Trump airs familiar grievances, charts MAGA plan in address before bitterly divided Congress

Sen. Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democratic response to Trump's address.

ByAlexandra Hutzler, Ivan Pereira, Emily Chang, and Julia Reinstein
Last Updated: March 5, 2025, 12:09 AM EST

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.

Key headlines:

Here's how the news developed:
Mar 04, 2025, 9:53 PM EST

Claim: Elon Musk found people in the Social Security system as old as 369

FACT CHECK: This is misleading.

Elon Musk shared a chart on X and said he found millions of people in a Social Security database over the age of 110, including 1 who was in the 360-369 age bracket.

The acting Social Security commissioner said that people older than 100 who do not have a date of death associated with their Social Security record “are not necessarily receiving benefits.” Recent Social Security Administration data shows that about 89,000 people aged 99 and older receive Social Security payments.

Government databases may classify someone as 150 years old for reasons peculiar to the complex Social Security database or because of missing data, but that doesn’t mean that millions of payments are delivered fraudulently to people with implausible ages.

— Aaron Sharockman, PolitiFact

Mar 04, 2025, 9:51 PM EST

Economic anxiety has been growing

Trump just promised to "reverse the damage" of the Biden economic agenda and "make America affordable again," and blames the former president for letting the prices of eggs "get out of control." But if that will take time to accomplish, political damage for Trump may set in first. Last month the University of Michigan released new data from its popular Index of Consumer Sentiment, which measures how optimistic Americans are feeling about the economy. The estimate was lower than any ICS score during the 2024 election.

—G. Elliott Morris, 538

Mar 04, 2025, 9:50 PM EST

Republicans laugh, boo as Trump reads list of alleged 'waste' found by DOGE

Trump is reading from a list of what he alleges is "waste, fraud and abuse" identified by DOGE so far. He claimed millions were being spent on "making mice transgender" or for the "Arab Sesame Street" in the Middle East. Republicans either laughed or booed at some of the items he listed. Trump and Elon Musk have at times exaggerated or misrepresenting government programs.

Mar 04, 2025, 9:49 PM EST

Democrats hold up signs as speech continues

Democrats are continuing to hold up signs that say “False” as Trump's speech carries on.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib has a white board that reads, “That’s a Lie”

Other signs saying "Musk Steals," "Save Medicaid," and "Protect Veterans" were organized by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is chaired by Congressman Greg Casar.

Rep. Al Green (D-TX) shouts out as U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

According to a source familiar with the group’s thinking, the goal of the signs was to prevent Trump from shifting the focus away from the key issues they think are breaking through to Americans: his and Musks’ theft of health care and benefits for veterans.

-- ABC News' Lauren Peller

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