President Donald Trump drew peals of laughter and applause from Republicans at his joint address to Congress Tuesday as he repeated unfounded claims of Social Security fraud.
“We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby,” he said, giving a shoutout to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as he falsely claimed that millions of improbably old people are still receiving payments.
Speaking for around an hour and 40 minutes, Trump delivered an address full of bombast and personal attacks, calling Joe Biden the worst president ever and decrying “radical left lunatics.”
“We’ve been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer,” Trump said, in the same room where Dwight D. Eisenhower counseled that a just peace for the United States could be earned “only through the strengthening of the spiritual, intellectual, economic and defensive resources of the free world,” and where John F. Kennedy touted how much the U.S. spent on foreign aid, “for we seek not the worldwide victory of one nation or system but a worldwide victory of man.”
While Trump’s delivery, voice hoarse, was subdued compared to his speeches on the campaign trail, the crowd was anything but. Republican members leapt to their feet repeatedly to cheer Trump, while Democrats mostly sat, seething but not silent.
Fifteen years after Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shocked the Beltway establishment by shouting “you lie,” during President Barack Obama’s joint address, the old norms of bipartisan decorum were totally gone Tuesday, with members of both parties — and even some invited guests in the visitor galleries — yelling throughout.
Minutes into the address, Rep. Al Green stood and interrupted Trump, leading the GOP members to boo the Texas Democrat. “Sit your ass down,” someone barked as a chant of “USA” filled the room.
“You have no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green said, waving his cane. Speaker Mike Johnson ordered Green to sit, and when he refused, ordered the sergeant-at-arms to remove him. As Green was escorted out, some Republicans started a chant more commonly heard at sporting events: “Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye.”
As Trump entered the chamber, Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., held a sign reading “This is not normal,” which was quickly snatched from her hands by Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, and tossed in the air. Later, Stansbury led a small walkout as Trump pinned the blame for inflation on the Biden administration.
When Trump’s speech began to approach, and then exceed, the record length of 1 hour and 28 minutes for a president’s address to a joint session of Congress set by Bill Clinton in 2000, more Democrats made early exits from the chamber. As it ended, the rest streamed to the doors.
Through it all, Republicans (with at times the notable exception of Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska) applauded Trump with the same gusto they had in previous years, while Democrats held signs with messages like “Musk Steals,” “Save Medicaid” and “False.”
Trump called out the opposition early in his speech. “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,” he said.
“I could find a cure to the most devastating disease … and these people sitting right here will not clap, not stand, and certainly not cheer,” added Trump, whose administration has sought to make cuts in payments to universities, medical centers and researchers studying cancer and other health issues.
Democrats had debated how best to wrest some of the public’s notice from Trump, a man who commands attention more than any other. Many boycotted the event. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York opted to opine on it online instead, while Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon decided to hold a town hall on Facebook.
Some of the Democrats who did attend brought laid off federal employees as their guests, trying to put a human face to the wave of hacks Trump and his billionaire buddy, Elon Musk, have taken to the executive branch with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware brought Rory Badger, a two-tour Marine combat veteran who was fired “without notice and without cause” from a “dream job” at the Department of Agriculture, according to a press release.
Republicans rose to cheer DOGE, turning to applaud Musk, who was watching from the gallery, while some Democrats booed. Likewise, as Trump proclaimed that “the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over,” several Democrats rose and pointed to the box where Musk sat.
Ryan Tarinelli, Daniel Hillburn, Jessica Wehrman, Jessie Hellmann and Sandhya Raman contributed to this report.
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