Congress
7 things to watch for during Trump’s joint address to Congress
President Donald Trump shocked the nation eight years ago when his first joint address to Congress was, well, presidential.
There was none of what the president now likes to call his “weaves” — digressions from his prepared remarks and other tangents. There was no bashing of the media, no name-calling of his opponents. But Trump is not the man he was in 2017. Emboldened by his sweeping victory, and still seething over the persecution he believes he suffered when he was out of office, the president has more leeway this time around. What that will mean for his address to Congress on Tuesday is anybody’s guess at this point.
“TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
The theme of Trump’s speech will be the “renewal of the American Dream,” and it will include sections on the economy, border security and foreign policy, Fox News reported ahead of the address. An outside political adviser to the president, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Blue Light News the president plans a heavy emphasis on immigration, with the invited guests expected to feature people whose family members were victims of crimes committed by undocumented migrants.
It is also widely expected that the slashing of the federal bureaucracy will come up in the president’s speech, as the so-called Department of Government Efficiency cuts have dominated his first month in office. And the president is expected to mention the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, with someone who was at the rally anticipated to attend, the adviser said.
But if he goes off script? All bets are off, and anyone could find themselves in the president’s crosshairs.
“He’s not a sweeping orator. He tends to be a tactical orator off the prompter, and that’s what I would anticipate,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist who has been a vocal Trump defender on BLN and who was at one point considered for Trump’s press secretary post.
Here’s a look at what to watch for during the Tuesday night address, which begins at 9 p.m. ET.
1. How does Trump address people’s frustrations with high prices?
Trump wasn’t thrilled with talking about high prices on the campaign trail. He famously complained to his supporters at an Inauguration Day rally, “How many times can you say an apple has doubled in cost?”
That attitude has been borne out through his first month-plus in office, with the president spending more time talking about Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle the federal government and renaming the Gulf of America than he has about inflation. That focus on DOGE has made his allies increasingly uneasy.
Polling shows inflation and high prices remain the top issue Americans are concerned about, and many of them don’t think this administration is doing enough to address them. A recent Reuters-Ipsos poll found that 52 percent of respondents don’t think Trump is doing enough to help the economy and bring down prices, and the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index plummeted to a 15-month low in February.
“Economy and illegal immigration. Those were, I believe, the two things that propelled Donald Trump to the White House for a second time, and he has to address both issues with the same verve,” said Barrett Marson, a GOP strategist in Arizona. “Ignore the voter discontent on the economy at your own peril.”
Expect the president to tout the U.S. manufacturing investments companies have made since he took office in January. That includes chip maker TSMC’s Monday announcement that it plans to invest $100 billion in U.S. chip plants, building on the $500 billion investment from Apple and the $27 billion investment from pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly announced last week. It’s a move that would echo the approach he took during his first address to Congress in 2017, when he touted investments from Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Softbank, Lockheed Martin, Intel, Walmart and others.
The president’s allies argue that it’s been only a month, and that no one expected the economy to change overnight. And they say he is addressing the economy with tariffs aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and executive orders targeting domestic fossil fuel production, along with cuts to federal spending they argue will yield an economic benefit down the road by improving the country’s fiscal health and boosting the private sector.
But it’s unclear whether all of that will be enough to satisfy Americans who are still feeling the pinch of inflation on their wallets. And new tariffs, some of which took effect Tuesday, could make inflation even worse.
“Blanket tariffs make it more expensive to do business in America, driving up costs for consumers across the board,” former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell argued in a recent op-ed. “Broad-based tariffs could have long-term consequences right in our backyard.”
2. How much time does Trump spend talking about DOGE? And how does he frame Musk’s role?
Trump’s first month in office has been dominated by DOGE’s efforts to upend the federal bureaucracy, cut federal workers and unilaterally slash federal spending. Some of the president’s allies, however, fear DOGE is sucking up too much of the president’s time and attention and believe he should instead focus on passing an extension of his 2017 tax cuts, avoiding a government shutdown and addressing Americans’ concerns about inflation.
Keep an eye out for how much time the president spends talking about DOGE, as well as how he frames Musk’s role in it (a point that has been muddied over the last several weeks by the administration’s messaging both publicly and in court). Last week, administration officials confirmed that Amy Gleason, not Musk, is the administrator of DOGE, while Musk serves as a special adviser to the president.
Musk himself is set to attend the speech, a White House official, granted anonymity to share details of speech planning, said. (Whether he will wear what has become his uniform as of late — a “Dark MAGA” hat and a black “tech support” t-shirt — is unclear.)
3. How does Trump talk about the administration’s progress on mass deportations?
Immigration is one of the president’s favorite topics. During his inaugural address, he promised his administration would begin the work of deporting “millions and millions” of immigrants with criminal records. But immigration has taken an unusually low-profile role in the early weeks of his administration as officials have seen lower-than-hoped-for numbers of deportations — and Trump himself has been reportedly unhappy with the administration’s progress.
The administration has yet to release official, comprehensive deportation numbers. But a recent Reuters report, referencing unpublished DHS data, found that the U.S. deported 37,660 people during Trump’s first month in office. That’s down from a monthly average of 57,000 during the last year of the Biden administration, though administration officials have disputed the latter set of numbers as “artificially high” because of higher levels of illegal immigration.
But expect immigration to once again be in the spotlight on Tuesday night, the outside Trump adviser said. A recent Harvard-Harris poll found that immigration remains one of Americans’ top issues only behind inflation, with 81 percent of respondents supporting the deportation of immigrants who are in the country illegally and have committed crimes, including 70 percent of Democrats.
Trump is likely to focus on a second set of immigration metrics his administration considers more positive: plummeting border crossings. Trump announced on Truth Social over the weekend that 8,326 people were apprehended at the border in February, the lowest number in at least 25 years — and a fraction of the 29,000 people who were apprehended in January and the 47,000 detained in December. (It’s worth noting border crossings had already dropped significantly under Biden’s efforts to clamp down on asylum.)
Fox News reported the president will use the speech to push Congress to pass more border security funding to support deportations and border wall construction.
4. About that mineral deal with Ukraine …
The televised blowup between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday shocked much of the world and dashed hopes for a rare earth mineral deal that could have paved the way for a ceasefire. Trump, who in the run-up to the meeting had taken to social media to call Zelenskyy a “dictator,” accused the Ukrainian president of being ungrateful for U.S. support in the war and argued that he had “no cards” to play and was in “no position to make requests.”
Trump told reporters Monday afternoon that he would address whether that deal can be revived during the Tuesday night speech, saying that it would be “great” for the U.S. He’s also likely to address other hot-button foreign policy topics including the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and a new trade war with Canada and Mexico, after 25 percent tariffs on the countries took effect Tuesday.
Watch to see also how he talks about the leaders of U.S. adversaries, like China President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and those of its allies, like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron — and which ones he name-checks.
Other topics likely to come up: the Gulf of America, buying (or otherwise negotiating a deal with) Greenland for national security and critical mineral purposes, retaking the Panama Canal and — depending on how punchy the president is feeling toward the country’s neighbor to the north — making Canada the 51st state.
5. What’s his message to Congress?
Trump has made clear his desire to extend his 2017 tax cuts and boost border funding. But he’s largely left the details of how to do so up to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune. He only dipped his toe into the reconciliation waters last week when the resolution Trump has referred to as “one big, beautiful bill” appeared to be heading for defeat in the House, making calls that persuaded some holdouts to switch their votes at the last minute.
He’s now expected to use the address to push for increased border funding, though it’s unclear whether he plans to also use the speech to press for his tax cuts and urge Congress to avoid a government shutdown later this month.
“I do think there’s an opportunity here for him to stand in front of the Republican majority and say, ‘Okay, you know, this doesn’t have to be hard. I don’t want to have to do this the hard way. I want to do this the easy way. So let’s do that,’” Jennings said. “It wouldn’t bother me if he told the Republicans in that room, ‘Look, my agenda is your agenda. That’s what people voted for. So I need you to join me here, and we’re going to do something amazing together.’”
6. What doesn’t Trump talk about?
Eight years ago, during his first address to Congress, Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare. It turned out to be an ill-fated effort that consumed much of the president’s first year in office before it died a sputtering death. Now, such a proposal isn’t even remotely on the table, though cuts to state Medicaid programs are.
Another topic not expected to come up: abortion. This was Trump’s Achilles’ heel on the campaign trail, and while appointing the Supreme Court justices key to overturning Roe v. Wade is one of the most notable accomplishments from the president’s first term in office, it is not something he wants to spend a lot of, if any, time talking about during his second. (He didn’t even talk about it during that first address in 2017.)
Also, the Bible. It seems unlikely that Trump will reference Scripture as he did during his first joint address, in which he paraphrased John 15:13: “There is no greater act of love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” His second administration has overall taken a more secular turn from his first, trading faith for “common sense” in its new culture war.
7. How do the Democrats respond?
Democrats are looking to use Trump’s speech to highlight the impacts of his second-term policies.
Democratic lawmakers were all encouraged to bring guests who were affected either by DOGE or the House GOP’s budget. They’ve rolled out guests like union leaders, laid-off government workers, people who could be affected by cuts to Medicaid and people affected by the federal funding freeze. Internal party messaging guidance directed lawmakers to unite around a message that said “Trump and Republicans in Congress stand with Elon Musk and billionaire donors.”
It’s part of a less pugilistic stance towards Trump’s speech that will be just as much about his administration and Musk as it could be about the president.
Democrats aren’t expecting a mass boycott like in previous years, nor are major organized protests gaining traction. Some in the party said that they wanted to be present for the speech to show that Trump still faced opposition from inside the chamber.
Still, the Democratic Women’s Caucus is expected to wear pink in protest (in past years, they wore white to honor the suffragettes). And House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a “Dear Colleague” letter Monday evening, announced several pre- and post-speech events, including a gathering of House Democrats on the Capitol steps on Wednesday morning “for an event featuring the voices of the American people.”
Jake Traylor and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
Senate Republicans are hopeful they will be able to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general by the end of the week. But he’s not in the clear yet, as several undecided GOP senators continue to mull it over.
Blanche’s prospects were nonetheless much improved Monday — less than 24 hours after some GOP senators were predicting he was unlikely to get confirmed as a war of words escalated between President Donald Trump and holdout Republicans.
But then Blanche cut a deal with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) late Sunday night to clarify a controversial settlement between Trump and the IRS, giving Blanche the votes he needed to get through the Judiciary Committee Tuesday.
He still needs to get through the full Senate, where he can only lose two Republican votes given likely unified opposition from Senate Democrats and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence.
Several GOP senators who raised alarms last week about Trump’s public threats to rekindle the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” Cornyn and Tillis worked to kill declined to say Monday how they’d vote on Blanche.But in a positive sign for the acting attorney general, several are looking to Tillis and Cornyn, who are now supporting him, as a lodestar for their own deliberations ahead of likely floor votes later this week.
“I think certainly the fact that he has signed this order, basically disbanding [the fund] — that’s a pretty good step,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), before adding that she would “like to find out a little bit more about the negotiations.”
Murkowski said she plans to speak with Tillis and Cornyn.
“I’m curious about what went on over the weekend,” she said.
Blanche has made efforts to ingratiate himself with Murkowski. In July, he trekked to Alaska, in part at Murkowski’s urging, to better understand public safety and tribal jurisdiction matters. He recently announced a nine-figure settlement benefiting Alaska natives’ health care that Murkowski was pleased with.
“I just appreciated the fact that he went to the state,” Murkowski said. “He was only there for two days, but I had asked him in my initial meeting to go up to the state.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who like Cornyn lost his primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed challenger, declined to discuss Blanche Monday. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) added that she also wanted to talk to Tillis and Cornyn and read the agreement they struck with Blanche.
“Until I do that, I am not going to make a judgement,” Collins said.
Another Republican who hasn’t yet committed to supporting Blanche is Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah). He met with Blanche last week but hasn’t yet weighed in since Sunday night’s agreement. He had indicated before Sunday’s deal that he would be closely tracking Tillis and Cornyn during Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee meeting.
Getting Blanche’s nomination on a trajectory to pass the Senate this week would relieve some of the pressure on Senate Republicans, who are juggling a long to-do list and a shrinking runway to get it done. Trump, amid last week’s standoff, demanded that Senate Republicans confirm Blanche, including warning during a Cabinet meeting that they “will never get anybody like him.”
Tillis told reporters Monday that “the back-and-forth over the weekend was not helpful” but that the talks “ended up at an acceptable place.”
If Blanche gets out of the Judiciary Committee Tuesday as expected, the soonest the Senate could confirm him as attorney general is Saturday unless Democrats unanimously agree to help speed up a final vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that he’s hopeful the Senate will be able to confirm Blanche but didn’t give an ironclad guarantee as the remaining undecided members review the agreement and talk to Tillis and Cornyn.
“I’d like to figure out a way, a path forward to get him done,” Thune said.
Democrats are likely to use Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee meeting, and the days leading up to a full Senate vote, to hammer Republicans over the deal Cornyn and Tillis struck. Many predicted Monday that Trump wouldn’t stick by the agreement that limits the scope of the IRS settlement and nullifies the $1.8 billion payout fund.
“There are so many loopholes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the president went ahead with the program,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) warned the remaining undecided Republicans about the deal: “I don’t think that that commitment is worth what it’s written on.”
While Democrats can drag Blanche’s confirmation into the weekend, they aren’t able to prevent him from being confirmed if at least 50 GOP senators support him. But they are determined to use the debate to hit at one of their central midterm campaign messages — corruption — with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling Blanche the “architect of Trump’s grifts.”
Tillis suggested Monday he still has questions about who in Trump’s orbit played a role in the roller coaster negotiations over the past week. While the retiring senator is prepared to support Blanche, he said that he’s “not done analyzing the anatomy of this deal and who played a role in there.”
“I’m not going to speak for other members, but I think that it’ll be a solid vote,” he added about Blanche’s chances of being confirmed.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who appeared skeptical during a Sunday morning talk show interview that Blanche would get through the Senate, did a 180 Monday when asked whether he would get confirmed: “Yes, I do.”
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
Multiple Senate Republicans joined Sen. Bernie Moreno in calling for Rep. Max Miller to step down from office Monday amid domestic abuse allegations from the Ohio senator’s daughter.
Bernie Moreno — father of Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno — said in a statement Sunday that Miller should not serve in the House soon after the House Republican did a livestream video attempting to defend himself from abuse accusations.
Many of Bernie Moreno’s GOP colleagues were quick to back him following the statement.
“I don’t know [Miller]. I haven’t read a whole lot about him, but if [Moreno] thinks he ought to resign, I’m supportive of that,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said in an interview.
Miller has denied the allegations, which include pouring hot water on his ex-wife and holding a gun to her head. He has also denied accusations from his ex-wife that he broke his daughter’s collarbone.
Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas condemned Miller, adding, “He should resign. He should quit.”
“I don’t know Mr. Miller’s story, but I trust Bernie so much as a good friend, and his family has such high values,” Marshall said in an interview. “I couldn’t imagine them wanting this out in public. So to go through with this, it makes me think that they’re telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
The surge of support from Bernie Moreno’s Senate colleagues marks the first significant crack in a wall of GOP silence regarding the allegations against Miller. The skepticism from Miller’s own party will almost certainly weigh down the congressman’s already floundering campaign as he battles Democratic candidate Brian Poindexter to keep his Cleveland-area House seat.
Miller has until Wednesday to withdraw from the ballot and allow a crash primary to select a replacement.
Some Republican lawmakers stopped short of calling on Miller to withdraw or resign while expressing grave concern about the allegations.
“The accusations are very serious, and if there is truth to them, I am one who says that our elected officials need to be held to high standards,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said. “And certainly, when it comes to allegations of domestic abuse, child abuse, that’s not what we want in our lawmakers.”
A spokesperson for Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In response to Moreno’s statement, Miller said on Sunday, “If my daughter said the same thing to me, I personally wouldn’t wait two years before holding him accountable.”
“You know this isn’t true and the only reason you are speaking out now is to hide from your own media circus,” he added in the post on X.
Notably still silent was GOP Sen. Jon Husted, Ohio’s other senator, who while leaving the Capitol Monday did not respond to reporters’ questions about whether Miller should resign.
Other Republicans in the Ohio House delegation are also staying quiet for now. Almost every House Republican from the state either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment on Moreno’s statement.
The exception was Rep. Jim Jordan, who brushed off questions in a Thursday CNN interview about Miller but noted he was “a good man” and was recently campaigning for him.
Asked Monday if Miller should still serve in Congress following Bernie Moreno’s statement, spokesperson for Jordan Stefanie Farrell said, “As Mr. Jordan has said, it’s up to the voters of Ohio’s 7th District.”
Back in the Senate, other Republicans who were unaware of the situation declined to weigh in on the incident.
“I am not aware of the situation, so I don’t have a comment right now,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who has been a leading GOP voice on domestic violence issues within the military.
But a steady drip of Republican senators said Monday evening they trusted Bernie Moreno.“It would surprise me if Bernie were being untruthful,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said. “I guess I was surprised that it bubbled up to the public sphere, but I suspect that Bernie has got a beat on the situation.”
Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia said he was unaware of the details of the allegations but that “Bernie’s a pretty level-headed guy.”
“I don’t know enough about the allegations, but like Bernie said, it sounds like he thinks he needs psychological help,” Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said, adding, “I trust Bernie.”
Chris Marquette contributed to this report.
Senate Budget Committee Republicans will meet Tuesday morning to talk about advancing a fiscal blueprint for a new party-line spending bill.
Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) declined to say , in an interview Monday if he plans to introduce a resolution this week, noting that he was “working with leadership” and that the “first priority” is to pass a stopgap spending bill. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a panel member, said he didn’t expect the Senate to take up a budget resolution this week because “I don’t think my leadership wants to do it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t ruled out taking up a budget resolution but has been frank about the challenges it faces among GOP senators.
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