Trump addresses Congress as tariffs roil the stock market; Ukraine's Zelensky says meeting was 'regrettable'

President Donald Trump drew a wave of adoration from Republicans and a series of Democratic protests as he touted the bold first 44 days of his presidency, doubled down on his promise of imposing tariffs and repeatedly hit culture war topics that have long galvanized his most faithful base.

It was clear from the start that this was a House chamber sharply divided for the first address to a Joint Session of Congress during Trump’s second term. Trump’s speech —which appeared to be the longest delivered in this format in history — struck few unifying chords and was peppered with personal insults for Democrats.

And Democrats fielded a substantive response. One Democratic representative was thrown out, others held up signs and Republicans lamented that some special invited guests were not met with applause by stone-faced Democrats in the audience.

Butler, Pennsylvania quickly became a focal point of Trump’s speech Tuesday night as he celebrated Marc Fogel, a teacher and Butler native who returned to the U.S in early February after years in Russian captivity, and memorialized Corey Comperatore, who died shielding his family during the shooting at Trump’s rally in the Western, Pennsylvania town last July.

Before that day became known for the deadly gunfire, Trump said it was the venue where he met Fogel’s mother, 95-year-old Malphine Fogel, and “would not forget what she said about her son.”

“I just happened to go [to Butler] last July 13 for a rally that was not pleasant, and that is where I met his beautiful mom right before I walked onto that stage,” Trump said.

Similar to key votes in Congress so far, Republicans in the chamber reacted in lockstep to President Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday, with nearly every member rising for nearly every ovation.

Pennsylvania’s representatives put that on display.

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a longtime Trump ally from York, and former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, sat on the aisle and led several ovations. U.S. Rep. Ryan MacKenzie, a freshman from a purple Lehigh Valley district, sat toward the front and rose each time.

Trump singled out billionaire adviser Elon Musk — who is sitting in the upper deck of the chamber and received a standing ovation — and his work leading the Department of Government Efficiency, which has been carrying out an overhaul of the federal government.

“He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it,” Trump said.

The president rattled off a list of entities or projects — that were not immediately verifiable — that DOGE has identified as “waste.” He also took that opportunity to make digs at countries receiving aid — “$8 million to promote LGBTQ+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” Trump said.

President Trump touted some of his executive orders involving the federal workforce, including a return to office mandate and his targeting of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at government workplaces.

The president said Tuesday night that if federal workers fail to return to the office, they will be “removed from their job.” Some agencies, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which employs the largest share of federal employees in Pennsylvania, has begun offering guidance on when they expect workers to return.

And on DEI, Trump said “you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender.” Trump signed an executive order in January directing federal agencies to terminate “illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.

“America is back.”

Those were some of the first words of Trump’s address to the Joint Session of Congress Tuesday night.

Trump then shifted to celebrating his electoral victory including his wins in all swing states, including in Pennsylvania where his victory ushered in a red wave in the commonwealth.

U.S. Rep. Al Green was escorted out of the chamber after repeatedly standing and yelling “you have no mandate” at President Donald Trump as he started his remarks.

Green, who represents a district in Texas, waved his cane at Trump and repeated the phrase. “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid,” he said.

Republicans booed Green and U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) and Nancy Mace (R., S.C.) leapt to their feet demanding he be removed.

President Donald Trump’s senior advisor Elon Musk walked into the upper balcony of the House ahead of the president’s address Tuesday to light applause from those who noticed his entrance.

Senators are processing onto the House floor, including Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, of Delaware, and sSen. Andy Kim, of New Jersey, who are attending a joint session for the first time as senators. They eagerly greeted former colleagues in the House.

U.S. Reps. Scott Perry (R., York) and Ryan MacKenzie (R., Lehigh) have coveted aisle seats, which make make it easy to shake hands with the president as he enters.

Members of the Democratic Women's Caucus attending Trump's speech are wearing pink as a protest.

U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D., Del.), the first openly transgender member of Congress, appeared to be participating in the protest by wearing pink.

"DWC members are protesting Trump, Musk, and Republicans for putting billionaires over women and families every single day," the caucus said in a post on X.

A second federal judge extended a block Tuesday on President Donald Trump's executive orders halting federal funding for providers of gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19.

The judge's ruling came after in a lawsuit filed earlier this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their health care has already been compromised by the president's orders.

A national group for family of LGBTQ+ people and a doctors organization are also plaintiffs in the court challenge, one of more than 100 lawsuits opposing a slew of executive orders Trump has issued as he seeks to reverse the policies of former President Joe Biden.

The floor of the U.S. House is a room of ‘savesies’ with even members of Congress filtering in and out to secure spots with scarves and other belongings ahead of President Donald J. Trump’s address to Congress tonight.

U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, on her way to reserving a seat for her and fellow Pennsylvania Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, said she felt “sad and determined,” headed into the address.

“It's a really paradoxical set of feelings. Sad that I know what we're going to see tonight will be a disgraceful display of un-American lies from the very President of the United States,” she said. “And determined to sit there, to push back, to continue to tell the truth to my constituents about the harm that is being done to them and to our democracy with this administration.”

Carrying blue and yellow Ukrainian flags, more than a hundred people chanted “stand with Ukraine” Tuesday evening outside City Hall in the ahead of of President Donald Trump’s address to Congress and after his heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.

Diane Forman, 77, put a pause on her retirement to join the crowd. She has no ties to Ukraine, but outrage moved her to protest.

“I’m here for defending democracy, these people are a symbol of what’s happening in the world, democracy is being taken over,” Forman said.

Why did an 80-year-old widower who lives in a Newtown Square retirement community spend $50,000 to take out a full-page ad in last Sunday’s New York Times pleading for President Donald Trump to resign?

“I thought of my two granddaughters,” said Grant Grissom in an interview on Tuesday. “I was haunted by them someday asking me, ‘When Trump was tearing down the country, what did you do?’

“I decided not to stand by and do nothing.”

U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans was in his Longworth office Tuesday overlooking the U.S. Capitol but he planned to leave ahead of President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress tonight.

Evans, who represents Philadelphia, is one of a handful of Democratic lawmakers who are boycotting the speech.

“This president has not demonstrated, in my view, how to treat people,” Evans said in Washington, noting Trump’s recent blow up of a meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Trump administration plans to terminate the lease for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission office in Philadelphia as part of an ongoing campaign to downsize the federal government, according to federal records and news reports.

Reuters first reported an internal memo sent to SEC employees on Monday, which stated that the regional office building in Center City will be shuttered this year alongside the commission’s regional office in Los Angeles.

A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment Tuesday on what the news bodes for the commission’s roughly 150 employees in the Philadelphia region. According to the memo, the lease cancellations would not coincide with layoffs.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday the Oval Office blowup with Trump and Vance last week was “regrettable,” adding that he stands ready to work under Trump’s “strong leadership” to get a lasting peace.

Zelensky’s remarks in an apparent effort to placate Trump came in a social media post on X, hours after the White House announced a pause military aid to Ukraine that is critical to fighting Russia’s invasion,

He also said Ukraine is ready to sign a lucrative deal on rare-earth minerals and security with Washington.

President Donald Trump threatened to escalate a brewing trade war between the U.S. and Canada ahead of his speech before a joint session of Congress Tuesday.

After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would retaliate with its own tariffs, Trump warned in a Truth Social post the U.S. would respond.

Trump wrote that if Trudeau "puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!"

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced 25% tariffs against $155 billion worth of U.S. goods Tuesday, a retaliation after Trump's 25% tariffs against most Canadian goods went into effect Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, Trudeau said he didn’t believe Trump’s stated reason for enacting the tariffs, noting fentanyl seizures from Canada at the U.S. border were at “a near-zero low of less than half an ounce” last month.

Trudeau called Trump’s justification for tariffs “completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false."

 Stocks tumbled in morning trading on Wall Street Tuesday as a trade war between the U.S. and its key trading partners escalated, wiping out all the gains for the S&P 500 since Election Day.

The tariffs between the U.S., China, Canada, and Mexico has helped to extend a recent slump for U.S. stocks that was prompted by signs of weakness in the economy.

The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, weighed down by nearly every sector except real estate and utilities, which are typically considered relatively safer investments.

Of the eleven individuals or groups invited by President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to his address to Congress tonight, two are from Pennsylvania.

The First Lady’s office announced that Helen, Allyson and Kaylee Comperatore, the widow and daughters of Corey Comperatore, will be among the president’s invited guests. Comperatore was killed by the gunman who shot Trump during a campaign rally in Butler in July 2024.

Marc Fogel, and his 95-year-old mother Malphine, also from Butler, will also attend at the invitation of the president. Fogel is an American history teacher who was held hostage by the Russian government and wrongfully sentenced to 14 years in a Russian prison. Trump and Sen. Dave McCormick played a role in bringing him home on Feb. 12.

In his first speech before Congress of his second term, President Donald J. Trump will have a platform to defend the unprecedented revamping of the federal government and foreign policy shake-up in Ukraine, while he calls on lawmakers to help him advance even more bold actions in the coming weeks.

“President Trump has accomplished more in one month than any president in four years – and the renewal of the American Dream is well underway,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement previewing the address. “In his Joint Address to Congress, President Trump will celebrate his extraordinarily successful first month in office while outlining his bold, ambitious, and common sense vision for the future. President Trump’s Joint Address will be MUST-SEE TV.”

Trump is expected to justify the slew of executive orders and federal cuts in the last few weeks and push Congress to fund increased immigration efforts, like deportations and a more secure border wall.

Three weeks ago Jessica Fair was walking the grounds of Valley Forge Historical Park as the park’s architect, planning how to protect the more-than 250-year-old buildings on site.

Tuesday night she’ll sit in the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives alongside dozens of fellow terminated federal employees when President Donald J. Trump gives an address to both chambers of Congress in a quasi-State of the Union, just six weeks since taking office.

“I’m the daughter of a public school teacher and a coal miner from Western Pennsylvania,” said Fair, U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan’s guest and a mother of three from Chester County. “Never in a million years did I imagine I’d be joining my congresswoman in D.C., but I’m doing my best to step outside of my comfort zone to tell my story to try to humanize what’s happening.”

President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress Tuesday, though it's not a true State of the Union speech because he's only been in office for about six weeks.

Trump is expected to begin his address live from the Capitol shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern. It will air live on all broadcast networks and cable news channels, and is available to stream here on Inquirer.com, courtesy of PBS.

Over the past 20 years, State of the Union-style speeches have averaged about one hour and three minutes, but Trump’s speeches during his first term ran longer, averaging about an hour and 15 minutes.

Trump’s speech will have blanket television coverage and all the pomp and circumstance of previous speeches, but it isn’t technically a State of the Union address.

The president delivers remarks at the invitation of the speaker of the House. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s invitation welcomed Trump to deliver an “address,” a recognition the president needs to be in office a full year before giving an official State of the Union.

Every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 has addressed a joint session of Congress shortly after their inauguration. That includes Trump, whose first speech took place on Feb. 28, 2017.

Following Trump’s address, Democrats will offer their own message about the direction of the country in a rebuttal delivered by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.).

Slotkin was elected to Michigan’s open Senate seat during the 2024 election, despite Trump winning the state. She is a former CIA analyst and Department of Defense official who served during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“The public expects leaders to level with them on what’s actually happening in our country,” Slotkin said in a statement. “From our economic security to our national security, we’ve got to chart a way forward that actually improves people’s lives in the country we all love, and I’m looking forward to laying that out.”

Ahead of Donald Trump's joint address to Congress, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday her country will respond to 25% tariffs imposed by the United States with its own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

Sheinbaum said she will announce the products Mexico will target on Sunday in a public event in Mexico City’s central plaza, perhaps indicating Mexico still hopes to de-escalate the trade war set off by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Unlike China and Canada, Mexico decided to wait until Sunday, though the country has said since January that it had a plan ready for precisely this scenario.