Donald Trump has claimed he will Make America Affordable Again after blaming Joe Biden for leading the country into “an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.”
Speaking to a joint session of Congress, the president blasted the Biden administration for driving up the cost of groceries, letting the price of eggs “get out of control”, and driving “the necessities of life out of reach for millions of Americans.”
Trump branded Biden “the worst president in American history.”
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After lauding his own first term and the first 43 days of his second administration, Trump laid out a laundry list of complaints and recriminations about the Biden presidency.
He poured scorn on Biden’s policies on immigration, the economy, Afghanistan, the Ukraine war, wokeness, and DEI.
It was the polar opposite of the way Trump portrayed his own short time in office, opening his speech by saying: “My fellow citizens, America is back!”
There were chants of “USA, USA,” as Trump reached the podium and shook hands with Vice President JD Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson.
Wearing a suit and tie rather than his usual T-shirt, Elon Musk stood and acknowledged the GOP cheers as he was thanked by Trump for his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Earlier attempts by some Democrats to heckle the president were drowned out by more “USA” chants.
In an attempt to restore order, Speaker Mike Johnson ordered security staff to remove Democratic Party Texas Rep. Al Green from the chamber after he called out complaining about attempts to block Medicaid.
Trump then blasted Democrats for refusing to cheer or stand for him despite his “astronomical achievements.”
He also hit out at Democratic Party attempts to “viciously prosecute” their opponents, indicating himself. “How did that work out?” he added.
“Our country will be woke no longer,” he declared after saying he had wiped out DEI initiatives across America and removed the “poison” of critical race theory from schools.
There would only be two genders in future, he added, “male and female.”
Trump said it was “a big lie” that children can be trapped in the wrong body. He said children should know that they are “perfect the way God made you.”
“Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is gone,” he said.
Trump reeled off a list of multi-million dollar savings he claimed DOGE was making from various projects around African countries and elsewhere in the world.
He said DOGE was discovering “shocking” levels of fraud in the Social Security department, including payments being dished out to people claiming to be aged as old as 160 and over. One person is listed at 360 years of age, he said.
“We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby,” he added, referring to HSS chief RFK Jr.
Trump said he was leading a “common sense revolution that is sweeping the world.”
He claimed he inherited the worst inflation in 48 years from his predecessor.
But he insisted his “highest priority” was to rescue the economy and “get dramatic and immediate relief to working families.”
He said he planned to balance the federal budget and offer a “gold card” to citizenship for people bringing over $5 million into America. “It’s like a green card but more sophisticated,” he added.
Trump doubled down on his inauguration pledge to launch a “Golden Age of America” saying there has been “nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.”
He claimed to have “accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in 4 years or 8 years.”
“I return to this chamber tonight to report that America’s momentum is back,” he continued. “Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. Our confidence is back.”
“Our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed, and perhaps will never witness again,” he added.
Melania Trump entered the chamber first to a burst of applause, followed shortly behind by Cabinet members. The first lady looked on grim-faced as her husband entered to an ovation from the Republican benches.
Trump bragged that he has signed nearly 100 executive orders in 43 days and taken more than 400 executive actions “to restore common sense, safety, optimism, and wealth all across our wonderful land.”
“In fact,” he added, “it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation.”
“A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy,” he maintained, saying: “The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95 percent, slowed pipeline construction to a halt, and closed more than 100 power plants. We have never seen anything like it.”. On the thorny topic of tariffs, just days after imposing punitive trade taxes on Canada, Mexico and China, Trump said: “Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them. If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before.”
The president said that on April 2, he would be unleashing reciprocal tariffs. “Whatever they tax us, we will tax them,” he said.
Trump added that America would be seizing back the Panama Canal. “We are taking it back,” he insisted. “And we have Marco Rubio in charge. Good luck Marco. We know who to blame if anything goes wrong.”
He also said he thought America would take Greenland. “One way or another we will get it,” he said, to laughter from Republicans.
Moving onto border controls, he claimed to have “launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history.”
He said he had completed “the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than current recordholder Dwight D. Eisenhower—a moderate man but someone who believed very strongly in borders.”
Trump blamed Biden’s “insane and very dangerous open border policies” for America’s immigration woes but insisted: “We are getting them out and getting them out fast.”
He said “beautiful towns” had been destroyed by illegal immigrants, again saying it was all because of the Biden administration.
“Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history—and we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded.
The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation to secure the border—but it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.”
“It’s time for America to wage war on the cartels,” said Trump, who heralded Mexico’s decision to hand over 29 top cartel henchmen.
He also claimed he was “working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine.”
“The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense. Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine – by far! And Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent.”
Claiming the justice system had been “turned upside down by radical left lunatics”, he said “many jurisdictions virtually ceased enforcing the law against dangerous repeat offenders, while weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents, like me.
“My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law—starting at the FBI and DOJ.”
New Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel stood to take applause after being introduced by Trump, who said they were already doing “great jobs.”
“With the name Kennedy you would think those over there would applaud,” said Trump, looking across at the Democratic Party section after he saluted the work of RFK Jr.
Trump also praised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and claimed there had been record levels of new military recruits.
Referring to the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 election campaign, Trump said: “I believe I was saved to make America great again. I really believe that.”
The speech closed after more than one-and-a-half hours and Trump left the podium to shake hands with generals in the front row, who looked unexcited at the prospect, and with the Supreme Court justices who chose to attend, before making his way out through a scrum of well-wishers.
