• Marc Caputo

• facebook (opens in new window)
• twitter (opens in new window)
• linkedin (opens in new window)
• email (opens in new window)
• sms (opens in new window)

Add Axios on Google

President-elect Trump is being inundated with so much money from corporations and wealthy donors that his team expects to raise about $500 million by summer — even though he can’t run again, sources in his operation tell Axios.

Why it matters: By stockpiling so much cash, Trump is signaling he doesn’t want to be seen as a lame duck in his second term, and is ready to help political allies, punish opponents and help Republicans keep full control of Congress in 2026.

• “The money is just pouring in at Mar-a-Lago. Trump doesn’t have to lift a finger. Everyone’s coming to him,” said a Trump adviser who was among five insiders to speak with Axios anonymously to describe the inner workings of Trump’s operation.
• “We’re looking at half a billion [dollars] by June, and we’re on track,” this adviser said. “It’s sort of a target but it’s just a realistic projection of what’s happening.”

Zoom in: Trump’s donors are giving to a variety of accounts.

• They include the president-elect’s inauguration account, the MAGA Inc. super PAC, a political nonprofit called Securing American Greatness, the Republican National Committee and Trump’s presidential library fund.
• The donors run the gamut: from health care to agriculture, insurance, financial institutions, tech and cryptocurrency investors.
• “The crypto guys are just blowing it out,” the Trump adviser said. “It used to be $1 million was a big number. Now we’re looking at some folks giving like $10 [million] or $20 million.”
• “If the tech guys are giving big, it makes everyone give,” another Trump adviser added.

Catch up quick: The bumper crop of donors is a marked difference from this time four years ago, after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol by Trump supporters.

• Many major GOP donors and corporate interests vowed to either pause or stop donations to Trump or congressional Republicans because of the plot to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Some of the donors resumed contributions later, but Trump has kept a grievance list of those who haven’t, and he’s reminding them he won in 2024 without their help.

• Insiders say Trump’s even pulling out corporate balance sheets and referring to the companies’ bottom lines as their executives — some carrying donations — come to meet him.

“You guys made this amount of money last year and you’re gonna make so much more now because of me,” Trump told the representatives of one company, according to a confidant who heard the story from the president-elect.

• “But when I needed you, where the f**k were you? You weren’t with me and maybe you were with her,” referring to Vice President Harris, whom Trump defeated in November.
• One company’s consultant told Axios that he saw Trump in a meeting with a client and soon-to-be-donor “raking them over the coals” and asking them, “Where were you the last four years?”

Between the lines: Trump is transactional but not for sale, these sources say. In these meetings, they say, Trump has made it clear that this is a one-way street: They donate money to support his agenda, but he’s not taking their money to support their agenda.

• “A lot of these guys are going down [to Mar-a-Lago] taking victory laps because he’s taking their money and they’re in for a rude awakening,” the company consultant said. “Sure, he’ll throw an inaugural party with their money but he owes them nothing.”
• “He’ll take your money and then tell you, ‘I don’t give a f**k what you want.’ He did that during the campaign,” said another Trump adviser. “He’s going to do what he wants, what the base wants.”

Even so, donors seem to be giving on the assumption that there’s something in it for them.

• The reasons appear to vary: ideological alignment with Trump; getting favorable legislation in the upcoming “reconciliation” bill that Trump and the GOP-led Congress are putting together, or avoiding public criticism from Trump that can drive down a company’s value.
• The new Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been cited by some as a new factor. It’s now a verb in the political lexicon, meaning something that’s on the chopping block.
• “We don’t want to get DOGE’d,” one lobbyist told Axios.

There also are competitors to consider: Some industries and companies are fighting each other, so they feel pressure to contribute if their rivals have.

• “The pharma guys came down and met with Trump and blamed a lot of problems on drug prices on the PBM guys,” one Trump adviser said, referring to pharmacy benefit managers.
• “So now, the PBM guys are coming in to meet with Trump.”

Trump’s 2025 joint session address, fact checked and annotated

By Zachary B. Wolf and Curt Merrill, CNN

Published March 5, 2025

Americans are reeling from the early weeks of Trump 2.0, and President Donald Trump got a prime-time chance to explain the fast and furious start to his return to power in an address to a joint session of Congress.

He made the case for the trade wars he’s started with Canada and Mexico, defended his effort with Elon Musk to downsize and remake American government, and faced loud opposition and heckling from Democrats, one of whom was removed from the chamber.

Read Trump’s speech, annotated with context and fact checks, below.

What did Trump spend time talking about?

See more details about topics of Trump’s address Opening remarksImmigrationInflationEnergyTax cutsTariffsGaza and UkraineConclusion

Remarks as delivered

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It’s a great honor. Thank you very much.

Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, the first lady of the United States, the members of the United States Congress. Thank you very much. And to my fellow citizens, America is back.

Johnson and Vance behind Trump are a visual representation of the hold Republicans have on Washington. Their House and Senate majorities are small, but they control every branch of power at the moment.

Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.

It sure has been swift and unrelenting. Agree with it or not, but Trump, working with Elon Musk at his Department of Government Efficiency, has set the pace to completely remake the US government and redefine the place of the US in the world order.

We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years, or eight years, and we are just getting started.

Trump will always say he’s accomplished more than anyone. He’s got a way to go to catch presidents like FDR.

I return to this chamber tonight to report that America’s momentum is back. Our spirit is back, our pride is back, our confidence is back, and the American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.

The American dream is unstoppable, and our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed and perhaps will never witness again. There’s never been anything like it.

The presidential election of November 5 was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades. We won all seven swing states, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes.

He can claim a mandate, having won the popular vote, but it’s by no means historic. Rep. Al Green rose to yell at Trump when he said this and was shouted down by Republicans yelling “USA.”

We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country 2,700 to 525 — on a map that reads almost completely red for Republican.

Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction. In fact, it’s an astonishing record: 27-point swing — the most ever.

Actually, a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS and released this week found that just 39% of Americans said the country was moving in the right direction, compared with 45% who said it was moving in the wrong direction. That’s a drop from when Trump started his first term.

Likewise, small-business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded, a 41-point jump.

From CNN’s Daniel Dale: This claim needs context. If Trump was referring to the commonly cited NFIB Small Business Optimism Index, his claim about a 41-point increase appears to be a reference to one component — the percentage of small-business owners expecting the economy to improve. That measure did soar a net 41 percentage points from pre-election October to post-election November. Trump didn’t mention that the total index then declined in January, to a level that is still high but lower than it was under Trump in September 2020 and October 2020 — less than five years ago.Read more

[interruption, Texas Rep. Al Green removed from chamber]

Johnson warns Rep. Green by name before the sergeant at arms walks down the aisle and escorts him out of the chamber. Green, by the way, was among the first lawmakers calling for Trump’s impeachment during his first term, and has again called for Trump to be impeached even though he just recently took office.

Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions — a record — to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land. The people elected me to do the job, and I’m doing it.

It is an epic pace of executive orders. Some are more consequential than others. Track them all, sorted by general topic, here.

In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency — it’s our presidency — is the most successful in the history of our nation. And what makes it even more impressive is that, do you know No. 2 is? George Washington. How about that? I don’t know about that list. But we’ll take it.

It’s not clear who stated Trump’s presidency has been second only to George Washington’s in terms of success. Trump has now said it. He’s compared himself to George Washington before.

Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the US military and border patrol to repel the invasion of our country. And what a job they’ve done. As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded. Ever.

From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Devan Cole: Trump claimed that, since taking office again, he has already achieved the lowest number of illegal border crossings “ever recorded.” That’s false. He could have accurately said the number of Border Patrol apprehensions at the southern border in February — the first full month of his second term — is the lowest in many decades, at least if it’s true that the number was 8,326, as he claimed on social media before the speech. But official federal statistics show there were fewer Border Patrol encounters with migrants at the southwest border in some of the months of the early 1960s.Read more

They heard my words and they chose not to come — much easier that way. In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members and people from mental institutions and insane asylums, were released into our country. Who would want to do that?

From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Haley Britzky: There is no evidence for the president’s claim, which Trump’s own presidential campaign was unable to corroborate. (The campaign was unable to provide any evidence even for his narrower claim that South American countries in particular were emptying their mental health facilities to somehow dump patients upon the US.)Read more

This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and once again, I looked at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud — nothing I can do.

As Trump says Democrats will never stand and applaud him, cameras show some of them holding small signs that say things like, “Musk steals” and “false.”

I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded. And these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won’t do it no matter what. Five times I’ve been up here. It’s very sad, and it just shouldn’t be this way.

So Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America. For the good of our nation, let’s work together, and let’s truly make America great again.

A hallmark of Trump’s politics is that whenever he is in charge, he says things are great. And whenever Democrats are in charge, he says they are horrible.

Every day, my administration is fighting to deliver the change America needs, to bring a future that America deserves, and we’re doing it. This is a time for big dreams and bold action. Upon taking office, I imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations and a freeze on all foreign aid.

I terminated the ridiculous green new scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying. I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization. And I also withdrew from the anti-American UN Human Rights Council.

From CNN’s Ella Nilsen: This claim is inaccurate. Former President Joe Biden pledged to pay $11.4 billion per year toward international climate financing upon taking office. However, the US contribution to a global finance goal ended up being far lower because Congress appropriated less money than Biden’s goal. Biden’s State Department announced it had allocated $5.8 billion to international climate finance by 2022. US climate finance contributions have never reached trillions of dollars.Read more

Trump did indeed remove the US from international agreements and groups. He also removed the US from the Paris Climate Agreement during his first term. But Biden put the US back in.

We ended all of Biden’s environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable. And, importantly, we ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction.

From CNN’s Bryan Mena: There has never been a federal mandate prohibiting Americans from buying gasoline-powered cars, which he claimed existed in his inaugural address. During the Biden administration, legislation was passed to support electric vehicles. Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office in January seeking to reverse that. However, eliminating those policies may require congressional action.Read more

To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated, just like I did in my very successful first term. And in that first term, we set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations like no other president had done before.

We ordered all federal workers to return to the office. They will either show up for work in person or be removed from their job.

More than half of federal workers were already working from the office full- or part-time when Trump took office, but his requirement has been cited as an effort to cull the federal workforce.

And we’ve ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent, like me. How did that work out? Not too good. Not too good.

From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Devan Cole: That’s false. Trump’s two federal indictments were brought by a special counsel, Jack Smith. Smith was appointed in November 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee — but that is not proof that Biden was involved in the prosecution effort, much less that Biden personally ordered the indictments.Read more

And I’ve stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It’s back.

And two days ago, I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America.

The English as a national language and Gulf of America efforts can be tied together with a very clear racial overtone.

I renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. And likewise, I renamed, for a great president, William McKinley, Mount McKinley, again. Beautiful Alaska, we love Alaska.

We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government, and indeed the private sector, and our military. And our country will be woke no longer.

The anti-diversity initiatives are visible in the chamber. Trump removed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, a Black man; and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the chief of the Navy and first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs, whom Hegseth had described as a “DEI hire.”

We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender. Very important.

You should be hired based on merit, and the Supreme Court, in a brave and very powerful decision has allowed us to do so. Thank you. Thank you very much.

We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools and I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.

I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports.

Three years ago, Payton McNabb was an all-star high school athlete — one of the best — preparing for a future in college sports. But when her girls’ volleyball match was invaded by a male, he smashed the ball so hard in Payton’s face, causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side and ending her athletic career. It was a shot like she’s never seen before. She’s never seen anything like it. Payton is here tonight in the gallery, and Peyton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls’ team or they will lose all federal funding.

And if you really want to see numbers, just take a look at what happened in the women’s boxing, weightlifting, track and field, swimming or cycling, where a male recently finished a long distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours. Broke the record by five hours. It’s demeaning for women, and it’s very bad for our country. We’re not going to put up with it any longer.

What I’ve just described is only a small fraction of the common sense revolution that is now, because of us, sweeping the entire world. Common sense has become a common theme, and we will never go back. Never, ever going to let that happen.

As CNN’s John King said, “’Common sense’ is a Trump term for what others would call culture war: English as the official language, Gulf of America, Mount McKinley, transgender issues and so on. It plays well with his base, but those issues don’t lower prices at the grocery store, so when he got there … it is all blame Biden.”

Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.

Trump may soon face criticism over inflation. The price of eggs has risen, in part because of avian flu, and he has imposed tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China.

Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans — they’ve never had anything like it.

We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country — they’re not sure. As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again.

Joe Biden, especially, let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg price is out of control, and we’re working hard to get it back down.

From CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Elisabeth Buchwald and Vanessa Yurkevich: The avian flu has caused egg prices to rise because the United States Department of Agriculture requires the culling of entire flocks to stop the spread if the virus is detected. It’s a practice that occurred during the Biden administration, but also one that is continuing under Trump as the virus continues to infect flocks nationwide. When Biden took office, the average price of a carton of a dozen grade A eggs across US cities was $1.47, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. By the time Biden left office in January, a carton of eggs cost $4.95 on average, a 2.7% increase from a year prior. Due to short supply, egg prices are projected to increase by 41.1% this year, according to the USDA’s food outlook as of February 25.Read more

Secretary, do a good job on that. You inherited a total mess from the previous administration. Do a good job.

A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy. The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95 percent, slowed pipeline construction to a halt and closed more than 100 power plants. We are opening up many of those power plants right now.

And frankly, we have never seen anything like it. That’s why, on my first day in office, I declared a national energy emergency.

As you’ve heard me say many times, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on earth, by far. And now I’ve fully authorized the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it. It’s called drill, baby, drill.

All oil is not the same. CNN’s Ella Nilsen and Amy O’Kruk explained in a recent story how much of what the US can get at home might not help lower gas prices.

My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska — among the largest in the world — where Japan, South Korea and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each. There’s never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular. It’s all set to go, the permitting is gotten. And later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA.

To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars.

And to that end, I have created the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps.

Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. Thank you Elon, you’re working very hard. He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Is DOGE headed by Elon Musk? There have been conflicting reports.

Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it, I believe. They just don’t want to admit that.

Democrats have been criticized by Trump and others for not embracing Musk’s cuts, which Republicans describe as eliminating waste and fraud. But Democrats have also not been included in the process.

Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified. $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens. $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. $60 million for indigenous peoples and Afro Colombian empowerment in Central America — $60 million. $8 million for making mice transgender. This is real. $32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Moldova. $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique. $20 million for the Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East. It’s a program — $20 million for a program. $1.9 billion to recently created decarbonization of homes committee headed up — and we know she’s involved — just at the last moment, the money was passed over — by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her?

From CNN’s Deidre McPhillips: Trump’s claim is false. Between the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, the National Institutes of Health awarded a total of $477,121 to three projects that involved administering feminizing hormone therapy to monkeys to understand how it may affect their immune system and make them more susceptible to HIV. It’s not clear where the $8 million figure came from or why Trump referenced studies in mice instead of monkeys.Read more

A $3.5 million consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring. $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia, $14 million for social cohesion in Mali. $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City.

It has been difficult to confirm the details on many of these programs. DOGE has a very simple website that is not much more than a version of the group’s feed on Musk’s X social media platform.

$250 thousand to increase vegan local climate action innovation in Zambia. $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda. $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Asia is doing very well with learning. Know what we’re doing, we should use it ourselves.

Most of what Trump mentioned is spending on foreign aid, although it is a fraction — around 1% — of the annual budget.

And $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education — the most ever paid, nothing even like it.

Under the Trump administration, all of these scams — and there are far worse, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about them, they’re so bad. Many more have been found out and exposed and swiftly terminated by a group of very intelligent, mostly young people, headed up by Elon We appreciate it. We found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.

From CNN’s Casey Tolan: This figure, which is uncorroborated, needs context. Musk and other Trump allies have claimed DOGE’s work is aimed at targeting waste, fraud and abuse. But DOGE has not released evidence that the contracts it has canceled were fraudulent. And at least some of the cuts have been reversed amid criticism.Read more

And we’ve taken back the money and reduced our debt to fight inflation and other things. Taking back a lot of that money, we got it just in time. This is just the beginning. The Government Accountability Office, a federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 million in our nation, and we are working very hard to stop it. We’re going to.

Here’s that GAO report. It’s a little more complicated than Trump suggests. There are distinct concepts — “improper payments” and “fraud” — that need to be considered.

We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security numbers from people aged 100 to 109 years old.

From CNN’s Tami Luhby and Daniel Dale: The vast majority of these people do not have dates of death listed in Social Security’s database. But that doesn’t mean they are actually receiving monthly benefits. Public data from the Social Security Administration shows that about 89,000 people age 99 or over were receiving Social Security benefits in December 2024, not even close to the millions Trump invoked.Read more

It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149, and money is being paid to many of them, and we’re searching right now. In fact, Pam, good luck, good luck. You’re going to find it.

Trump has promised not to cut Social Security, but clearly feels that eliminating fraud is not a cut. He will need to prove there is fraud, and he’s asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute some people.

But a lot of money is paid out to people, because it just keeps getting paid and paid, and nobody does, and it really hurts Social Security. It hurts our country. 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159, and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old. We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby.

Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229; one person between the age of 240 and 249; and one person is listed at 360 years of age, more than 100 years — more than 100 years older than our country. But we’re gonna find out where that money’s going, and it’s not going to be pretty.

By slashing all of the fraud, waste and theft we can find, we will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors and put more money in the pockets of American families.

And today, interest rates took a beautiful drop — big, beautiful drop — it’s about time. And in the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget — we’re going to balance it.

With that goal in mind, we have developed in great detail what we are calling the gold card, which goes on sale very, very soon. For $5 million we will allow the most successful, job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to US citizenship. It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated.

Trump made his political name promising mass deportations of undocumented immigrants from mostly poor countries. Here he’s inviting the wealthy to buy access to the US.

And these people will have to pay tax in our country. They won’t have to pay tax from where they came. The money that they’ve made, you wouldn’t want to do that, but they have to pay tax, create jobs.

They’ll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country, instead of having them being forced out — No. 1 at the top school, as an example — being forced out and not being allowed to stay and create tremendous numbers of jobs and great success for a company out there.

So while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers and child predators who are allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people, the Democrats, the Biden administration — the open border, insane policies that you’ve allowed to destroy our country — we will now bring in brilliant, hard working job creating people. They’re going to pay a lot of money, and we’re going to reduce our debt with that money.

Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change. For nearly 100 years, the federal bureaucracy has grown until it has crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits and held back America’s potential in every possible way.

The last president who oversaw a budget surplus was Bill Clinton, who did it with major prodding from Republicans in Congress. Recent annual budget deficits have been more than $1 trillion, although those included emergency spending and Trump’s first-term tax cuts.

The nation founded by pioneers and risk-takers now drowns under millions and millions of pages of regulations and debt. Approvals that should take 10 days to get, instead take 10 years, 15 years and even 20 years before you’re rejected. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work. My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again.

And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately. Because we are draining the swamp — it’s very simple — and the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.

And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody. They’re in there. They’re waiting for you to vote. And I’m sure that the people on my right — I don’t mean the Republican right, but my right right here — I’m sure you’re going to vote for those tax cuts, because otherwise I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office, so I’m doing you a big favor by telling you that. But I know this group is going to be voting for the tax cut.

It’s a very, very big part of our plan. We had tremendous success in our first term with it — a very big part of our plan. We’re seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board, and to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation, I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors.

One reason Trump needs to cut government spending is to pay for these additional tax cuts he has promised.

And I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax-deductible, but only if the car is made in America.

By the way, we’re gonna have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen — plants are opening up all over the place, deals are being made — never seen. That’s a combination of the election win and tariffs. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? That, along with our other policies, will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom. It’s going to boom. Spoke to the majors today, all three, the top people, and they’re so excited. In fact, already, numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in Indiana, one of the largest anywhere in the world.

Honda announced it will produce the hybrid Civic in Indiana in order to avoid Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, according to Reuters.

And this has taken place since our great victory on November 5, a date which will hopefully go down as one of the most important in the history of our country.

In addition, as part of our tax cuts, we want to cut taxes on domestic production and all manufacturing, and just as we did before, we will provide 100% expensing. It will be retroactive to January 20, 2025, and it was one of the main reasons why our tax cuts were so successful in our first term, giving us the most successful economy in the history of our country. First term, we had a great first term.

If you don’t make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff, and in some cases a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries.

During the campaign Trump frequently talked about his love for the word tariff. Here he seems to be explaining it to Americans.

On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada — have you heard of them? — and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair. India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100%. China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them, and South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that, four times higher — and we give so much help militarily and so many other ways to South Korea. But that’s what happens. This is happening by friend and foe. The system is not fair to the United States. It never was.

This is the meatiest portion of the speech so far. Trump is trying to build support for his tariffs, which alarm many Americans and also alarmed the stock market, which dropped this week.

And so on April 2 — I wanted to make it April 1, but I didn’t want to be accused of April Fool’s Day. That’s what — that’s not — just one day was cost us a lot of money. But we’re going to do it in April. I’m a very superstitious person. April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in, and whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal, back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them.

Or, perhaps this means countries have a little less than a month to negotiate.

If they do nonmonetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do nonmonetary barriers to keep them out of our market. There’s a lot of that, too, they don’t even allow us in their market. We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. I did it with China, and I did it with others, and the Biden administration couldn’t do anything about it because it was so much money. They couldn’t do anything about it. We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer.

From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Tami Luhby: Trump’s claim needs context. Tariffs are paid by US importers, not foreign exporters, and it’s easy to find specific examples of companies that passed along the cost of the tariffs to US consumers.Read more

Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada, but we have very large deficits with both of them. But even more importantly, they’ve allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people — destroying families. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. They are, in effect, receiving subsidies of hundreds of billions of dollars. We pay subsidies to Canada and to Mexico of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the United States will not be doing that any longer. We’re not going to do it any longer.

Thanks to our America-first policies we’re putting into place, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks. The combination of the election and our economic policies that people of SoftBank, one of the most brilliant anywhere in the world, announced a $200 billion investment. OpenAI and Oracle — Larry Ellison — announced $500 billion investment, which they wouldn’t have done if Kamala had won. Apple announced $500 billion investment — Tim Cook called me, he said, “I cannot spend it fast enough.” It’s going to be much higher than that, I believe. They’ll be building their plants here instead of in China. And just yesterday, Taiwan Semiconductor, the biggest in the world, most powerful in the world, has a tremendous amount — 97% — of the market, announced a $165 billion investment to build the most powerful chips on Earth, right here in the USA.

And we’re not giving them any money. Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing. We give hundreds of billions of dollars, and it doesn’t mean a thing. They take our money and they don’t spend it. All that meant to them. We’re giving them no money. All that was important to them was they didn’t want to pay the tariffs, so they came and they’re building, and many other companies are coming. We don’t have to give them money. We just want to protect our businesses and our people. And they will come because they won’t have to pay tariffs if they build in America. So it’s very amazing. You should get rid of the CHIPS Act, and whatever’s left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt, or any other reason you want to.

The CHIPS Act, which was intended to build up a domestic semiconductor industry, was passed with bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate, and signed by Biden into law. Trump’s administration has been working to cancel some contracts.

Our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer — I love the farmer — who will now be selling into our home market, the USA, because nobody is going to be able to compete with you, because those goods that come in from other countries and companies. They’re really, really in a bad position in so many different ways. They’re uninspected. They may be very dirty and disgusting, and they come in and they pour in and they hurt our American farmers.

Farmers — or people in rural America — are part of Trump’s base of support. But they will be among those hurt most by his trade war.

The tariffs will go on agricultural product coming into America and our farmers, starting on April 2 — it may be a little bit of an adjustment period. We had that before, when I made the deal with China, $50 billion of purchases, and I said, just bear with me. And they did. They did. Probably have to bear with me again, and this will be even better. That was great. The problem with it was that Biden didn’t enforce it. He didn’t enforce it. $50 billion of purchases, and we were doing great, but Biden did not enforce it, and it hurt our farmers, but our farmers are going to have a field day right now. So to our farmers, have a lot of fun. I love you, too. I love you, too.

And I have also imposed a 25% tariff on foreign aluminum, copper, lumber and steel, because, if we don’t have, as an example, steel and lots of other things, we don’t have a military, and frankly, we just won’t have a country very long.

Here today is a proud American steel worker, fantastic person from Decatur, Alabama. Jeff Denard has been working at the same steel plant for 27 years in a job that has allowed him to serve as the captain of his local volunteer fire department, raise seven children with his beautiful wife, Nicole, and over the years, provide a loving home for more than 40 foster children. So great job.

Hats off to Jeff.

Thank you, Jeff. Stories like Jeff’s remind us that tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs, they’re about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. And it’s happening, and it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance. We’re okay with that. It won’t be much.

Economists aren’t so sure the disturbance will be so “little” from these tariffs. They could impact everyday Americans to the tune of $1,200 per year, and that’s before the reciprocal tariffs Trump promised in this speech.

And look, and look where Biden took us. Very low, the lowest we’ve ever been. Jeff, I want to thank you very much. And I also want to recognize another person who has devoted herself to foster care, community. She works so hard on it. You’re a very loving person, our magnificent first lady of the United States.

Melania’s work has yielded incredible results, helping prepare our nation’s future leaders as they enter the workforce. Our first lady is joined by two impressive young women, very impressive: Haley Ferguson, who benefited from the first lady’s Fostering the Future initiative, and is poised to complete her education and become a teacher; and Elliston Berry, who became a victim of an illicit deepfake image produced by a peer. With Elliston’s help, the Senate just passed the Take It Down Act, and — this is so important. Thank you very much, John Thune. Thank you, John. Thank you all very much.

Deepfakes are a major problem.

And thank you to John Thune and the Senate, great job, to criminalize the publication of such images online — just a terrible, terrible thing — and once it passes the House, I look forward to signing that bill into law. Thank you. And I’m going to use that bill for myself, too, if you don’t mind. Because nobody gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody.

That’s great. Thank you very much to the Senate. Thank you.

But if we truly care about protecting Americans’ children, no step is more crucial than securing America’s borders. Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States. Many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world. Because of Joe Biden’s insane and very dangerous open border policies, they are now strongly embedded in our country, but we are getting them out and getting them out fast.

It’s surprising that Trump waited this long into the speech to talk about his deportation efforts. His administration has struggled to work as fast as Trump would like. In fact, the pace of deportation flights so far has not been much different from that under Biden in 2024, according to data analyzed by CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez and Renée Rigdon.

And I want to thank Tom Homan, and Kristi, I want to thank you. And Paul of Border Patrol, I want to thank you. What a job they’ve all done. Everybody, Border Patrol, ICE. Well, law enforcement in general is incredible. We have to take care of our law enforcement.

Last year, a brilliant 22-year-old nursing student named Laken Riley — the best in her class, admired by everybody — went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized and horrifically murdered. Laken was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden’s open southern border, and then sent loose into the United States under the heartless policies of that failed administration — it was indeed a failed administration. He had then been arrested and released in a Democrat run sanctuary city — a disaster — before ending the life of this beautiful young angel. With us this evening, are Laken’s beloved mother, Allyson, and her sister, Lauren.

Riley’s death was a major campaign issue for Republicans, and passing the Laken Riley Act, which requires certain migrants to be detained when accused of a crime, was a major victory for Trump and Republicans.

Last year, I told Laken’s grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain. That’s why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety. It’s very strong, powerful act.

It’s called the Laken Riley Act, so Allyson and Lauren, America will never ever forget our beautiful Laken Hope Riley.

Thank you very much.

Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history, and we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded. Thank you.

The media and our friends in the Democrat party kept saying, “We needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border,” but it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.

Joe Biden didn’t just open our borders. He flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals and communities throughout the country. Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption, like nobody’s ever seen before — beautiful towns destroyed. Now, just as I promised in my inaugural address, we are achieving the great liberation of America.

Springfield is the place where Trump and Vance falsely insisted Haitian refugees were eating dogs and cats. It wasn’t true.

But there still is much work to be done. Here tonight is a woman I have gotten to know, Alexis Nungaray, from Houston. Wonderful woman. Last year, Alexis’ 12-year-old daughter, her precious Jocelyn, walked to a nearby convenience store. She was kidnapped, tied up, assaulted for two hours under a bridge and horrifically murdered. Arrested and charged with this heinous crime are two illegal alien monsters from Venezuela, released into America by the last administration through their ridiculous open border. The death of this beautiful 12-year-old girl and the agony of her mother and family touched our entire nation greatly.

Jocelyn Nungaray’s death was also a campaign issue.

Alexis, I promised that we would always remember your daughter, your magnificent daughter. Earlier tonight, I signed an order keeping my word to you. One thing I have learned about Jocelyn is that she loved animals so much — she loved nature. Across Galveston Bay from where Jocelyn lived in Houston, you will find a magnificent National Wildlife Refuge; a pristine, peaceful, 34,000-acre sanctuary for all of God’s creatures, on the edge of the Gulf of America. Alexis, moments ago, I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter, Jocelyn. So Mr. Vice President, if you would, may I have the order? Thank you very much.

Trump’s signing of an order during the joint address to Congress seems like it must be a first.

All three savages charged with Jocelyn and Laken’s murders were members of the Venezuelan prison gang — the toughest gang, they say, in the world — known as Tren de Aragua. Two weeks ago, I officially designated this gang, along with MS-13 and the bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations.

They are now officially in the same category as ISIS, and that’s not good for them.

Countless thousands of these terrorists were welcomed into the US by the Biden administration, but now every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country, or if they’re too dangerous, put in jails standing trial in this country because we don’t want them to come back ever.

With us this evening is a warrior on the front lines of that battle, Border Patrol agent Roberto Ortiz — great guy. In January, Roberto and another agent were patrolling by the Rio Grande, near an area known as Cartel Island — doesn’t sound too nice to me — when heavily armed gunmen started shooting at them. Roberto saw that his partner was totally exposed, in great danger and he leapt into action, returning fire and and providing crucial seconds for his fellow agent to seek safety — and just barely. I have some of the prints of that event, and it was not good. Agent Ortiz, we salute you for your great courage and for your line of fire that you took and for the bravery that you showed, we honor you and we will always honor you. Thank you, Roberto, very much.

There was a major standing ovation for Ortiz, who teared up.

And I actually got to know him on my many calls to the border. He’s a great, great gentleman. The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control. They have total control over a whole nation, posing a great threat to our national security. The cartels are waging war on America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing.

Five nights ago, Mexican authorities, because of our tariff policies being imposed on them — think of this — handed over to us, 29 of the biggest cartel leaders in their country. That has never happened before. They want to make us happy. First time ever.

Learn more about Rafael Caro Quintero and the 28 other alleged criminals extradited to the US from Mexico.

But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they’ve done. They have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the USA. They’re going to stop it.

Trump has overstated the amount of fentanyl coming into the US from Canada. It is a fraction of what authorities seize.

I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history — larger even than current record-holder President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate man, but someone who believed very strongly in borders.

Trump is referring to Eisenhower’s horribly named “Operation Wetback.”

Americans expect Congress to send me this funding without delay so I can sign it into law. So Mr. Speaker, John Thune, both of you, I hope you’re going to be able to do that. Mr. Speaker, thank you. Mr. Leader, thank you. Thank you very much. And let’s get it to me, I’ll sign it so fast, you won’t even believe it.

Republicans will have to coalesce around a government spending bill to deliver this funding to Trump. They have an extremely small majority in the House and Democrats are unlikely to help them.

And as we reclaim our sovereignty, we must also bring back law and order to our cities and towns. In recent years our justice system has been turned upside down by radical left lunatics. Many jurisdictions virtually seized, enforcing the law against dangerous repeat offenders while weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents like me. My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, starting at the FBI and the DOJ. Pam, good luck. Kash, wherever you may be, good luck. Good luck.

Trump’s first-term FBI Director, Chris Wray, had years left on his 10-year term, but Trump made clear he wanted Patel for the job. Patel, a conspiracy theorist, was among Trump’s more controversial nominees.

They’ve already started very strong. They’re going to do a fantastic job. You’re going to be very proud of them. We’re also, once again, giving our police officers the support, protection and respect they so dearly deserve — they have to get it. They have such a hard, dangerous job, but we’re going to make it less dangerous. The problem is, the bad guys don’t respect the law, but they’re starting to respect it, and they soon will respect it.

Republicans generally support police, but Trump’s pardon of January 6 rioters who attacked Capitol Police complicates that.

This also includes our great fire departments throughout the country. Our firemen and women are unbelievable people, and we’ll never forget them. And besides that, they voted for me in record numbers so I have no choice.

One year ago this month, 31-year-old New York police officer Jonathan Diller — unbelievably wonderful person and a great officer — was gunned down at a traffic stop on Long Island. I went to this funeral. The vicious criminal charged with his murder had 21 prior arrests, and they were rough arrests, he was a real bad one. The thug in the seat next to him had 14 prior arrests and went by the name of Killer. He was Killer. He killed other people, they say, a lot of them. I attended officer Diller’s service, and when I met his wife and 1-year-old son, Ryan, it was very inspirational, actually. His widow’s name is Stephanie, and she is here tonight. Stephanie, thank you very much, Stephanie.

Stephanie, we’re going to make sure that Ryan knows his dad was a true hero, New York’s finest, and we’re going to get these cold-blooded killers and repeat offenders off our streets, and we’re going to do it fast. Got to stop it. They get out with 28 arrests. They push people into subway trains. They hit people over the head — back of the head — with baseball bats. We got to get them out of here. I’ve already signed an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer, and tonight I’m asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law.

I’m also asking for a new crime bill, getting tough on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America’s police officers so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed. They don’t want to be killed. We’re not going to let them be killed.

Joining us at the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police. His name is DJ Daniel, he is 13 years old, and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer.

DJ was dressed in a police uniform and was held up to applause.

But in 2018, DJ was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months, at most, to live. That was more than six years ago. Since that time, DJ and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true, and DJ has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer — actually a number of times. Peace. The police love him. The police departments love them. And tonight, DJ, we’re going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.

It was a touching moment when DJ hugged the Secret Service director. Trump has elevated the showmanship associated with guests at these presidential addresses.

Thank you, DJ. DJ’s doctors believe his cancer likely came from a chemical he was exposed to when he was younger. Since 1975, rates of child cancer have increased by more than 40 percent. Reversing this trend is one of the top priorities for our new Presidential Commission to Make America Healthy Again, chaired by our new secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

With the name Kennedy, you would have thought everybody over here would have been cheering. How quickly they forget.

Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong. As an example, not long ago — and you can’t even believe these numbers — one in 10,000 children had autism, one in 10,000, and now it’s one in 36. There’s something wrong — one in 36, think of that — so we’re going to find out what it is. And there’s nobody better than Bobby and all of the people that are working with you, you have the best, to figure out what is going on. Okay, Bobby? Good luck. It’s a very important job. Thank you.

Kennedy, of course, has questioned whether vaccines are to blame, although that theory has been debunked. As HHS secretary, he has said he wants to see more evidence about vaccines. Trump’s portrayal of the rise in autism rates is also distorted.

My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools. A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband, while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns — they/them pronouns actually — all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse. January, thank you.

Stories like this are why, shortly after taking office, I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.

I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth.

And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children, and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie.

This type of law would likely not be able to pass through the Senate as long as the filibuster exists.

And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect, exactly the way God made you.

Because we’re getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military, and it’s already out, and it’s out of our society. We don’t want it. Wokeness is troubled. Wokeness is bad. It’s gone. It’s gone. And we feel so much better for it, don’t we? Don’t we feel better?

As Trump says “wokeness” is gone from the military, the camera panned to top generals, all of whom are now White men.

Our service members won’t be activists and ideologues. They will be fighters and warriors. They will fight for our country. And Pete, congratulations. Secretary of defense, congratulations. And he’s not big into the woke movement, I can tell you. I know him well.

I am pleased to report that in January, the US Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years, and that all armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services. What a difference.

And you know it was just a few months ago, where the results were exactly the opposite; we couldn’t recruit anywhere. We couldn’t recruit. Now having the best results just about that we’ve ever had, what a tremendous turnaround. It’s really a beautiful thing to see people love our country again. It’s very simple. They love our country and they love being in our military again. So it’s a great thing. And thank you very much. Great job.

We’re joined tonight by a young man, Jason Hartley, who knows the weight of that call of duty. Jason’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather all wore the uniform. Jason tragically lost his dad, who was also a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, when he was just a boy, and now he wants to carry on the family legacy of service. Jason is a senior in high school, a six-letter varsity athlete — a really good athlete, they say; a brilliant student with a 4.46 — that’s good — GPA. And his greatest dream is to attend the US Military Academy at West Point.

And Jason, that’s a very big deal getting in, that’s a hard one to get into, but I’m pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. You will soon be joining the Corps of Cadets.