Donald Trump’s Big Night On Capitol Hill

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Bill Clinton can relax. He no longer holds the record for the longest address to a joint session of congress. 

Although he didn’t say the words, “the state of our union is strong,” the nearly two-hour talkathon U.S. president Donald Trump delivered on Tuesday night (March 4, 2025) had the look and feel of a traditional State of the Union – with a strong dose of MAGA campaign rally thrown in, of course.

And why not? Former president Joe Biden turned these speeches into nakedly partisan affairs… why shouldn’t Trump dive in?

There were cheers, jeers, self-administered pats on the back and calls for more action. There were guests in the galleries, chants of “USA! USA!” and even a couple of wishes granted to young people.

There were protests, too.

In short, it was quite a show. 

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For starters, the address was nearly twenty minutes late in starting. That delay fueled pent-up emotions, and they burst forth when the words, “Mister Speaker, the President of the United States!” were called out. At least on the Republican side of the aisle. Democrat outbursts would soon follow.

As GOP senators and congressmen stood and applauded, Democrats remained seated. In fact, the Democrat side of the evenly divided chamber resembled a sullen time-out box throughout the night. Divided over how to treat Trump, Democrat disarray was on full display. Some members wore pink to highlight women’s issues – ironic considering precisely none of them voted to safeguard the integrity of women’s sports. Some black members protested by wearing black clothes. Still other Democrats wore blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine’s flag, to showcase their support for the collapsing regime of president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. With their Jacob’s Coat of Many Colors approach to dissent, their message was watered down from the beginning.

Trump hit a home run right off the bat when he channeled the late Lee Iacocca by declaring, “America’s momentum is back. Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. Confidence is back,” which set off a roaring ovation.

However, it only took three minutes for Democrats to start booing and shouting, spurred on by congressman Al Green of Texas. That prompted an unusual interruption from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had to gavel the session to order. When Green continued to defy the speaker’s order to stop talking, he was escorted out of the House chamber by the sergeant at arms.  

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WATCH: Rep. Al Green (D-TX) was just removed by the Seargent-at-Arms for interrupting President Trump.

His appalling lack of decorum and respect is shameful. pic.twitter.com/wKGsp0sfQ0

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 5, 2025

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And that was just the opening scene…

“It has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action,” Trump said of his first six weeks back in office. “The people elected me to do the job, and I am doing it.”  

Indeed, the start of Trump’s presidency has seen such a flurry of activity (much of it via executive orders), he spent the bulk of his first hour running through his greatest hits to date.

He played up the crowd pleasers, such as banning DEI in the federal government, keeping men out of women’s sports, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud and waste uncovered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative.

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RELATED | SOUTHERN BORDER APPREHENSIONS PLUMMET

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Throughout it all, Democrats mostly stayed mum as Republicans leapt to their feat for ovation following ovation. Particular attention was paid to cutaway shots of House Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi, whose face kept stretching into ever tighter contortions as the speech continued, sparking a blizzard of humorous memes.

“I haven’t seen a face that pickled since Almira Gulch threatened the life of Dorothy’s dog in the ‘Wizard of Oz,’” one GOP political operative told us.

Trump injected plenty of partisanship into his remarks, too. He was particularly harsh on his predecessor, calling Biden “the worst president in America history” and saying he had inherited “an economic nightmare.” He delivered a dozen such zingers about Biden and his administration.

Trump eventually moved on to the topic where he’s scored his greatest success to date: securing the U.S. Mexican border.

“The media and our friends in the Democrat party kept saying we needed new legislation! We must have legislation to secure the border!” Trump said. “But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.”

At which point, he turned his attention to the gallery, which was seemingly packed with his guests. They included the mother and sister of Laken Riley, the young University of Georgia student murdered by a Venezuelan immigrant last spring. 

From there, he segued to law enforcement – offering the most memorable moment of the night for many viewers. He acknowledged 13-year-old brain cancer survivor JD Daniel, who wants to pursue a career in the field. He’s even been made an honorary member of several police forces. As his proud father hoisted up his son, Trump said he was “going to do you the biggest honor of them all” by making him a Secret Service agent.

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13-year-old D.J. Daniel was diagnosed with brain cancer and given five months to live — and that was six years ago.

Since then, D.J. and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true — and tonight, President Trump made him an honorary member of the Secret Service. pic.twitter.com/9FuDCUIfos

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 5, 2025

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At this point, many viewers noticed something disturbing… at a moment tailor made for unity, most Democrats sat on their hands, refusing to join in the applause at the heartfelt recognition. They did the same a few minutes later when Trump informed high school senior Jason Hartley – who lost his dad in the line of duty when he was a boy and dreamed of attending West Point – that he had been accepted to attend the United States Military Academy.

In fact, Democrats largely stayed silent as Trump made his way through the entire “American heroes” section of his speech.  

“That’s not just bad politics; it’s dumb politics,” one South Carolina political strategist told us. 

Trump promised to take back the Panama Canal, vowed to get Greenland “one way or another,” and hinted that the deal that fell apart during last Friday’s acrimonious Oval Office session with Zelenskyy may soon be back on again.

“It was a Reaganesque speech,” a D.C.-based political consultant told us afterward. “He touched all the right issues and connected with everyday Americans the same way the Gipper did 40 years ago.”

Which was an interesting comparison because the fortieth president was also on the mind of the woman who delivered the Democratic response. Michigan’s freshman senator Elissa Slotkin admitted at the start that she’s not a household name. After going out of her way to assure viewers that she grew up in a bipartisan family and had served as a CIA agent, she then transitioned into a dutiful Democratic water carrier via an all too familiar round of Trump bashing. Like most D.C. Dems, she professed to have been horrified by last week’s Zelensky-Trump Oval Office smackdown.

“Ronald Reagan must be rolling over in his grave,” she scolded.

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“Maybe so,” the South Carolina strategist admitted. “But who heard her? It was after 11:15. As she was coming on TV, most folks were turning it off and going to bed.”

Polling is being aggressively conducted across the country today. One of the first out, Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll, shows Trump with a solid 51% overall approval rating with likely voters. But political pros say they don’t need to wait for the numbers.

As the D.C. consultant told us, “Love him or hate him, people heard a strong, confident president. And they saw one Democrat escorted out in disgrace while the others were so preoccupied hating Trump with such blinding passion that they wouldn’t even clap for a kid with cancer. Good luck trying to spin that.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.

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