[Video] Trump Addresses Joint Session of Congress: More Than 400 Executive Actions in 43 Days, Reciprocal Tariffs to Start April 2
On the evening of March 4, 2025, President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. It was his first such address to both chambers since returning to the White House, and his fifth address of this kind to Congress. The speech began at 9:19 p.m. EST.
Trump opened with the words "America is back." He said that six weeks earlier he had proclaimed the dawn of a "Golden Age of America" beneath the Capitol dome, and that in the 43 days since, his administration's action had been "swift and unrelenting." He said he had signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions to restore "common sense, safety, optimism, and wealth."
Recalling the presidential election of November 5, 2024, he said Republicans had won all seven swing states and the Electoral College by 312 votes, and had carried counties across the country by 2,700 to 525. He called the result "a mandate like has not been seen in many decades."
Border security and immigration were a central theme. Trump said that within hours of taking the oath of office he had declared a national emergency on the southern border and deployed the U.S. military and Border Patrol, and he said illegal border crossings in the previous month had fallen to the lowest numbers ever recorded. He said he had sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out how his administration would eliminate threats, protect the homeland, and complete "the largest deportation operation in American history," larger even than the record held by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and he urged Congress to send him the funding without delay so he could sign it into law.
On trade, Trump announced that reciprocal tariffs would kick in on April 2. He said he had wanted to make it April 1 but did not want to be accused of an April Fool's joke, adding: "whatever they tariff us, we will tariff them." He also said that companies that do not make their products in America would pay a tariff under his administration, "in some cases a rather large one."
Trump also listed actions taken upon taking office: an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations, and a freeze on all foreign aid; withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, the World Health Organization, and the U.N. Human Rights Council; an order making English the official language of the United States; renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America; and ending diversity, equity, and inclusion policies across the federal government and the private sector.
The address was briefly interrupted when Representative Al Green of Texas stood and shouted in protest. Speaker Mike Johnson twice directed members to uphold decorum and instructed the Sergeant at Arms to restore order and remove Green from the chamber, after which the speech continued.
Trump noted that this was his fifth such speech to Congress. He closed by saying his administration was "just getting started."
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：2025年3月4日，特朗普总统在位于华盛顿的美国国会大厦众议院会场向国会联席会议发表讲话，全场议员与嘉宾在座（照片：白宫官方照片，Andrea Hanks 摄，公共领域，Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: President Trump delivers his address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 4, 2025 (official White House photo by Andrea Hanks, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
