By Steve Holland, Gabriella Borter and Joseph Ax
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump addresses Congress on Tuesday night, six weeks into a tumultuous term defined by his decisions to remake the federal bureaucracy, impose steep tariffs on American allies and pause all U.S. military support for Ukraine against Russia.
The speech – akin to a State of the Union address but not called that because Trump was only inaugurated in January – is set to take place inside the U.S. House of Representatives at 9 p.m. ET (0200 GMT on Wednesday).
It is the same chamber where lawmakers huddled in fear for their lives four years earlier while a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over the then-incumbent Trump.
The emboldened president will be closely watched by rattled European allies, just hours after the White House said it was pausing all military aid to Ukraine following a shocking Oval Office blowup during which Trump upbraided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The suspension of aid was the latest sign that Trump has shifted U.S. policy toward Moscow, after he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and falsely suggested that Ukraine was responsible for starting the war.
The deteriorating relationship between Trump and Zelenskiy left unsigned a planned agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. to jointly develop Ukraine’s rich natural resources, which Kyiv’s backers had hoped would help win more support from Trump’s Republican colleagues in Congress for future aid.
Asked on Monday – before news of the aid suspension emerged – if the Ukraine minerals deal was dead, Trump said, “Well, I’ll let you know tomorrow night” in reference to his speech. “But no, I don’t think so. It’s a great deal for us.”
Despite bipartisan support for Ukraine aid since Russia’s invasion three years ago, many Republicans lauded Trump for Friday’s meeting, even as Democrats assailed him for attacking a putative U.S. ally.
While Democrats were not planning a broad boycott of the speech, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut was among those who said he would not attend, calling the address “a farce.”
Trump was due to speak less than 24 hours after a fresh round of punishing tariffs take effect against Canada and Mexico, sparking fears of an escalating trade war and unnerving financial markets.
On the domestic front, Trump is likely to use the speech to make a case for extending his 2017 tax cuts. Congressional Republicans have advanced a sweeping $4.5 trillion plan to do just that, as well as addressing Trump’s other priorities by tightening border security and funding a huge increase in deportations.
The proposal calls for $2 trillion in spending reductions over a decade, with possible cuts to education, healthcare and other social services.
UPENDING GOVERNMENT
Trump spent part of the weekend at his Florida home crafting the speech with advisers, including ally and billionaire Elon Musk, according to an aide with knowledge of Trump’s schedule.
Musk will attend the Tuesday night speech, a White House official said.
Trump has upended the federal government since taking office on January 20, working with Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to jettison more than 100,000 federal workers across dozens of agencies.
The downsizing campaign has terminated billions of dollars in foreign aid, including lifesaving medicine and food, while effectively shuttering congressionally approved agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Advocacy groups and Democratic state attorneys general have filed dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of Musk’s actions, with at least some judges ordering the administration to pause or slow its efforts.
But Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, will likely applaud Trump. Party leaders have dismissed concerns the president is usurping the legislature’s “power of the purse” – its constitutional authority over how, and whether, federal funds should be spent.
Democrats plan to underscore the harm they say Trump’s policies have on everyday Americans by inviting civil servants hit by DOGE firings or funding freezes, as well as citizens who fear the fallout of Trump’s tariffs or possible Republican cuts to Medicaid and education funding.
Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA agent, will deliver the Democratic Party’s rebuttal.
Slotkin, a moderate seen as a rising star in her party, won her seat in November by campaigning on economic issues like lowering healthcare costs and boosting American manufacturing, even as Trump carried her battleground state.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Gabriella BorterAdditional reporting by Richard Cowan and Trevor HunnicuttWriting by Joseph AxEditing by Colleen Jenkins and Howard Goller)
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