Trump speech live updates: Democrat Al Green removed after heckling

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued this statement following President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress:

Tonight, we heard a lot about how our government should serve Donald Trump, but nothing about how Donald Trump will serve the American people.

Instead, President Trump doubled down on the Project 2025 playbook and on his agenda to terrorize immigrant communities, traumatize federal workers, eviscerate critical programs and services Americans rely on, poison our institutions with corruption, burn bridges with our allies, and increase the cost of living for hardworking people everywhere.

Meanwhile, Republicans are falling in line behind this wannabe strongman and a billionaire oligarch all so they can give away trillions in deficit-busting tax cuts to big corporations and the very wealthiest. Their silence is a betrayal of the Americans they were sent to Washington to represent.

Oversight Democrats have no higher calling than upholding our oaths to serve and protect the American people. As Trump, Musk, and their cabinet of cronies set out to make government serve them, Oversight Democrats remain committed to making sure government serves the people.”

Trump opened his nearly two-hour speech by describing his first weeks in office as “the most successful in the history of our nation,” eclipsing the first term of George Washington, the literal father of the country.

Gustaf Kilander recalls the highlights and low points of the evening:

DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:

Tonight, every Republican got out of their seats and gave a standing ovation for skyrocketing costs, economic freefall, and the next American recession — brought to you by Donald Trump. I dare every single one of these Republicans who blindly applauded for Trump to go home and meet their voters face-to-face. But they won’t, because they know that the Republican tax scam to take money out of the pockets of working people to give trillions in handouts to the rich will cost them their jobs.

“Donald Trump says he loves a lot of people. He loves farmers so much that he killed their contracts and is raising their fertilizer costs. He loves seniors so much that he’ll shutter their nursing homes and go after Social Security. He loves young people so much that he’s going to defund public schools and take away their health care. He loves American families so much that he’s making it more expensive to put food on the table and harder to pay for child care.

“Instead of using his Joint Address to offer solutions or rehabilitate his image for the American people who — after only six weeks — have lost confidence in his presidency, he instead rehashed old grievances and evaded responsibility.”

Every story has a foreshadowing, and Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress is no different. The day before he spoke, the Senate confirmed Linda McMahon, the former WWE executive, to be his secretary of Education, a department he wants to eliminate.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, chair of the Hispanic Caucus, gave a rebuttal in Spanish, criticizing President Donald Trump for not doing enough to bring prices down and instead signing orders such as changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

“For the past 45 days, we’ve seen a president who acts more like a king, more like a monarch, than a president.”

Espaillat claimed in his Spanish rebuttal that the Trump administration created the Department of Government Efficiency to cut essential programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and benefits for veterans.

“President Trump and Elon Musk want to trick you.”

The Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, according to a person familiar with the agency’s plans who is not authorized to speak publicly. It’s not clear how the layoffs would impact the benefits of the 72.5 million Social Security beneficiaries.