President Donald Trump said the U.S. will implement reciprocal tariffs beginning April 2, saying other countries charge tariffs that are up to four times higher than what the U.S. will charge.

“On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada, have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them,” Trump said while addressing members of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. “It’s very unfair. China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them, and South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that: Four times higher.”

He continued, saying under the Trump administration, foreign countries will pay a tariff.

Trump said whatever other countries tax the U.S, the U.S. will tax them.

“We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on earth, and we will not let that happen any longer,” Trump added.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told Fox News Digital that he didn’t think “much” of President Donald Trump‘s address to a joint session of Congress.

“What did you think of Trump’s speech?” Fox New Digital’s Julia Johnson asked Sanders on his way out of the chamber.

“Not much. My speech is going to be better. I’m going to give it in a few minutes,” Sanders replied.

Earlier today, Sanders announced he would deliver a speech in response to Trump’s.

“Late tonight, I will deliver a response to President Trump’s Congressional Address. NO to Oligarchy. NO to Authoritarianism. YES to Democracy and an economy that works for all. I hope you’ll join us,” he said.

Several Democrats have begun walking out of President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress.

“Democrats now walking out in droves. Huffman, Omar, Jayapal, Raskin, Lofgren all just walked out,” bestselling author Jake Sherman observed on X during Trump’s speech.

Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., also walked out of the speech, arguing that Trump “doesn’t need a special night to lie to the American public.”

“In just half an hour, he spewed ignorance on everything from diversity, immigration and trans kids to DOGE cuts and the cost of eggs. I heard enough, so I left. His words do nothing to help the people in my district—there’s real work to be done,” McIver said in a release.

President Donald Trump revealed on Tuesday that the top terrorist behind the Abbey Gate attack in Afghanistan during the U.S.’ withdrawal from the nation has been apprehended.

“Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice,” Trump said.

13 U.S. service members who were killed during the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021.

The terrorist’s name is Muhammed Sharifullah.

Democratic lawmakers remained seated for the announcement of his capture.

Fox News’ Peter Doocy contributed to this update.

President Donald Trump
shared an emotional moment with lawmakers Tuesday after he used his remarks to ask his new U.S. Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to appoint as an honorary officer a 13-year-old with brain cancer.

“Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police,” Trump said.

Trump then paused his speech to introduce  “D.J.” Daniel, a 13-year-old with a lifelong dream of joining the police force.

Daniels, he said, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018 and given just five months to live, Trump noted. That was more than six years ago. 

“Since that time, DJ and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true, and D.J. has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer, actually, a number of times. The police love him,” Trump said.

“Tonight, D.J., we’re doing you the biggest honor of them all,” he added.

“I am asking our new Secret Service Director. Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States,” Trump said, smiling broadly.

The news was met with a standing ovation from the audience, and deafening chants of “D.J., D.J., D.J.”

Some Democrats apparently did not join in the applause, though it was not immediately clear which lawmakers did not participate.

Still, their inaction sparked the attention of some viewers on social media, including former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

“If the Ds can’t clap for a beautiful 13-year old boy who wants to become a cop, there’s something really wrong with them,” he wrote in a post on X.

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi notably tore up President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech in 2020 – his last before leaving office in his first term.

In a stunning scene, Pelosi tore up Trump’s 2020 address
shortly after the president had wrapped up his speech as she stood behind him.

When asked about the moment by Fox News afterward, Pelosi said she had destroyed the speech “because it was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives.”

Ahead of Trump’s first joint address of his second term, Pelosi once again gave her two cents, lending some advice to Democrats:  “Let him stew in his own juice.”

“Any demonstration of disagreement, whether it’s visual or whatever, just let him stew in his own juice,” Pelosi told the Washington Post in a Thursday interview. “Don’t be any grist for the mill to say this was inappropriate.”

The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Founder of the parents’ advocacy group that tracks gender-ideology in schools across the nation, Parents Defending Education, Nicki Neily, posted to X on Tuesday blasting the “Congressional Democrat women wearing pink” who were protesting “President Trump and his ‘anti-woman’ policies,” during the president’s joint congressional speech.

Neily said the lawmakers “are the same women who voted unanimously to keep boys in girls’ sports yesterday.”

On Monday, every Senate Democrat
opposed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which seeks to bar biological males from competing in women’s and girls’ sports. In a procedural vote, Republicans fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, securing only 51. Independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont sided with Democrats on the vote.

President Donald Trump announced a new executive order during his speech Tuesday, renaming a Texas wildlife refuge in honor of Jocelyn Nungaray.

“Across Galveston Bay from where Jocelyn lived in Houston, you will find a magnificent refuge, a pristine peaceful 34,000 acre for all of God’s creatures on the edge of the Gulf of America. Alexis, moments ago I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter Jocelyn,” Trump said as he showed the signed executive order as he addressed the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray.

Trump then touted his administration’s decision to designate some of the most dangerous drug cartels, including notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, whose members were allegedly involved in the slaying of Nungaray, as foreign terrorist organizations.

“They are now officially in the same category as ISIS, and it’s not good for them,” Trump said.

Reactions poured in as Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was removed from the House chamber for protesting in the middle of President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night. 

However, Green and other Democrats
protesting were drowned out with chants of “USA” at the start of the president’s remarks. 

On social media, several conservatives slammed Green and the Democrats, saying their behavior was “out of control.”

“The Democrats are out of control. They are embarrassing themselves. Heckling the President, especially in a forum like this, is not how they will win,” former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer posted on X.

“Al Green is a disgrace,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., tweeted. “[Trump] won the election. #47.”

He was far from the only one making a statement on Tuesday night, as many of the Democratic women in the chamber wore pink in uniform, and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., briefly held up a sign behind the president stating “This is not normal.” The sign was quickly taken away by Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas. 

Democratic Texas Rep. Al Green was escorted out of President Donald Trump’
s joint address to Congress for causing a disruption minutes into the speech.

The Democratic congressman announced that he would file articles of impeachment against Trump after the president said he would “take over the Gaza Strip” during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January.

Green attempted to impeach Trump three times during the president’s first term for firing FBI Director James Comey and for “racist” comments.

Green has represented Texas’ ninth congressional district in Houston since 2005. He is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, where he serves on subcommittees for Diversity and Inclusion, Housing and Community Development.

The congressman is a self-described “veteran civil rights advocate” and has served as president of the Houston Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for almost 10 years.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brushed off politically-charged disruptions during President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night.

In an X post, Leavitt highlighted her previous comment to Fox News Digital about Democrats “behaving like children [being] the least surprising news of the night.”

“Told you!” Leavitt’s post read.

Democratic lawmakers disrupted the address several times, including Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who was removed from the chamber after standing up as Trump began to speak.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., held up a sign reading “This is not normal,” as Trump greeted people nearby before he took the podium.

Conservative influencers on X began calling for Congress to “expel” Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, after he disrupted President Donald Trump’s speech and was removed from the House chamber.

“There should be a vote first thing tomorrow morning to expel Al Green from Congress,” conservative comedian Tim Young posted to X.

The Republican National Committee’s chief elections attorney, Mike Davis, also posted to X saying, “The House must vote to expel Al Green.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., went viral Tuesday evening for her use of a whiteboard to protest President Donald Trump’s
remarks in real time— an approach that allowed her to interject at times while also avoiding being escorted by the chamber.

Tlaib, an outspoken foe of the president, stayed quiet during Trump’s speech. But she could be seen at times holding up a whiteboard to silently protest the president’s remarks.

The whiteboard included handwritten phrases from Rep. Tlaib such as, “Start by paying your taxes,” which she held up during Trump’s vows to cut taxes on U.S. production and manufacturing.

A screen-grab of the whiteboard quickly went viral on social media.

Trump’s speech saw other protests from Democrats, including several who walked out at various points during the speech.

Texas Democrat Rep. Al Green told reporters after he was escorted out of the House Chamber on Tuesday that he was removed after he yelled at President Donald Trump over Medicaid.

Concern has mounted that Trump would make cuts to Medicaid and Green wasted no time in yelling at him while standing and interrupting the president at the beginning of his address.

Speaker of the House
Mike Johnson told Green to adhere to House decorum rules.

Green continued to yell, at which point he was escorted out of the House Chamber.

Green told reporters that Trump “has no mandate” to cut Medicaid and other programs, that Trump listed off Tuesday night. 

President Donald Trump told lawmakers that any federal workers who refuse to show up to work will be terminated.

“Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work,” Trump said Tuesday during his joint address to Congress. “My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again.”

He added that “any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately,” citing that his administration is “draining the swamp.”

“It’s very simple, and the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over,” he said.

President Donald Trump
said that Americans over 150 years old are receiving Social Security checks, joking with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert R. Kennedy Jr. that the country may be healthier than he expected. 

“Over 130,000 people according to the social security databases are aged over 160 years old,” Trump said Tuesday before a joint address to Congress in a speech similar to the State of the Union. “We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby.”

But Lee Dudek, the acting Social Security Administration commissioner, said in February that those listed in the Social Security system over the age of 100 are not “necessarily” receiving such benefits. 

“The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record,” Dudek said in a statement. “These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.”

President Donald Trump used his speech to Congress Tuesday to highlight the priority his administration is placing on lowering egg prices for U.S. consumers— even as he sought to blame the problem primarily on his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

“Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families,” Trump told lawmakers, he said, before zeroing in more specifically on the cost of eggs.

EGG PRICES HIT RECORD HIGH

Egg prices “are out of control, and we’re working hard to get [them] back down,” Trump said, adding that in his view, “Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control.”

The remarks come as the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a $1 billion plan to combat bird flu, one of the primary drivers in higher egg prices. 

U.S. egg prices rose to a record-high this year, with the average costs for a Dozen grade-A eggs soaring to $4.95 in January, a 53% jump from the same month last year.

The uptick in prices accounted for roughly two-thirds of the total jump in U.S. food costs in January, according to government data.

The primary reason for the jump has been the bird flu outbreak, which has prompted the slaughtering of some 160 million birds overall since the outbreak began.

President Donald Trump spoke about the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is headed by billionaire Elon Musk, who Trump said, “didn’t need this.”

“Thank you, Elon,” Trump said to the SpaceX CEO. “He’s working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it, I believe. They just don’t want to admit that.”

Trump then touted some of the waste that Musk and his team were able to expose, including $45 million put toward diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma, $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants, and $8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in Africa.

Trump also said DOGE exposed $20 million for the Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East, $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda, and more programs that the U.S. is funding.

President Donald Trump laid out his perceived accomplishments in the first six  weeks since he took up the top job, which includes his push to eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the  government.

“We believe that  whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender,” Trump said in his address to Congress. 

Trump said the “poison” of Critical Race Theory had been removed from public schools “and I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

WHAT IS CRITICAL RACE THEORY?

Trump acknowledged Payton McNabb
, who he said was an All-Star high school volleyball athlete, but who’s athletic career was reportedly cut short after she was injured by a transwoman player after the match had been “invaded by a man.”

“He smashed the ball so hard in Payton’s face, causing traumatic brain injury,” Trump added.  

Trump received immense opposition from Democrats in the room.

President Donald Trump slammed “government censorship” and touted his geographical renamings as part of his administration’s successes so far, including reverting the name of North Alaska’s Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, back to Mount McKinley.

“Denali” is a native Alaskan term that means “the high one” or “the great one.”

“And I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It’s back. And two days ago I signed an order making English the official language of The United States of America,” Trump said. I renamed the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. And likewise. I renamed, for a great president — William McKinley — Mount McKinley again.”

Trump vowed after being sworn in in January that he would “restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.”

In 2015, former President Barack Obama renamed the Alaskan mountain Denali to honor the traditions of Alaska Natives, as the federal government moved to rename places deemed disrespectful to native peoples.

President Donald Trump kicked off his address before a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening. 

“To my fellow citizens, America is back,” Trump declared after thanking the members of Congress and first lady Melania Trump. 

“Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden Age of America,” he said. “From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started.” 

The audience was heard chanting “USA, USA, USA” amid the president’s opening remarks. 

Trump arrived to the podium shortly after 9:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Tuesday, where he was greeted by cheers from conservative lawmakers, while Democrats overwhelmingly remained seated. 

The speech marks Trump’s first before Congress since his return to the Oval Office in January. The address, though similar to the State of the Union, does not carry the same official title as Trump has not been in office for the past year.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., will deliver the Democrat Party’s official response to President Donald Trump‘s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. 

While Trump won battleground Michigan, Slotkin managed to win the U.S. Senate seat for Democrats in 2024, defeating her Republican contender Mike Rogers by less than a percentage point. 

The freshman senator served several terms as a member of the House of Representatives before deciding to run to replace former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

She has a background in national security, having served three tours in Iraq as a CIA analyst alongside the U.S. military. Slotkin held positions at the Pentagon and the White House under two different presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. She was nominated by President Obama to serve at the Pentagon as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

Slotkin received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s degree from Columbia University.

“BIG: I’m announcing @SenatorSlotkin will deliver our Democratic response to Trump’s Joint Address. Nothing short of a rising star in our party – she’s dedicated her life to our country. She will layout the fight to tackle the deep challenges we face and chart a path forward,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced on X. 

“I’m 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,” Slotkin said last week.

Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

The White House released a video ahead of President Donald Trump’s speech in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, with many of his guests thanking him for his accomplishments.

“President Trump’s address guests share a heartfelt message with him ahead of his speech,” the White House wrote in a post on X.

The guests included D.J. Daniel, a 13-year-old with terminal brain cancer who thanked Trump, saying, “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today.”

January Littlejohn, a Mother and Parents’ Rights advocate, thanked Trump for taking steps to protect vulnerable children like her daughter.

“On behalf of all parents, I want to thank you for giving us hope,” Littlejohn said.

The video also featured Leon Topalian, the CEO of Nucor Steel.

“Thank you for putting America first and doing the things that you promised to continue to ensure the manufacturing vibrancy of the steel industry,” he said.

President 
Donald Trump kicked off his address before a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening.

“To my fellow citizens, America is back,” Trump declared after thanking the members of Congress and first lady Melania Trump. 

“Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden Age of America,” he said. “From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action
to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started.” 

The audience was heard chanting “USA, USA, USA” amid the president’s opening remarks. 

The speech marks Trump’s first before Congress since his return to the Oval Office in January. The address, though similar to the State of the Union, does not carry the same official title as Trump has not been in office for the past year. 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had Rep. Al Green of Texas removed from President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday after he refused to stop shouting or sit down.

“Our members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House, and to cease any further disruptions – that’s your warning. Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum, and the chair is prepared to direct the Sergeant at Arms to restore order to The joint session,” Johnson said.

“Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir,” he added.

Green was removed and escorted from the speech by Sergeant at Arms.

Trump had only just begun his speech when shouting broke out.

“To my fellow citizens, America is back,” Trump declared after thanking the members of Congress and first lady Melania Trump. 

“Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden Age of America,” he said. “From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started.” 

The audience was heard chanting “USA, USA, USA” amid the president’s opening remarks. 

After several Democrats started booing President Donald Trump during the start of his joint Congressional speech at the U.S. Capitol, Republican lawmakers responded by chanting “USA.”

“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,” Trump said before the flurry of reactions from lawmakers. “It’s never been anything like it. The presidential election of November 5th was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades.”

“We won all seven swing states, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes. We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country,” Trump said, before Democrat lawmakers booed and Republicans countered it with “USA” chanting.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., silently protested President Donald Trump as he walked to the podium ahead of his address on Tuesday night.

Stansbury, the top Democrat on House DOGE subcommittee
, held up a sign reading “This is not normal,” as Trump greeted people nearby.

Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, appeared to grab the paper from Stansbury and threw it. He stood across the aisle from her, along with fellow Republicans.

Fox News’ Aubrie Spady contributed to this update.

Music legend Kid Rock talks politics on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” arguing that Democrats
shouldn’t stage anything dramatic during President Donald Trump’s speech.

“Shut up, sit there and learn something,” the rock legend said of Democrats. “How’d that work when Nancy did her tore up her little thing? Ilhan Omar is going to walk out? I mean come on, just collect your things from your office, put a basket on your head and walk back to where you came from.”

The music star also argued that Democrats should use the night to have respect for the office of the president, though he doubted they would be able to do so.

“They’re obviously still butt sore because their message was so horrible… for the last four years,” he said.

Kid Rock also expressed admiration for Trump’s cabinet selections.

“Just to hear common sense… I have never been more excited about the group of people that are surrounding the president, that he’s put into office. I have been fortunate to know a lot of them personally,” he said. “It feels like America, we’re celebrating America, all the things that are great about our country.”

President Donald Trump will use his speech to the joint session of Congress Tuesday night to highlight his administration’s early wins on immigration and economic issues for millions of Americans— playing up what he will describe as the “dawn of the Golden Age of America.”

Trump will highlight his administration’s immigration policies, which have sent illegal border crossings plummeting to a record-low, according to an excerpt of his remarks shared with Fox News Digital.

He will also tout early early victories on lowering prices and recovering from what he will describe as the worst inflation in more than four decades.

“Over the past 6 weeks, I have signed nearly 100 Executive Orders and taken more than 400 executive actions to restore COMMON SENSE, safety, optimism, and wealth all across our wonderful land,” Trump will say.

“The people elected me to do the job, and I am doing it. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation.”

“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.”

Trump took the stage shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday night, to cheers of “USA, USA!” from attendees in the audience.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins will be the designated survivor President Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress on Tuesday night.

Collins will be in a location away from the Capitol in the unlikely event that a major tragedy would impact the entire presidential line of succession, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Although Tuesday’s address is not technically a State of the Union, the entirety of Trump’s cabinet is expected to be in attendance. Each party in both chambers of Congress also choose their own designated survivors to preserve continuity of government.

The secretary took office last month, and he previously served as a congressman representing Georgia. During his short time in office, he’s been as advocate for making cuts supported by the Department of Government Efficiency.

President Donald Trump
 is expected to showcase the avalanche of activity during his first six weeks in the White House when he heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to deliver a primetime address to Congress and the nation.

“Best Opening Month of any President in history,” Trump wrote in a social media post last week, as he touted his accomplishments – many of them controversial – since his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Trump, on the eve of his first major speech to Congress during his second presidential administration, vowed that “TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!”

However, the latest polls indicate Americans are divided on the job he’s done so far in the White House.

Trump stands at 45% approval and 49% disapproval in one of the latest polls, a Marist College for PBS News and NPR. Additionally, a CNN survey, also conducted last week, put the president’s approval rating at 48%, with 52% disapproving. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings were slightly above water in other new polls, including one for CBS News that was also in the field in recent days and released over the weekend.

Read more from
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called out Democratic lawmakers who are planning to wear pink in protest of President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday, just one day after Senate Democrats voted unanimously against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.

“When you see Democrats wearing pink for the TV cameras tonight, remember that 45 of them voted for men to invade women’s sports just yesterday,” Lee said in a post on X. “It’s all an act.”

The bill failed to clear the key procedural hurdle by a vote of 51-45
, along party lines. All Democratic senators voted against the motion to proceed, with the exceptions of Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Peter Welch, D-V.t., who were absent.

So the bill was filibustered and is presumed dead, unless it is re-introduced at a later date. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., told Time on Tuesday that dozens of her Democrat colleagues will show up to Capitol Hill to wear pink for Trump’s speech to “signal our protest of Trump’s policies which are negatively impacting women and families.”

“Pink is a color of power and protest,” Fernández told the outlet. “It’s time to rev up the opposition and come at Trump loud and clear.”

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News’ Jackson Thompson.

President Donald Trump vows to “TELL IT LIKE IT IS” during his primetime address Tuesday to a joint session of Congress.

“TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG,” the president touted in a social media post on the eve of his first major speech to Congress during his second presidential administration.

Trump is expected to use the address — which Fox News was first to report will be themed, “The Renewal of the American Dream” — to showcase his avalanche of activity during his first six weeks in the White House.

“Best Opening Month of any President in history,” Trump wrote in a social media post last week, as he touted his accomplishments — some of them controversial — since his Jan. 20 inauguration.

However, the latest polls indicate Americans are divided on the job he has done so far.

Trump stands at 45% approval and 49% disapproval in one of those polls, according to a Marist College poll for PBS News and NPR. Additionally, a CNN survey, also conducted last week, put the president’s approval rating at 48%, with 52% disapproving. 

However, Trump’s approval ratings were above water in other new polls, including one for CBS News that was also in the field in recent days and released over the weekend.

Read more from Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser here.

Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said Tuesday night he was taking Ross Ulbricht, founder of darknet illegal drug market Silk Road, as his plus one to President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.

“Thank you President Trump for freeing Ross Ulbricht. He’s my guest at the State of the Union,” he said  in a post on X. “I was honored to give him a debt badge at dinner tonight!”

In January, Trump pardoned Ulbricht after he was arrested in 2013 for his role in developing an illegal online marketplace that connected people selling drugs, money laundering and other illegal acts.  

He was sentenced to life without parole, but some felt he had been given an overly harsh sentence.

Trump pledged from the campaign trail to have Ulbricht released, arguing he was unfairly convicted.

Ulbricht took to X to thank the president and said he looked forward to “re-engaging with the free world” in the near future. 

President Donald Trump, six weeks into his second tour of duty in the White House, vows to “TELL IT LIKE IT IS!” when he heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to deliver a primetime address to Congress and the nation.

The president will tout his domestic and international accomplishments, spotlight what the Trump administration has done for the economy, make a renewed push for Congress to pass additional border security funding and detail his plans for peace around the globe, according to details from the White House that were shared first with Fox News.

A former presidential speechwriter calls Trump’s first major speech to Congress during his second presidential administration “a big deal” and “a great platform… for a president.”

“It’s a dramatic setting,” Bill McGurn, a former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, said of the speech, which is on equal footing with a State of the Union address in terms of importance.

McGurn said the first address to Congress by a president following their inauguration is “a great opportunity to broadcast their message far and wide.”

“He’s going to make his case,” McGurn predicted.

Read more from Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Andrew Murray here.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are in the motorcade to the United States Capitol ahead of his address to a Joint Session of Congress around 8:30 p.m.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Communications Director Steven Cheung and Elon Musk were also seen in the motorcade.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could become a topic in the president’s address on Tuesday night, as it has made waves for cuts across the federal government.

President
Donald Trump‘s first joint address to Congress in his second term will not be called a “State of the Union” address.

Traditionally, a State of the Union address is meant to look back on the previous year and, despite this being Trump’s second term, he has only been in office for a little over a month.

As such, newly inaugurated presidents seek to use their congressional addresses to set the tone for their next four years in office.

Fox News Digital learned Monday
that Trump’s first address theme would be the “Renewal of the American Dream.”

“President Trump has accomplished more in one month than any president in four years, and the renewal of the American Dream is well underway,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “In his joint address to Congress, President Trump will celebrate his extraordinarily successful first month in office while outlining his bold, ambitious and commonsense vision for the future.” 

The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

The General Services Administration said Tuesday that it will begin selling off hundreds of federal buildings, including the D.C.-based headquarters of the U.S. Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Labor— describing the iconic buildings as “functionally obsolete” and unfit for core government operations. 

The GSA said in a statement that its Public Buildings Service had identified a list of more than 400 federally owned properties that it has deemed “non-core assets” — or assets not integral to daily government functioning— that it has targeted for sale or divestment. 

The list of buildings is primarily federal office space, GSA said, and totals nearly 80 million in combined square feet.

In a statement, GSA described the effort as one to rid taxpayers of the burdensome cost of building maintenance and upkeep, which they said was the result of “decades of funding deficiencies.”

Among the buildings targeted for sale or “disposal,” per the website’s language, are some of the nation’s most recognizable federal buildings and agency headquarters, whose hallowed halls have witnessed decades of U.S. history. 

In addition to the Justice Department, FBI, and Labor Department headquarters, the list of properties targeted for sale in the D.C.area includes the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, which houses the HHS, and the G.H. Fallon Federal Building, which houses the GSA itself.

Should GSA move forward with its plans to sell all buildings it deems non-essential, it will shed the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia metro area, known colloquially as the DMV, of a combined 152 federal buildings.

It is unclear where the thousands of federal employees who work in those buildings would be housed, and the announcement comes as the Trump administration and DOGE have pressured federal agencies to end their telework programs for nearly all government employees, requiring most to return to the office full-time.

Others buildings listed for possible sale or divestiture are San Francisco-based office building named after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Atlanta-based Sam Nunn federal center, which houses some 5,000 federal government employees, and many more.

It is unclear what, if any, time frame the GSA is targeting for the shedding of hundreds of federal buildings— or what options it is considering as alternative workspaces for government personnel. 

Reporting by Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch.

As is customary, the vice president, JD Vance, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will join President Donald Trump at the annual address and sit behind him on the dais. 

All lawmakers in the House and Senate are typically invited, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Supreme Court Justices and former members of Congress, according to the Congressional Research Service. 

Most Cabinet members are also invited. However, the Constitution requires that one Cabinet member, dubbed “the designated survivor,” remain absent from the address in order “to maintain the line of succession in case of an emergency,” according to the U.S. Senate. 

In 2024, former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, did not attend the address. 

Since President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, presidents have invited special and distinguished guests to join for the annual address, who are known as “Lenny Skutniks” after Reagan’s inaugural guest, according to the Congressional Research Service.  

In 1982, Reagan invited Lenny Skutnik, a government employee who rescued a woman involved in that year’s Air Florida Flight 90 crash, which took place after the aircraft took off from Washington National Airport and crashed into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., over the Potomac River.

While Democrat leadership urges lawmakers to defy President Donald Trump by bringing guests to his joint address to Congress who have been negatively affected by his policies, some Democrats are opting to skip the address entirely.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a vocal DOGE critic, announced on Sunday that he would not attend. Instead, he said he will host a virtual town hall for Oregon residents.

“For folks asking if I’m going to attend Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday: no,” said Wyden. “Instead, I’m choosing to hear directly from Oregonians.”

According to Axios, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-CT, is also leaning against attending the address, telling the outlet: “When Trump does it, it’s not a serious event.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., signaled she is undecided, saying in a Bluesky post: “If you were in Congress, what would you do for the State of the Union? What do you think Dems should do?”

Fox News host Jesse Watters says Democrats are playing a losing game by pre-planning antics for President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.

“If the Democrats want to do something, they need to either get along with Donald Trump or they need to come up with a better idea—that’s what politicians do,” Watters said in an Instagram reel ahead of Trump’s speech to Congress.

Lawmakers and attendees of President Donald Trump’s upcoming joint address to Congress on Tuesday will be seated throughout the chamber of the House in the U.S. Capitol building.

It is a long-held tradition for senators and members of the House of Representatives to sit with their respective political parties during formal addresses delivered in the Capitol. From the president’s perspective facing the room, Republicans sit on the left side, while Democrats traditionally appear on the right side of the House floor. 

Senators are usually placed in the first rows closest to the podium, seated near the Supreme Court justices that attend, while Congress members sit first come, first served in the rows behind.

Trump will stand at the dais at the front of the room, with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., seated behind him.

There will also be invited guests in attendance, seated in the gallery surrounding the room.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he hopes Democratic lawmakers do not try to disrupt President Donald Trump’s speech tonight, as he expects the American people to be at home applauding the president’s accomplishments.

Johnson was a guest on FOX Business on Tuesday, where he spoke to host Larry Kudlow in the hours before Trump was expected to address Congress in the U.S. Capitol.

“This joint address to Congress, Larry, is historic,” the house speaker said. “I mean, normally you would have a State of the Union, the president would come in really about on or about the end of the first year of his term. But I invited him this early because there is so much to report.

“President Trump is having an historic second term, and he’s done so much in the last less than 45 days that it would take him three hours to just go through all of the wins and all the victories and the things that he’s achieved so far,” Johnson added. “So, I hope the Democrats don’t try to disrupt that, because the American people back home here are applauding it, and we are here as well, in the House Republican Conference.”

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., criticizes the Democratic Party’s pushback against the Trump administration’s agenda on “The Ingraham Angle.”

“At the end of the day, Donald Trump won in a landslide victory. America wants his vision, they want it enacted,” Britt said.

The Alabama senator went on to took aim at Democrats for their resistance to some of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.

“They’re totally gaslighting. All of the things they’re accusing these people of… this is what you’ve been doing for the last four years. You’ve weaponized the justice system, you have literally taken a backseat to what is good for America. And the truth is is that these men and women who are filling these cabinet positions, they understand Donald Trump’s plan, his vision, and they are ready to execute,” Britt said.

Britt also touched on the critics of Trump’s tariff’s.

“China has undercut American workers time after time… we have not had a leader that’s been willing to stand up,” Britt said. “We have to secure our critical supply chain.”

The White House communications team prepared for President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night by chowing down on a supersized order of McDonald’s.

Kaelan Dorr, the deputy assistant to the President and White House deputy communications director, posted an image on X, showing about 20 McDoubles, 60 Chicken McNuggets and 17 large fries.

“White House Comms is pre-gaming the Joint Session the MAGA way,” Dorr wrote. “Buckle up for Must See TV!”

It is no secret that Trump is a fan of McDonald’s.

After winning another term in the Oval Office, Trump and members of his inner circle shared a McDonald’s meal aboard his private jet in November as they traveled to New York City to attend UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden.

Then in October, Trump took on a new role while on the campaign trail, cooking and serving french fries to customers at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s.

“I’ve really wanted to do this all my life. And now I’m going to do it because she didn’t do it,” Trump said, referring to former Vice President Kamala Harris, who claimed she worked at the fast food chain.

State of the Union speeches and addresses to joint sessions of Congress are opportunities for presidents to touch on a wide variety of topics ranging from national security to immigration to domestic spending programs.

In President Joe Biden’s
final address to Congress in 2024, he spoke about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Medicare, and inflation while looking back on the ways he believes he improved the nation during his term.

President Donald Trump is expected to highlight the work he has already done in his second term with a flurry of executive orders on issues like DEI and slashing regulations with DOGE while also previewing his agenda priorities in the upcoming months and years.

It has also become common for presidents and members of Congress to invite guests to the speech who are pointed out to highlight various policy achievements. 

Fox News Digital reported that Fox News Channel, Fox News Digital and Fox News Go will have live coverage of the event Tuesday evening.

President Donald Trump will address members of Congress in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night, and with the big speech ahead, he is reportedly not participating in any type of preparation.

Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy said he is being told Trump is not participating in any kind of formal speech prep, where advisors suggest ways for him to say things or gesticulate.

Instead, the president has been involved in the editing process.

It is not uncommon for Trump to refrain from formal preparation ahead of major events.

When Trump prepared to debate former Vice President Kamala Harris in September, he avoided traditional debate preparation. Instead, he employed Tulsi Gabbard to help him refine his skills. Gabbard had her own famous moment on the debate stage, when in 2020, she attacked Harris for her record as a California prosecutor.

Trump debated former President Joe Biden in June, and took the opportunity on the campaign trail to attack the former president’s preparation ahead of the big event.

“Well, this is really the best strategy right here. We have all these people out here and they are screaming questions. I look forward to the debate,” Trump said at the time.

President Donald Trump’s
first address to a joint session of Congress of his second term will begin at 9 p.m. ET, and can be live streamed either directly online, via the White House’s website, or on major cable and broadcast television networks. Fox News, ABC News, NBC News, and CNN will all carry live coverage of Trump’s remarks. 

Importantly, the White House live stream will cover the president’s remarks only. Networks and streaming services provide additional coverage, such as a list of individuals in attendance and the acknowledged “guests” chosen by a sitting president and often referred to by name during their remarks. They also cover the annual rebuttal speech delivered after the president’s formal remarks by the political party not in power. 

This year’s response will be delivered by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.

In 1947, former President Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which reestablished the line of succession in the event the president died in office. Shortly after, and given the rising threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, the Office of the President implemented the concept of a “designated survivor.”

The designated survivor
is a member of the president’s cabinet who, during important events like inaugurations or the State of the Union address, is squirreled away to a secret and secure location for the duration of the event. The purpose of this is to ensure that, if a terror or nuclear attack wiped out most top-tiered officials, there would always be someone in the presidential line of succession who could take command.

Notably, the designated survivor does not automatically inherit the role of the president unless someone of a higher rank survives whatever incident occurred. They are usually a last resort. 

During former President George W. Bush’s
presidential address to Congress following the September 11th terrorist attacks, former Vice President Dick Cheney was named the designated survivor, and during former President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address, then-Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh was the designee.

While the selection is sometimes random due to the nature of these important events, designated survivors tend to be lower on the presidential succession list, such as the Secretaries of Labor, Energy, and the Interior, etc.

“Designated Survivor,” a 2016 TV series starring Kiefer Sutherland
, aired on ABC in 2016 and followed the fictional story of Thomas Kirkman, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who, after a terror attack that wipes out most of the government, assumes the presidency.

A former top official for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is warning Democrats not to cause a stir at President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress. 

“Democrats: PLEASE do not do dumb sh– like this during Trump’s speech,” former Harris 2024 senior advisor Ian Sams posted on X Tuesday, hours before President Trump delivered his joint address to Congress. 

Sams was responding to an Axios report that revealed Democrats were “floating” the idea of bringing props to Trump’s speech, including anti-Trump signs, egg cartons to highlight the current costs of eggs, pocket Constitutions to protest DOGE or hand clappers.

Earlier, the White House brushed off reports that some Democrats in Congress are discussing plans to go further than ever to protest and even disrupt Trump’s speech.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital Trump is prepared for whatever the Democrats throw at him.

“Democrats behaving like children would be the least surprising news of the night,” Leavitt told Fox News Digital.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said that of all the annual addresses the president has issued to Congress since she joined the House of Representatives, she is the most excited for this one. 

President Donald Trump is slated to address a joint session of Congress Tuesday in a speech similar to the annual State of the Union. 

“I can tell you, that this one is the one that I have been waiting for,” Boebert said in a video posted to X on Tuesday. “For President Trump to tell the world all of the amazing things that he is doing, through his policies. How he is charging us to help codify his amazing executive orders, brag on the amazing cabinet choices that he has selected, and cast vision for a great America.”

“America will be stronger than ever and we already are with President Trump’s leadership and his strength is already bringing peace throughout the world,” Boebert said. 

Boebert previously heckled former President Joe Biden in 2022 during his State of the Union speech when he referenced troops who developed cancer associated with exposure to burn pits. 

“You put them in, 13 of them!” Boebert shouted in the middle of the speech. The comment appeared to reference 13 troops who died in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Texas Democrat Rep. Marc Veasey took to X Tuesday ahead of President Donald Trump’s address to Congress to say he was making moves to “pre-bunk” the president’s “lies.”

“He may tell you that he is putting America 1st, but make no mistake, the Trump Tax aka Tariff is a TAX ON YOU,” he added in his message.

In the post the congressman can be heard taking issue with the steep tariffs that have officially gone into effect as of Tuesday, including 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports, as well as the tariffs on China that doubled to reach a 20% import tax.

“I don’t know any business that wants these tariffs,” Veasey said, explaining that ultimately they are going to hurt U.S. wallets.

Veasey argued that these tariffs will reach to every corner of the U.S. market including industries like U.S. bred and butchered cattle, because everything from feed to tractor parts is expected to impacted.

“Somebody has to pay the price for all of this,” Veasey said. “This is not funny money, its real money and real consequences.”

A well-known Catholic bishop will be in the audience for President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress, Fox News Digital has learned.

Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Catholic media organization Word On Fire, is coming to the Tuesday night speech as a guest of first-term Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va.

Moore also invited Barron to participate in a Catholic Mass with lawmakers before the address.

“Through Word on Fire, Bishop Barron has helped countless souls discover, strengthen, or return to the Catholic Church by proclaiming the Gospel ‘through the culture.’ His use of contemporary media to reach people is innovative and highly effective,” Moore said in a statement first shared with Fox News Digital. 

“I am honored to host him as my guest for President Trump’s joint address to Congress, and am equally thrilled to have him celebrate the Mass for my colleagues and me prior to the speech.”

Barron called himself a “student of history” in his own statement shared with Fox News Digital accepting the invitation.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Liz Elkind.

President Donald Trump, the consummate showman, is hyping his primetime address Tuesday to a joint session of Congress.

“TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!” the president touted in a social media post on the eve of his first major speech to Congress since the start of his second presidential administration six weeks ago.

Trump has been moving at warp speed since returning to the White House on Jan. 20, and he is expected to use the closely watched address to tout his many accomplishments — some of which have been very controversial.

During his first six weeks back in office, Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders and actions — 82 as of Tuesday, according to a Fox News count. His moves not only fulfilled some of his major campaign trail promises, but also allowed the returning president to flex his executive muscles, quickly putting his stamp on the federal government and making major cuts to the federal workforce, dramatically altering U.S. foreign policy, implementing steep tariffs on the nation’s top trading partners and also settling some long-standing grievances.

The president traditionally delivers a State of the Union Address in the second, third, and fourth years of their term.

When the president delivers a speech to a Joint Session of Congress in the first year of their term, it’s not given that title.

The reasoning is because the State of the Union is traditionally a forum for the nation’s leader to deliver an update on their stewardship of the country over the past year.

President Donald Trump would not be able to give such a speech this year because he only took office in late January. But his address to Congress Tuesday will not look much different, with the pomp and circumstance of both events being virtually the same.

Trump is still expected to deliver remarks to a chamber full of lawmakers, Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices and other invited guests. It will be his first address to a joint session since taking office for his second term.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., announced on Tuesday that he will bring three New York residents to attend President Donald Trump’s joint address with him.

The women are Pamela Lockley, Gretchen Jefferson and Kate Myron. The Democratic leader also noted that he invited family members of the October 7 terrorist attack victims, but it is unclear if any accepted the invite.

In a press release, Jeffries said that Lockley “has two adult daughters who are disabled and rely on Medicaid to access the care they need.”

“Ms. Lockley receives 75% of her monthly income through Social Security benefits and is one of the thousands of New Yorkers who count on SNAP to put healthy food on the table,” the statement read. “Without these crucial benefits, she wouldn’t be able to support herself or her family. Ms. Lockley and the millions of seniors like her deserve better than the Republican scheme to cut Social Security, destroy Medicaid and slash nutritional assistance.”

Jefferson, on the other hand, is reliant on Medicare and is a colon cancer survivor, according to Jeffries’ release.

“Without Medicaid, she wouldn’t have been able to afford the health care that saved her life. Republican cuts to this essential program would be devastating for Gretchen and so many others,” the Democrat said.

His third guest, Myron, is a refugee of the Russia-Ukraine war who was forced to flee when Russia invaded her country in 2022. She moved to the U.S. in 2023, and Jeffries said that she is “one of the millions of people whose lives have been upended by Putin’s war of aggression.”

“Her presence reminds us that despite the insistence by some that we should abandon our partners, we must continue to stand with the Ukrainian people until victory is won,” Jeffries’ statement added.

Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., will be the designated survivor for the House Democrats on Tuesday night ahead of the Joint Session of Congress, ABC7 reported.

He was picked by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies
for the role, which serves as a safeguard in the event of a major incident that would result in mass fatalities of lawmakers and leaders. Thompson has served in the role multiple times before, according to the Press Democrat in 2023.

It’s unclear who the other designated survivors will be, including from the Trump administration. The designated survivor for the president is a member of the cabinet, as both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance will be side-by-side each other. The White House’s designated survivor pick in the line of succession would ascend to the presidency in the event everyone else ahead of them died.

In Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt served in the role to isolate away from the widely watched remarks, in which dignitaries are packed into the House of Representatives. The most recent presidential designated survivor is former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who had the duty during President Joe Biden’s last State of the Union last year.

Conservatives on social media slammed Senate Democrats for posting videos with identical scripts ahead of President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress Tuesday night.

Mashups of the identical videos, which included Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., leading the “Sh– That Ain’t True” social media campaign, have gone viral on social media. Many conservatives on social media, including Elon Musk, are asking, “Who is writing the words that the puppets speak? That’s the real question.”

Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led the charge with their matching social media videos this morning. About two dozen Senate Democrats have since followed with their own identical posts. 

The video begins with a clip of Trump vowing to “bring prices down starting on day one” followed by a cut-in of the Senate Democrats saying: “Sh– That Ain’t True? That’s what you just heard.”

“Since Day One of Donald Trump’s presidency, prices are up, not down. Inflation is getting worse, not better. Prices of groceries, gas, housing, rent, eggs – they’re all getting more expensive. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has done nothing to lower costs for you,” the Democrats said in near-perfect unison.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill who spoke to Fox News Digital revealed the issues they would like President Donald Trump to discuss during his address to Congress on Tuesday night.

Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech at 9 p.m. Tuesday to a joint session of Congress, meaning both members of the House and the Senate will convene at the U.S. Capitol to hear the president speak.

Democrat lawmakers said the president should focus on costs during the speech, and they hope he “keeps it short.”

“The economy, how we’re going to lower the cost of groceries,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., told Fox News Digital when asked what Trump should focus on.

“Actually doing something that is going to help lower the cost of living for the American people, something he promised to do, but since he’s become president, the cost of living has gone up for people,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “I hope he keeps it short, because he tends to keep it long-winded.”

“Actually doing something that is going to help lower the cost of living for the American people, something he promised to do, but since he’s become president, the cost of living has gone up for people,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “I hope he keeps it short, because he tends to keep it long-winded.”

“I’ve heard the speech. It’s going to be incredible. It’s going to be epic. It’s going to be historic,” Mace told Fox. “You will laugh. You will cry. And you’ll question what the hell has been going on the last four years under the Joe Biden administration. The Democrats have lost their effing minds.”

Find out what other lawmakers want out of Trump’s speech on Tuesday.

This is an excerpt from a story by Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady.

Some Democratic lawmakers are reportedly planning to disrupt President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday evening.

Six politicians, whose names were not released, confirmed the plans to Axios. The report hinted that the plans may include using noisemakers, walking out, bringing protest signs or even using egg cartons to illustrate inflated egg prices.

“The part that we all agree on is that this is not business as usual and we would like to find a way — productively — to express our outrage,” one lawmaker told Axios.

“There are definitely a lot of constituents that really want Democrats to disrupt and there are constituents who feel like that just plays into his hands,” a different lawmaker said.

Later on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital that Trump is prepared
for whatever reactions that the Democrats bring.

“Democrats behaving like children would be the least surprising news of the night,” Leavitt told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Former Trump 2024 campaign co-chair manager Chris LaCivita previews President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on “Special Report.”

“Here we are, less than 100 days in, and the president driving the agenda. He’s driving the agenda on taxes, he’s driving the agenda on development and and job creation… and it’s so much to process. News cycles used to last two days, we’re lucky if they last two minutes, just the volume of things,” LaCivita said in his first TV interview since Trump’s successful campaign. “It’s hard to keep up with for a lot of people. For those of us that know the president, he doesn’t sleep. He’s a tireless worker, he’s a tireless advocate, and he’s going to stop at nothing.”

LaCivita also touched on Trump’s economic policies, arguing that it is important the president stay focused on issues such as inflation.

“We have oil right now at the lowest price its been in two years… that’s going to have a cascading impact on inflation,” he said.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, will be handing out U.S. flags to Republican senators ahead of President Donald Trump’s joint Congressional speech, the senator told Fox News in an interview.

“We have enough for every Republican senator,” he said of the flags. “The idea is very simple. Look, I came to this country
from somewhere else. I became a naturalized citizen. I stood in front of a really angry Marine who put his finger in my face and said, ‘You better remember that you only bow to one flag.’ And I think the idea that we have Democrats that bring the flags of other countries into the chamber is a disgrace.”

“So they’re going to do that, and they take a moment to try to make a show about why we should care more about some foreign land that most Ohioans don’t know where it is,” he continued. “Then it’s going to be an opportunity for Republicans to remind the country that we stand with America.”

Moreno said they are “little flags” that can fit into lawmakers’ jacket pockets, adding the “idea is to show patriotism.”

“I think American politicians should only honor and respect the American flag and no other flag,” he said.

Fox News’ producer Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

A group of conservative lawmakers in the House and Senate is warning Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., against agreeing to restrict the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a spending bill as the government shutdown deadline of March 14 draws near.

The sometimes-resistant batch of Republicans is also committing to backing a clean stopgap bill for the rest of the fiscal year to avoid a shutdown, which they’ve opposed in the past. 

“[W]e are deeply concerned about recent reports of Democrats’ demands for a government funding agreement that would perpetuate the unsustainable status quo of wasteful spending,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., joined by several others, wrote to the congressional leaders. 

The group of signers included several fiscal hawks in the House and Senate, many of whom have opposed stopgap spending bills on principle, preferring full-year appropriations bills. 

“Any attempt to use government funding legislation to dilute the president’s constitutional authority to save taxpayer dollars must be rejected outright,” the lawmakers wrote.

In this circumstance, the group of congressional conservatives said they’re willing to back a “clean” continuing resolution, or short-term spending bill, that lasts the rest of the year, for the sake of avoiding a government shutdown. 

But they also made it very clear to Johnson and Thune: Don’t let Democrats restrict DOGE in the spending bill. 

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News’ Julia Johnson and Elizabeth Elkind.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill who spoke to Fox News Digital revealed the issues they would like President Donald Trump to discuss during his address to Congress on Tuesday night.

“The economy, how we’re going to lower the cost of groceries,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., told Fox News Digital when asked what Trump should focus on.

“Actually doing something that is going to help lower the cost of living for the American people, something he promised to do, but since he’s become president, the cost of living has gone up for people,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

“I hope he keeps it short, because he tends to keep it long-winded.”Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital that she had already heard the speech and that it is going to be “historic.”

“I’ve heard the speech. It’s going to be incredible. It’s going to be epic. It’s going to be historic,” Mace told Fox. “You will laugh. You will cry. And you’ll question what the hell has been going on the last four years under the Joe Biden administration. The Democrats have lost their effing minds.”

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said the president should focus on farmers, while Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., said the president should highlight “his vision for the country.”

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., thinks the president should focus on the “promises made” and “promises kept” during his first month in the White House. 

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said Democrats are “not working with us at all” but that Trump has “got a great track record to celebrate” during his speech.  

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News’ Aubrie Spady.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted on “Fox & Friends” to the news that Democrats are reportedly planning protests and disruptions to President Donald Trump‘s primetime address to Congress Tuesday night.

Asked about the protests, Leavitt said that Democrats should be rethinking their response to the speech, and the ideas Trump is reportedly slated to highlight to the American people Tuesday night.

“I think, frankly, the Democrats should think about if they should stand up in applause for some of the things President Trump will be talking about,” Leavitt said, arguing that Trump is “bringing common sense back to this country.”

Her remarks come as some Democrats have pushed for major disruptions to Trump’s speech to Congress, the first of his second presidential term.

Some have suggested major disruptions to Trump’s address, ranging from outright walkouts to using noisemakers in an effort to drown out Trump’s speech, Axios reported.

Some of the more moderate ideas floated reportedly include carrying egg cartons to highlight costs, carrying protest signs, and coordinating outfits.

Protests during the president’s annual speech to Congress are not uncommon. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up Trump’s speech to the joint session of lawmakers in 2020, and one protester was arrested for disrupting President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in 2024.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D–Mo., was ripped by conservatives on social media this week after claiming President Donald Trump is “occupying the White House” and is an “enemy to the United States.”

“Unfortunately, we have someone that is occupying the White House, and as far as I’m concerned, he is an enemy to the United States,” Crockett said on MSNBC on Sunday. “I don’t know what it’s going to take to get people to wake up.”

Conservatives on social media quickly pushed back against Crockett.

“Almost sounds like this ‘defender of democracy’ would support an insurrection,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham posted on X. 

“When are we going to hold members of Congress accountable for their words and actions?” retired professor Carol Swain posted on X. 

“Dangerous election denier stuff here,” former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., posted on X.

“By all means, continue this leaderless, tired charade and keep losing elections,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., posted on X. 

“Jasmine Crockett labeled Trump as an enemy of America while simultaneously saying she doesn’t understand anything that’s going on,” conservative influencer account Gunther Eagleman posted on X. “She’s really this dumb.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Comedian Russell Brand showed support for President Donald Trump in a social media post on Tuesday afternoon, hours before the president’s address was scheduled to take place.

In an X post on Tuesday, Brand called the Republican president “a brilliant bulwark.”

“Even if you hate Trump, you have to acknowledge that he’s a brilliant bulwark against globalism, and that’s the real threat we face,” the British-born actor wrote.

Back in June, Brand made headlines by expressing support for Trump on his podcast  “Stay Free with Russell Brand.”

“In a straight choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, if you care about democracy, if you care about freedom, I don’t know how you could do anything other than vote for Donald Trump for precisely the reasons that they claim that you can’t,” he said at the time.

Laken Riley, a 22-year-old University of Georgia nursing student, was killed in February 2024 while jogging on campus by an illegal Venezuelan immigrant, Jose Ibarra.

Ibarra had been previously arrested but was never detained by ICE. He received a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole from Judge Patrick Haggard in November 2024.

During his 2024 State of the Union address, former President Joe Biden
was heckled multiple times by Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to “say her name” in reference to the slain college student. Before his address, Biden was confronted by Greene and was heard telling the congresswoman, “I’ll say her name.”

When Biden spoke of Riley, he referred to Ibarra as “an illegal.” In the days following, he received backlash from Democrats for using the term, as his Department of Homeland Security had previously instructed administration staff to stop using both that term and similar language.

In March 2024, Senate Republican lawmakers introduced the Laken Riley Act
, a measure requiring federal immigration authorities to arrest and detain illegal immigrants charged with local theft or burglary.

As his first legislative victory in the new administration, President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law on Jan. 29, 2025.

“This horrific atrocity should never have been allowed to happen,” Trump told reporters at the time. “And as president, I’m fighting every single day to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.”

Last year, former President Joe Biden spoke in front of a Democrat-dominated Senate at his third State of the Union address, which was held on March 7, 2024.

The early March date marked the latest a State of the Union address had ever been delivered by a president. In 2022, Biden delivered his first SOTU address on March 1. 

Historically, until this year, Biden was the only serving president to deliver in-person remarks to a joint session of Congress outside of January or February.

However, House Speaker Mike Johnson invited President Donald Trump to deliver his first SOTU address of his second administration on March 4, 2025.

In 2019, Trump cited an “unprecedented economic boom” during his SOTU address.

“We have created 5.3 million new jobs and importantly added 600,000 new manufacturing jobs — something which almost everyone said was impossible to do, but the fact is, we are just getting started,” Trump said at the time.

“Wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades, and growing for blue-collar workers, who I promised to fight for, faster than anyone else,” he continued. “Nearly 5 million Americans have been lifted off food stamps. The U.S. economy is growing almost twice as fast today as when I took office, and we are considered far and away the hottest economy anywhere in the world.”

President Joe Biden’s final State of the Union address last March featured criticisms of President Donald Trump and harsh words for Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“What makes our moment rare is freedom and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas at the very same time,” Biden said. “Overseas, Putin’s Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond. If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you he will not.”

He criticized those who blocked funding for Ukraine, and took several shots at “my predecessor.” 

“My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6th,” Biden told the audience near the beginning of his State of the Union speech. “I will not do that.”

He also touted the now-defunct Senate immigration bill, at which point Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted “Laken Riley! Say her name!”

“Laken Riley
,” Biden said. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right. But how many of thousands of people are being killed by legals? To her parents, I say my heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, I understand.”

“Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. announced on social media Tuesday that she will be skipping President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress and will instead be hosting an Instagram Live after the fact.

“I’m not going to the Joint Address,” the Democratic representative posted on Bluesky Tuesday. “I will be live posting and chatting with you all here instead. Then going on IG Live after.”

Fox News Digital reached out to AOC’s office for additional comment.

AOC’s decision to opt out of
Trump’s speech comes on the heels of several other Democrats also announcing that they will not be in attendance.

Dems, including Sen. Chris Murphy, D-CT., have planned to boycott Trump’s address, and will hold a prebuttal of the speech instead.

“I think that State of the Union speech is going to be a farce. I think it’s going to be a MAGA pep rally, not a serious talk to the nation,” Murphy told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

Other Democrats are advocating for major disruptions during the speech, ranging from walkouts to using noisemakers to drown out Trump’s speech, according to an Axios report.

White House
press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital that Trump is prepared for whatever the Democrats might throw at him.

Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis says that when it comes to implementing President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, Florida is “rocking and rolling.”

Florida’s two-term
governor used a portion of his State of the State address on Tuesday to spotlight a sweeping package of immigration laws passed a few weeks ago during a special session of the GOP-dominated legislature.

“We are convening for the regular legislative session having already enacted groundbreaking legislation to fulfill the historic mission of delivering on President Donald Trump’s mandate to end the illegal immigration crisis once and for all,” DeSantis said in his address to lawmakers inside the state Capitol in Tallahassee.

And the governor touted that “no state has done more, and no state did it sooner than we did in Florida.”

Florida’s new measures stiffen immigration enforcement by state and local law enforcement. 

“Thanks to the recent legislation, it is now a crime to enter Florida illegally, the days of catch and release are over, and all state and local law enforcement have a duty to assist in interior immigration enforcement efforts,” the governor said.

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser.

The Democratic Women’s Caucus told its members to wear pink to President Donald Trump
‘s 2025 joint address in an act of protest. 

New Mexico Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, who chairs the caucus, told TIME Magazine on Monday that wearing pink is meant to “signal our protest of Trump’s policies which are negatively impacting women and families.”

Leger Fernández also explained during a caucus press conference Tuesday that some members will still wear white to the speech “to remind people about the suffragists and the importance of women’s vote.”

She continued on to say that “women are claiming pink as a color of protest, as a color of power.”

“And we are protesting what is happening right now, both with the Republicans in the House, in the Senate and and at the White House
,” Fernández said. “And so that’s why you’re seeing pink as a color of protest.”

“We’re standing together in pink—the color of the Women’s March, the color of persistence—as we continue to fight for our rights. This is a movement by, for, and about women,” Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-MI, one of the Democratic Women’s Caucus vice chairs, said in a statement. 

A handful of other Democrats have voiced their support for major disruptions at the event, ranging from walkouts to using noisemakers to drown out Trump’s speech, Axios reported Tuesday.

Others have also floated reportedly carrying egg cartons to highlight costs, carrying protest signs, and coordinating outfits.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital that Trump is prepared for whatever the Democrats might throw at him.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contribued to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called his meeting at the White House last week “regrettable” on Tuesday and said he is ready to pursue peace under President Donald Trump’s leadership.

Zelenskyy made the concession in a lengthy statement posted to social media on Tuesday, saying Ukraine “is ready to come to the negotiating table.” He added that last week’s meeting “did not go the way it was supposed to be,” and he said, “it is time to make things right.”

“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Zelenskyy visited the White House on Friday amid negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, and was poised to sign a minerals agreement that would allow the U.S. access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for U.S. support in the country.

But after a tense exchange between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelenskyy over whether diplomacy was the correct avenue to secure a peace deal and whether Russian President Vladimir Putin could be trusted, Trump kicked Zelenskyy out of the White House and said the Ukrainian leader could return when he was ready for peace.

Zelenskyy’s statement on Tuesday came less than a day after Trump paused all aid to Ukraine on Monday night. A senior Trump administration official told Fox News that military aid will remain on hold until Ukrainian leaders show a commitment to good faith peace negotiations.

“This is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause,” the official said. “The orders are going out right now.”

Read more about a possible mineral deal between Zelenskyy and Trump.

Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night for the first time in his second term and is expected to deliver a speech to outline his plans for the nation under the theme of “The Renewal of the American Dream.” 

The president is scheduled to speak before all members of Congress on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST. 

The speech is not officially called the “State of the Union” because Trump has not been in office for a full year, though it operates in a similar fashion. The yearly presidential address is intended to showcase the administration’s achievements and policies. 

The president has been working at a breakneck pace to align the federal government with his “Make America Great Again” policies. The president took more than 200 executive actions on his first day in office on Jan. 20 and has not slowed the pace since. 

White House officials exclusively told Fox News Digital that the speech, themed “The Renewal of the American Dream,” will feature four main sections: accomplishments from Trump’s second term thus far at home and abroad; what the Trump administration has done for the economy; the president’s renewed push for Congress to pass additional funding for border security; and the president’s plans for peace around the globe.

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News’ Brooke Singman.

Former NCAA athlete Riley Gaines, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, and a state-level DOGE official are just some of the faces Americans will get a glimpse of inside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night.

Members of Congress spoke with Fox News Digital about their guests for President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress for his second term.

Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, said she invited Gaines after they both attended a White House event where Trump signed an executive order aimed at limiting transgender athletes’ participation in school sports. Girls’ sports was a top issue for Miller-Meeks during her close House race in 2024.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital he would be bringing Ross Ulbricht, founder of the darkweb platform Silk Road.

In another nod to the Trump administration’s work so far, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, is attending the speech with the chair of her home state’s own DOGE task force.

This in an excerpt of an article from Elizabeth Elkind and Julia Johnson.

The State of the Union is an annual address given by the President of the United States to a joint session of Congress about the current condition of the nation. 

The speech typically takes place near the beginning of the calendar year and is considered an opportunity for the president to share the successes, policy goals, achievements and failures of their administration. Interestingly enough, this address has not emerged out of some esoteric tradition but is a literal constitutional responsibility of the Office of the President.

Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution reads, “The president must give the Congress information on the ‘State of the Union’ ‘from time to time.’” While “from time to time” allows some personal discretion, since the 1930s, the address has been given annually.

The president’s update to Congress on the state of the union hasn’t always been a speech to a joint session of Congress. Before modern U.S. history, some presidents sent a letter. But for nearly a century, presidents have opted to give a live address to Congress.

The State of the Union has been the origin of some of the most famous speeches in U.S. history. Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 speech codified the sentiment of America as the “last best hope of earth.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s
1942 speech advanced his “four freedoms” wartime goals for the U.S. while fighting the Axis powers, and in 2003, George W. Bush advanced his claim that Iran, North Korea, and Iraq formed an “Axis of Evil” who were pursuing “weapons of mass destruction.”

The State of the Union takes place every year, typically within the first three calendar months. 

The speech fulfills the president’s obligations under Article II Section 3 of the Constitution which requires him or her to “give to the Congress information” about the nation’s state of affairs and give recommendations for legislative action.

From Thomas Jefferson until Woodrow Wilson, the president typically delivered his his State of the Union messaged in writing to Congress. 

The rise of radio and later television expanded the reach of the president’s address, with President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 beginning the tradition of delivering the address in prime time to reach a wider television audience. 

This year, President Donald Trump
will stand at the House lectern in front of Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Trump will likely celebrate the work of his government watchdog agency DOGE led by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the early successes of his Cabinet officials and changes in domestic and foreign policy versus the Biden administration.