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.

Trump last week used his first cabinet meeting to tout the success of his administration’s efforts to root out alleged fraud, waste and abuse in the federal government, a mission led by Musk and his team at the so-called “department of government efficiency” or Doge. But the aggressive cost-cutting effort has sparked adverse reactions, with US residents boiling over in anger at town halls and protests across the country.

Congressional Republicans have declined to put up any opposition to the stunning power grabs of the president and Musk, a tech mogul turned top White House adviser. Democrats out of power in Washington, have largely watched from the sidelines, rallying public support and backing legal challenges they hope will provide the checks and balances that Republicans will not. Federal judges have slowed or temporarily halted several of the administration’s actions, but Democrats and observers fear some of the damage will not be easily undone.

The speech will take place hours after Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from US neighbors Canada and Mexico took effect on Tuesday, underscoring the administration’s embrace of economic nationalism as a way to force allies and foes alike to bend to his demands.

House speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana formally invited Trump to speak to Congress in January, writing that the address would allow him to share his “America First vision for our legislative future”.

The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, announced in a Dear Colleagues letter that he would attend Trump’s address to “make clear to the nation that there is a strong opposition party ready, willing and able to serve as a check and balance on the excesses of the administration”.

“The decision to attend the Joint Session is a personal one and we understand that members will come to different conclusions,” Jeffries wrote.

“However, it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber. The House as an institution belongs to the American people, and as their representatives we will not be run off the block or bullied.”

Several Democratic lawmakers have announced that they will attend with guests who have been harmed by Trump’s policies – federal employees, refugees and Americans who rely on social safety net programs that congressional Republicans have proposed slashing to pay for the president’s tax cut and immigration agenda. The newly elected Democratic senator Elissa Slotkin of battleground Michigan will deliver the party’s formal rebuttal after Trump speaks.

Chris Murphy, a senator who has emerged as one of the sharpest Democratic critics of the president, said he expects Trump’s address to be a “Maga pep rally, not a serious talk to the nation”. In a Sunday interview on CNN, Murphy said he would not attend.

“I think Donald Trump is going to spew a series of lies about his alignment with Russia, about what he’s trying to do to allow Elon Musk to essentially monetize the American government to enrich Musk and his billionaire crowd,” he said. “And I’m just not going to be a part of that.”