Trump speech replay: President says US is ‘just getting started’ as he talks DOGE, border

President Donald Trump drilled down on inflation, immigration, anti-DEI efforts and DOGE’s sweeping cuts to the federal government in his Tuesday primetime address to a joint session of Congress, vowing that his administration is “just getting started.”

“Now it is our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty,” Trump said during his speech.

Since beginning his second term, the president has teed up tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, fired thousands of federal workers as part of a campaign to cut government spending and berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.

Trump on Tuesday applauded the honored guests in the audience, including family members of Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed in a shocking shooting at a Trump campaign rally last July. The president also addressed family members of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student killed by a man who entered the U.S. illegally.

Trump delivered his remarks in the House chamber, the same room where just four years ago, fearful lawmakers ducked for cover as a mob of his supporters rampaged through the Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The Democratic rebuttal to Trump’s joint address Tuesday honed in on kitchen-table issues and criticism of Elon Musk’s cuts to the federal government.

The response was given by Elissa Slotkin, a freshman Democratic senator from Michigan and a new face for the party still licking its wounds from bruising down-ballot defeats last November.

She also knocked Trump’s alignment with Musk, the tech billionaire whose Department of Government Efficiency has been slashing government agencies and functions. The moves have prompted applause from Republican allies and lawsuits and criticism from federal workers.

“Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information and your bank accounts?” she said.

Trump forged ahead with plans on Tuesday evening to find a path to peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Commenting for the first time since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said publicly that he’s ready to work with the American president, Trump said: “It’s time to end the senseless war.”

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy appealed to Trump on social media. Trump said in his speech that the Ukrainian leader also made a personal gesture in the form of a letter.

“I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Trump said. “Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia, and I’ve received strong signals that they are ready for peace.”

“Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” he added