Trump’s big speech will be delivered to a changed nation and a Congress he has sidelined
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump He will appear before Congress on Tuesday annual State of the Union address suddenly transformed nation.
one year go back to officeTrump has emerged as a president who defies conventional expectations. He implemented a dazzling agenda priorities at homeshredder alliances abroad and challenge the country’s fundamental system checks and balances. There were two Americans killed by federal agents While protesting the Trump administration Immigrant raids and mass deportations.
While MPs sit in the Parliament hall and listen Trump’s agenda This moment is an existential moment for the year ahead CongressThe Republican president has essentially been sidelined by his broad reach. GOP’s slim majority amassing immense power for himself.
“This is crazy,” said Nancy Henderson Korpi, a retiree in northern Minnesota who joined the Indivisible protest group and planned to watch the speech from her home. “But what bothers me more is that Congress has actually delegated its powers.”
“If Congress does its job, we can make some solid decisions and changes,” he said.
The situation in the union is complicated
The country is at a turning point, celebrating its anniversary 250th anniversary while experiencing some of the most significant changes in its politics, policies and general mood in the lives of many Americans.
The president pushed his agenda through Congress when necessary (often pressuring lawmakers with a phone call during exciting votes), but often eschewed the complex give-and-take of the legislative process to outmaneuver his own party, and often united Democratic opposition.
Trump’s signature legislative achievement so far is the GOP’s big tax cut billwith a new one savings accounts for babies, no tax on tips and other special deductions and high Cuts to Medicaid And SNAP food assistance. It also fueled more $170 billion to Homeland Security for immigration deportations.
But the GOP-led Congress has largely stood by as Trump’s dramatic seizure of power. hundreds of enforcement actionsmany are being questioned in court and are willing to do whatever it takes to impose their own agenda.
“Recovering a lost power is no easy task in our constitutional order,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his Supreme Court hearing. landmark rebuke Information about Trump’s tariff policy will be given on Friday.
“Our system of separation of powers and checks and balances threatens to lead to the permanent and permanent concentration of power in the hands of one man,” Gorsuch said, without the court intervening on substantive issues.
Trump goes it alone, with or without Congress
from cutting federal workforce upset childhood vaccination plan to attack Venezuela and catch the president of that countryTrump’s reach seemed to know no bounds.
His administration has launched investigations into possible political enemies, imposed his name on historic buildings including the famed John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and, perhaps most blatantly, rounded up people and turned warehouses into detention centers for deportation.
At almost every step there were moments when Congress could have intervened but did not.
Minority Democrats have often tried to back down. routine Homeland Security funding withholding Unless there are restrictions on immigration actions.
But Republicans believe the country elects the president and gives control of Congress to their party in line with his agenda, according to a senior GOP leadership aide who insisted on anonymity to discuss the dynamic.
House Speaker Mike Johnson A Louisiana president says Trump will be the “most important” president of the modern era.
Democrats plan to either boycott the speech or remain silent.
“The state of the union is collapsing,” said New York House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Congress asserts itself from time to time
There have been times when Congress has held its own against the White House, but they have been rare — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. and the White House to force his release, as in the high-profile bipartisan push by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Ca. Jeffrey Epstein filesOver the objections of Johnson and GOP leadership.
The flexibility of congressional power stems more from the fact that a few renegade Republicans have combined with most Democrats to control the president; Parliament voted To block Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Senate approves war powers resolution Prevent military action in Venezuela without congressional approval, but retreated After Trump intervened.
These were mostly symbolic votes because Congress did not have the numbers to overcome Trump’s expected veto.
More often than not, Congress has accommodated Trump by withdrawing already-approved bipartisan funding for USAID foreign aid, or public broadcasting or the failure to stop US military attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean that killed two survivors. When Trump released a statement Day One amnesty from about 1,500 people January 6, 2021 attack At the Capitol, congressional Republicans did not object.
And when Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency with billionaire Elon Musk began firing federal workers, GOP lawmakers signaled approval by forming their own DOGE caucus on Capitol Hill.
“The key question for us is whether the public understands what is at stake,” said Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit focused on government management and democracy. “We are in the midst of the most important transformation of our government and public employees in our country’s history.”
He said about 300,000 federal employees were fired or transferred elsewhere, while 100,000 new hires or rehires went largely to Homeland Security.
Checks and balances are being questioned
Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which has filed more than 150 lawsuits against the administration, said a record number of lawsuits have been filed against the administration in courtrooms across the country because Congress is “asleep at the wheel.”
But the judicial system is under pressure and the White House does not always comply with court orders. GOP lawmakers also joined Trump in his criticism of the courts, displaying posters of judges they want to remove outside their offices.
The next big test will be on the proof-of-citizenship voting bill that Trump wants ahead of the midterm elections.
The House passed the SAVE America Act, which requires a birth certificate or passport and photo ID at the ballot box to vote in federal elections. Supporters say it is meant to prevent fraud, while critics argue it will exclude millions of Americans from voting because their citizenship documents are not readily available.
The Senate has the majority to pass the measure but lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome the expected Democratic-led filibuster.
Trump has promised executive action if Congress does not approve the legislation.
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