Trump’s speech in Congress set record for duration: what did US president talk about?
Today's speech by US President Donald Trump to the US Congress was a record-breaking one in terms of length. Trump spoke for 1 hour and 39 minutes.
Trump addressed the lawmakers on the evening of Tuesday, 4 March, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrinform.
Before him, the longest speech in Congress was delivered by Bill Clinton on 27 January 2000. Then, according to The American Presidency Project, he spoke for 1 hour and 28 minutes when he addressed the nation on the state of the country.
This time around, Donald Trump focused on what he called the achievements of his new administration, which began work just over a month ago. The main successes, he said, were the cancellation of the Biden administration's policies on gender, electric vehicles, climate change, etc.
He proudly emphasised the successful withdrawal of the United States from international treaties, such as the Paris Climate Agreement and the termination of its membership in the WHO. In addition, he noted that in a short time he had reached the lowest level of illegal migration in the country.
The US President said that he expects new trade agreements to be signed with Mexico and Canada after new tariffs of 25% on all imports from these countries to the US came into effect on Tuesday. At the same time, he confirmed that starting from 2 April, the US will impose reciprocal tariffs against all countries that impose duties on US goods. In this context, the head of the White House expressed hope that the United States would receive ‘trillions of dollars’ from his new tariff policy.
In addition, Trump praised the activities of the DOGE department headed by Elon Musk in every possible way. The US president promised his voters tax cuts in the face of cost savings that DOGE would provide. At the same time, he warned civil servants of further cuts as part of his mandate to ‘make bold and profound changes’. This was met with a negative reaction from the Democrats present at the meeting. Some even left the room in protest, wearing black T-shirts with the words ‘Resistance’ over their clothes.
During his speech, the incumbent president repeatedly blamed the Biden administration for its policies. He also claimed that he had been the victim of prosecution by the previous Department of Justice.
Donald Trump also mentioned the large investments that tech giants such as Apple, Oracle, chipmaker TSMC, as well as major automotive and other companies have promised to make in the US economy. He said that the US had begun to return the Panama Canal to US control after the US asset management giant BlackRock agreed to buy two of the Panama Canal's entrance ports from a Hong Kong-based firm.
As for Ukraine, Donald Trump said that he had received an ‘important letter’ from Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his intention to sign a deal on fossil fuels and his willingness to come to the negotiating table to bring a lasting peace closer. At the same time, he noted that his administration was in serious discussions with the Russian side. Trump stressed that he had received ‘strong signals that they (Russians - Ed.) are ready for peace’.
