(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump is set to address Congress Tuesday evening after nearly six weeks of breakneck pace in the White House.
Trump seemed to signal he is preparing an aggressive, forthright speech as he oversees a series of major policy changes and turmoil in the U.S. relationship with Ukraine.
“Tomorrow night will be big,” Trump wrote in all capital letters on Truth Social Monday. “I will tell it like it is.”
Since taking office, Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders, and he is likely to tout those during his speech Tuesday, from declaring a national energy emergency, announcing it is the official policy of the U.S. government that there are only two sexes to reinstating Remain in Mexico, a policy that requires asylum seekers to wait outside the U.S. for approval.
Trump’s administration has enacted so many policies so quickly that Democrats have struggled to combat or even critique them all, from opening up domestic oil trilling to kicking off a nationwide deportation effort to the Department of Government Efficiency identifying billions of waste and fraud in the federal government.
Most immediately relevant to Congress is Trump’s plan to cut taxes and fund the government, which is set to shut down in mid-March if funding is not re-upped.
So far Trump has managed to get his tax cuts passed in the House while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has signaled he wants to make those cuts permanent. The tax cuts were first signed in 2017 during Trump’s first term and included raising the standard deduction and child tax credits.
Now, Trump is in range of cementing his tax cut legacy, possibly adding trillions to the debt in the process.
What Trump needs next from Congress is for them to begin codifying his executive orders, many of which are facing legal challenges on the basis that the president does not have the authority to issue such an order. If Trump wants many of these orders to stand and to outlive the next Democratic president who can easily undo them, he will need lawmakers to pass legislation codifying the rules.
“Spent a little bit of time with the President this weekend and I have to say – this speech is going to be epic,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote on X. “You will not want to miss.”
Trump’s tariffs are also a major question mark this term. Republican lawmakers have generally favored free trade over tariffs, but now the president has proposed reciprocal tariffs, essentially putting tariffs on other countries only to the degree that they tariff the U.S.
Ironically, the proposal could lead to an overall reduction in tariffs worldwide, but this kind of tariff proposal is novel in American politics and leaves a lot of uncertainty on how many Republicans will support the effort, how other nations will react, and how much and how fast prices in the U.S. will rise as a result of the tariffs.
Most recently, Trump has taken flak for his public spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week. Democrats in particular want Trump to make up with the Ukrainian leader and help stop Russia’s push into Ukraine, which will likely succeed if the U.S. stops sending aid.
With the world watching, Trump’s comments on Ukraine will signal if he is willing to make up with Zelenskyy or forge a new path forward of staying out of the fight and leaving Ukraine to fend for itself.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said he will skip the joint address in protest.
“I think that…speech is going to be a farce,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash. “I think it is going to be a MAGA pep rally, not a serious speech.”
Despite the controversial policies coming fast and furious out of the White House, Republicans have so far remained largely united behind the president.
“President Trump is making a triumphant return to the Capitol to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote on X. “After his first month back in the Oval Office, he has a long list of victories, fulfilled promises, and actions taken to make America GREAT again.”
