U.S. President Donald Trump walks outside the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 27, 2025. Photo by Carl Court, —Pool/Getty Images.
ALMOST FIVE years have passed since Donald Trump last shared an address with the members of Congress at Capitol Hill. Post a pandemic, a defeated election, an insurrection, two assassination bids, and an unforeseen second coming, he will walk back into the chamber on Tuesday night with things to say and a program to sell. Word has it that the gist of what he will mouth in that chamber shall be about delivering on his promise to tear down this house and make-over D.C.
Trump's presidency, however, has already brought about very dramatic changes. More than 70 executive orders and counting have been signed by him in just over three months, greatest by any president in close to a century, in an extremely wide range of areas from granting clemency to some Jan. 6 defendants to re-implementing a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military to the toughest tariffs against trade partners to recognizing the Gulf of Mexico by a different name. He will also very quickly reshape where America stands in the world, lining up with Russia against the United States itself at the UN and confronting the heated Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the White House Oval Office. However, DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, run by Elon Musk, has immediately assumed control of the federal bureaucracy—meaning, in fact, the dissolution of a government agency approved by Congress.
Find Out: Why Trump’s Address Is Not Considered a State of the Union
Trump's blur of activity has placed many Americans on their heels, struggling to grasp what he does. This seems to be by design. According to aides, not only will Trump use his hour-long speech to Congress to tell the story of his first 40 days but also to tell that story and further his goals through a sequence of memorable moments that stick long after the speech is over. That supposes the Trump circle's view, of course, that sound bites which take hold in days following in both traditional and social media carry more weight in changing minds than almost anything else.
Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University, admits that he views these big media windows as opportunities to help shift public opinion in the direction he prefers.
The President is facing a slow start with initial challenges and difficulties. There were pledges made to crank up an effort at tremendous deportations, however, up to this point, more migrants have been expelled slower under Trump than under Biden in his final year. Many Americans feel that too much aggressive cost-cutting by Musk will take a toll on things; a recent poll had only 34% approving of his performance. Moreover, so far, the Trump 2.0 economy has not shown any improvement: the stock market is falling, egg and beef prices are rising and inflation is still extreme. Trump has seen his support decline steadily since he came to office in various polls.
Trump has continuously assigned most of the problems under his administration to Biden. A White House official informed TIME more of this is anticipated on Tuesday evening. "He will address the American public on the challenges he has inherited from the previous administration," the official says. As is his custom, he would then present himself as the only person capable of rescuing America from its decline. He will highlight why he is the right person for this moment, a method he uses to promote himself.
In response to this issue, the Democrats will say. They see an opening to undercut Trump's claim about a reinvigorated America. "House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has encouraged Democratic lawmakers to invite furloughed federal workers and average Americans who have been hurt by cuts to DOGE to attend the speech," said a person familiar with events. "The official Democratic rebuttal will be given by Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who is expected to make a powerful case against President Trump's management of American foreign policy."
The Democratic Party response to Trump is likely to throw into sharp relief the dissonances within the party regarding the approach to challenging the President. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was one of the members pressing for an all-out assault against the President, "I believe in fighting every day; if we don't, people won't view it as a critical situation." He remarked in an interview with NBC News. Veteran strategist James Carville, however, seems to be placing responsibility on the President's adversaries to not engage and let the administration fail on its own. He is quoted by the New York Times as saying, "It's time for Democrats to undertake the boldest political strategy in our party's history: to roll over and play dead. Let the Republicans collapse under their own burden and create a longing for our presence among the American populace."
In the weeks following the joint Trump-GOP Capitol Hill take-over, however, Democrats have found it difficult to level any criticism at the President in the media. This is by design. The Trump team—meaning Trump and MAGA—is in the meantime only slowly but methodically building a communications framework that gives the president a qualitative edge in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. There’s now a parallel universe of right-wing channels, podcasts, and platforms, all overtly supporting Trump and his team of influencers. Reports indicate Trump’s people have been coordinating very closely for weeks now with recipients of right-wing media leaks in preparation for his congressional address. Many of these same figures were summoned to the White House last week for a a session on how to raise Trump’s visibility.
Tuesday evening, the White House social media team will work with a variety of online influencers to tease out some specific highlights that might pull in more viewers on social media than the entire address or the Democratic response.
In addition to enumerating his achievements, aides say President Trump plans to use the occasion to drive home his most significant missions: making it to Mars (which is a passion project for Elon), winning the AI competition with China, achieving energy independence for the United States, and getting what he described as "the wars in Europe and the Middle East" resolved.
Above all, Trump's first speech in front of Congress will serve as an outstanding milestone. The State of the Union Addresses last year was watched by over 32 million Americans, and this year’s presentation is expected to draw in even more. The reaction from those who will be watching, as well as the millions who will watch clips of Trump's speech after the fact will create a certain measurement of to what extent American approval is behind the changes he is implementing. "This serves as an opportunity to focus less on Trump's actions," notes Zelizer, "and more on the state of the nation.
