Sen. Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democratic response to Trump's address.
President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, six weeks into his historic return to the White House.
During the speech, Trump said "America is back" and defended the tariffs on key U.S. trading partners. He touched on immigration and the mineral deal with Ukraine, but neglected to go into detail on his economic plan. The speech was also met with protests and disruptions from Democrats.
“And later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA,” Trump said, though he did not mention any particular deal or plan.
As Trump turned to talking about the Department of Government Efficiency, the camera panned to Elon Musk standing in the House gallery. Trump then called him out by name and praised his work so far. Republicans gave Musk a hefty round of applause.
Some members exit the chamber while Trump is speaking. One sported a black t-shirt reading "RESIST" on the back.
FACT CHECK: False
Trump defended his decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, saying the pact was costing the U.S. “trillions of dollars.”
That’s untrue.
The Trump administration defended the decision to withdraw from the climate agreement, in part, based on projections by consultant NERA Economic Consulting. It concluded that restrictions on fossil fuel emissions would result in higher cost of production, and a higher cost of production would translate into the closure of uncompetitive manufacturing businesses. Those closures, in turn, would mean fewer manufacturing jobs.
The consultant estimated that these losses and their knock-on effects beyond the manufacturing sector would amount to 1.1 million jobs lost by 2025 and 6.5 million by 2040. The loss of jobs results in a corresponding decline in gross domestic product, with a loss of $250 billion by 2025 that accelerates to $3 trillion by 2040.
So the climate agreement wasn’t costing the U.S. trillions of dollars. It hypothetically could.
But even if it did, the study’s say that the long-term projections did not factor in all of the offsetting job gains and GDP growth associated with a clean tech transition.
— Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact
