Democratic congressman Maxwell Frost from Florida has explained his decision to walk out of Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress.
Frost took off his suit jacket during the middle of Trump’s address to show that he was wearing a T-shirt that read “No Kings Live Here”. In a statement, Frost said:
Donald Trump is many things – a liar, a grifter, a wanna-be-dictator – but no matter how hard he tries and how many Republicans in Congress bend the knee and kiss the ring: he will never be king.
Tonight, the American people saw a desperate liar stand in front of a podium and spit out excuse after excuse as to why he hasn’t been able to make your life better. Why he can’t make eggs cheaper, why he can’t lower housing costs, why the stock market is tanking under his watch, why innocent immigrants and trans people are to blame. All lies.
The people of this country are seeing right through the lies. We won’t let up.
Trump says he “appreciated” the letter from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He says that “simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia”.
He says the US has received “strong signals” from Moscow that it is “ready for peace”.
“Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” he asks. “It’s time to end the senseless war.”
Trump calls Middle East a 'rough neighbourhood' and says he received Zelenskyy's letter
Trump says “a lot of things are happening” in the Middle East, and describes it as a “rough neighbourhood”.
He says he is 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 with no end in sight,” he says.
He says he received an “important” letter from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier today which said Kyiv is “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible”.
Zelenskyy has told him that his team stands ready to work “under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts”, Trump says.
Trump says Zelenskyy’s letter states that he “really do[es] 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,” Zelenskyy’s letter reads, Trump says.
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Fact-check: Trump wrongly claimed that one of his invited guests, January Littlejohn from Tallahassee, Florida, had discovered that her 13-year-old child’s middle school had secretly socially transitioned her from female to non-binary.
While Littlejohn made that case in a lawsuit, the suit was dismissed by a federal judge, and emails obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper showed that Littlejohn had written to the school in 2020 to notify a teacher that her child wanted to change pronouns.
The emails showed that Littlejohn worked with a teacher to determine how best to navigate the situation, and thanked the teacher for their help.
Trump says he is asking Congress to fund a “golden dome missile defense shield” to protect the US.
As we have reported, Trump’s Iron Dome for America initiative for a missile defense system protecting US skies from attack has been reportedly renamed the Golden Dome for America.
The name and concept of the Dome for America alludes to Israel’s Iron Dome, a defense system designed to counter against short-range rockets and missiles.
Trump says the US is 'going to get Greenland - one way or the other'
Trump says his administration will “reclaim” the Panama Canal.
He mentions secretary of state Marco Rubio, who he describes as a “great gentleman”. “ He’s respected by everybody,” Trump says.
Trump says he has a message for the people of Greenland. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future,” he says.
“If you choose we welcome you into the United States of America,” he says.
“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.”
Trump announces that he will create a new office of shipbuilding in the White House.
As we reported earlier, the Trump administration is planning actions to try and boost the US shipbuilding to counter China’s dominance of the industry.
Fact-check: Trump falsely claims that Elon Musk’s cost-cutting has “found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud”.
Since the start of its work, Musk’s “department of government efficiency” initiative has repeatedly claimed to have uncovered “fraud” only to have examples it cited turn out to be incorrect of invented. The most eye-catching example, that the government planned to spend $50 million to send condoms to Gaza, turned out to be completely fictional.
As the New York Times reported on Monday, the total amount that Musk’s “department of government efficiency” has claimed to have saved from cutting contracts “has steadily declined, from $16 billion at first to less than $9 billion now.”
Trump says he is “getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military”.
“We don’t want it,” he says. “Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. It’s gone.”
He says that he has signed an executive order banning public schools from “indoctrinating” children with “transgender ideology”.
Trump says he wants Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children. He has signed executive order threatening to withhold federal funding from hospitals that offer gender-affirming care to individuals under the age of 19.
Trump points to the secretary of health and human services Robert F Kennedy Jr, who is cheered on by Republicans.
“There’s nobody better than Bobby,” Trump says. He adds that “with the name Kennedy” he would have expected Democrats to be supportive of RFK.
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Several Democrats walk out during Trump's address
Several Democratic lawmakers have turned away from Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress and exited the House chamber.
House Democratic lawmakers who have walked out include Melanie Stansbury, Jasmine Crockett and Maxwell Frost.
Many of the Democrats who walked out were wearing pink. As we reported earlier, dozens of Democratic members of Congress are wearing pink tonight to call attention to the Trump’s administration “negatively impacting women and families.”
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Trump claims the US’s justice system has been “turned upside down” by “radical left lunatics”.
“As we reclaim our sovereignty, we must also bring back law and order to our cities and towns,” he says.
He says that his administration has acted to restore “fair, equal and impartial justice” starting at the FBI and department of justice.
Addressing the newly appointed FBI director Kash Patel, Trump says: “Good luck.”
Fact-check: Trump wrongly claims that he stopped “$45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma”.
There is no evidence that any such scholarships were planned, but, as the former representative Tom Malinowski pointed out, when this claim was first made by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, this appears to be a reference to a very different program, USAID’s Lincoln Scholarships, which helped educate young people struggling for freedom against Burma’s military dictatorship.
It is not clear why Trump or Musk wrongly thought that these were “diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships, but, as Malinowski noted, the USAID project description said the scholars were students “from diverse backgrounds”. That seems like an important policy, given that the military dictatorship in Burma has exploited ethnic and religious divisions to stay in power.
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Al Green says Trump's claim of mandate 'triggered something'
After being escorted out of the House chamber for shouting at Donald Trump, Representative Al Green, a Democrat of Texas, said the president’s claims of having a mandate had pushed him to act.
“It triggered something. It really did,” Green told NBC News.
Because he doesn’t have a mandate, and he doesn’t have a mandate to cut healthcare from poor people.
House Republicans’ budget blueprint, which narrowly passed the chamber last week, instructs the House energy and commerce committee to cut federal spending by $880bn.
Most of those cuts are expected to come from Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance to low-income families.
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Trump repeats his false claim that 21 million people have entered the US illegally over the past four years.
He says his administration has launched “the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history”.
He speaks about Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who was murdered in 2023 by Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela.
Trump blames Riley’s murder on the “heartless” policies of the Biden administration. He notes that Riley’s mother and sister are in the chamber this evening.
Trump imposes 25% tariff on aluminum, copper, lumber and steel
Trump says he has imposed a 25% tariff on foreign aluminium, copper, lumber and steel.
These tariffs aren’t just about protecting American jobs, he says. “They’re about protecting the soul of our country.”
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Trump says he will introduce a new trade policy that will be “great” for the American farmer. “I love the farmer,” he says.
He says “dirty and disgusting” goods are coming into the US from other countries that hurt American farmers.
Trump says the new tariffs will target agricultural products coming into America from 2 April.
He admits that there may be “a little bit of an adjustment period” but farmers will “have a field day”.
Trump defends trade wars and says US has been 'ripped off for decades'
Trump says the US has been “ripped off for decades” by “nearly every country on Earth”.
“We will not let that happen any longer,” he says. He claims that the tariffs will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs “like we have never seen before”.
He accuses Mexico and Canada of having allowed fentanyl to come into the US “at levels never seen before” and “killing thousands” of US citizens.
“We pay subsidies to Canada [and] into Mexico … We’re not going to do it any longer,” he says.
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Trump says that under his administration, you will have to pay a tariff if you don’t make your product in America.
In some cases, that tariff will be a “large” one, he says.
He says that other nations charge the US “tremendously higher” tariffs that the US charges them. “It’s very unfair,” he says.
“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them,” he says.
He says reciprocal tariffs will kick in on 2 April. “Whatever they tariff us, we will tariff them,” he says. “Whatever they tax us, we will tax them.”
“I wanted to make it April 1, but I didn’t want to be accused of April Fool’s Day,” he adds.
Trump says he will deliver the “great economy in history” and that Congress will pass tax cuts “for everybody”.
Pointing to Democrats, he says that he is sure that they will vote for those tax cuts “because otherwise I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office.”
Trump says he is calling for no tax on tips, on overtime or on Social Security benefits for seniors.
He says he wants to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America.
He says he spoke to the top three automakers today and that they are so excited”. “We’re going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen,” he says.
Fact-check: Trump wrongly suggests millions of Americans receiving Social Security payments are dead.
Donald Trump drew attention to the fact that a Social Security Administration database includes millions of people who would by over 110 years old.
As the Guardian has reported previously, when Elon Musk claimed that “a cursory examination of social security,” showed that “we’ve got people in there that are 150 years old”, this is a deeply misleading way of talking about about real flaw in the social security system which could enable fraud, but apparently does not: the fact that administrators do not have death records for everyone who once had a social security number and has passed away.
That flaw was revealed in a 2015 report by the independent inspector general for the social security administration who discovered that the agency did not have death records for millions of people who had passed away. As of 2015, the inspector general found, there were “approximately 6.5 million numberholders age 112 or older who did not have death information” on their files.
According to the report, social security payments were still being made to just 13 people who had reached the age of 112.
When the report was issued in 2015, the oldest person with a social security number and no death record on their file was born in 1869, but there was no record of payments still being made to that person, who would have been nearly 150.
In fact, the social security administration has in place a procedure to conduct interviews with anyone who reaches the age of 100, to verify that they are alive and their account is not being used by someone else to collect fraudulent payments.
That procedure mandates that, if a centenarian, fails to respond to two requests for an interview, a third, and final, letter is sent with the message: “We have tried to schedule an appointment with you twice. Each time we rescheduled, you were not available. It is very important that you keep this appointment. If you do not keep this appointment, we may suspend your benefits until we speak with you.”
Trump says his administration will “reclaim power” from an "unaccountable bureaucracy”. “We will restore true democracy to America again,” he says.
He warns that any bureaucrat who resists this will be removed from office immediately.
“We are draining the swamp,” he says. “The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.”
Trump says interest rates took a “big, beautiful” drop today.
He says that he will introduce the “gold card” visa system with a potential pathway to US citizenship for $5m.
“It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated,” he says.
He claims that the gold card will create “tremendous” numbers of jobs and “great success” for companies.
“We will now bring in brilliant, hard-working, job-creating people,” he says. “They’re going to pay a lot of money, and we’re going to reduce our debt with that money.”
Trump repeats a false claim that millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving social security payments.
“We’re going to find out where that money’s going,” he says.
Scenes so far from Trump’s address
Trump goes on to talk about the various programs that he says reveals the “appalling waste” by the federal government.
“All of these scams and they’re far worse, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about them,” he says. “They’re so bad.”
He says that many more have been “exposed” by a group of “very intelligent, mostly young people, headed by Elon [Musk].
He says that the “department of government efficiency” has found “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud”, which he says has been taken back to reduce debt to fight inflation.
Trump thanks Elon Musk for 'working very hard'
Trump says he will take “historic action” to “radically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths” here in the US.
He says he has created the “department of government efficiency”. “Perhaps you’ve heard of it,” he says.
He points out Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. “Thank you,” Trump says, adding that Musk has been “working very hard”.
“He didn’t need this,” Trump says of Musk. “Thank you very much. We appreciate it.”
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Fact-check: Trump claimed that “we inherited, from the last administration, an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare”.
While post-pandemic inflation was high worldwide during the previous administration, the United States had the strongest economic recovery in the world at the end of the Biden administration, with a booming stock market, a decrease in inflation and strong job creation. Since Trump took office, and imposed tariffs on trading partners, the stock market has dropped sharply and the government has fired tens of thousands of federal workers.
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Trump says his administration is working on a “gigantic” natural gas pipeline in Alaska.
He says Japan, South Korea and other nations want to be a partner “with investments of trillions of dollars each”.
“It will be truly spectacular. It’s all set to go,” he says.
Trump blames Biden for 'out of control' egg prices
Trump blames Joe Biden for having let the price of eggs “get out of control”. “We’re working hard to get it back down,” he says.
He says that a major focus of his administration is to “defeat inflation” by reducing the cost of energy.
“That’s why, on my first day in office, I declared a national energy emergency,” he says.
He says the US has more “liquid gold” under its feet than any other country on earth.
“I [have] fully authorized the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it. It’s called drill, baby drill,” he says.
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Al Green told Trump before leaving chamber: 'you don't have a mandate'
Representative Al Green, a Democrat of Texas, was escorted out of the House chamber after interrupting Donald Trump‘s address by saying, “You don’t have a mandate.”
Trump had been bragging about his electoral victory, framing it as a landslide, but the win was one of the closer results in US history.
Trump won the popular vote by 1.5 points, making it the smallest margin of victory for any successful presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1968.
In the electoral college, Trump secured 312 votes, easily clearing the threshold of 270 votes needed for a win, but his performance fell well shy of Barack Obama’s 332 electoral votes in 2012 and 365 electoral votes in 2008.
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Trump says that among his highest priorities are to “rescue” the US economy and get “dramatic and immediate” relief to working families.
He claims that he inherited from the Biden administration an “economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare”.
Trump says Joe Biden’s policies “drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans.”
“As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again,” he says.
Some Democrats are holding black signs that say ‘Save Medicaid’, ‘Protect veterans’ and ‘Musk steals’.
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Trump claims he has “removed the poison” of critical race theory from public schools.
He says he has signed an order making it the official policy of the US government that “there are only two genders: male and female”, and that he has signed an executive order designed to prevent transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
Trump points to Payton McNabb, who is attending tonight’s speech in the chamber, who he says suffered a “traumatic brain injury” as a result of a volleyball match by a transgender athelete.
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Trump says he signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America, renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.
He says he has “ended the tyranny of so-called Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies” across the entire federal government, private sector and US military.
“Our country will be woke no longer,” Trump says.
Trump says he has ended “weaponized” government, and cites an example where “a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent like me.”
“How did that work out? Not too good,” he says.
Trump says he has stopped “all government censorship” and “brought back free speech in America”. “It’s back,” he says.
Trump boasts about changes to federal workforce and withdrawal from global initiatives
Trump says he imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring since taking office as well as a freeze on all new federal regulations and on all foreign aid.
Trump boasts that he terminated the “ridiculous green new scam”, and that he withdrew the US from the “unfair” Paris Climate Accord, the “corrupt” World Health Organization and the “anti-American” UN human rights council.
He says he has ended Joe Biden’s environmental restrictions that he says were making the country “far less safe and totally unaffordable”.
“Importantly, we ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction,” he says.
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Fact-check: Trump incorrectly claims that “Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the RIGHT direction than the WRONG direction”.
In fact, Trump appears to be referring to a single poll three weeks ago from the Republican-leaning polling firm Rasmussen, which showed a 47%-46% edge for the right direction over the wrong direction. However, that same polling firm’s most recent survey, this week, shows that 45% of Americans now say the country is on the right track, and 50% say it is on the wrong track.
As the polling expert Nate Silver noted last year, when it was revealed that Rasmussen was secretly showing its results to the Trump campaign, “this sort of explicit coordination with a campaign, coupled with ambiguity about funding sources, means that we’re going to label Rasmussen as an intrinsically partisan (R) pollster going forward”.
Other polling firms, not associated with the Republican party, show that more Americans say that the country is on the wrong track now than on the right track.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, in late February, shows that 49% of Americans say that the country is headed off on the wrong track, and just 34% say that the country is headed in the right direction.
An Economist/YouGov poll last week found that 50% of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction, with just 38% saying it is on the right track.
The most recent Morning Consult poll, published on Sunday, shows that the current spread is 56% wrong to 44% right. In the final week of the first Trump administration in 2021, Morning Consult found that 81% of Americans said the country was on the wrong track, with just 19% saying it was on the right track.
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Trump says he declared a national emergency on the southern border and deployed the US military and border patrol to “repel the invasion of our country”.
He claims that under Joe Biden, who he says was “the worst president in American history”, there were “hundreds of thousands of illegal crossing a month”.
He says that looking at the Democratic lawmakers in front of him tonight, he realizes “there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud”.
“It’s very sad. You shouldn’t be this way,” Trump says to the Democrats.
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Trump continues his address after Democratic Texas congressman Al Green is removed from the House chamber.
Trump says he has signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive orders since taking office six weeks ago.
“Our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation,” he says.
He says that George Washington’s presidency was “number two” after his own, which makes it “even more impressive”.
Johnson orders Democratic congressman Al Green to be removed from chamber
Trump’s speech is being interrupted by lots of jeering and shouting from the floor of the House.
House speaker Mike Johnson says that members are engaging in “willful and concerted breach of decorum”.
Johnson directs the sergeant at arms to remove Democratic congressman Al Green from Texas from the chamber.
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Trump says he returns to the House 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,” he says.
He says the American dream is “unstoppable” and that the country is “on the verge of a comeback”.
Trump says that six weeks ago, he stood beneath the dome of the Capitol and proclaimed “the dawn of the golden age of America”.
Since then he has brought in “swift and unrelenting” action to usher in “the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country”, he says.
We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started.
Trump: 'America is back'
Donald Trump has begun his address to a joint session of Congress.
“America is back,” Trump says to the chamber. Republicans begin chanting “USA!” again.
Trump enters House chamber as Republicans chant 'USA!'
Donald Trump is shaking hands with lawmakers as he enters the chamber for his address to a joint session of Congress.
The president enters the chamber to applause from Republicans, who have started chanting “USA! USA!”
The Democrats, meanwhile, are practically motionless.
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Veterans affairs secretary Doug Collins has been selected to be the designated survivor for Donald Trump’s speech.
Collins will stay away from the US Capitol and remain in an undisclosed location under heavy protection for the duration of the speech.
The role of designated survivor is given to an individual selected by the president to lead the country in the unlikely event that several people in the line of succession are killed or otherwise unable to fulfill the duties of the presidency.
In excerpts released by the White House, Donald Trump is expected to tout his tariffs, saying that the US will “take in trillions of dollars”.
“Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them,” Trump is expected to say.
“If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market,” he will say.
First lady Melania Trump is greeted with applause as she enters the chamber.
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Here are some more images sent from the newswires from the House chamber ahead of Donald Trump’s speech.
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In excerpts released by the White House, Donald Trump is expected to blame the previous Biden administration on having inherited an “economic catastrophe” and an “inflation nightmare”.
Trump is expected to claim that Biden’s policies “drove up energy prices, pushed up the cost of groceries, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions of Americans.”
He is expected to point the blame at Joe Biden for having “let the price of eggs get out of control”.
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Elon Musk has been pictured entering the House chamber ahead of Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
Musk, wearing a suit with a dark blue tie, was seen grabbing a seat in the House chamber’s gallery.
He is seated alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, as well as members of Trump’s family.
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Trump to tease announcement on Ukraine minerals deal
Donald Trump, in remarks released by the White House, will pledge to take “historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths” in the US.
The president is expected to say that he is working “tirelessly” to end the “savage conflict in Ukraine”.
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Vice-president JD Vance has entered the House chamber ahead of Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
Vance was seen shaking hands with Republican colleagues, including House speaker Mike Johnson.
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The White House has released excerpts from Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress tonight.
In the remarks, Trump is expected to boast that his administration has “accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years or eight years”.
“American’s momentum is back. Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. Our confidence is back,” he is expected to say.
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.
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The hard-right House Freedom Caucus has warned it will attempt to censure any Democrat who tries to disrupt Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
A statement posted to X reads:
The President’s address to tonight’s joint session of Congress is a constitutional obligation — not a sideshow for Democrats to use noisemakers, make threats, throw things or otherwise disrupt.
Our colleagues are on notice that the heckler’s veto will not be tolerated. You will be censured.
We expect the Sergeant at Arms and Capitol Police to take appropriate action against any Members of Congress or other persons violating House rules.
Trump departs White House for address to Congress
Donald Trump has left the White House and is on his way to the Capitol for his address to a joint session of Congress.
His speech is scheduled to begin at 9pm ET.
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House speaker Mike Johnson, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick are among those who have been pictured arriving at the Capitol.
The Trump administration is preparing an executive order aimed at reviving US shipbuilding and cutting China’s dominance of the global maritime industry, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The order includes 18 measures ranging from raising revenue from fees on Chinese-built ships and cranes entering the US, to establishing a new office at the National Security Council to strengthen the domestic maritime sector, the outlet reports.
The measures also include raising wages for nuclear-shipyard workers and instructions to Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” to review government procurement processes, it says.
Dozens of Democrats wear pink to Trump's address
As you can see from the images in the previous post, dozens of Democratic members of Congress will be wearing pink to Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress tonight.
Teresa Leger Fernández, who chairs the Democratic Women’s Caucus, said wearing pink is meant to call attention to Trump’s administration “negatively impacting women and families.”
“Women are claiming pink as a color of protest, as a color of power, and we are protesting what is happening right now,” Leger Fernández said earlier on Tuesday.
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Members of Congress and Trump's cabinet arrive at the Capitol
Members of Congress and their guests have begun arriving at the Capitol ahead of Donald Trump’s address, which is scheduled to begin at 9pm ET.
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Trump to defend his trade war in address, top adviser says
Jason Miller, a top adviser to Donald Trump, said the president will defend his trade war to Americans when he speaks to a joint session of Congress tonight.
Miller told CNN in an interview earlier today:
I would say that he’s going to lean into it and he’s going to talk about how increasing tariffs can actually go and close the trade deficits … [in] January we saw a record trade deficit, particularly when it comes to countries such as Canada, Mexico, China. And how, if we don’t go and do this now, we’re going to be completely wiped out by certain industries here in the United States.
“Ultimately the costs on this are going to be carried by the producers and the foreign countries as opposed to Americans,” he added, repeating a common argument of the administration that economists are skeptical of.
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Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said a rare earths minerals deal with Ukraine was not on the table, despite reports that Donald Trump is preparing to announce the signing of the deal tonight.
Asked if the deal was still on the table, Bessent told CBS “not at present”.
Meanwhile, the UK’s ministry of defense said defense minister John Healey will meet his US counterpart, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, in Washington on Thursday to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine.
In an extraordinary turnaround, Ukraine and the US reportedly appear to be close to signing a critical minerals deal that the White House has indicated is a precursor to peace talks.
At a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening, Donald Trump is expected to propose plans to “restore peace around the world”. A White House official told Fox News he would “lay out his plans to end the war in Ukraine”, as well as plans to negotiate the release of hostages held in Gaza, the outlet reported.
Ukraine and the US were supposed to sign a minerals deal that would have resulted in the US investing in Ukraine’s underdeveloped minerals and mining sector, a deal that fell through after a disastrous meeting between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump has said the presence of US workers in Ukraine would be enough to deter Russian president Vladimir Putin from future acts of aggression, with no further security promises needed.
Kyiv was ready to sign the deal “in any time and in any convenient format”, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. “We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively,” he wrote.
Trump to announce US-Ukraine minerals deal in tonight's address - report
Donald Trump hopes to announce a minerals deal with Ukraine in his address to Congress tonight, according to Reuters.
Sources told the news agency that Trump has told his advisers he wants to announce the agreement in tonight’s address. They cautioned that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.
The signing of the deal fell through after a disastrous meeting between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the Oval Office on Friday.
During the meeting, Trump warned Zelenskyy was “gambling with world war three” and told the Ukrainian president to come back “when he is ready for peace”. Trump’s vice-president, JD Vance, accused Zelenskyy of being not “acting at all thankful” for American assistance.
On Monday, the Trump administration suspended delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine, blocking billions in crucial shipments. The decision affects deliveries of ammunition, vehicles and other equipment, including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president.
Zelenskyy, in an attempt to mend fences with Washington, said earlier on Tuesday that he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible”.
Donald Trump’s speech tonight at the front of the House chamber will look just like a State of the Union, but it will actually be a joint address to Congress.
Trump, like all presidents going back to Ronald Reagan, have given an address to Congress early in their term.
The US Constitution requires that the president “from time to time” updates Congress and recommends policies. It does not specify precisely when that address should take place.
Usually, presidents will deliver those remarks in January or February. The message used to be known as “the President’s Annual Message to Congress”, and Franklin D Roosevelt began referring to it in 1934 as the “Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union.”
Shortly after he was sworn in for his first term in 1981, Reagan addressed a joint session of Congress, remarks that were called “Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the Program for Economic Recovery”.
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Protesters demonstrate against Trump's agenda ahead of address
Protesters gathered at parks, statehouses and other public ground across the country on Tuesday to demonstrate against Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.
The rallies and marches were set in motion by the 50501 Movement, a volunteer-driven group organized in the weeks after Trump’s inauguration.
Here are some images from events scheduled throughout the day.
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One in three Americans approve of Donald Trump’s handling of the cost of living, a sign of unease as he enacts steep tariffs on imports that are stoking inflation worries, according to a new survey.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump’s approval ratings below 40% on a range of issues, including the economy, foreign policy and corruption. The notable exception was his 49% approval rating on immigration policy.
The poll showed that 31% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, a marginal three percentage point decline from 34% in a previous poll.
On Trump’s plan to condition Washington’s support for Kyiv on a US-Ukraine minerals deal, 46% of respondents supported conditioning US aid on minerals wealth, compared to 50% who opposed the idea.
Despite Trump appearing to blame Ukraine for starting the war, 70% of respondents - including three-quarters of Democrats and two-thirds of Republicans - agreed that Russia was more to blame than Ukraine for starting the war.
Some 59% of respondents said they supported the idea of downsizing the federal government, although only 40% of poll respondents said they backed firing tens of thousands of federal workers.
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Democrats to bring fired federal workers to Trump speech
Democrats have invited several workers who were fired in Donald Trump’s mass purge of the federal government to attend, in an attempt to embarrass Trump over the unbridled assault on the federal bureaucracy.
Fired federal workers will include Alissa Ellman, a disabled veteran recently dismissed from the Buffalo veterans affairs office, who will attend as Senate leader Chuck Schumer’s guest.
Michael Missal, the former inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs, was invited by Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal.
Jason King, a disabled veteran fired from the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety division, will be a guest of Senator Tim Kaine.
Andrew Lennox, a Marine veteran removed from a VA hospital administration role, was invited by Senator Elissa Slotkin.
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Elissa Slotkin, the newly-elected Michigan senator, will give the Democratic party’s rebuttal to Donald Trump’s address to Congress.
It’s a high-profile platform for the 48-year-old former CIA analyst, who won a competitive Senate seat in November.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Slotkin will “offer a bold vision of hope, unity, and a brighter future for everyone, not just the wealthy few at the top”.
In a social media post, Slotkin said she was “looking forward to speaking directly to the American people next week”.
The public expects leaders to level with them on what’s actually happening in our country. From our economic security to our national security, we’ve got to chart a way forward that actually improves people’s lives in the country we all love, and I’m looking forward to laying that out.
Several Democratic lawmakers to boycott Trump's speech
Several Democrats in both chambers of Congress are planning to boycott Donald Trump’s address tonight.
Senator Patty Murray from Washington, one of the most senior Democratic senators, will not attend Trump’s speech. Oregon senator Ron Wyden plans to instead host an online town hall.
Senator Martin Heinrich from New Mexico also said he would be boycotting Trump’s speech. “This White House, this president, is so radically out of bounds for what is normal that I felt it was important to make that point,” Heinrich said.
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she will also not be attending, as has two lawmakers representing Virginia, congressmen Gerry Connolly and Don Beyer.
Kweisi Mfume, a Democratic congressman from Maryland, said Donald Trump and Elon Musk are “destroying the state of the union.”
“I don’t need to be there to watch him claim otherwise,” Mfume said.
According to Axios, some Democratic lawmakers are considering walking out during specific moments of the speech, particularly during comments about transgender children, while others plan more subtle demonstrations – from wearing coordinated colors like pink or black to sitting stone-faced and refusing to applaud.
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Who is on Trump's guest list?
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, will preside over the joint session, alongside vice-president JD Vance, in his capacity as the president of the Senate.
The carefully curated guest list, assembled by the White House and congressional leaders, appears like a roadmap for a competing cultural vision, touching on everything from transgender athletes, immigration and the federal worker purge – each with a story to tell.
The first lady, Melania Trump, will host Allyson and Lauren Phillips, mother and sister of Laken Riley, a college student allegedly murdered by a Venezuelan migrant.
Alongside them will sit Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter was killed by undocumented immigrants last June.
Two guests will underscore the administration’s hard line on transgender issues: Payton McNabb, a high school volleyball player who claims to have sustained a concussion from a transgender athlete, and January Littlejohn, a parent who sued a school board over gender identity transitions.
Johnson has invited rightwing commentators Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh, alongside Riley Gaines, an activist who has campaigned against transgender participation in women’s sports.
The House oversight committee chairman James Comer and the judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan will host IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler.
But the biggest name coming out of Trump’s camp is so-called “department of government efficiency” leader Elon Musk, who has become more and more unpopular by the week. He will be in the House chamber as a living emblem of the administration’s most aggressive governance strategy that has the potential to cut hundreds of thousands of federal jobs across the country.
The theme of Donald Trump’s address to Congress will be the “renewal of the American dream”, the White House said.
House speaker Mike Johnson formally invited Trump to speak to Congress in January.
In his letter, Johnson invited the president to share his “America First vision for our legislative future”.
Stephen Miller, the White House’s deputy chief of staff, said:
It’s an opportunity for President Trump, as only he can, to lay out the last month of record-setting, record-breaking, unprecedented achievements and accomplishments.
How to watch Trump's address to Congress
Donald Trump’s address to Congress will begin at 9pm ET on Tuesday 4 March in Washington DC.
He will deliver remarks from the chamber of the House of Representatives.
Major news networks are likely to broadcast the address live. PBS will carry a live stream on its YouTube page.
Trump to lay out second-term vision in address to Congress
Donald Trump will deliver his first address to Congress since returning to the White House, where he is expected to lay out his second-term vision after a radical start that has dramatically reshaped both domestic and foreign policy.
Trump’s address, which will begin at 9pm ET from the chamber of the House of Representatives, marks his first major speech six weeks into a presidency that has seen the president empowering Elon Musk to dramatically downsize the federal workforce, threatening American’s allies with tariffs and coddling longtime American foes.
His administration has initiated sweeping mass layoffs of federal employees, mobilized officers from nearly every federal law enforcement agency and the US military to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations, and rattled Europe with his pursuit of a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine on terms preferential to Moscow.
Trump is also preparing to announce a minerals deal with Ukraine in his address this evening, according to a report, despite his advisers cautioning that a deal has yet to be signed and that the situation could be changed.
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