What Trump Said Last Night, Trump On Immigration, China Tariff Confidence
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President Trump addressed Congress promising new waves of tariffs on products Americans buy and criticizing Democrats for not smiling or applauding. What did the speech reveal about the administration's next moves? I'm Michelle Martin, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. The president also talked up a plan to let rich foreigners buy U.S. residency for $5 million. He also spoke of current migrants as terrorists. Every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country. His homeland security czar says they are short of resources, so what's the president's need from Congress?
Also, how is China responding to U.S. tariffs? The communist government has its own public ritual, the annual meeting of its one-party Congress. Our colleague John Ruich is there. and helps us to listen in. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. President Trump took the occasion of a speech to Congress to proclaim in his view that America is back.
For more than 90 minutes, he talked of securing the border, slashing government and imposing tariffs. And he said he did not expect much support from Democrats.
These people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand and certainly will not cheer for these people. astronomical achievements.
They won't do it, no matter what. The opposition party did spend most of his speech stony-faced, seated, or protesting.
NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez was listening to all of those minutes, and he joins us now. Franco, good morning.
Good morning, Steve.
What was it like?
Yeah, I mean, there was always some kind of tension in these kind of speeches. But last night, that tension was really so much higher. I mean, in the first five minutes, a Democratic congressman, Al Green of Texas, stood up in protest. He was waving his cane and calling out that Trump didn't have a mandate. And when he wouldn't sit down, House Speaker Mike Johnson actually had him escorted out of the chamber, which was a first as far as I can remember. And throughout the speech, Republicans were cheering. Democrats were holding up these signs that read things like false and save Medicaid. And just repeatedly, Trump would go after former President Joe Biden by name and calling Democrats radical left lunatics. I mean, the partisan nature of this speech is really likely what this is going to be remembered for.
Well, the president certainly celebrated some of his more divisive or partisan achievements.
Yeah, Trump actually spent a lot of time touting the work of Elon Musk and his project to cut costs known as the Department of Government Efficiency. And he got into some of the nitty gritty, giving this long list of examples that he said were being cut. Here's a small part.
Forty million dollars to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQI+, in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.
Now, Steve, Trump's critics have said some of these cuts were for necessary services like aid for starving children. And in some cases, the White House did acknowledge this and rehired people. But NPR has also looked into some of the claims of savings posted on the Doge website and documents show that most of those savings don't actually exist.
Well, did the president talk about his plans for the year ahead? This can be a table setting moment.
Yeah, a little bit. He asked Congress to pass his tax cuts. He talked about a plan that he'll announce this week to expand production of critical minerals in the U.S. But he really spent most of his time talking about things that he's already done. Well, did he use guests in attendance to make his points, as presidents often do? He did. He did. And that kind of shows the priorities. A lot of the guests were victims of crime or worked in law enforcement. There was this really heartwarming moment when Trump honored a 13-year-old boy who has fought brain cancer. He was dressed in a police uniform, and Trump said he had a special surprise for him.
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