Trump speaks to Congress. But will he work with Congress?

Donald Trump’s address to Congress last night was made up of his greatest hits since returning to the Oval Office. Just over six weeks’ worth of public policy filled a 100-minute speech in what is being reported this morning as one of the longest Congressional addresses in history. The president touched on practically every topic, from the Ukraine war to buying Greenland. 

“America is back,” he told the joint-session, to cheers of “USA”. Based on the tone of his speech, the Trump we saw on the campaign trail is also making a comeback. The president loves a rally, and this address felt as though it was crafted not for the audience in front of him, but for his supporters watching from home. As a result, there was the usual heckling of his opposition, who just happened to be in front of him on this occasion.

“I look at the Democrats in front of me and realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy, to make them stand or smile,” he said, met by a mix of sincere and sarcastic laughter.

The political theater was dialed up on both sides of the podium during the speech, which featured mass applause, heckling, and Texas Democrat Al Green getting thrown out the chamber for deliberately interrupting the speech. Trump was fired up: “These people right here will not clap, will not stand and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.”

The president was expected to show up to the House of Representatives last night in a bad mood after the bust up in the Oval Office between him, J.D. Vance and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump’s Treasury secretary Scott Bessent had briefed before the speech that Trump was not going to announce any signing to the minerals deal agreed in principle with Ukraine — which was then shelved after the public stand-off at the White House. Many had been expecting the worst, not least because the president escalated matters further yesterday by temporarily suspending US aid to Ukraine.

His comments, however, strongly suggested that channels of communication remain open. “I appreciate that he sent this letter, just got it a little while ago,” Trump said of the note sent by Zelensky, which was then read out loud to the world.

“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring peace that lasts,” Trump read. Naturally he included the bits about him: “My team and I are ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

Remarking on similar conversations with Russian officials, Trump heralded the idea of peace once again. “Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” he said. “It’s time to stop this madness.” That’s not exactly negotiations back on track — but it’s a vast improvement on Friday’s tense meeting.

Much of Trump’s rhetoric seemed lighter and cheerier than it’s been since he took office. It appears America is no longer planning to invade Greenland, just extending a friendly invitation to sign up to exceptionalism if they so choose.

“We will keep you safe. We will make you rich”, the president said. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump told Greenland’s residents in his address. It was a nod to self-determination, but still on Trump’s terms. “I think we’re going to get it — one way or the other”, he said.

For an address that was billed as potentially explosive, Trump’s remarks dialed down — slightly — the tension building over the past four days. The most interesting dynamic was not really what he was saying, but rather who his audience was. Speaking to the 119th Congress, with Vice President J.D. Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson sitting behind him, the event was a reminder that the 47th president has not been engaging his fellow elected representatives very much. He’s been opting for Executive Orders instead. 

Trump made his reasoning clear: he wants to move fast, break lots of things and that’s easier to do in the short-term with a pen than it is by negotiating with Congress. But it also means that what Trump is doing can easily unravel, in the courts and certainly when (it’s always when, not if) the opposition finally makes it back to the White House.

What’s so curious about Trump’s decision to avoid Congress is that his party dominates Washington right now. The Republican Party controls the House, the Senate and the Oval Office. It’s the only recipe in American politics for getting much done. It is also, however, a signal that much of what Trump is doing is contestable, even within a now MAGA-dominated party. His plans for tariffs are a case-in-point. As Trump ushered in his 25 percent levies on Canadian and Mexican goods (and another 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods, on top of the one implemented last month), there are plenty on the center-right who are getting nervous about what all this means for the cost-of-living crisis that saw Joe Biden’s Democratic Party take such a beating in the last election.

Trump is now admitting publicly that taxes on imports do indeed impact American business and consumers, as he gears up to bring in “reciprocal” tariffs on countries from April. But it’s not a point he wants to make strongly. Get ready for “a little disturbance,” he said last night. “But we’re OK with that”. Who is “we”? The president’s decision to keep these decisions to himself for now may well be an indication that he doesn’t want to divide his party on trade.