cut the federal workforce. Again, the country basically, basically split right down the middle in the most recent poll we have on that.

Let me show you now two issues where we see some differences between where Trump is now and where he was in his first term. One is immigration. You've seen all of the executive orders, the action his administration has taken on the deportation front here in the first six weeks. Approve 49%, disapprove, 47% specifically on immigration. That's a reversal from Donald Trump's first first term. This is the average of all the polling from his first term. And he was consistently unpopular on the subject of immigration. In his first term, he averaged only a 39% approval rating on immigration. Now nearly 50%. And on the flip side, here's the other big issue where we see a difference. Remember, in the first term for Donald Trump, the economy was his big political strength. Right now, more, on average, disapprove than approve of how Trump is handling the economy. Economy again, look back at that first term, it was different. Almost 50% on average liked what Trump was doing when it came to the economy. So you see there two shifts. Immigration, the economy. But what you really see is a country divided right down the middle on these important issues and on Trump's presidency.

And it's a chance for him tonight, obviously, to try to tip those scales. Steve Kornacki, our man at the big board. Always good to see you, friend. Thank you very much for being with us. As we're taking a live look now at those moments, at these conversations from inside the chamber. Tom, you see the vice President, you see the speaker of the House chatting there behind the microphone. We saw Elon Musk earlier, and now we're getting a sense a bit more from our team in the room about, for example, some of the Democratic women who have shown up in pink in a form of protest. Etc. We're seeing Senator Bernie Sanders there from Vermont as well, making his way in. The Republicans and the Democrats mixing a little bit, but we're not seeing a lot of bipartisan chip handshakes down the aisle. We did see Elon Musk just a moment ago and as you mentioned, the Vice President Vance next to Speaker Mike Johnson as well. We're going to turn to our golf coverage now, if you will. And I say that because we are going to hear Ryan Nobles, but we're not going to see him.

Ryan, talk to us about some of the things you've spotted so far as these members of Congress have made their way in. Yeah. Hi, Tom and Hallie. And you mentioned Elon Musk's. Elon Musk's entry into the House chamber. That was something that caught a lot of people's attention the second he walked in. We're actually probably about 25, 30ft away from where he's going to be sitting, which I believe is going to end up being the first lady's box. And as soon as people spotted him in this general vicinity, he got a light round of applause. So obviously, Musk is somebody that people are going to be keeping an eye on to see how he is received here during this speech and whether or not Donald Trump talks about him and his work with the Department of Government efficiency during this speech here today. Also want to point out you guys have made note of it, but just from my vantage point, I'm sitting behind where the president will be speaking to the president's left. And it is very stark to see the different female members of the Democratic caucus who are decked out in what I would describe as a hot pink color.

It's not a uniform color, but it's certainly they were told to wear a pink that would stand out and it certainly stands out. And that will certainly be a visual that Donald Trump will see as he looks out to his right. And while he gives the speech here tonight, we're also noticing, and it's a bit more of a subtle demonstration by some of these members, is particularly the men on the Democratic side wearing ties that are blue and yellow. Of course, those are the colors of the Ukrainian flag. So this would be an example of how many of these Democratic members are demonstrating their support for Ukraine, obviously a hot topic over the past couple of days. The other thing I'll point out is, as you see, these members of the United States Senate make their way into the chamber, that group of House members that are have crowded on to the aisle Many of them have been here all day waiting to get that prime seating. We were in here around 3 o'clock this afternoon testing out our microphones, getting the lay of the land. We saw Congresswoman Mary Miller, who is a Republican but decked out in pink.

She's, she was sitting in her seat at 3 o'clock making sure that she would be in that position to get a handshake with the president when he comes down the aisle. So a lot of buzzing right now in the chambers. We await the president's arrival. Ryan, as you take us behind the scenes there, I want to ask our great director Brett holding to take your camera. Again, where we saw Ryan in action there because there was a, oh, I guess we don't have it anymore. There was, there were some interesting sort of pictures of, of how we sort of covered this moment with producers in the background in their binoculars and how they were spotting certain members of Congress. I noticed one strapping latch. Your producer Ryan there, who is an actor, you could say, in fact, yeah, yeah's Kitchen, as she, as she says here we are getting a lot. Thanks, friend, for being there for us. And to Frank as well. We're getting it out. Tom A first look at excerpts now, the first glimpse at what President Trump is expected to say when he comes in here to the chamber just about 12 minutes from now, looking at our clock.

And there's a few things, at least in these advanced excerpts released by the White House. One of the things we've been talking about is this trade war that we are now in officially, and the president is expected to say based on these excerpts, whatever, whenever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them. He talks about how that he believes will help the country take in trillions of dollars, clearly a sign that despite what his commerce secretary has said, Tom, about potentially backing away or finding a compromise with Canada, Mexico and China, that doesn't sound like land language of compromise, at least not at the moment. He's also, from his expert excerpts, we should say, is going to blame the price of eggs on the former president, President Joe Biden, saying that it was President Joe Biden that let egg prices get out of control, which has a lot to do with inflation, but also has a lot to do with bird flu and flu that has obviously killed more than 100 million egg laying chickens here in this country. As we go to Vaughn Hilliard now for more on these excerpts now that we're getting from the White House and some of the more, of course, I think you could say controversial folks who are in the president's cabinet.

You saw Cash Patel there as well, and, and some other folks inside as well. Vaughn. Right. That's Usha Vance there, the wife of the vice president. J.D. vance. This in the remarks that we've been provided here at this point in time, I think it is notable the extent to which President Trump is noting the unilateral actions that he has taken in his first month and a half as president of the United States, explicitly saying that he signed more than 100 executive orders and more than 400 executive actions in this first month and a half. He notes that on the issue of immigration, that the idea that new legislation would be needed to secure the border, well, he proved that wrong, that in his words, quote, all we really needed was a new president. And on the issue of tariffs, which, of course, just 24 hours ago, he implemented not only 25% tariffs on Mexico, Canada, but also on China. The words that we will likely hear from the president, United States are, quote, whatever they tariffs, a tariff, us we tariff them. And on Ukraine, noting that the US Government has already given hundreds of billions of dollars to Ukraine's defenses.

This is notably from the president, United States going to be a speech that focuses on the action that he specifically has taken in the US has over the last month and a half. All right, Von Hilliard, we appreciate that. We want to go live to Moscow right now and our Kier, Kier Simmons, who is there live for us tonight here. A big question to you. Obviously, it is very late where you are. How much will Russia and I asked first, how much much will the Kremlin be watching this speech, but also the people of Russia to figure out what exactly is the United States going to do with that military aid when it comes to Ukraine? Yeah, Tom, it's just before 5am here in Moscow. Look, this is a large domestic audience for the president, but it's also a major global stage, because you're right, these.

Images will be watched around the world, perhaps not in the middle of the.

Night here in some parts of the.

World, but certainly through the day tomorrow. And look, there are huge challenges. I think that falling out with President.

Zelensky illustrates how challenging some of these international issues are.

Now for the president, I think.

I think negotiations with the Kremlin in.

The months to come will be very, very difficult.

And then, of course, there is the issue of Gaza. There are still hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Those talks are not moving forward at this stage. We just had Arab countries saying that.

They have approved a new plan for.

Gaza that does not include the removal.

Of Palestinians from that enclave, either forcibly or voluntarily. And then you guys have been talking.

About the question of tariffs.

That, too, of course, is causing ripples around the world.

So many, many capitals around the world.

We will be watching what the president.

Has to say tonight. Perhaps not right now. When you're a foreign correspondent.

You have the Times, Tom, for capitals.

Around the world on your phone. It's just before 2am in London. In Rome, it's just before 3am where of course, the pope is in the hospital in riyadh, just before 5am like here in Moscow.

So not everyone will be watching live, but they'll be watching, believe me.

Keir Simmons, you and your team stay safe over there in Russia. We appreciate all of your reporting throughout this week and always. I do want to bring in our panel right now as we are listening to the call to order there in the chambers. We have our political pros tonight. Cornell Belcher is the NBC political analyst and president of Brilliant Corners Research and Strategies. Brian Lanza, senior advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign and Leanne Caldwell, good friend to NBC News and chief Washington correspondent at puff. We thank you all for being here tonight. Leigh Ann, I know you were watching these live pictures with me as we hear the vice president helping out with that call to order that Speaker Johnson started. What did you notice as people were walking in and we see the colors that Ryan was talking about, many of the women in pink and also the blue and gold in support of Ukraine with some. Yeah. So for Republicans, this is going to be a very jubilant night. They are very thrilled about this trifecta. They have big plans for this trifecta. And you're going to see that enthusiasm tonight in this room.

Democrats, on the other hand, this pink is a as a color of protest, they say. So there is meaning behind this. It is going to be interesting to watch to see how Democrats respond to what Donald Trump does, which there could be a lot of the know that Donald Trump is a showman. He is very good at playing to the cameras. And I'm also going to be watching how Republicans respond to some of the.

More controversial things that Donald Trump says.

Does he bring up things like Russia or that Ukraine began the war and that he started. They start. He started that Ukraine, excuse me, started the war instead of Russia. And how do Republicans respond to some of those things, Tariffs included? Cordell, you study numbers for a living, you know, polls and trends. Is the president in trouble this early? I asked because after the election, he was up 8, 10 points. It's definitely come down a little bit since then. He's about even right now. Some polls have him under, under 50%, 4746. But is this because of his policies? Do you think this is just natural, natural progression for a newly elected president, or is he having some trouble? Look, we typically see a president with a honeymoon period, and right now, we don't see this president with a honeymoon period. Right now, most of the polls do have him underwater. And what's really stark and I think really problematic for Republicans long term is he's now underwater on his approval of the economy, something that was supposed to be really, you know, powerful and strong for him. And right now you have 64% of Americans think the, the cost of living is rising and going the wrong direction.

You have the majority of Americans right now think the economy is heading the wrong direction. For someone who came into office talking, making big promises about the economy and you look at Wall street today on and free fall, and you look at them losing the Wall Street. Wall Street Journal calling his tariff war dumb. Not me. Wall Street Journal calling it dumb. They've got some real economic problems, Brian. Obviously all the economic problems right now, the country tree, are not President Trump's fault. He inherited high inflation. It's been very stubborn. He said he would be able to fix it. The egg prices are still very high. How does he turn this around when he has just implemented those tariffs in our two largest trading partners, actually our three largest trading partners. He turns to his investments. I mean, I think the biggest thing.

About President Trump and his administration is.

We'Re open for business and so they're welcome. Investment all over the world, we've seen in one month's time, I think, nearly $1.2 trillion of foreign investment into the United States. That translates to jobs, that translates to lower prices. So he's got to continue to push. I mean, tariffs are going to have an impact, but the way he sort of deals with tariffs is just push up more and more investments and say America's open and bring in the money. I think that's what voters are going to look for. I want to pause you right there as we take a look at our Supreme Court justices. Amy Coni Barrett, of course, Brett Kavanaugh along with Chief Justice John Roberts. Elena Kagan as well, was there and retired Justice Kennedy as well, walking in as we await the president. We are just three minutes away from, from what is going to happen. Lee and Caldwell, Republicans, advisers to the president, are saying this is not going to be a message of unity. We should not expect Kumbaya here. What should we expect? Don't expect anything when it comes to Donald Trump because the unexpected is most likely is what's going to happen.

Donald Trump is going to lean in, I'm told, into his accomplishments so far, which they think are many in the first 45 days of his presidency. Massive cuts to the federal government. He's going to encourage Republicans to get together on his budget plan, which includes extending the Donald Trump tax cuts from 2017. He's going to talk a lot about the border and border security. He's going to tout what he is saying is massive deportations of, of people in the country illegally. Of course the facts are a little bit mixed there and he does want his team to do more, but he is going to frame everything he does. And as fantastic, as great, brilliant, whether that's the reality or not, Cornell is we're just two minutes away now from the start of this joint session of Congress, this short address to Congress. What's the one thing Democrats have to put out tonight in their message in the rebuttal? I think the Democrats are the president out a in their rebuttal, a sense of economic growth and a sense of bringing people together to that point. I think it is going to be a lot of red meat to the base, which we've heard time and time again.

Independent middle road voters don't want us fighting in Washington anymore. They want us to get together. And I think them picking the new senator from Michigan, someone who has bipartisan bona fides, I think was a good idea for Democrats. Brian, what's the one thing President Trump has to convey here? I mean he, he always tries to convey strength. There are a lot of unknowns with Ukraine, with these tariffs, with the economy and with Doge. Listen, he has to display confidence in a plan that the tough economic conditions that he inherited that he's got plans for that. I think investment's a key component. He has to, you know, as he said, if you invest a certain amount of money United States, we're going to get rid of all these regulations. I think he has to get more of these regulations. Doge sort of taking the sledgehammer to the size of government, getting rid of of these organizations sort of going to create an atmosphere of tremendous growth. At least that's what he's hoping for. How long does the marriage with Elon Musk last? Are there legs there? I mean, does this keep going? I mean if you're playing chess.

You want, you want Elon on your chessboard. And he's absorbing a lot of the blows that Donald Trump would take for making these decisions. So as a smart executive, he outsourced it to somebody who's taken all the heat. Why not? Can I say it's interesting really quickly? I say it's interesting. 30 seconds. That he is a very rich and very unprecedented popular person. So wrapping yourself around him, I think it's problematic. All right, Cornell, Brian Lee. And we thank you so much for joining our special coverage tonight. We are just moments away from the president's speech. Our coverage continues right now as we are watching members of Congress come in, the Supreme Court justices, the diplomats, and the only person we're missing so far, President Trump and the first lady who will be there. Our coverage continues right now with Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie. Tonight, a high stakes primetime address, the president's first major speech to Congress just 43 days into his administration. Our special coverage starts right now. Tonight on Capitol Hill, a critical moment for President Trump. The president set to lay out his priorities to lawmakers coming at a turbulent moment at home and abroad.

President Trump ramping up efforts to reshape the federal government as he signals a shift from decades of US Foreign policy.

From NBC News, President Trump's address to.

A joint session of Congress. Live from Washington, here are Lester Holt and Savannah Guthrie. And hi, everybody. Good evening. Welcome to our special coverage of President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress. This is his first since his second term began. Here's the scene on the House floor right now where the president is expected to speak. Just minutes from now, he'll lay out his priorities, both foreign and domestic. A senior administration official telling NBC News tonight his theme will be the renewal of the American dream. Of course, the speaker of the house, Vice President J.D. vance, waiting there at the dais. It comes, of course, at a critical moment for President Trump and for the country as he ramps up his efforts to fundamentally reshape the federal government. And days after the world saw a major shift in U.S. foreign policy during his Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Less than two months into his administration, the president already hitting the ground running on his agenda, including big cuts from the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, along with plans for mass deportation and tariffs on our country's long largest trading partners, which just went into effect today as well.

Tonight, we expect to hear more about the president's vision for the future when he takes the podium to address both houses of Congress along with the American people want to bring in MEET THE PRESS moderator Kristen Welker, our senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson, and our chief White House correspondent, Peter Alexander. So, Kristen, let's start with you. We're watching, waiting for the president to make that entry. This is, of course, a night that's full of formality. The speaker emeritus, former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi there. Tell us what you expect to hear from the president tonight. Well, Savannah, I expect to hear a robust defense of these first six weeks that he has been in office. He'll talk about his mass deportation plans. He's going to defend the Elon Musk led efforts to really carve out large swaths of the federal government. It comes at a time when his approval rating higher than it was at this point in his first term, but lower than a number of his predecessors and at a time when a majority of Americans say they want to see him more focused on the economy, on lowering prices. Of course, he did just announce those new tariffs today, the concern that that will ultimately drive up prices.

So he's going to have to defend that. And of course, the discord on the world stage, seeing Melania Trump now making her way into the chamber to an applause. I want to turn to Hallie. Can you talk a little bit about the speed? The president's clearly going to want to talk about the executive orders, how many he's done versus his predecessors. But the speed of everything he's done has even kind of left Democrats on their heels. The idea that he has done 81 executive orders in the first 43 days in office. We talked when we were sitting all together on Inauguration Day about this idea of shock and awe the those close to the president feel he has executed on that. And in fact, a senior administration official tells me that's what we can expect to hear in the first part of the president's speech tonight, him laying out his accomplishments. I also spoke with one Democratic member who said to me just today, listen, Democrats have gotten off to a lackluster start as far as responding in a cohesive way strategically to the first six weeks of the Trump administration here. But they do feel like there is some hope that they are finding their footing by focusing very sharply on issues like the economy and like Medicaid.

And we're hearing now that the Cabinet will enter. Of course, many of these Cabinet picks were controversial, but with the exception of Matt Gates, who was briefly nominated to be attorney general, they've all been confirmed, often along party lines. As I turn to Peter Alexander, I mean, this is the president's choice to lead some of these changes. We are going to also see Elon Musk not entering with the Cabinet but arguably as important, if not more important in terms of what he's been doing with the federal government. While we wait to see where Elon Musk is going to be sitting, is he there side by side with the Cabinet? He appeared in the cabinet meeting a few days ago. We saw him riding with the motorcade dressed in a suit this go round joining Donald Trump on this night. I'm struck by a couple of things. How much has changed since the last time we saw Donald Trump in this position five years ago, his last State of the Union. We've had Covid since then and so many other changes. Think about the room, just the optics of this. When he first gave a joint address, there was a different vice president over his shoulder than Mike Pence.

This go around JD Vance, a different speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. This time around, of course it's going to be Mike Johnson. What we heard from him eight years ago, he talked about putting an end to the trivial fights in America. There is Elon Musk. We see him in the chamber right now. You talk about the traffic. Trivial fights. He said let's put an end to them. Think about all the trivial, no longer trivial. The major fights we're dealing with right now with Canada, one of our closest allies, with Ukraine, until recently one of our tightest allies as well. The president has a lot of a lot of unique challenges tonight. But I think at the end of the day, what will matter to Americans at home is how it affects their pocketbook. Eight years ago when he spoke a dozen eggs, a $46 this go around nearly $5 for a dozen eggs. Next, as the country battles the avian flu and the effects of that, we want to go to Capitol Hill now. Our chief Capitol Hill correspondent, Ryan Nobles is inside the House chamber in the room where it will happen. And he has a Republican Senate, a Republican House.

But these are very narrow majorities and the political clock is ticking. Ryan, for him to get his agenda through. Yeah, that's exactly right, Savannah. And it is pretty stark when you look out at the chamber for my view vantage point, which is right behind where the president will be speaking in the next few minutes. All the Republicans to the left side of where I'm sitting are standing. They're anxiously waiting the president's arrival. All the Democrats on the other side of the chamber, they're sitting stoically, which is a representation of how this speech will likely be received here in the next few minutes. I mean, it's important to keep in mind when Donald Trump first came into this chamber back in 2017, it was a very different environment than what he's going to deal with here tonight. His own party wasn't necessarily 100% behind him eight years ago, and he won the presidency despite even some open opposition from his fellow Republicans and even had some Democrats that were hoping that he would be the dealmaker in chief. Well, fast forward to tonight. Donald Trump will be greeted by an enthusiastic GOP that has fallen completely in line behind him.

They will shower him with applause throughout the night. In fact, one of the things to look for tonight, we saw Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was right up there along the aisle and expected to greet the President as she came in. She's been showing her fellow members a MAGA style hat that reads Trump was right about everything, which is indicative of how the Republicans feel about Donald Trump right now. But these Democrats on the other side of the aisle, they have now been completely isolated from the deal making process. Many of his actions, especially early on in the second term, have alienated the Democrats. They've really given up all hope that they can work with him. And it's going to be very key tonight to watch how these Democrats demonstrate their opposition to Donald Trump. They've already done it to a certain extent. There are many Democrats who aren't even in the room tonight. A significant number of Democrats, including Senator Patty Murray, one of the seniors members of the United States Senate, deciding that she was not going to be in attendance tonight. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, one of the biggest stars in the Democratic Party, especially in the progressive movement.

She's decided not to be here tonight. The other way Democrats are protesting is with their dress and you can see it in a very stark terms. Many of the Democratic women dressed in very bright pink. That will be something that Donald Trump will have to see as he's given this address to this chamber here tonight. And then we've also spotted a number of Democratic men sporting ties with yellow and blue in support of Ukraine and of course, the ongoing controversy as it relates to Ukraine. Now, some of these members, they've been waiting here since as early as 3:00 this afternoon to get those spots along the aisle, those coveted spots where they will get FaceTime time with the President, be able to shake his hand on national television and also have the opportunity to get an autograph of the speech after he leaves. Everything along those lines, you can see them showing their phones and talking to each other already about this experience that they have and the prime position that they've gotten here tonight. Now, it's also interesting to point out as we wonder, will Democrats have any sort of vocal disapproval of this speech?

Which will they heckle or catcall? Will any of them walk out of the chamber tonight? We've been told by Democratic leadership that they've asked their members not to forcefully do any sort of demonstration like that. But they've already been warned by members of the House Freedom Caucus that any Democrat that attempts to disrupt the proceedings here tonight could potentially face a censure resolution. Now, that is a bit ironic because there are members of the House Freedom Caucus, both past and present, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert among them, who often jeered or catcalled President Joe Biden during his speeches. So those are just some of the things that we'll be watching here in the chamber tonight, guys.

All right, Ryan, thanks.

As we mentioned, tonight's address comes as President Trump slapped tariffs on some of our country's largest trading partners, including Canada, Mexico and China. It's raising fears of an all out trade war. For more, let's bring in our senior business correspondent Christine Romans. Christine, hi there. Good evening. And yes, you've got companies across the economy scrambling to figure out how to absorb these higher prices. 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, another 10% on China. And in fact, many companies are saying there will be higher prices ahead for American consumers, which is interesting because President Trump has acknowledged that in part he was elected because Americans were tired of higher grades grocery prices. We heard today from the CEO of Target, the big discount retailer, that in fact fruits and vegetables from Mexico this winter and spring, because of those tariffs, they will cost more. And in a matter of days, consumers will start to pay higher prices. Now we expect to hear the president talk about egg prices and blame President Biden and the prior administration and talk about his trade war. Will he say that he is going to have to, will have to endure some near term pain on prices for a longer term goal of sort of reorienting the global economy?

We'll have to wait and see. Howard Letnick, his commerce secretary, late today seemed to say that there was a softening potentially of this trade war position from the US Government saying that potentially the president tomorrow could try to meet Canada and Mexico in the middle. No clarity yet though on whether that means some of these, some of these tariffs will be rolled back even as industry, you guys, is sort of bracing for disruptions in the supply chain again, and higher prices all along the supply chain. And sometimes the uncertainty itself can create tremors in the economic system. Christine, standby there. We may well hear a lot about tariffs tonight. Just to set the team 10, 10 minutes past 9:00 here on the east coast and we await the entrance of the president. The Cabinet is there, are members of the Supreme Court are there, both sessions, but both parts of Congress are there, the House and the Senate. So we will hear his speech in just a few minutes. But talking about tariffs, Kristen, I mean, the president has acknowledged what he calls short term pain. Many, many economists think this will put incredible pressure on prices and on the economy at large if they were to stay in effect, effect for a sustained period.

Absolutely. Economists of all stripes have come to that conclusion. President Trump himself rejects that analysis. He says no, no, in the long term, prices ultimately will start to come down. It's these other countries that are going to pay the prices. History tells us that's not how tariffs work. And the fact that he has acknowledged, yes, there will be short term pain, I think is extraordinary. I can tell you. I've spent some time on Capitol Hill, Republicans privately saying, yes, look, they are concerned about the fact that prices are not coming down, that prices may in fact go up more because of these tariffs and the messaging that will be necessary. They are, they say, giving the president about six months to a year to watch this pan out. But this is where his legislative agenda comes into play. You are going to see him make a big pitch for Congress to pass the big bill that just passed through the House. It deals with the border deportation, taxes. His big argument is let's get that done and then that will handle any pain that's felt from tariffs. We are expecting the introduction of the president, Sergeant, the president of the United States.

And we should note, as you watch this, you would be forgiven if you thought you were about to watch the State of the Union address. Technically, this is a speech before a joint session of Congress. The difference being in this case, it's a new president who will be looking forward, presumably about his agenda versus a president who is going to review some of his accomplishments. And now we see the long walk in. The first lady, of course, has several guests with her and has become a tradition. There will be guests who may be mentioned during the speech and members from both sides bring guests as well to make political points. But it's just remarkable to think about this political comeback. President Trump now, this first address to a joint session after losing in 2020, then winning re election, something that's only happened in American history one other time where you have a second term that was broken up by someone else in office in the interim. And it's just incredible to see this. And he, you know, certainly feels that he had a mandate and that winning the popular vote for the first time, winning every swing state, has given him, him a certain ability to push further with his agenda than ever before.

Hallie There is a promises made, promises kept element to some of what the president has done, consequential and controversial here. He said he would implement tariffs on certain countries. He's doing that. He stood on stage with Elon Musk at rally after rally as they promised to slash the size of the federal government. They are now working to implement that. Critics will say, look at the fallout here. But I will tell you there are support supporters who are cheering them on. You talk about his loss in 2020, his win in 2024. I went back today and reached out to some of those voters who did not back President Trump in 2020, who backed him this time around. I said, hey, give me a, give me a bit of a vibe check here. What do you think, six weeks in? Because remember, for some of these voters, this is still a kind of second honeymoon period for the president. He's only been in office 43 days. I heard that again and again. Give him a chance when it comes to prices, which matters so much to these voters, to all voters. Give, give him a chance to try to bring those prices down.

I will tell you what I did here. And it was fascinating. One late 30s mom who backed President Trump in November, she said, you know what I don't like, though? She said, I wish we could vote Elon Musk out of office. She was concerned about what she saw as somebody who she viewed as out of touch, having so much influence at the White House. Now, again, Elon Musk was there on the campaign trail. It is not a surprise that he has become so close with President Trump. We have seen that over the course of the last, last nearly a year as he is in the room now in this chamber, the face of those doge cuts, as President Trump here is walking in and shaking hands. But the optics here are different, and they are fascinating because of that political comeback, because of the fact that, remember, Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House as well. And this is something that some members of Congress have been hearing about from constituents as they went back to their districts after this first period in Congress and they're hearing about it Peter. And not every constituent is happy with how this is unfolding.

Savannah, you're right. I just want to take a moment and comment on what we're looking at right now. President Trump greeting the members of the Supreme Court, including those retired there. You see Anthony Kennedy, of course, but three of those members of the court right now are members that he appointed. So not only does he control Congress, he controls the White House in the eyes of a lot of Americans. He controls the Supreme Court right now. So he has pretty much carte blanche launch in a lot of ways on a lot of these issues. Given some of the, some of the decisions we've already seen from the Supreme Court, he feels like in the eyes of those close to him that this is a person who has basically ability to do what he wants right now and he intends to do it over the course of the next year. But.

Yeah, go ahead.

No, just say the other thing you're watching here is the President with the military leaders. He went in, of course, there was a purge of military leaders, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently. You were talking about, though, what we have seen in some of these town halls or around the country right now as the president shows up. There has been real dissatisfaction. Critics say these are Democratic opponents, but a lot of Americans are starting to feel the impacts as it hits their own community. 80% of American federal workers work outside Washington, D.C. let's listen to the President luncheon today. So we can't talk about the substance of the conversation, what we can talk about. I think he seemed relaxed. He seemed very confident today. Yeah, I think there was a pep in his step. I mean, he definitely feels relaxed and that he's hitting his stride and that he was sent there by the American people. And he feels like he has this mandate and is looking forward to this speech tonight and wants to, as he says, tell it like it is.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's a great honor. Thank you very much. Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, the First lady of the United States, members of the United States Congress, thank you very much. And to my fellow citizens, America is back. Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started. I return to this chamber Tonight to report that America's momentum is back. Our spirit is back, our pride is back, our confidence is back. And the American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before. The American dream is unstoppable. And our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed and perhaps will never witness again. There's never been anything like it. The presidential election of November 5 was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades.

We won all seven swing states, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes. We won the popular vote by big numbers. And one counties in our country, and one counties in our country. 2,700 to 525 on a map that reads almost completely red for Republican. Now for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction then the wrong direction. In fact, it's an astonishing record 27 point swing, the most ever. Likewise, small business optimism saw its single largest one month gain ever recorded. A 41 point jump.

Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions.

That's your warning.

Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum. And the chair is prepared to direct the Sergeant at Arms to restore order.

To the joint session. Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir. Take your seat. Finding that members continue to engage in.

Willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the Sergeant at Arms to restore order. Remove this gentlemen from the chamber.

Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House. Mr. President, you continue.

Thank you. Over the past six weeks I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions. A record to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land. The people elected me to do the job and I'm doing it. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency. It's our presidency. Is the most successful in the history of our nation.

By many.

And what makes it even more impressive is that. Do you know who number two is? George Washington. How about that?

How about that?

I don't know about that list, but we'll take it. Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border. And I deployed the U.S. military and Border patrol to repel the invasion of our country. And what a job they've done as a result. Illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded. Ever. They heard my words and they Chose not to come. Much easier that way. In comparison. Under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month. And virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and people from mental institutions and insane asylums, were released into our country. Who would want to do that? This is my fifth such speech to Congress. And once again, 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. Nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that. That would wipe out entire nations or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded.

And these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won't do it, no matter what. Five. Five times I've been up here. You. It's very sad, and it just shouldn't be this way. So, Democrats sitting before me for just this one night. Why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America, for the good of our nation, let's work together and let's truly make America great again. Every day, my administration is fighting to deliver the change America needs to bring a future that America deserves. And we're doing it. This is a time for big dreams and bold action. Upon taking office, I imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations, and a freeze on all foreign aid. I terminated the ridiculous green news scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris climate accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying. I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization, and I also withdrew from the anti American UN Human Rights Council. We ended all of Biden's environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable.

And importantly, we ended the last administration's insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our autoworkers and companies from economic destruction. To uncheck to tackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated, just like I did in my very successful first term. And in that first term, we set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations like no other president had done before. We ordered all federal workers to return to the office. They will either show up for work in person or be removed from their job. And we have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent like me. How did that work out? Not too good. And I observed, stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It's back. And two days ago I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America. I renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. And likewise I renamed for a great president, William McKinley, Mount McKinley. Again, beautiful Alaska level that we've ended the tyranny of so called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military and our country will be woke no longer.

We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender. Very important, you should be hired based on merit. And the Supreme Court in a brave and very powerful decision, has allowed us to do so. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools. And I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports. Three years ago, Peyton McNabb was an all star high school athlete, one of the best, preparing for a future in college sports. But when her girls volleyball match was invaded by a male, he smashed the ball so hard in Peyton's face, causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side and ending her athletic career. It was a shot like she's never seen before. She's never seen anything like it. Peyton is here tonight in the gallery. And Peyton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls team or they will lose all federal funding.

And if you really want to see numbers, just take a look at what happened in the women's boxing, weightlifting, track and field, swimming or cycling, where a male recently finished a law long distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours. Broke the record by five hours. It's demeaning for women and it's very bad for our country. We're not going to put up with it any longer. What I have just described is only a small fraction of the common sense revolution that is now because of us sweeping the entire world. Common sense has become a common theme and we will never go back. Never, never going to let that happen. Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans. They've never had anything like. Like it. We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country, they're not sure.

As President, I'm fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again. Joe Biden, especially. Let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg price is out of control and we're working hard to get it back down. Secretary, do a good job on that. You inherited a total mess from the previous administration. Do a good job. A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy. The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95%, slowed pipeline construction to a halt, and closed more than 100 power plants. We are opening up many of those power plants right now. And frankly, we have never seen anything like it. That's why on my first day in office, I declared a national energy emergency. As you've heard me say many times, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on Earth and by far. And now, now I fully authorize the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it. It's called drill, baby, drill. My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska, among the largest in the world, where Japan, South Korea and other nations want to be our partner, with investments of trillions of dollars each.

There's never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular. It's all set to go. The permitting has gotten. And later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA to further combat inflation. We will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer doll. And to that end, I have created the brand new Department of government efficiency. GoJ. Perhaps you've heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. Thank you, Elon. He's working very hard. He didn't need this. He didn't need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it. I. I believe they just don't want to admit that. Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified. $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens. $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion. Scholarships Inc. In Burma. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQI plus in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.

$60 million for indigenous people peoples and Afro Colombian empowerment in Central America. $60 million. $8 million for making mice transgender. This is real. $32 million for a left wing propaganda operation in Moldova. $10 million for male circumcision in in Mozambique. $20 million for the Arab Sesame street in the Middle East. It's a program. $20 million for a program. $1.9 billion to recently created Decarbonization of Homes committee headed up. And we know she's involved just at the last moment. The money was passed over by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her? A $3.5 million consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring. $1.5 billion for voter confidence in Liberia. $14 million for social cohesion in Mali. $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City. He's a real estate developer. He's done very well. $250,000 to increase vegan local climate action innovation in Zambia. $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda. $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Asia is doing very well with learning. We know what we're doing, should use it ourselves. And $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education, the most ever paid.

Nothing even like it under the Trump administration. All of these scams, and they're far worse. But I didn't think it was appropriate to talk about them. They're so big. Many more have been found out and exposed and swiftly terminated by a group of very intelligent, mostly young people headed up by Elon. And we appreciate it. We found hundreds of billions of dollars of frau. We've taken back the money and reduced our debt to fight inflation and other things. Taken back a lot of that money. We got it just in time. This is just the beginning. The Government Accountability Office, a federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation. And we are working very hard to stop it. We're going to. We're also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors and that our seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don't know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly.

3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 130. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them. And we're searching right now, in fact. Pam, good luck. Good luck. You're going to find it. But a lot of money is paid out to people because it just keeps getting paid and paid and nobody does. And it really hurts. Hurts Social Security and hurts our country. 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old. We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby. Including to finish 1039 people between the ages of 220 and 229. One person between the age of 20, 240 and 249 and one person is listed at 360 years of age, more than 100 years, more than 100 years older than our country. But we're going to find out where that money is going, and it's not going to be pretty. By slashing all of the fraud, waste and theft we can find, we will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors and put more money in the pockets of American families.

And today, interest rates took a beautiful drop. Big, beautiful drop. It's about time. And in the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24, balance the federal budget. We're going to balance it. With that goal in mind, we have developed in great detail what we are calling the Gold Card, which goes on sale very, very soon for $5 million. We will allow the most successful job creating people from all over the world to buy a path to US Citizenship. It's like the Green card, but better and more sophisticated. And these people will have to pay tax in our country. They won't have to pay tax from where they came. The money that they've made. You wouldn't want to do that. But they have to pay tax, create jobs. They'll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country instead of having them be being forced out, number one at the top school, as an example, being forced out in not being allowed to stay and create Tremendous numbers of jobs and great success for a company out there. So while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers and child predators who are allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people, the Democrats, the Biden administration, the open border insane policies that you've allowed to destroy our country, we will now bring in brilliant, hardworking, job creating people.

They're going to pay a lot of money and we're going to reduce our debt with that money. Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound, profound change. For nearly 100 years, the federal bureaucracy has grown until it has crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits, and held back America's potential in every possible way. The nation founded by pioneers and risk takers now drowns under millions and millions of pages of regulations and debt approvals that that should take 10 days to get. Instead, take 10 years, 15 years, and even 20 years before you reject it. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work. My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy and we will restore true democracy to America again. And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately because we are draining the swamp. It's very simple. And the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over. And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody. They're in there. They're waiting for you to vote.

And I'm sure that the people on my right, I don't mean the Republican right, but my right right here year. I'm sure you're going to vote for those tax cuts because otherwise I don't believe the people will ever vote you into office. So I'm doing you a big favor by telling you that. But I know this group is going to be voting for the tax cuts. Thank you. It's a very, very big part of our plan. We had tremendous success in our first term with it. A very big part of our plan. We're seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board. And to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation, I'm calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors. And I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America. And by the way, we're going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody has ever seen. Plants are opening up all over the Place deals are being made, never seen. That's a combination of the election win and tariffs.

It's a beautiful word, isn't it? That along with our other policies will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom. It's going to boom. I spoke to the majors today, all three, the top people, and they're so excited. In fact. In fact, already numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in Indiana, one of the largest anywhere in the world. And this has taken place since our great victory on November 5, a date which will hopefully go down as one of the most important in the history of our country. In addition, as part of our tax cuts, we want to cut taxes on domestic production and oil manufacturing. And just as we did before, we will provide 100% expense. It will be retroactive to January 20, 2025. And it was one of the main reasons why our tax cuts were so successful in our first term, giving us the most successful economy in the history of our country. First term. We had a great first term. If you don't make make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and in some cases a rather large one.

Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it's our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada, have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs tariffs than we charge them. It's very unfair. India charges US auto tariffs higher than 100%. China's average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them. And South Korea's average tariff is four times higher. Think of that. Four times higher. And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea. But that's what happens happens. This is happening by friend and foe. This system is not fair to the United States and never was. And so on April 2, I wanted to make it April 1, but I didn't want to be accused of April Fool's Day. That's what that's not just one day cost us a lot of money, but we're going to do it in April. I'm a very superstitious person, Peterson. April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in and whatever they tariff us other countries, we will tariff them. That's reciprocal back and forth.

Whatever they tax us, we will tax them. If they do non monetary tariffs to keep us out of their mind market, then we will do non monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. There's a lot of that, too. They don't even allow us in their market. We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. I did it with China and I did it with others, and the Biden administration couldn't do anything about it because there was so much money. They couldn't do anything about it. We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer. Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada, but we have very large deficits with both of them. But even more importantly, they've allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before. Killing. Killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. They are, in effect, receiving subsidies of hundreds of billions of dollars. We pay subsidies to Canada and to Mexico of hundreds of billions of dollars.

And the United States will not be doing that any longer. We're not going to do it any longer. Thanks to our America first policies we're putting into place, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks. The combination of the election and our economic policies that people of SoftBank, one of the most brilliant anywhere in the world, announced a $200 billion investment. Investment. OpenAI and Oracle. Larry Ellison announced $500 billion investment, which they wouldn't have done if Kamala had won. Apple announced $500 billion investment. Tim Cook called me. He said, I cannot spend it fast enough. It's going to be much higher than that. I believe they'll be building their plants here instead of in China. And just yesterday, Taiwan Semiconductor, the biggest in the world, most powerful in the world, has a tremendous amount. 97% of the market announced a $165 billion investment to build the most powerful chips on earth right here in the US and we're not giving them any money. Your chips act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn't mean a thing. They take our money and they don't spend it.

All that meant to them, we're giving them no money. All that was important to them was they didn't want to pay the tariffs. So they came and they're building and many other companies are coming. We'd have to give them money. We just want to protect our businesses and our people. And they will come because they won't have to pay tariffs if they build in America. So it's very amazing. You should get rid of the CHIP act and whatever is left over, Mr. Speaker. You should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to. Our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer. I love the farmer who will now be selling into our home market, the usa, because nobody is going to be able to compete with you because there's goods that come in from other countries and companies, they're really, really in a bad position in so many different ways. They're uninspected. They may be very dirty and disgusting. And they come in and they pour in and they hurt our American farmers. The tariffs will go on, agricultural product coming into America and our farmers starting on April 2nd.

It may be a little bit of an adjustment period. We had that before when I made the deal with China. $50 billion of purchases. And I said, just bear with me. And they. They did. They did. Probably have to bear with me again and this will be even better. That was great. The problem with it was that Biden didn't enforce it. He didn't enforce it. $50 billion of purchases and we were doing great, but Biden did not enforce it and it hurt our farmers. But our farmers are going to have a field day right now. So to our farmers, have a lot of fun. I love you, too. I love you, too. It's all going to happen. And I have also imposed a 25% tariff on foreign aluminum, copper, lumber and steel. Because if we don't have, as an example, steel and lots of other things, we don't have a military and frankly, won't have. We just won't have a country very long. Here today is a proud American steelworker, fantastic person from Decatur, Alabama. Jeff Denard has been working at the same steel plant for 27 years in a job that has allowed him to serve as the captain of his local volunteer fire department.

Raised seven children with his beautiful wife, Dakota, and over the years provide a loving home for more than 40 foster children. So great job. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. Stories like Jeff's remind us that tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs. They're about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. And it's happening. And it will happen rather quickly. There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that. It won't be much. No, you're not. And look. And look where Biden took us. Very low. The lowest we've ever been. Jeff, I want to thank you very much. And I also want to recognize another person who has devoted herself to foster care community. She worked so hard on it. A very loving person, our magnificent first lady of the United States. Melania's work has yielded incredible results, helping prepare our nation's future leaders as they enter the workforce. Our first lady is joined by two impressive young women. Very impressive. Haley Ferguson, who benefited from the First Lady's Fostering the future initiative initiative and is poised to complete her education and become a teacher.

And Elliston Berry, who became a victim of an illicit deep fake image produced by a peer. With Elliston's help. The Senate just passed the Take it down act. And this is so important. Thank you very much, John. John Thune. Thank you. Stand up, John. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you. And thank you to John Thune and the Senate. Great job. To criminalize the publication of such images online is a terrible, terrible thing. And once it passes the House, I look forward to signing that bill into law.

Law.

Thank you. And I'm going to use that bill for myself too, if you don't mind. Because nobody gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody. That's great. Thank you very much to the Senate. Thank you. But if we truly care about protecting Americans children, no step is more crucial than securing America's borders. Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States. Many of them them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world. Because of Joe Biden's insane and very dangerous open border policies. They are now strongly embedded in our country. But we are getting them out and getting them out f. And I want to thank Tom Homan and Christi, I want to thank you. And Paul of border patrol, I want to thank you. What a job they've all done. Everybody, Border patrol, ice, law enforcement in general is incredible. We have to take care of our law enforcement. Have to. Last year, a brilliant 22 year old nursing student named Lakin Riley, the best in her class, admired by everybody, went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia.

That morning, Lakin was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized and horrifically murdered. Lakin was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden's open southern border and then set loose into the United States under the heartless policies of that failed administration. It was indeed a failed administration. He had then been arrested and released in a Democrat run sanctuary city, a disaster. Before ending the life of this beautiful young age angel. With us this evening are Lakins beloved mother Allison and her sister Lauren. Last year I told Lakin's grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain. That's why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety. It's a very strong, powerful act. It's called the Lakin Riley Act. So Allison and Lauren, America will never ever forget our beautiful Lakin Hope Riley. Thank you very much. Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history. And we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded. Thank you.

The media and our friends in the Democrat party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation. Legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president. Thank you. Joe Biden didn't just open our borders. He flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals and communities throughout the country. Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody's ever seen before. Beautiful towns destroyed. Destroyed. Now, just as I promised in my inaugural address, we are achieving the great liberation of America. But there still is much work to be done. Here tonight is a woman I have gotten to know, Alexis Ningere from Houston. Wonderful woman. Last June, Alexis's 12 year old daughter, her precious Jocelyn, walked to a nearby convenience store. She was kidnapped, tied up, assaulted for two hours under a bridge and horrifically murdered. Arrested and charged with this heinous crime are two illegal alien monsters from Venezuela billet released into America by the last administration through their ridiculous open border. The death of this beautiful 12 year old girl and the agony of her mother and family touched our entire nation greatly.

Alexis, I promised that we would always remember your daughter. Your magnificent daughter. And earlier tonight I signed an order keeping my word to you. You. One thing I have learned about Jocelyn is that she loved animals so much. She loved nature. Across Galveston Bay from where Jocelyn lived in Houston you will find a magnificent national wildlife refuge. A pristine, peaceful, 34,000 acre sanctuary for all of God's creatures on the edge of the Gulf of America. America, Alexis. Moments ago I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter, Jocelyn. So Mr. Vice President, if you would. May I have the order?

Thank you very much. All three savages charged with Jocelyn and Lakins murders were members of the Venezuelan prison gang. The toughest gang they say in the World known as trendy Aragua. Two weeks ago, I officially designated this gang, along with Ms. 13 and the bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations. They are now officially in the same category as isis. And that's not good for them. Countless thousands of these terrorists were welcomed into the US by the Biden administration. But now every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country. Or if they're too dangerous, put in jails, standing trial in this country. Because we don't want them to come back. Ever. With us this evening is a warrior on the front lines of that battle. Border Patrol Agent Roberto Ortiz. Great guy. In January, Roberto and another agent were patrolling by the Rio Grande near an area known as Cartel Island. Doesn't sound too nice to me. When heavily armed gunmen started shooting at them. Roberto saw that his partner was totally exposed at great danger, and he leapt into action, returning fire and providing crucial seconds for his fellow agent to seek safety.

Just. And just barely. I have some of the prints of that event, and it was not good. Agent Ortiz, we salute you for your great courage and for your line of fire that you took and for the bravery that you showed. We honor you and we will always honor you. Thank you, Roberto, very much. Thank you, Roberta. And I actually got to know him on my many calls to the border. He's a great, great gentleman. The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartel. Cartels that murder, rape, torture, and exercise total control. They have total control over a whole nation, posing a grave threat to our national security. The cartels are waging war in America. And it's time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing five nights ago. Mexican authorities, because of our tariff policies being imposed on them. Think of this. Handed over to us 29 of the biggest cartel leaders in their country. That has never happened before. They want to make us happy. First time ever. But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they've done. And they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the usa.

They're going to stop it. I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history. Larger even than current record holds older President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate man, but someone who believed very strongly in borders. Americans expect Congress to send me this funding without delay so I can sign it into law. So, Mr. Speaker John Thune, both of you, I hope you're going to be able to do that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Leader. Thank you. Thank you very much. And let's get it to me. I'll sign it so far fast you won't even believe it. And as we reclaim our sovereignty, we must also bring back law and order to our cities and towns. In recent years, our justice system has been turned upside down by radical left lunatics. Many jurisdictions virtually seized, enforcing the law against dangerous repeat offenders while weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents like me. My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, starting at the FBI and the doj.

Pam, good luck, Cash, wherever you may be. Good luck. Good luck. Pam Bonded. Good luck. So important, going to do a great job. Cash Bank. Thank you, thank you. Keshe. They've already started very strong. They're going to do a fantastic job. You're going to be very proud of them. We're also once again giving our police officers the support, protection and respect they so dearly deserved. They have to get it. They have such a hard, dangerous job, but we're going to make it less dangerous. The problem is the bad guys don't respect the law, but they're starting to respect it and they soon will respect it. This also includes our great fire departments throughout the country. Our firemen and women are unbelievable people and we'll never forget them. And besides that, they voted for me in record numbers. So I have no chance. One year ago this month, 31 year old new York police officer Jonathan Diller, unbelievably wonderful person and a great officer, was gunned down at a traffic stop on Long Island. I went to his funeral. The vicious criminal charged with his murder had 21 prior arrests and they were rough arrests too.

He was a real bad one. The thug in the seat next to him had 14 prior arrests and went by the name of killer. He was killer. He killed other people, they say a lot of them. I attended Officer Diller's service and when I met his wife and one year old son Ryan, it was very inspirational. Actually his widow's name is Stephanie and she is here tonight. Stephanie, thank you very much Stephanie. Thank you very much Stephanie. We're going, going to make sure that Ryan knows his dad was a true hero. New York's finest. And we're going to get these cold blooded killers and repeat offenders off our streets and we're going to do it fast. Got to stop it. They get out with 28 arrests, they push people into subway trains, they hit people over the head. Back of the head with baseball bats. We got to get them out of here. I have already signed an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer. And tonight, I'm asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law. I'm also asking for a new crime bill. Getting tough on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America's police officers so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed.

They don't want to be killed. We're not going to let them be killed. Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our political police. His name is DJ Daniel. He is 13 years old, and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer.

But in 2018, DJ was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months at movies, most to live. That was more than six years ago. Since that time, DJ and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true. And DJ has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer. Actually, a number of times. The police love him. The police departments love him. And tonight, dj, we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service director, Director Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.

DJs doctors believe his cancer likely came from a chemical he was exposed to when he was younger. Since 1975, rates of child cancer have increased by more than 40%. Reversing this trend is one of the top priorities for our new presidential commission to make America healthy again. Chairman, by our new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. With the name Kennedy. You would have thought everybody over here would have been cheering. How quickly they forget. Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong. As an example, not long ago, and you can't even believe these numbers, one in 10,000 children had autism. One in 10,000. And now it's one in 36. There's something wrong. One in 36. Think of that. So we're going to find out what it is. And there's nobody better than Bobby. And all of the people that are working with you, you have the best to figure out what is going on. Okay, Bobby, good luck. It's a very important job. Thank you. Thank you. My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools.

A few years ago January, little John and her husband discovered that their daughter's school had secretly, socially transitioned their 13 year old, old, little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns, they, them, pronoun, actually, all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse. January, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Stories like this are why, shortly after taking office, I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology. I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie. And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you. Because we're getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military, and it's already out and it's out of our society. We don't want it. Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. It's gone. It's gone. And we feel so much better for it. Don't we? Don't we feel better? Our service members won't be activists and ideologues. They will be fighters and warriors. They will fight for our country. And Pete, congratulations. Secretary of Defense, congratulations. And he's not big enough into the WOKE movement, I can tell you. I know him well.

I am pleased to report that In January, the US army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years. And that all armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services. What a difference. And you know, it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite. We couldn't recruit anywhere. We couldn't recruit now. We're having the best results just about that we've ever had. What a tremendous turnaround. It's really a beautiful thing to see people love our country again. It's very simple. They love our country and they love being in our military again. So it's a great thing. And thank you very much. Great job. We're joined tonight by a young man, Jason Hartley, who knows the weight of that call of duty. Jason's father, grandfather, and great grandfather all wore the uniform. Jason tragically lost his dad, who was also a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy, when he was just a boy. And now he wants to carry on the family legacy of service. Jason is a senior in high school, a six letter varsity athlete. A really good athlete, they say. A brilliant student with a 4.46. That's good GPA.

And his greatest dream is to attend the US Military Academy at West Point. And Jason, that's a very big deal. Getting in, that's a hard one to get into. But now I'm pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. You will soon be joining the corps of cadet. Thank you, Jason. You're going to be on the long gray line, Jason. As Commander in chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future. As a first step, I'm asking Congress to fund a state of the art golden dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland. All made in the usa. And Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago, but the technology just wasn't there. Not even close. But now we have the technology. It's incredible actually. And other places, they have it, Israel has it, other places have, have it. And the United States should have it too. Right Tim? Right. They should have it too. So I want to thank you, but it's a very, very important. This is a very dangerous world. We should have it. We want to be protected and we're going to protect our citizens like never before.

To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding. And for that purpose I am announcing tonight that we will create a new office of Shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America where it belongs. We used to make so many ships. We don't make them anymore very much, but we're going to make them very fast. Very soon it will have a huge impact. To further enhance our national security. Security. My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal and we've already started doing it. Just today a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals. The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for others. But others could use it. But it was built at tremendous cost of American blood and treasure. 38,000 workers died building the Panama Canal. They died of malaria, they died of snake bites and mosquitoes. Not a nice place to work. They paid them very highly to go there, knowing there was a 25% chance that they would die.

The most expensive project also that was ever built in our country's history. If you bring it up to modern day costs, it was given away by the Carter administration for $1. But that agreement has been violated very severely. We didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it. And we have Marco Rubio in charge. Good luck, Marco. Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong. Marco has been amazing, and he's going to do a great job. Think of it, he got 100 votes. You know, he was approved with actually 99. But the 100th was this gentleman, and I feel very certain. So let's assume he got 100 votes. And I'm either very, very happy about that or I'm very concerned about it. But he's already proven. I mean, he's a great gentleman. He's respected by everybody. And we appreciate you voting for Marco. He's going to do a fantastic job. Thank you. Thank you. Doing a great job. Great job. And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We strongly support your right to determine your own future. And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.

We need Greenland. Greenland for national security and even international security. And we're working with everybody involved to try and get it. But we need it, really, for international world security. And I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it. We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before. It's a very small population, but very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security. America is once again standing strong against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism. Three and a half years ago, ISIS terrorists killed 13American servicemembers and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing. During the disaster, treacherous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan. Not that they were withdrawing. It was the way they withdrew. Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice. And I want to thank especially the government of Pakistan for helping our arrest this monster.

This was a very momentous day for those 13 families who I actually got to know very well, most of them whose children were murdered and the many people that were so badly. Over 42 people so badly injured on that fateful day in Afghanistan. What a horrible day. Such incompetence was shown that when Putin saw what happened, I guess he said, wow, maybe this is my chance. That's how bad it was. Should have never happened. Grossly incompetent people. I spoke to many of the parents and loved ones and they're all in our hearts tonight. Just spoke to them on the phone. We had a big call. Every one of them called and everybody was on the line. And they did nothing but cry with happiness. They were very happy. As happy as you can be under those circumstances. Their child, brother, sister, son, daughter was killed for no reason whatsoever. In the Middle East. We're bringing back our hostages from Gaza. In my first term, we achieved one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements, agreements in generations, the Abraham Accords. And now we're going to build on that foundation to create a more people, peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region.

A lot of things are happening in the Middle East. People have been talking about that so much lately with everything going on with Ukraine and Russia. But a lot of things are happening in the Middle East. It's a rough neighborhood, actually. I'm also working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict. Conflict with no end in sight. The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine's defense. With no security, with no energy.

Do.

You want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah. Yeah, you would say. Pocahontas says yes. 2,000 people are being killed every single week. More than that. They're Russian young people, they're Ukrainian young people. They're not Americans. But I want it to stop. Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine by far. Think of that. They've spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending. And we've spent perhaps $350 billion dollars. Like taking candy from a baby. That's what happened. And they've spent $100 billion. What a difference that is. And we have a notion separating us, and they don't. But we're getting along very well with them and lots of good things are happening. Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent by billions and billions of dollars. It's hard to believe that they wouldn't have stopped it and said at some point, come on, let's equalize. You got to be equal to us. But that didn't happen. Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelensky of Ukraine. The letter reads, Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.

Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians, he said said my team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you. I appreciate, I appreciate that. He sent this letter. Just got it a little while ago. Simultaneously, we've had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn't that be beautiful? Wouldn't that be beautiful? Wouldn't that be beautiful? It's time to stop this madness. It's time to halt the killing. It's time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides. Nearly four years ago, amid rising tensions, a history teacher named Mark Fogel was detained in Russia and sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony. Rough stuff. The previous administration barely lifted a finger to help him. They knew he was innocent, but they had no idea where to begin. But last summer I promised his 95 year old mother, Malfean, that we would bring her boy safely back home after 22 days in office.

I did just that. And they are here tonight.

To Mark and his great mom, we are delighted to have you safe and sound and with us. As fate would have it, Mark Fogle was born in a small rural town in Butler, Pennsylvania. Have you heard of it? Where his mother has lived for the past 78 years. I just happened to go there last July 13th for a rally that was not pleasant. And that is where I met his beautiful mom right before I walked onto that stage. And I told her I would not forget what she said about her son. And I never did, did I never forgot. Less than 10 minutes later at that same rally, gunfire rang out and a sick and deranged assassin unloaded eight bullets from his sniper's perch into a crowd of many thousands of people. My life was saved by a fraction of an inch. But some were not so lucky. Cory Comperator was a firefighter, a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a devoted father, and above all, a protector. When the sound of gunshots pierced the air, it was a horrible sound. Cory knew instantly what it was and what to do. He threw himself on top of his wife and daughters and shielded them from the bullets with his own body.

Cory was hit really hard. You know the story. From there, he sacrificed his life to save theirs. Two others, very fine people, were also serious hit. But thankfully, with the help of two great country doctors, we thought they were Gone. And they were saved. So those doctors had great talent. We're joined by Cory's wife, Helen, who was his high school sweetheart, and their two beloved daughters, Allison and Kaylee. Thank you.

It.

To Helen, Allison and Kaylee. Corey is looking down on his three beautiful ladies right now. And he is cheering you on. He loves you. He is cheering you on. Cory was taken from us much too soon. But his destiny was to leave us all with a shining example of the selfless devotion. Devotion of a true American patriot. It was love like Cory's that built our country. And it's love like Cory's that is going to make our country more majestic than ever before. I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason. I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that. Thank you very much. From the patriots of Lexington and Concord, to the heroes of Gettysburg and Normandy, from the warriors who crossed the Delaware, to the trailblazers who climbed the Rockies, and from the legends who soared at Kitty Hawk to the astronauts who touched the moon, Americans have always been the people who defied all arts, transcended all dangers, made the most extraordinary sacrifices and did whatever it took to defend our children, our country and our freedom. And as we have seen in this chamber tonight, that same strength, faith, love and spirit is still alive and thriving in the hearts of the American people.

Despite the best efforts of those who would try to censor us, silence us, break us, destroy us. Americans are today a proud, free, sovereign and independent nation that will always be free. And we will fight for it till death. We will never let anything happen to our beloved country. Because we are a country of doers, dreamers, fighters and survivors. Our ancestors crossed a vast ocean, strode into the unknown wilderness, and carved their fortunes from the rock and soil of a perilous and very dangerous frontier. They chased our destiny across a boundless continent. They built the railroads, laid the highways, and graced the world with American marvels like the Empire State Building, the mighty Hoover Dam and the towering Golden Gate Bridge. They lit the world with electricity, broke free of the force of gravity, fired up the engines of American industry, vanquished the communist fascists and Marxists all over the world, and gave us countless modern wonders sculptured out of iron, glass and steel. We stand on the shoulders of these pioneers who won and built the modern age. These workers who poured their sweat into the skylines of our cities. These warriors who shed their blood on fields of battle, gave everything they had had for our rights and for our freedom.

Now it is Our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty. And it is our turn to take America's destiny into our own hands and begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country. This will be our greatest era. With God's help, over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher. And we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this earth. We are going to create the highest quality of life, build the safest and wealthiest and healthiest and most vital communities anywhere in the world. We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science and we are going to to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond. And through it all, we are going to rediscover the unstoppable power of the American spirit. And we are going to renew unlimited promise of the American dream. Every single day. We will stand up and we will fight, fight, fight for the country our citizens believe in and for the country our people deserve.

My fellow Americans, get ready for an incredible future because the golden age of America has only just begun. It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before. Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.

And President Trump, concluding what we believe is the longest speech of this type, major Congress speech that took many, many arcs. There were in fact, some surprises in this there, some poignant moments. Also some moments I think many would agree probably weren't helpful, including those protests we saw early by some Democratic members and at least one being escorted out at the bequest of the speaker. And the president talking about his agenda, talked about the tariffs that of course have just gone into effect this week and it's certainly doubled down on that strategy and said they indicated there would be more to come. Talks about foreign policy. And it appeared that he is ready to move forward with Ukraine, but talked a lot about Ukraine and Russia and getting a peace deal, something that is very much at the top of mind. And then a lot of the cultural issues, a lot of time spent on some of the more controversial federal programs that he says his Department of Government efficiency is cutting. So a wide ranging and as mentioned, the longest speech ever in the State of the Union or a joint address. So he now holds the top spot there.

Go to Krista Walker for your thoughts. Savannah. I was struck by the fact that after that rocky start when Congressman Al Green was removed for jeering at him, this really became a speech about cultural issues, a culture war speech, if you will. And he spent about 20 minutes on. It took him 20 minutes to talk about the top issue for voters, which is, by the way, the economy. He also talked about immigration, the environment, government censorship, all of those things. A couple of headlines you talked about tariffs. That's obviously a huge issue because there's a lot of concern among some Republicans that the tariffs that he's imposed against Mexico and Canada and China could drive up prices. He acknowledged, quote, there will be a little disturbance and it will require a little adjustment that is significant. That's the furthest that he's ever leaned into that on foreign policy. He announced that the top terrorists responsible for the Abbey Gate bombing is being flown to the US Is going to face justice. And notably on Ukraine, I thought that was one of the biggest headlines of the night. After that explosive Oval Office meeting. The president seeming to indicate some progress has been made.

President Zelensky sending him a note indicating he wants to make peace, he wants to move forward on that minerals deal, which is seen as the first step, and saying that he'd had some significant conversations with the Russians as well. He said it would be beautiful to get a deal. So I think those are some of the significant headlines. But again, so notable that he began this speech really focused on those culture war issues and reminder that that's part of what swept him into the White House in so many ways. This was President Trump characteristically almost defiant. His message was, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not backing down on so many of these key issues for him. And as he put it, we are only just getting started after a first 43 days in office where his administration is touted, and he did tonight, the number of executive orders he assigned, the action decisions that he's taken moving forward. So you look at something though, as far as what Americans care about, right? We know they care about the economy and their wallets. Kristen mentioned this issue of tariffs. And yes, while the president did acknowledge that folks like farmers may feel some pain, he also gave his presidential spin on this, suggesting that car companies would be behind it, that it would usher in a new era for these car companies.

That has not been what we have heard from those companies thus far. It was only a matter of weeks ago that the head of Ford suggested that long term tariffs could blow a hole in the automotive industry here in this country. So that is a real question mark, especially when his own commerce Secretary just hours ago previewed the potential for a compromise here on these culture war issues that you heard the president lean into. It's interesting to me he brought up some of these transgender issues that he has talked about so often, even before he got to some of the economic issues that are perhaps more visceral for many Americans. You wonder, well, why is that? Look at some of the polling here. Look at some of the numbers and poll after poll. The majority of adults approve of what the President has done in his policies regarding, for example, diversity, diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI and banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports, for example. So that he sees that as a political winner for him. You heard him lean into that early on in his speech here was also interesting. When we talk about the economy, what do we talk about?

A lot? Lot. Egg prices, Eggflation. Right. I mean, this is something that any, any American, you go to the grocery store, you look at the shelves, you're talking about. He did make a glancing reference to that, in part pinning the blame for that on his predecessor, President Biden. We know that it is the avian flu that has spiked egg prices after hundreds, 166 million egg laying chickens had to be killed because of it. His administration, he rolled out a plan for this. It does. They do have a plan to, for example, invest more heavily in veggies, vaccines for this, to, you know, import more, if you will. But he didn't get into some of the details on that to try to make the case to Americans if he's working for them, to try to lower the prices overall. However, he really leaned into the fact that he is going to be continuing to press the case with, for example, Elon Musk as you see him walking out, really linking Doge and what Musk is doing to these cultural war issues that we've been talking about here. We should note this is an open microphone as the President slowly makes his way.

So let's, let's just listen for a few seconds.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Love you, Mr. President.

Thank you, everybody. Look at this beautiful new congressman from eastern Washington.

We've never met Bob Garner. I was Mike, one of Mike Leach's best friends. He thinks very highly.

Oh, he was tremendous. He was a great guy.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you, Peter. Peter Alexander, let me turn to you. And what did you pick up on in this speech? A couple of things that I heard from someone close to the President who said to me in their terms, this was one of the most unabashedly partizan speeches ever given from the House podium there. They said this is a confident Donald Trump on steroids that you saw tonight. The argument from within the White House is that Even independents watching this this evening are going to say, among other things, hey, the guy promised stuff and he's getting it done quickly. I think fundamentally the question at the end of the day for a lot of Americans is going to be what's in this for me? And that goes to the topic of the little disturbance as he describes it, as it relates to inflation and beyond. Very little acknowledgment of the situation where so many federal workers have been fired so far. Think about this. The president said on multiple occasions tonight that he is going to balance the budget. Let's say you fire every federal worker in the country, you save 8% of the annual budget to get.

You're going to have to get a lot done on medical, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security issues. He says he's not going to go anywhere near to so he has some real challenges right now. And already American talk about also tax cuts and not taxing tips. And so you're also reducing revenue at the same time. So wonky policy alert. You know, balancing the budget is there's a reason that Washington almost never does it. He didn't seem to get into the idea of the workers who have been laid off. That was essentially when a around that things that so many, many members of his own party are dealing with Congressmen right now, to Peter's point, promises made, promises kept. The president got on the campaign trail with Elon Musk and said that this is what he was going to do is slash the federal workforce. I will tell you that I talked with a Republican member of Congress just tonight who said that she is going to continue. She's going to hold a town hall next week even after some of these warnings from Republicans. To think about how you conduct these town halls after we've seen a number of protests that have gone viral on online of Republicans getting booed or shouted down because of these doge cuts.

Many Republicans, the White House will say that's those are operatives, those are sort of paid demonstrators, etc. But we are seeing that sort of over and over again now as Republicans start to think about the way that they are positioning themselves back home in their districts. One of the big issues tonight had to do with how the Democrats would respond to this speech. And we saw it all over the map from open resistance and a member of Congress. Congress being escorted out to signs to a more quiet protest of wearing different colors. We're about to hear from the Democrats. Officially, the Democratic response is just moments away. So we want to sneak in a break right here. Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin on deck next. We'll bring it to you live right after this

News for the generation of now is NBC News now. Welcome back to our special coverage of President Trump's joint address to Congress. Congress. When the president praised his administration's cuts to the federal workforce along with the tariffs put in place today. Yeah. A speech that was wide ranging in the subject matter. And any moment now, we're about to hear from the Democrats here. The response will come from Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin. She's a former CIA analyst. She served in Iraq as well. Also did national security issues at the Pentagon and the White House during the Bush and Obama administrations. Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called her a rising star in the Democratic Party. And NBC News has learned she's going to speak from Wyandotte, Michigan. This is a swing town near Detroit. So she won. She just had a very hot, hard fought race in Michigan. She won her Senate seat. President Trump, of course, won Michigan. So let's hear from Senator Slotkin here. Hi everyone. I'm Melissa Slotkin. I'm honored to have the opportunity to speak tonight. Tonight it's late, so I promise to be a lot shorter than what you just watched.

I won't take it personally if you've never heard of me. I'm the new senator from the great state of Michigan where I grew up. I've been in public service my entire life because I happened to be in New York City on 911 when the twin towers came down. Before the smoke cleared, I knew I wanted to make a life in national security. I was recruited by the CIA and did three tours in Iraq alongside the military. In between, I worked at the White House under President Bush and President Obama, two very different leaders who both believed that America is exceptional. You can find that same sense of patriotism here in Wyandotte, Michigan, where I'm speaking from tonight. It's a working class town just south of Detroit. President Trump and I both won here in November. It might not seem like it, but please. Plenty of places like this still exist across the United States. Places where people believe that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should do well and your kids should do better. It reminds me of how I grew up. My dad was a lifelong Republican, my mom a lifelong Democrat.

But it was never a big deal because we had shared values that were bigger than any one party. We just went through another fraught election system season. Americans made it clear that prices are too high and that the government needs to be more responsive to their needs. America wants change, but there's a responsible way to make change and a reckless way. And we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy. So that's what I'm going to lay out tonight, because whether you're from Wyandotte or Wichita, most Americans share three, three core beliefs. That the middle class is the engine of our country, that strong national security protects us from harm, and that our democracy, no matter how messy, is unparalleled and worth fighting for. Let's start with the economy. Michigan literally invented the middle class. The revolutionary idea that you could work at an auto plant and afford the car you were building. That's the American dream. And, and in order to expand and protect the middle class, we have to do a few basic things. We need to bring down the price of things we spend the most money on groceries, housing, health care.

We need to make more things in America with good paying union jobs and bring our supply chains back home from places like China. We need to give American businesses the certainty they need to invest and create the jobs of the future. And we need a tax system that's very. For people who don't happen to make a billion dollars. Look, the President talked a big game on the economy, but it's always important to read the fine print. So do his plans actually help Americans get ahead? Not even close. President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends. He's on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America. And, and to do that, he's going to make you pay in every part of your life. Grocery and home prices are going up, not down, and he hasn't laid out a credible plan to deal with either of those. His tariffs on allies like Canada will raise prices on energy, lumber, and cars and start a trade war that will hurt manufacturing and farmers. Your premiums and prescriptions will cost more because the math on his proposals doesn't, doesn't work without going after your health care.

Meanwhile, for those keeping score, the national debt is going up, not down. And if he's not careful, he could walk us right into a recession. And one more thing. In order to pay for his plan, he could very well come after your retirement. The Social Security, Medicare and VA benefits you worked your whole life to earn. The President claims he won't, but Elon Musk just called Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. While we're on the subject of Elon Musk, is there anyone In America. Who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20 year olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information, and your bank accounts. No oversight, no protections against cyber attack, no guardrails on what they do with your private data. We need a more efficient government. You want to cut waste? I'll help you do it. But change doesn't need to be chaotic or make us less safe. The mindless firing of people who work to protect our nuclear weapons, keep our planes from crashing, and conduct the research that finds the cure for cancer, only to rehire them two days later.

No CEO in America could do that without being summarily fired. Okay, so we've talked about economic security. How about national security? Let's start with the border. As someone who spent my whole career protecting our homeland, every country deserves to know who and what is coming across its border, period. Democrats and Republicans should all be for that. But securing the border without actually fixing our broken immigration system is dealing with the symptom and not the disease. America is a nation of immigrants. We need a functional system keyed to the needs of our economy that allows vetted people to come and work here legally. So I look forward to the president's plan on that. Because here's the thing. Today's world is deeply interconnected. Migration, cyber threats, AI, environmental destruction, terrorism. One nation cannot face these issues alone. We need friends in all corners, and our safety depends on it. President Trump loves to say peace through strength. That's actually a line he stole from Ronald Reagan. But let me tell you, after the spectacle that just took place in the Oval Office last week, Reagan must be rolling in his grave. We all want an end to the war in Ukraine, but Reagan understood that true strength required America to combine our military and economic might with moral clarity.

And that scene in the Oval Office wasn't just a bad episode of reality tv. It summed up Trump's whole approach to the world. He believes in cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin and kicking our friends like the Canadians in the teeth. He sees American leadership as merely a series of real estate transactions. As a Cold War kid, I'm thankful it was Reagan and not Trump and all office in the 1980s, Trump would have lost us the Cold War. Donald Trump's actions suggest that in his heart, he doesn't believe we're an exceptional nation. He clearly doesn't think we should lead the world. Look, America is not perfect, but I stand with the majority of Americans who believe we are still exceptional, unparalleled. And I would rather have American leadership over Chinese or Russian leadership and any day of the week. Because for generations, America has offered something better. Our security and our prosperity. Yes. But our democracy, our very system of government has been the aspiration of the world. And right now, it's at risk. It's at risk when the President decides you can pick and choose what rules you want to follow. When he ignores court orders and the Constitution itself, or when elected leaders state stand by and just let it happen.

But it's also at risk when the President pits Americans against each other, when he demonizes those who are different and tells certain people they shouldn't be included. Because America is not just a patch of land between two oceans. We are more than that. Generations have fought and died to secure the fundamental rights that define us. Those rights and the fight for them make us who we we are. We're a nation of strivers, risk takers, innovators. And we are never satisfied. That is America's superpower. And look, I've lived and worked in many countries. I've seen democracies flicker out. I've seen what life is like when a government is rigged. You can't open a business without paying off a corrupt official. You can't criticize the guys in charge without getting a knock at the door in the middle of the night. So as much as we need to make our government more responsive to our lives today, don't for one moment fool yourself that democracy isn't precious and worth saving. But how do we actually do that? I know a lot of you have been asking that question. First, don't tune out. It's easy to be exhausted, but America needs you now more than ever.

If previous generations had not fought for this democracy, democracy, where would we be today? Second, hold your elected officials, including me, accountable. Watch how they're voting. Go to town halls and demand they take action. That's as American as apple pie. Third, organize. Pick just one issue you're passionate about and engage and doom scrolling doesn't count. Join a group that cares about your issue and act. And if you can't find one, start one. Some of the most important movements in our history have come from the bottle up. In closing, we all know that our country is going through something right now. We're not sure what the next day is going to hold, let alone the next decade. But this isn't the first time we've experienced significant and tumultuous change as a country. I'm a student of history and we've gone through periods of political instability before. And ultimately, we've chosen to keep changing this country for the better. But every single time, we've only gotten through those moments because of two engaged citizens and principled leaders. Engaged citizens who do a little bit more than they're used to doing to fight for the things that they care about, and principled leaders who are ready to receive the ball and do something about it.

So thank you you tonight for caring about your country just by watching you qualify as engaged citizens. And I promise that I and my fellow Democrats will do everything in our power to be the principal leaders that you deserve. Good night, everyone.

Sa.

President Donald Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress since starting his second term. I am Kristen Welker in Washington, where President Trump tonight touted what he described as the swift and unrelenting action of his first office, highlighting his administration's sweeping cuts to government, doubling down on his expansive view of executive authority, while vowing to keep pushing the limits of that authority. The speech was brash, boastful, at times intensely partisan focus focused on culture war issues, and at times ripe with hyperbole. It was also the longest presidential address to Congress ever. Democrats in the hall pushing back at times vocally, many holding signs of protest even after being urged by Democratic leader Jeffries to maintain a dignified presence. A number of Democrats left the chamber before the address was finished. The tone of the night was set early on when the president played up his November election victory, which was decisive in the Electoral College, but just one and a half points in the popular vote as a, quote, mandate.

We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country and one counties in our country. 2,700 to 525. Put a map that reads almost completely red for Republican.

Then in an unprecedented moment, Texas Democratic Congressman Al Green stood up shouting that the president has no mandate and refusing to sit down, he was escorted from the chamber by the sergeant at arms at the order of the House Speaker. Two other Democrats were also escorted from the chamber tonight. A major theme throughout the speech was President Trump attacking his predecessor and excoriating Democrats, placing the blame for America's current economic situation squarely on President Biden.

Under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month. We ended all of Biden's environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable. And importantly, we ended the last administration's instrument, insane electric vehicle mandate. We inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans. Joe Biden, especially, let the price of eggs, eggs get out of control. The egg price is out of control, and we're working hard to get it back down.

And of course, part of that is because of avian flu. President Trump also made a full throw to defense for his efforts to slash government contracts and payrolls and freezing foreign aid. Shouting out his close advisor and world's richest man, Elon Musk, President Trump read a long list of government programs he claims were cut by Doge, while also falsely claiming millions of people over the age of 100 are receiving Social Security benefits. The president also delivered a clear warning to federal workers that he would fire anyone who resists his new vision for government.

My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again. And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately.

And one of President Trump's biggest applause lines of the night, at least from Republicans in the chamber, was taking credit for the situation at the border.

Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history. And we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crosses ever recorded. Thank you. The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We, we must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.

Now, in response to the president's remarks, Democrats tapped newly elected Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin, who delivered remarks from a town in the Detroit area that Trump won in the presidential race, but she won in the Senate contest. Slotkin zeroed in on rising prices. She says. Ms. Mr. Trump is ignoring. Look, the president talked a big game on the economy, but it's always important to read the fine print. So do his plans actually help Americans get ahead? Not even close. President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends. He's on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America. And to do that, he's going to make you pay in every part of your life. We do have a lot to get to this hour, including conversations with California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds. We do want to start with our NBC News reporters in the field. NBC News chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles is just outside the House chamber where President Trump gave his remarks. And NBC News chief White House correspondent? Well, actually, no, we're going to go to NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez.

So, Gabe, let me start with you. What's the mood based on the sources you're talking to inside the White House about how the night went for President Trump? Hi there, Chris. And, well, we're expecting President Trump here arriving at the White House any moment. But White House officials are enthusiastic about the president's speech today. This is Trump 2.0, a president with a win at his back with a certain swagger that he didn't have during his first term. Now, as you mentioned, you laid down his long list of accomplishments that he touted, but he also made news on several, several fronts. As you mentioned, he blamed President Biden for a lot of the country's ills at this moment. And he really mocked Democrats. This was a very partisan speech in that respect. Now, Kristen, he also talked about tariffs and defense, ended these 25% tariffs that he has imposed on Canada and Mexico, even though his commerce secretary today suggested that they might be scaled back tomorrow. He for the first time said that there would be a little disturbance for Americans, essentially prepping them for some short term pain. But he feels long term this will be beneficial.

It took him a while to get to foreign policy, but at the end of his speech, he talked about Ukraine and and signaled that President Zelensky would be open to this minerals deal and seem to move in that direction, that the president and the Trump administration was ready to work on that minerals deal and by extension, a broader peace deal in Ukraine. Now, in terms of foreign policy as well, he talked about a very muscular foreign policy. At one point he brought up reclaiming the Panama Canal, acquiring Greenland. And he also talked about, and this was a headline, something that he brought up a lot during the campaign trail, the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the president saying that an ISIS terrorist that the US Says helped plan and was actually the mastermind behind planning the Aby Gate bombing that killed more than a dozen US Service members, was being extradited to the US after being detained by Pakistani officials based on CIA intelligence. So the president also touting his immigration policy. Illegal border crossings, he said, are record lows. Arrests and detentions by immigration authorities are at a record highs, he said, and have increased significantly since the Biden administration.

And he notably went to Congress and made a direct push for more funding for border security, something that his officials, including his borders are Tom Homan had been asking lawmakers for for the past several weeks. Some within the administration have been frustrated with the pace of deportations. But, Kristen, after speaking with White House officials here, they say that that outburst by Congressman Greene, that Democrats really miss the mark. They feel, they feel they are out of touch with the country and that the president, his policies, that he's been in office 43 days, he was able to tout those accomplishments successfully tonight. And they are thrilled by how the speech turned out. The longest such presidential address in history, as you mentioned, Kristen certainly was historic in that regard. Ryan Nobles, you were in the chamber tonight. You were in the room where it all happened. Take us inside. What was it like to be there? And let's start with that extraordinary moment where the speech was just underway for a few moments and Congressman Al Green interrupted, frankly, going against what Leader Jeffries had asked of his conference. Yeah. And Kristen, I do think it's important to point out that Congressman Green is somewhat of an outlier here.

He is someone who consistently has bucked leadership, desires to stay away from the issue of impeachment. He attempted to impeach President Trump in his first term several times, even before the rest of his Democratic colleagues were interested in going down that route. He said that he is prepared to file articles of impeachment this go around, even though his leadership team has tried to distance themselves there from that. This was not what Democratic leaders were hoping would be their response to the speech and the optics that surrounding it. And so this is going to be something that people are going to be talking about because it was an unprecedented moment by any measure, but it's not what the overall message that Democrats wanted to send today. And I do have to tell you, being inside the chamber, it was unbelievably stark. The difference between the way Republicans responded to this speech and the way that Democrats responded to this speech. Republicans uniformly across the board standing and applauding at almost every single thing that Donald Trump had to say where Democrats consistently were sitting on their hands, usually these speeches. It's not impossible for presidents, even in the most polarizing times, to find one or two, three, one, two or three issues where you can get everybody in the chamber to stand up and clap.

That was not the case tonight. Democrats made a concerted effort to not to, to not respond positively to almost everything that Donald Trump said that, including that moment where the young, now soon to be West Point student was surprised by the announcement that he was going to be admitted into the military academy. You saw some Democrats clap for that, but I counted only one Democrat that actually stood and applauded during that period of time. So this was Democrats demonstrating that they are in full on resistance mode when it comes to Donald Trump and his administration. And it also in many ways could reflect the mood of the country right now, a level of polarization where if you are a supporter of Donald Trump, you love him and you love almost every single thing he's doing, where if you are opposed to Donald Trump, you're opposed to him in almost every single thing that he is doing. And that was on display throughout the entire speech. The other thing that I thought was pretty notable that you could really only notice if you were inside the room was the way that periodically throughout the entire speech, Democrats were just getting up out of their seats and leaving, where by the end of this speech, there were as many as 40 vacant seats on the Democratic side of the aisle.

And then the second the speech was over, every Democrat just got out of that room as quickly as possible. So that may not resonate with the broader American public right now. Most Americans that watch this speech tonight only saw what Donald Trump was saying directly to the camera. They didn't see these kind of subtle protests by Democrats. And that more than anything, Kristen, demonstrates the position that Democrats find themselves in in this current political moment. They just do not have a lot of power to stop Donald Trump and his agenda, even to the point where it was difficult for them to get their protest message out in a way that could resonate with the American people on a night like tonight. Kristen. All right, Brian Nobles, Gabe Gutierrez, great analysis, great reporting. Thanks to both of you for being here. In just a moment, I'm going to speak to a couple of lawmakers, get their reaction. But first I want to bring in my incredible, fearless panel for staying up late with me. Joining me now on set is Ashley Etienne, former communications director to Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Speaker Pelosi Mark Short, former White House legislative affairs director during press, President Trump's first term and former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, NBC News chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell and Molly Ball, senior political correspondent at the Wall Street Journal.

Thanks to all of you for being here. Apologies in advance if I have to interrupt our conversation to go to Congressman Donalds. Andrea, kick us off here. What were your key takeaways in historic night, the longest joint address ever delivered? It was long. He, I think he had some moments, certainly the moments with Lake and Rowley's mother and sister and Mark Fogel, the hostage, the prisoner really, who has been, you know, brought back successfully from Russia. But that said, there were so many exaggerations I mean, the fact checkers were having a field day. And I mean, I think it was notable that he acknowledged Zelenskyy's letter, that Zelensky is now willing to sign the mineral deal. And what he didn't say is whether he is willing to restart the aid that he has cut off to Russia, which has inflamed Republicans as well as Democrats, principally Democrats speaking out, but even some Republicans, you know, saying that you just cannot stop sending weapons in the.

Middle of this war.

And he said that there are indications that Russia wants peace. There are no indications, not from the Tempo and the battlefield, nor from intelligence assessments, U.S. intelligence assessments, that Russia wants peace. They have had no indications that Putin wants peace. And so much skepticism about those comments that Russia wants peace. I'm going to bring the rest of you in, but I have to hit the pause button. We do have Republican Florida Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds. Congressman Donalds, thank you so much for staying up late with us and joining us to give us your reaction to the address. We really appreciate it.

It's good to be with you.

And look, it was a great speech, ended a little late. So I'm still here, still with you. Well, really appreciate that. Let me just get your reaction to what we heard tonight. I thought there were two notable moments, one on the economy where President Trump did acknowledge that there's going to be an adjustment period given the fact that he has now imposed these tariffs against Mexico, against Canada, against China. What did you make of that? And are you concerned, as a Republican who's running for governor, you're going to have to defend these policies? Did that give you any concern? No, I'm not really concerned at all. And here's why.

We have to stop the rush of.

Fentanyl into our country. That seriously matters to any American who's lost a loved one to fentanyl. It's the number one killer between the ages of 18 and 45 in our country. Number two, we do need the Mexican government and the Canadian government to help us in our mission to fully secure both of our borders. And so those talks have been going, have been ongoing. Obviously, they have not met the conditions that are satisfactory to President Trump, and he's taking the other corrective actions he thinks are necessary. I would argue the cost to our country from massive illegal immigration and massive trafficking of fentanyl has been disastrous for Americans. So if there's an adjustment period so we can get that under control, that is far better than what has been the status quo over the last four years. You know, it took him about 20 minutes to start talking about the economy. Heading into this speech, a majority of Americans said they actually want him to be more focused on lowering prices. He has signed a record number of executive orders in these past six weeks. But on that point about the economy, Congressman, what say you to anyone who would listen to this speech and say they wanted more of a focus on the economy, on what his actual, actual plan was to bring prices down, which has not happened yet.

Well, look, a couple of things. One, if you have a, if you have a hustling and growing economy, that helps you. That's why the Trump tax cuts being reauthorized. And then the things that he talked about on the campaign trail, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, Social Security, those help working families, they help seniors on fixed incomes. That's number one. Number two, energy dominance actually gives you the ability to stay stabilize prices because energy is a component cost of everything that the American people buy. So that stuff helps to control prices. Number three, and most importantly, if you're going to really get a hold of inflation, that also is on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress have to get spending under control. The flagrant spending the last four years was the catalyst to this massive inflation that's hurt every family in our country. So it's not just the president. Congress has a responsibility to cut spending. Working with the doge and getting other spending items under control will help to abate this inflation, which will stabilize prices for the American people. When you say the no tax on tips and frankly, slate of other taxes that President Trump campaigned on, those are not necessarily a part of the budget bill at this point in time.

Do you anticipate that they will make their way into the budget bill? And will they be, should they be offset?

They will be a part of the.

Overall budget reconciliation bill. And I will tell you, those new tax items, yes, we're going to have offsets for those. But the bulk of tax policy, which, by the way, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden did not change when they were in control. They kept that tax policy in place. It's been the best tax policies for the United States. We've brought in record revenue into the federal government, government under current tax policy. So when you reauthorize current law, it is the opinion of many on Capitol Hill, myself included, that keeping tax policy the same does not cost you money. Especially considering the fact that when the Tax Cut and Jobs act were originally passed, the federal government raised $2 trillion more in revenue than the Congressional Budget Office said that we would. Congressman worth noting that $8 trillion were added to the deficit after the first Trump administration because of his economic policy, including those tariffs, by the way, which were imposed. Let me ask you, though, I want to get your reaction to Congressman Al Green, that extraordinary moment. We looked through our files. We don't think that a member has ever been removed in the middle of a joint address or a State of the Union before.

What was your reaction as that was unfolding in real time? Well, two things. First, let me push back the $8 trillion in spending. The vast majority of that was responding to the pandemic of COVID 19. So if we're going to talk about.

Tax policy and deficits and debt, let's.

Be honest about why that spending occurred. It occurred because we were having to respond to Covid and the entire world's economy was shut down. And President Trump working with Congress, both parties injected stimulus to help the American people get through the pandemic. Now, now to Al Green. Look, Al Green didn't even let the president get through the first 10 minutes of his speech. Actually, he didn't let him get through the first two minutes of the speech. You cannot have constant disruptions. I didn't want to see Al Green.

Go, but the speaker of the House.

Made the call that you cannot have members interrupting our guest, the president of the United States. If it was Vladimir Zelensky, if it was Benjamin Netanyahu or any other world leader, the speaker of the House wouldn't tolerate that from any member. They shouldn't tolerate it from a president.

Of the United States, no matter the.

Party that they are from. Congressman Byron Donalds, thank you so much for staying late with us. We really appreciate your joining us, appreciate your perspective. Thank you. Okay, Mark Short, let me go to you get your reaction because I was struck by President Trump, I thought really leaning into more than I have heard him before, this idea that there's going to be an adjustment period because of these tariffs. What did you make of that? Well, look, first I thought he had a really strong night and I think that he loves the theatrics of this and I think he played well to the crowd and to the guests he had there. I do think that a lot of Americans elected him to secure the border and to address the economy. I think he has a lot of achievements on the border that he walked through. I think there's a lot of concerns on the economy. The reality is it appears we're actually going to have a contraction in the first quarter and I think that the tariff policy makes a lot of people uneasy. And we're really not even though it's used as an excuse to fentanyl to address Mexico and Canada, to the extent you believe that Canada is a real problem there.

He's announced 15 additional tariffs coming April 2nd. And so this is the part of Trump 2.0. He has economic advisers and national security advisors around him now who favor a significant protectionist policy, which is very different than the first Trump administration administration when tariffs were used often for negotiating purposes. And so this is going to be a big challenge for the administration. Ashley, pick up on that point. And what was your reaction to the overall night? And I do want to get your reaction to the Al Green moment as well. I mean, just to punctuate the point about Trump emphasizing that Americans will suffer through some more pain. He's actually consistently said that. And tonight I think what was most despicable is that he said it with a chuckle off almost with a laugh. And so what I thought about the speech tonight, it was sort of devoid of reality and truth in the situation that Americans are facing right now. Prices are going up from gasoline to housing to groceries. We've got a situation where the world is more dangerous. We still don't have peace in Gaza. We're handing over the keys to Putin and walking away from Ukraine.

We've got a situation where we're alienating allies. In addition to that, this uncertainty is tanking the markets consistently. And so for me, it felt like, you know, the president was in his own little bubble and again and not in touch with what's really happening. And to the degree that I think he sort of laughed at different points about what the American people are going through. And I thought it was despicable. All right, I'm going to hit the pause button one more time, guys. Mom, I'm going to get to you as soon as we go out to Democratic senator from California, California Adam Schiff, who is joining us to give us his reaction. Senator Schiff, thank you so much for staying up late with us. We really appreciate it. What was your reaction to the address tonight? Well, I think average Americans watching this speech found little reason to hope that anything the president was doing was going to improve their situation. You heard almost nothing about any efforts to bring down the cost of housing or the cost of food or the cost of anything else. In fact, I think you heard more about the Panama Canal and Greenland and the Gulf of America than anything he's doing to address the primary reason he gave voters for Voting for him.

And that was he was going to reduce the cost of living to the degree he did talk about it at all, it was to try to blame Joe Biden for his own failures. Meanwhile, the market is tanking thanks to this kind of needless trade war. I question the judgment of anyone who thought in the White House it was a good idea to start this trade war the night before he gave this speech. But nevertheless, a lot of distractions, a lot of the usual Trumpian falsehoods, a lot of the, you know, the usual lack of self awareness when he's talking about unelected bureaucrats.

We couldn't help, of course, but think.

Of the most unelected bureaucrat, that being Elon Musk in the gallery. So a long speech, much ado about nothing, that's going to help the American people. What about his argument though? He says, look, these countries are taking advantage of the United States. He says that these tariffs are necessary not just to deal with people who are coming across the border illegally, but also to deal with the flood of fentanyl. Now, of course, that's largely happening in China. China. We're not seeing that in Canada, for example, at all in the same levels. But does he have a point that the United States needs to get tougher in terms of its tariff policy in order to send a message? First of all, when he was talking about America as the victim of all these other countries, you know, really reminded me that he views the whole world through the prism of victimhood. This, you know, born into wealth guy considers himself the biggest victim. He considers America nothing but a victim. For a party that decries victimhood, I've never seen so much appeal to being victims. The United States is the most powerful country in the world.

We've incredibly been incredibly benefited by this international rules based order that we help to create. The alliance. Alliance with Naito has been incredibly beneficial to our own security. He is tearing all of that down. He's picking fights with our allies like Canada, like the Ukraine, and for what? What does it serve the United States? It doesn't. And I think you're already seeing them trying to find some face saving way to do an about face on these tariffs even today. So doing a lot of harm posing as the victim doesn't really make America great. It just makes America look weak. Senator, I have to get your reaction to the moment with Congressman Al Green. Minority Leader Jeffries was very clear that any protest should be done in the chamber in a respectful way. What did you make of him standing up and interrupting The President's speech for an extended period of time and then having to be ushered out of the chamber. Was that the right way to go about it? That's not the way I went about my statement tonight. My way I went about my statement was to sit, to be respectful in my silence.

I wasn't about to jump up and applaud the President United States when he's doing such a disservice to the American people. But I will let him and others speakers for the way they approached it. But from my point of view, I wanted to be respectful of the office of the President even when frankly have such little regard for the current occupant of that office. I want to get your reaction to Senator Slotkin's speech tonight. There's been a big battle or debate, I should say, within the Democratic Party. What should the message be moving forward? Do you think she found a good message for Democrats moving forward? You know, I have to confess I haven't had a chance to hear my colleague's message, but I have great confidence in her. I, you know, for my own part, I think really the central challenge facing the country is the one the president did not address tonight and that is that the economy is simply not working for millions of people. And it's not that they're out of work. Unemployment remains low. The problem is that are working and are still struggling to get by. The President has no answer for that except for a tax cut for super wealthy people.

But Democrats also need a positive and bold agenda to be offering to the American people. And that's where I would start. Senator Adam Schiff, thank you so much for your time tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Great to see you as always. Molly Ball, let me come out to you and let you respond to everything that you have just heard so far. What are your key takeaways from what we heard from the President tonight? There were some new things that he said. I did think, as Andrea noted, it was significant that he said he'd gotten this letter from President Zelensky. He talked about what he called significant conversations with the Russians. What were your big takeaways? I thought it was also striking that he saved that for the very end of the speech. You know, our European allies and lots of others involved in foreign policy have been waiting sort of with bated breath to hear how the president would address this ongoing blowup over Ukraine. And as Andrea noted, beyond acknowledging the letter, he didn't give a very good sense of where this is going. Although I think people will be relieved to hear that he does want the talks to continue.

You know, this is the, this is basically the best it's going to get for Donald Trump, right? This is the best case that he can make, that his policy, policies are working so far and the best is yet to come. And I think there's a lot of evidence that Americans are giving him the benefit of the doubt. People are willing to let this play out. People wanted change. Change is hard. Change is destabilizing. Change, you know, can cause turmoil. I think people are willing to give him time to see where this all lands and whether it actually works. The question is how long, how long is this adjustment period we're talking about, right? How long does the President expect people to sort of wait for the pieces to fall into place and everything to get better? Because it certainly does not feel like the case when you look at the backdrop of the stock market and everything else, like it's working already. Andrea, I think that's the seminal point in some ways. How long will people give him? Because so far I think his support, supporters, I think even some swing voters are saying, look, it's only been six weeks.

We can't make a final determination yet. And yet they do want to see real progress. This is a candidate Trump who promised to bring down prices on day one. Well, he's been, he's had a huge megaphone, he's been flooding the zone. He has been speaking more than any previous president has speaking, signing all of these executive orders. So there's a lot of action and people want to see the results of that action. The, you know, all the claims and the false claims and cherry picking the titles of programs that sound terrible but really aren't that actually have real benefit to people when they talk about, you know, waste and fraud and you know, it's a rounding error on the budget to even talk about foreign aid. He says he stopped all foreign aid. Well, Secretary Rubio says that he issued waivers for things that were life saving. In fact, the critics have said, and this is in front of the Supreme Court right now, that those waivers are not taking effect and that that food is sitting in warehouses and rotting while.

People are starving and that the medicines.

Are not getting them. So he, he said I've cut off all foreign aid. And he bragged about something that in fact his own administration says they've tried to intermediate because it was a mistake. Elon Musk says they've made mistakes and fixed all their mistakes. They haven't. And I think when people begin to realize the effect the Farmers who are affected by this, the autoworkers from the tariffs. We all know that cars go back and forth across the Canadian border. I mean, these are the things that are beginning to be felt. You're seeing it in some of the, some of the districts, the congressional district. Absolutely, yeah. The town halls, Mark Short and I mean, Andrea's talking about all of the action. The action now moves to Capitol Hill, where they are going. And you know better than anyone what it takes to try to get a piece of legislation passed. House Speaker Mike Johnson was very adamant. He wanted a big bill. President dubbed it a big, beautiful bill. It addresses the border, it addresses taxes. How challenging is the road ahead for that piece of legislation? I think people don't appreciate how hard it's going to be.

I think the general assumption is you have a Republican House, Senate, White House, and you're going to pass tax relief extension. People forget that 12 House Republicans voted against the bill in 2017. Mike Johnson's going to have a margin of one or two votes by the time this gets to the floor.

And you can't even.

Right now, you saw differences between the two chambers on what the budget's going to be, much less getting into the details of what's going to be in the tax reform. So this is going to be a really, really long year. I think there has been a lot of action activity from the executive branch, but there's been one bill signed, as far as I know, the Lake and Rally act. At this point. There have been many bills signed in the first six weeks of his first administration. And so I think that there has a lot of activity that is a direct contrast to the previous administration, which, again, I think Americans give him more leeway with. But the challenges on Capitol Hill are going to be significant. I think they are going to be. I think you're right. It's going to be a fascinating time to watch on Capitol Hill. And speaking of Capitol Hill, let's talk about the Democratic response from Senator Alyssa Slotkin. What did you make of her response and this ongoing debate in the Democratic Party about how to find their messaging, how to find their footing, quite frankly, in the second Trump administration.

Do you think she took a step towards doing that? I think she. She did. I mean, what we learned from the first Trump administration when I was running communications for Speaker Pelosi, is you're going to have to let the narrative build itself out. Right now. There's a focus on what is the message. The reality is you don't need a message. You need to tell the story tell the narrative of how people are getting hurt. And I think that's what the senator did incredibly well. She didn't just focus on domestic policy, she focused about international policy. She reminded the American people that we are an exceptional nation, and these are the things that make us exceptional. And we have to get back to those very fundamentals. So I thought she laid out an incredible case about how the president's actions are making us more vulnerable as a nation from all different angles. And that's what the Democratic Party is going to have to do. And the reality is, I think Donald Trump is setting a trap for himself, firing 2 million federal workers. You know, the tariffs are going to continue to squeeze people in their pocketbooks.

You signed 100 executive orders, and none of them have anything to do remotely with the economy. So eventually, people are going to start to feel the pressure, as he said, even more intensely. But the Democratic Party has to continue to broaden this narrative and remind people of holistically how the president's threatening their lives. They'll continue to feel it on the ground, and I think that's what's going to actually make the difference. Molly, in the midterm pick up there, because as we know, giving the response is probably the hardest job at night. Yes, exactly, exactly. She did it in a town that President Trump won and that she won. And she was, quite frankly, one of the bright spots for Democrats in the last election. Do you think this is a speech that we will be talking about beyond tonight, or do you think that it's a speech that kind of she delivers and then everyone moves on tomorrow? I don't think she wanted it to be a speech that people are going to be talking about for weeks beyond tonight. And I think to Ashley's point, that was a significant thing that Democrats learned from the first Trump administration administration was to focus on the policies and focus on the things that he does.

And, you know, don't try to out character Trump, don't try to out stunt Donald Trump. Right. Al Green in the chamber shaking his cane. That was not the image that Democrats wanted to project. And you could see from the sort of tableau on display with the little signs and people getting up and walking out, the sort of, the sort of disarray that the Democrats are in, that not having an approach, not having figured out how exactly they should be approaching this. And so I think, you know, Senator Slotkin kept it very simple, kept it authentic to who she is. Didn't try to have a fancy set or fancy props or try to really, you know, put across some kind of character. And so I think that to the extent that Democrats have learned how to take on Donald Trump, that is probably the most effective approach. Andrea, it's a great point that what we witnessed in the House was to some extent emblematic of the fact that Democrats are struggling to be unified in this moment. And I think that she, as a young, a young senator from Michigan, you know, from a district that Donald Trump won in the past and also someone with national security experience and from really a middle class background, I think that she was relatable and that that's all she had to accomplish.

This was not one of those opposition speeches that you remember because of the gulping or the water or any other misstep. The set. The set, remember? Yes, yes. St. Louis Square in New Orleans and things like that. This was playing the flags and she got through it. And she's a young rising politician. I think she's got a heck of a future. Yeah. Mark, what was your key take? Takeaway last point? I thought it was a really strong night for the president. I think he hit the messages he wanted. I thought Democrats looked silly waving their stupid signs and I thought Al Green looked like an angry old man waving a cane. And so I think the optics were really good for Donald Trump. I think the challenge for Donald Trump is that he has the ability to step on good news cycles and then to change bad news cycles. And so, you know, I don't know how long this will last, but I thought it was a really good night for him. All right, guys, thank you all so much for staying up. Ashley, Mark, Andrea and Molly, fantastic discussion. Thank you all for being here on this historic night.

That concludes our special coverage of President Trump's address to Congress. We'll have much more news and analysis all day tomorrow on NBC News now. And I'll see you at 4pm Eastern on the Press now. Have a good night. Tonight, a high stakes primetime address. The president's first major speech to Congress just 43 days into his administration. Our special coverage starts right now.