President Donald Trump will deliver an address to both houses of Congress on March 4, his first in five years and since his return to the White House.
The upcoming speech follows weeks of his administration moving at breakneck speed, substantially reshaping the role of the executive branch after signing more than 100 executive actions in 42 days.
There’s the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration, substantial changes in the United States’ role abroad, and efforts to fundamentally redefine federal agencies amid mass firings and, in some cases, total dismantling.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives, with Republicans holding a slim majority in each, will be critical in passing legislation to fund many of the president’s key campaign promises, including another round of sweeping tax cuts.
Meanwhile, various groups and nonprofits have filed more than 100 lawsuits challenging many of Trump’s executive actions since retaking office, and Democrats in Washington have accused his administration of creating a “constitutional crisis” and sidestepping Congress in unraveling certain agencies and declining to spend congressionally appropriated funds.
The president will also be speaking just days after a contentious meeting with a key foreign ally in the Oval Office that left a key economic deal in limbo.
What Time and How Can I Watch?
The speech is at 9 p.m. ET on March 4 from the Chamber of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington.Multiple radio stations and television broadcast networks will air Trump’s address live.
What to Expect From Trump’s Speech
In a March 3 morning post on his social network, Truth Social, Trump wrote in capital letters: “Tomorrow night will be big.” He said he would “tell it like it is” throughout the address.The evening will give Trump a chance to go over his agenda and the many sweeping policy changes he has enacted since his second inauguration last month.
The speech also follows a Feb. 28 White House meeting where the president and vice president clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, throwing into doubt a potential cease-fire deal to end the Russia–Ukraine war.
While Zelenskyy has said he is ready to sign an economic proposal that would trade access to his nation’s rare earth minerals for security guarantees, the Trump administration is saying the deal is off the table for now, following the Oval Office argument.
The president mentioned during a March 3 press conference that he would address the status of the Ukraine deal during his speech on the night of March 4.
Trump is also expected to champion his government restructuring efforts through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is tasked with auditing federal agencies to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.
DOGE has worked closely with various agency heads to recommend steep cuts and mass firings throughout the federal bureaucracy, spurring a barrage of lawsuits from a growing list of groups, unions, and nonprofit organizations.
Trump may also address Elon Musk’s role in DOGE, as federal judges have asked who is in charge of the advisory commission and the full extent of the tech CEO’s position as a “special government employee” at the helm of the effort.
The White House has since said that Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service, the agency that oversees DOGE.
Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, one of the key policy promises of his 2024 campaign, is a potential topic. His administration suspended the asylum process at the southern border as well as refugee resettlement.
The president’s effort to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal immigrants has been blocked by two federal judges.
Tariffs will also likely come into play during the speech.
One of Trump’s self-described “favorite words,” tariffs were used as a negotiation tactic during his first presidency and since his return to the White House in attempts to reshape the United States’ trade partnerships and enhance security along its borders.
The pause in 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports is set to expire on the same day as Trump’s address, underscoring their importance in his remarks.
The president also promised an additional 10 percent tariff on top of existing Chinese import tariffs and reciprocal tariffs for other trading partners.
Why Isn’t It a State of the Union Address?
While a speech before a joint session of Congress bears many similarities to a State of the Union address—both occur in the same location around the same time each year—they have different purposes and features.State of the Union addresses traditionally come during the second, third, and fourth years of a presidency, as they give the commander-in-chief a chance to tout achievements over the previous year in office.
Joint addresses give a newly sworn-in president an opportunity to discuss an agenda moving forward.
Trump will be standing before Congress as a second-term president with only four years on the clock to achieve his agenda.
Who Is Delivering Democrat Response?
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who won her first term last year while Trump simultaneously carried Michigan by more than 80,000 votes, will give the Democrat response to the president’s address at 10 p.m. ET.Slotkin’s ascension was a victory for the Democrats in an election that saw them lose their Senate majority.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) will give the Spanish language response, while Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.) will speak on behalf of progressives from the Working Families Party.
Democrats will likely reiterate their disagreement with Musk’s role in both DOGE and the federal government at large, while also hammering the Trump administration on prices and inflation.
