Trump to address Congress as policy decisions divide nation – US politics live

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Trump to lay out second-term vision in key address to Congress

Donald Trump on Tuesday will deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress since reclaiming the presidency and promising a new “golden age” for America.

Before a chamber packed with members of Congress and their guests, the president will lay out his second-term vision after a radical start that has dramatically reshaped both domestic and foreign policy.

In just a few weeks since being sworn into office, Trump has empowered Elon Musk to dramatically downsize the federal workforce, threatened allies with tariffs and coddled longtime American foes. His administration has initiated sweeping mass layoffs of federal employees, mobilized officers from nearly every federal law enforcement agency and the US military to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations, and rattled Europe with his pursuit of a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine on terms preferential to Moscow.

New polling shows warning signs for Trump. More Americans held a negative view of Trump’s presidency so far than a positive one, a new CNN survey found. Meanwhile, a poll conducted by NPR/PBS News/Marist showed a majority of people in the US believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and say that the president has been “rushing to make changes without considering the impact”.

Yet Trump, emboldened by his return to power, has shown no signs of changing course, even as backlash brews.

Callum Jones

China and Canada unveiled retaliatory measures against the US after Donald Trump imposed his sweeping tariffs plan at midnight US time, despite warnings it could spark an escalating trade war.

US tariffs have come into force of 25% against goods from Canada and Mexico, the US’s two biggest trading partners, and 20% tariffs against China – doubling the levy on China from last month.

The duties will affect more than $918bn-worth (£722bn) of US imports from Canada and Mexico.

China on Tuesday said it would impose fresh tariffs on a range of agricultural imports from the US next week. Its finance ministry said additional 15% tariffs would be imposed on chicken, wheat, corn and cotton, with further 10% tariffs on sorghum, soya beans, pork, beef, aquatic products, fruits, vegetables and dairy products.

The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said Ottawa would respond with immediate 25% tariffs on C$30bn-worth ($20.7bn) of US imports. He said previously that Canada would target US beer, wine, bourbon, home appliances and Florida orange juice.

Tariffs will be placed on another C$125bn ($86.2bn) of US goods if Trump’s tariffs were still in place in 21 days.

Some US government workers with top security clearances fired in mass layoffs overseen by Elon Musk in recent weeks were not given standard exit briefings and advised on what to do if approached by foreign adversaries, four sources told Reuters.

The lack of so-called “read outs” for workers with clearances dismissed by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in February could raise security risks as they dealt with secret information on everything from managing nuclear weapons to protecting the power grid from influence by adversaries and ensuring the safety of US international development staffers, former security officials said.

Dismissed employees with top-secret clearances are normally given a final security briefing reminding them of non-disclosure agreements they signed when they got the clearance, Reuters reported.

They would also sign forms acknowledging that disclosing any kind of classified information is illegal and turn in their laptops, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two sources with top security clearances dismissed by DOGE, one at the Department of Energy and one former senior official at the US Agency for International Development, told Reuters they were not debriefed.

Another worker still at the DOE, said several of the 28 workers fired on Feb. 14 at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation’s nuclear arsenal, had clearances and were not debriefed. The fourth source is a person familiar with the situation at USAID.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.

We start with news that president Donald Trump will stand before a joint session of Congress today to give an accounting of his turbulent first weeks in office as a divided nation struggles to keep pace.

It will be the latest milestone in Trump’s total takeover of the nation’s capital where the Republican-led House and Senate have done little to restrain the president as he and his allies work to slash the size of the federal government and remake America’s place in the world, AP reported.

The White House said Trump’s theme would be the “renewal of the American dream,” and he was expected to lay out his achievements since returning to the White House, as well as appeal to Congress to provide more money to finance his aggressive immigration crackdown.

“It’s an opportunity for president Trump, as only he can, to lay out the last month of record-setting, record-breaking, unprecedented achievements and accomplishments,” said senior adviser Stephen Miller.

Democrats, many of whom stayed away from Trump’s inauguration in January, were largely brushing aside calls for boycotts as they struggle to come up with an effective counter to the president.

Instead, they chose to highlight the impact of Trump’s actions by inviting fired federal workers as guests, including a disabled veteran from Arizona, a health worker from Maryland and a forestry employee who worked on wildfire prevention in California.

They also invited guests who would be harmed by steep federal budget cuts to Medicaid and other programs.

In other news:

• The Trump administration has suspended delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine, blocking billions in crucial shipments as the White House piles pressure on Ukraine to sue for peace with Vladimir Putin. The decision affects deliveries of ammunition, vehicles, and other equipment including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president. It comes after a dramatic blow-up in the White House on Friday during which Donald Trump told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with” a third world war. The Ukrainian president was told to come back “when he is ready for peace”.

• US vice-president JD Vance said that the best way to protect Ukraine from another Russian invasion is to guarantee the US has a financial interest in Ukraine’s future. “If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance said in the interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity which aired Monday night.

• China and Canada unveiled retaliatory measures against the US after Donald Trump imposed his sweeping tariffs plan at midnight US time, despite warnings it could spark an escalating trade war. US tariffs have come into force of 25% against goods from Canada and Mexico, the US’s two biggest trading partners, and 20% tariffs against China – doubling the levy on China from last month. The duties will affect more than $918bn-worth (£722bn) of US imports from Canada and Mexico.

• The US health department told employees on Monday they could apply for early retirement over the next 10 days and should respond to a request for information on their accomplishments of the past week, according to emails seen by Reuters. Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the so-called “department of government efficiency”, are spearheading an unprecedented effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy, including through job cuts.

• The US Senate has confirmed Linda McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, entrusting the former wrestling executive with a department marked for dismantling by Donald Trump. The 76-year-old billionaire businesswoman and longtime Trump ally was approved 51-45, reflecting deep divisions over her qualifications and the administration’s education agenda. McMahon, who previously led the small business administration during Trump’s first term, now faces the paradoxical task of running an agency while simultaneously working toward its potential elimination.

• Two alleged leaders of a criminal organization suspected of smuggling 20,000 people without permanent legal residency into the US from Guatemala have been arrested in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said on Monday. Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, known as “Turko”, and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, were taken into custody Friday and have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to smuggling migrants across the border over five years, the US attorney’s office said. A federal judge ordered the men, who themselves are in the country illegally, jailed without bond until their trial in April.