The Morning: A rally in Congress

Plus, Trump tariffs, Ukraine and the world's largest iceberg.

View in browser|nytimes.com March 5, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. We're covering Trump's address to Congress — as well as tariffs, Ukraine and the world's largest iceberg. President Trump  Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times A rally in Congress Last night, President Trump gave what sounded like a campaign speech. He mocked Democrats, decried "wokeness," bragged about his accomplishments and repeated falsehoods. Except this speech wasn't delivered at a rally. It was in Congress, and the audience included Democrats. The mood was sour, and the parties jeered at each other. The evening showcased the chasm in our polarized politics. Democrats repeatedly interrupted Trump. Representative Al Green of Texas waved his cane and shouted when Trump said he'd won a mandate. Green refused to sit down, and the House speaker ordered security to remove him. Democrats continued to yell throughout the speech. Many held signs saying "FALSE." Trump egged on the confrontation. He said Democrats wouldn't clap or cheer at anything he said or did — even if he cured a deadly disease or eliminated crime. "They won't do it, no matter what," Trump said. Democratic lawmakers during the joint address. Kenny Holston/The New York Times At one point, Trump pointed to Republicans to say, "It's our presidency." He called Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts "Pocahontas." He derided Democrats for launching criminal investigations against him. "How did that work out?" he asked. The back and forth would have been unthinkable during most of the formal, and typically stuffy, addresses that presidents have given to joint sessions of Congress for more than a century. Consider the outrage that milder displays drew in previous years: In 2005, pundits from both parties condemned Democrats for booing George W. Bush during his State of the Union speech. In 2009, a Republican congressman publicly apologized after interrupting Barack Obama's speech by yelling, "You lie!" Trump also embraced his role as a showman. He gave a Secret Service badge to Devarjaye Daniel, a 13-year-old with brain cancer who wants to be a cop and came to the speech wearing a police uniform. He unveiled an executive order to rename a Texas wildlife refuge for Jocelyn Nungaray, a Houston 12-year-old killed, the police say, by Venezuelan migrants. And the president surprised Jason Hartley, a high school senior whose family members served in the military, with admission to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Devarjaye Daniel holding his honorary Secret Service badge.  Doug Mills/The New York Times Today's newsletter will break down Trump's speech, with reporting from my colleagues. Trump's policies Historically, presidents address Congress to urge lawmakers to work on specific legislation. Trump did little of that last night. For much of his speech, he boasted about how much he has done without Congress. He listed his accomplishments, often making misleading statements: Ukraine. Trump said he appreciated a conciliatory note from Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, that seemed to calm the dispute the two leaders had in the Oval Office last week. "They are ready for peace," Trump said of Russia. "Wouldn't that be beautiful?" Tariffs. He acknowledged that tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China might hurt American farmers, saying that there "may be a little bit of an adjustment period." Immigration. He cited a drop in illegal immigration. He also claimed that his administration was conducting rapid deportations. This is misleading: At the current pace, the Trump administration would deport half as many people as the Obama administration once did in a 12-month period. Government cuts. Trump recited a list of funding programs that Elon Musk's DOGE team cut, including one in the African nation of Lesotho, a country he said "nobody has heard of." He also said his administration had found "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud," a claim that lacks evidence. Spending. Trump said Congress would balance the federal budget. But the proposal House Republicans advanced last week includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would add to the deficit. Attacks on "wokeness." Trump cited his efforts to eradicate D.E.I. and bar transgender athletes from women's sports. "Wokeness is trouble, wokeness is bad, it's gone," he said. Read The Times's fact check, which assessed more than two dozen of Trump's claims. More on the night Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump's speech lasted over 100 minutes — the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history. Senator Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democrats' response. She argued that Trump's agenda would hurt taxpayers and America's reputation. Trump, she said, is "going to make you pay in every part of your life." Trump pressed for the United States to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal. "We're going to get it one way or the other," he said of Greenland. House Democrats' guests included military veterans whom Trump fired from government jobs. Trump's speech didn't convey, or rationalize, the scale and intensity of the disruption his presidency has caused, David Sanger writes. Trump stressed his support for Musk's government overhaul and re-litigated the 2024 presidential campaign: Read six takeaways and the full transcript. Commentary Democrats were right to protest, writes David Firestone of Times Opinion: "It's hard to blame those who couldn't stop themselves from shouting at the barrage of misinformation." The verbal sparring made up the best and worst moments of a night long on theater, Times columnists write. Daniel Goldman, a Democratic congressman from New York, criticized the president for not making a stronger call for the release of the Israeli hostages. Carlos Gimenez, a Republican congressman from Florida, supported Trump's remarks on Panama, calling its canal an "American innovation." THE LATEST NEWS Trump's Tariffs Trump, by imposing tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico, has courted a trade war with America's biggest trading partners. Economists are puzzled. Justin Trudeau said he found Trump's intentions hard to determine, but suggested that the tariffs were motivated by territorial aggression. "We will never be the 51st state," he said. The Trump administration said it would lift tariffs on Canada and Mexico once deaths from fentanyl fall. They've already fallen. Mexico's president did much of what Trump asked: She moved to secure the border, hunted down cartels and sent drug lords for prosecution in the U.S. He imposed tariffs anyway. Canadians are angry about how their neighbor is treating them. Some say the relationship between the U.S. and Canada will never be the same. More on the Trump Administration BlackRock, a giant American asset manager, plans to buy ports at both ends of the Panama Canal from a Hong Kong-based company. The deal could relieve some of the pressure Trump has put on Panama. A judge blocked the Trump administration from firing the head of a board that protects government workers from being wrongfully fired. Another judge stopped the administration from withholding funds from hospitals that offer gender transition treatments to young people. The Trump administration marked hundreds of federal properties for potential sale, including offices for the Social Security Administration and the I.R.S. War in Ukraine In Ukraine. Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Zelensky offered terms he said could end the war with Russia: He promised to release prisoners of war and halt long-range attacks if Vladimir Putin agreed to do the same. Experts say Ukraine's military might buckle in as little as four months without U.S. weapons. The Kremlin propaganda machine long portrayed the U.S. as an evil empire. With Trump in charge, its view is rosier. The leader of the E.U. wants to increase European military spending by more than $800 billion to support Ukraine and the continent. International Xi Jinping Andy Wong/Associated Press At a set-piece meeting in Beijing, China's leaders tried to project economic confidence despite sluggish growth and geopolitical uncertainty. Israel's domestic security service said it failed to heed warning signs before the Oct. 7 attacks, but also said that government policy had emboldened Hamas. A doctor is on trial in France, charged with raping or sexually assaulting 299 people, mostly his young patients. His family's testimony suggested a culture of silence. Other Big Stories The world's largest iceberg — about four times the size of New York City — has run aground after months of drifting. The Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing, went to two A.I. pioneers who developed reinforcement learning, a technique vital to chatbots like ChatGPT. Opinions Luxury brands have often aligned themselves with liberals. They might benefit from getting closer to the tax-averse, oligarch-friendly Trump administration, Amy Odell writes. Here are columns by Maureen Dowd on Trump's address to Congress and Bret Stephens on arguments for betraying Ukraine. The Games Sale. Our best offer won't last. Come play with us. Subscribe to New York Times Games for up to 75% off your first year. Strengthen your strategy with Wordle Bot, reach Genius on Spelling Bee, play The Crossword and more. MORNING READS An Amtrak train in Del Mar, Calif. Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times Cliffhanger: A scenic California train line sits on the precipice of eroding bluffs. Officials are looking for a new route before it's too late. Good and bad pain: When should you keep running after a twinge in your knee, and when is it a sign of a bigger problem? Most clicked yesterday: What's behind Trump's love-hate relationship with Canada? Lives Lived: Refugee, prisoner, wine merchant, spy: Peter Sichel was many things in his long, colorful life, but he was probably most often identified as the man who made Blue Nun one of the most popular wines in the world. He died at 102. SPORTS N.B.A.: LeBron James became the first to reach 50,000 career points across the regular season and playoffs. Relive his milestones. N.F.L.: The Jets released the star wide receiver Davante Adams after a disappointing three-month stint. ARTS AND IDEAS Clockwise from top: West Village in Chengdu, the Museum of Clocks and "Memorial to Hu Huishan." The Pritzker Architecture Prize This year's winner of the highest honor in architecture, the Pritzker Prize, is Liu Jiakun of China. When Liu was 17, he was sent to labor in the countryside as part of Mao's Cultural Revolution. One of his notable creations is the Museum of Clocks — a large circular structure, punctured by a skylight, that contains a series of clocks signifying the end of the Cultural Revolution. See more examples of Liu's work. More on culture An artist put three live piglets in an exhibition about animal cruelty, planning to let them starve to death. Instead, the pigs have gone missing. Jimmy Fallon joked about Trump's speech: "The night was pretty much a welcome back party for Trump, Republicans and measles." THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times Drizzle homemade yum-yum sauce over shrimp fried rice. Clean a lamp. Do your laundry better. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was phlegmy. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — German Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018