Trump's 100 minutes — how the United States met the president's address. Details

US President Donald Trump delivered the longest address to Congress in history — he spoke for almost 100 minutes. Whether his appeal met expectations, what kind of reaction followed, and why little time was devoted to Ukraine can be found in the Izvestia article.

What Trump was talking about

The joint address to Congress by US President Donald Trump was mainly devoted to domestic political issues. He recalled his achievements during the 42 days of his presidency — reducing cases of illegal border crossings, returning civil servants to offices, freezing funds for foreign aid, rejecting diversity policies and legislative recognition of the existence of only two genders.

Trump, among other things, called on Congress to pass a law criminalizing parents who allow their children to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Speaking about migration policy, he mentioned 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungarey and student Laken Riley, who died at the hands of illegal migrants. One of the first laws signed by Trump, tightening measures against illegal immigration, is named in Riley's honor. Initiatives of the new US administration regarding transgenderism and border protection получили the greatest public support (we have described the content of his speech in more detail here).

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The US president touched upon the topic of foreign policy in passing. He recounted a post by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky published on the social network X, which stated his readiness to sign an agreement on Ukrainian natural resources and immediately begin peace negotiations. Before the United States suspended military aid to Kiev, Zelensky opposed any negotiations without strict guarantees of peace for Ukraine.

The Western press expected Trump to pay more attention to the Ukrainian conflict, as the day before the US administration made several harsh statements against Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Experts believe that in his message to Congress, the president chose the path of hope, while the consequences of the conflict in the Oval Office have not yet been overcome, and the prospect of peace talks remains vague. In addition, resolving the conflict in Ukraine is not a top priority for Trump, but rather an excuse to carry out reforms to solve problems within the United States

The reaction of the Democrats

Some representatives of the Democratic Party abandoned the original goal of boycotting Trump's address, as well as his inauguration earlier. Even at the beginning of his speech, Democratic Congressman Al Green repeatedly interrupted the president, stating that Trump "has no authority." As a result, the legislator had to be escorted out of the courtroom. The congressman's behavior was condemned even by his colleagues, who decided to behave with restraint before the meeting.

Despite the fact that the Democrats showed rejection of Trump's position for most of the speech, they welcomed his theses about Ukraine, regarding it as a continuation of assistance to Kiev. The applause continued even after the president addressed the audience with the question "do you want this [the bloodshed in Ukraine] to continue for another five years?" and added that Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren, whom the president called "Pocahontas," said "yes."

The opposition's response

The representative of the Democratic Party of the USA, Senator from the "wavering" state of Michigan, Elissa Slotkin, who joined the Congress just two months ago, delivered a response speech to the president's message. Unlike the presidential address, her address lasted only about 10 minutes.

In his speech, Slotkin criticized Trump's economic policy, saying that only his "billionaire friends" received tax benefits, while food and housing prices continue to rise. The senator warned that tariffs for Canada would provoke higher prices for electricity and cars, and the trade war unleashed by the president would harm industrialists and farmers and lead to a recession.

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One of the senators was escorted out of the hall during a speech on March 5.

Slotkin represents a rather atypical segment of Democrats who advocate for border security. When polls showed an increased American interest in strengthening border controls, the Democrats decided to include this item in their agenda. At the same time, the senator called border protection only a "treatment for symptoms" and called for reform of the entire immigration system. She called the scene in the Oval Office a demonstration of the president's attitude to the world.

Slotkin's speech was not the only response from the Democrats to Trump's appeal. The chairman of the Spanish Assembly and a deputy from New York, Adriano Espaillat, made a response in Spanish, accusing Trump of behaving like a monarch and instead of working to reduce prices, he changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Emotional moments

During Trump's speech, the Congress hall became a clear demonstration of the split between Democrats and Republicans. While one half of the audience cheered, the other half greeted the president's words with booing and posters with the words "lies." This contrast and the demonstratively leaving representatives of the Democrats turned the message into a show.

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As analysts expected, Trump illustrated his speech with examples from the lives of ordinary Americans: the families of children who died at the hands of migrants and a schoolgirl who was seriously injured as a result of competing with a transgender athlete (LGBT is recognized in Russia as an extremist organization and banned) were invited to his speech. However, the Democrats also tried to put pressure on the public's feelings, for which dismissed civil service employees and veterans of organizations that had lost USAID funding were invited to Congress.

Despite the opposition of the parties in Congress, now the actions of Donald Trump even those Americans who did not vote for him in the elections support him. His approach is considered harsh, but respected for the fact that the president "does what he promised."

The history and essence of the appeal

The tradition of the annual address to Congress was founded in 1790 by the first President of the United States, George Washington, and its prototype was the throne speech of the British monarch at the opening of the session of parliament. In his message to the Congress, the head of state gives an assessment of the situation in the country and recommends the consideration of measures that he considers necessary.

Under U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, the president's speech to Congress at the beginning of the year was permanently titled "On the State of the Country." However, the foreign press insists that Trump's address differs from the traditional message and originates in Reagan's speech during his first term: in 1881, it was designated as "a speech before a joint session of Congress on the economic recovery program."

The address to the Congress is primarily devoted to the topic of domestic policy. The exception to this rule has been made only four times by US presidents in history: in 1823, James Monroe outlined the principles of US foreign policy in his message, in 1941, Roosevelt declared a threat to national security due to the outbreak of World War II, in 2002, George W. Bush appointed Iraq, Iran and North Korea."the axis of evil," and in 2024 Joe Biden considered the conflict in Ukraine to be an existential threat to the United States.

Since 1966, the opposition has had the right to respond to the President's speech. In 2024, after Biden's speech to Congress, the Republicans' response was presented by the first female senator from Alabama, Katie Britt. In her response, she criticized the president for his policies on immigration, the economy, crime control and foreign policy, saying that the crisis on the US border was the result of the first 100 days of Biden's rule. In 2020, as this time, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer spoke after Trump's address. Back then, in her speech on healthcare (in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic) and infrastructure projects, her willingness to confront the Republican president by any means was read between the lines.

While preparing the material, Izvestia interviewed:

• Dmitry Drobnitsky, an American political scientist;
• Bogdan Bezpalko, a political scientist and member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia;
• by Dmitry Solonnikov, a political scientist and director of the Institute of Modern State Development.