Trump’s (very long) speech to Congress, explained in 500 words

In the first major speech to Congress of his second term, President Donald Trump made clear that he intends to barrel ahead with the MAGA agenda.

Unsurprisingly, he cast the past 43 days of disruption and controversy as filled with historic wins, the greatest of any president in history (George Washington was number two, he said). And while he offered few new details on what he planned going forward, it’s obvious we should expect more of the same.

For instance, Trump sounded enthusiastic about expanding his trade war, hyping a new round of “reciprocal tariffs” he says will go into effect April 2. These tariffs, he claims, are on countries that have their own tariffs on US goods — or that have value-added taxes. He mentioned the European Union, India, Brazil, and South Korea as tariff targets, in addition to China, Canada, and Mexico, which he’s already imposed tariffs on. There “may be a little bit of an adjustment period” for American agricultural exporters, Trump said.

Meanwhile, Trump claimed he was going to “balance the federal budget,” but also championed his plan for big new income and business tax cuts, including reiterating his campaign promises to make tips, overtime payments, and Social Security income tax-exempt. It’s hard to see how that math could add up. Trump also praised Elon Musk and rattled off more than a dozen absurd-sounding contracts that he claimed Musk’s team had canceled. On the topic of rising egg prices, Trump blamed President Joe Biden and said his team was “working hard” to lower them but did not offer any specifics.

One big question mark for the speech was how Trump would handle Ukraine after Friday’s Oval Office blow-up and the administration’s subsequent pause on aid to the country. On Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a social media post that seemed to give in to several of Trump’s demands while calling Friday’s disastrous meeting “regrettable.”

In his speech, Trump said, “I appreciate that he sent that letter,” and added that Russia had sent “strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” However, he did not give any further details on what he hoped a peace arrangement would look like.

Trump bragged that his administration had ended “wokeness” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” not only in the federal government but also in the private sector. In addition to his typical denunciation of unauthorized immigrants who committed crimes, Trump attacked trans athletes — one of his invited guests had been injured when, in Trump’s words, “her girls’ volleyball match was invaded by a man.”

“Wokeness is trouble, wokeness is bad, it’s gone,” he said. “And we feel so much better for it, don’t we?”

During the speech, Democrats tried to show protest in various ways. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) disrupted the speech at the beginning and was escorted out of the chamber by the House sergeant at arms. Others held up small signs with phrases like “Save Medicaid” or “Musk steals” written on it, or chose to walk out themselves. But ultimately, Trump’s speech wasn’t meaningfully disrupted.