President Trump arrives to address a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol.
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President Trump delivered an address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday that drew Republican applause and silence and protest from Democrats as he outlined key actions taken during his first six weeks in office.
In the speech — Trump’s first address to Congress in his second term — the president touted his 2024 election win before ticking through a laundry list of actions he’s taken since his inauguration, including ending foreign aid, banning trans athletes from participating in school sports and enacting sweeping cuts to the size of the federal government through the “DOGE” initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk.
President Trump arrives to address a joint session of Congress at the Capitol.
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First Lady Melania Trump (center) waves as she attends US President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol.
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Trump opened by telling lawmakers that “America is back,” and closed by saying that “the Golden Age of America has only just begun.”
Partisan divisions were on display as Republican lawmakers gave Trump frequent standing ovations, while Democrats sat stone-faced, held signs, and walked out of the chamber in protest. That mirrors divisions among the U.S. population, which is split on the direction Trump’s changes and controversial agenda are moving the country, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, left, shouts as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol.
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Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) listens as US President Donald Trump speaks during an address to a joint session of Congress.
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Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green was removed from the House chamber after heckling Trump early in the speech, standing and yelling that Trump did not have a mandate. Green first received a warning from House Speaker Mike Johnson, and when he did not stop he was escorted out by what appeared to be Sergeant at Arms staff.
Other lawmakers protested more quietly: Dozens of Democratic congresswomen wore pink to the speech as part of a coordinated response. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., who chairs the Democratic Women’s Caucus, told TIME Magazine that the “signal our protest of Trump’s policies which are negatively impacting women and families.”
“Pink is a color of power and protest,” Leger Fernández told TIME. “It’s time to rev up the opposition and come at Trump loud and clear.”
Democratic members of Congress listen as President Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol.
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Ben Curtis/AP
