Inside Trump’s Address to Congress

What it was like inside the House chamber.

Photo by the White House

For someone who has watched presidential addresses to Congress on TV for years, watching from inside the House press gallery was a strange experience.

The gallery is stationed right above the rostrum (above where it says “IN GOD WE TRUST” in the lead photo), and journalists are admonished not to lean over the edge — apparently, one reporter dropped their laptop charger last year — which means I listened to the entire speech without seeing President Trump, or Vice President Vance or Speaker Johnson behind him.

On the other hand, I had a perfect view facing the assemblage in front of Trump: America’s entire political elite — members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, military generals — staring up at the president who had effectively run against them and more recently has been trying to steamroll them.

At times, it felt like I was watching America’s poisonous political divide splayed out right in front of me.

On the right side of the aisle, Republican lawmakers leapt to their feet every few minutes: grinning, whistling, and cheering wildly as Trump declared that “the American dream is surging” and that the first month of his presidency had been “the most successful in the history of our nation.” (For those curious, George Washington has second place, by the president’s account.)

At several points, the GOP contingent gleefully finished Trump’s sentences when repeating favored catchphrases: “Drill baby drill,” “Made in America.” When Trump announced that “America is back,” the Republicans chanted “U-S-A,” with several pumping their fists as they did so. “Amen!” one lawmaker yelled.

Trump spent a significant portion of the speech reeling off contracts terminated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as Musk applauded from the gallery, not far from where I was sitting. “$8 million for making mice transgender”; “$8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.” (Lesotho’s government did not appreciate that remark.)

Later, he listed statistics suggesting that people are claiming to be 150 years old and receiving Social Security benefits, although there is no evidence this is the case. Regardless, each new stat set of gales of laughter from the Republican side; House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) pounded on the table in front of him, perhaps trying a bit too hard.

On the left, Democrats weren’t nearly as coordinated — but they managed to make their disapproval known, even if in occasionally awkward and discordant ways. Mere minutes into the speech, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) — a longtime Trump antagonist, who introduced the first articles of impeachment against him in 2017 — interrupted the president as he boasted about winning “a mandate like has not been seen in many decades.”

“You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!” Green shouted, shaking his cane at the commander-in-chief. After refusing several requests by Johnson to take his seat, Green was eventually ejected by the sergeant-at-arms at the speaker’s orders. “Get him out of here,” one Republican yelled; several pointed to the door. “Nah, nah, nah, nah, goodbye!” the GOP sang as Green eventually left.

It was a tense moment, helping make the rest of the Democratic response feel particularly deflated: several House progressives silently held up small circular signs throughout the speech, with messages like “FALSE” and “SAVE MEDICAID.” (“It is giving bingo!” the Democratic strategist-turned-MSNBC host Symone Sanders Townsend wrote on X.) As Trump went on, Democratic members left in waves: some when he talked about Ukraine, others when he spoke about gender policy. A few times, Republican lawmakers would cross the aisle to take the seats vacated by Democrats, ensuring a few lonely cheers from the Democratic side of the room every time Trump lobbed out an applause line.

“This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and, once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud,” Trump said early in the address, effectively prebutting the response from the opposition. “Nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.”

“So, Democrats sitting before me,” he added, “for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America?” Republicans leapt up to applaud the line, while Democrats sat stone-faced — as they did later in the night, just as Trump predicted, when he introduced guests like DJ Daniel, a 13-year-old aspiring police officer, and Jason Hartley, a high school senior whose sheriff’s deputy father had passed away.

As Trump called for a new crime bill “enhancing protections for America’s police officers so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed,” Democratic members yelled out “January 6th,” noting (from inside the very Capitol building that was attacked) that Trump began his second term by pardoning rioters who attacked police officers on that day in 2021. But then one Democrat continued yelling it even as Trump introduced Daniel, stopping only once the president added that the boy had survived brain cancer.

Presidents always have a natural upper hand at these sort of events — imbued with a sense of gravity that, for example, a largely unknown Democratic congressman shaking his cane is destined to lack. From a political standpoint, it was hard to see the Democratic response as anything other than a victory for Trump, playing directly into his hands.

But from a small-d democratic standpoint, the whole spectacle was hard to watch, especially up close. The State of the Union address — last night’s speech technically wasn’t one because it was delivered in the first year of a president’s term, but it held all the same trappings — is one of America’s most vaunted political rituals, though it has been descending into theater for years now, ever since Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted “You lie!” at Barack Obama, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ripped up one Trump’s speeches, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) heckled Joe Biden.

But the stately occasion has never been as raucous — or meaningless — as it was last night. Sitting in the House gallery was like looming over two different worlds that lacked any hope of crossover (not even for childhood cancer): part political rally, part standup show on one side, and a mournful wake on the other.

The distrust among members on the floor was visceral, symbolic of the divides among the constituents they represent. As Trump was walking down the aisle, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) held up a sign behind him that read, “This is not normal.” Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) reached over and ripped it out of her hands. The two sides had completely different rhythms, and different touchstones: Democrats chanted “January 6th”; Republicans chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as they raised their fists, mimicking Trump’s response to being shot at.

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According to snap polls taken immediately after the speech, Trump handily won the night. A CBS/YouGov poll found that 76% of viewers approved of the president’s address, compared to 23% who disapproved. A CNN poll similarly found 69% approval, lined up against 31% disapproval.

However, these surveys only sampled those who watched the speech — an audience that skewed Republican, according to both polls. In the age of linear television’s decline, the real battle will be waged on YouTube and short-form video apps like TikTok. Here, too, Trump is poised to assume the upper hand, because of an innate understanding of the modern media climate that Democrats continually seem to lack.

State of the Union addresses have long been criticized as stuffy, too-long laundry lists of boring policy requests. Trump’s speech was certainly long — at an hour and 40 minutes, it was the longest presidential speech to Congress since at least 1964 — but it was largely devoid of any policy news. (And the length, again, matters less in an age where most people will consume it through bite-sized clips. Why not throw out 100 minutes of red meat to the base, knowing the best parts will make their way to other audiences, neatly chopped up for him?)

The biggest policy announcement of the night briefly seemed to be Trump’s announcement that he had received “an important letter” from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, declaring his willingness to strike a peace deal… until it became clear that Trump was merely reading from a tweet that Zelensky had publicly sent earlier.

Unlike most presidents, Trump made few requests of Congress, largely boasting about his own executive actions instead. (The boasts, such as those about the DOGE cuts, were not always true, nor were his exaggerations about immigration, energy, and other topics.) The news he did break was mostly of a personal variety: introducing the Secret Service director, who dramatically walked into the First Lady’s gallery to make Daniel, the 13-year-old cancer survivor, an honorary agent, or announcing that Hartley, the high school student, had been accepted into West Point. (Daniel and Hartley shared a high five after the announcement.)

At one point, Trump asked Vance to hand him a document: suddenly, he held aloft a proclamation declaring that a National Wildlife Refuge in Houston had been named for Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old who was sexually assaulted and killed last year in Texas. (Two undocumented migrants have been charged with her murder.) Nungaray’s mother Alexis was watching from the gallery.

Trump, with his trademark showman’s flair, understands that these — more than any policy announcements — are the moment’s most likely to go viral from a primetime speech. (The CBS poll found equal numbers of viewers judged the address to be “presidential” as “entertaining,” an outcome Trump is likely pleased about.) He’s figured out how to hack our modern political-attentional ecosystem, while Democrats struggle to muster a response.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reportedly urged his members to avoid disrupting the address, a directive that was obviously ignored. (In one small act of protest himself, Jeffries and other Democratic leaders declined to join the group escorting Trump upon his entrance, even as their names were read by Johnson as part of the committee. Democrats participated in this tradition during Trump’s first term, as did Republicans under Biden.) But the Democrats who interrupted anyways seemed unsure how far to take things: some members left quietly, others more dramatically, still more sat politely, while another segment rotated between holding up signs and yelling out objections. With some clad in pink and others in black, they weren’t even able to coordinate a dress code.

Green, the most audible dissenter, briefly appeared to consider resisting as officials tried to remove him from the chamber, but eventually, he too agreed to leave. Jeffries sat stone-faced throughout the saga; right across from him, his predecessor Pelosi, ever the tactician, engaged in several whispered conversations, seemingly trying to urge the official who had ejected Green to also reprimand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for wearing a MAGA hat. (Members have been banned from wearing hats on the House floor since 1837.) The sergeant-at-arms demurred.

Any videos of the aforementioned viral moments will show Democrats seated, some politely clapping, but none rising to their feet. (One exception was Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the lone Democratic lawmaker to stand when the family of Corey Comperatore, who was killed during the assassination attempt against Trump, was introduced.) The only line to draw significant Democratic applause was when Trump noted that the U.S. had spent “hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense” (though he didn’t mean it as a positive).

“As somebody who supports Ukraine, the fact that that was the moment that you had the loudest applause [from Democrats], frankly, speaks volumes to their level of indifference to the America people,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told me after the speech.

Asked for his reaction to the address, Rep. Tim Burchett’s (R-TN) first instinct was to bash the Democrats, rather than praise anything Trump said — an indication of what Republicans view as their biggest win of the night. “I was disappointed the Democrats wouldn’t even stand for a child that overcame cancer,” Burchett told me. “How pathetic is that? It just shows how out of touch they are.”

“They’re gonna go back and give each other high-fives, ‘Oh, we really stuck it to them!’” Burchett added. “And they just look like fools. You get up there and show somebody with purple hair and some old guy asleep. It doesn’t look anything like America. And people are sick of that stuff.”

Any Republican glee might be short-lived, however; once the applauses dies down, political realities will set in once again. The GOP is still far from stitching together consensus on a legislative package to advance Trump’s agenda. (Lawler, a moderate, and Burchett, a conservative, may have been united by their disgust with Democrats last night, but they sit on opposite sides of the divide over that legislation. It’s often easier for a party to unite in opposition to one’s rivals, as they did last night, than in favor of a positive agenda.)

Trump himself is less popular than his speech: his net approval rating dipped into negative territory yesterday for the first time in his second term, marking an eight-point slide since Inauguration Day. (According to FiveThirtyEight data, the only president in modern history to see their approval rating go under-water quicker was Trump, in his first term.)

And, ultimately, as the State of the Union has decreased in influence and the media has atomized, the speech holds less weight for less time. Trump’s address hardly helped his legal troubles: attorneys in a case against DOGE have already entered a court filing noting that Trump said the initiative was “headed by Elon Musk,” despite the government’s representation in court to the contrary. And soon enough, his court problems roared back into view: the top stories on the New York Times and Washington Post front pages have already flipped from Trump’s address to stories about the Supreme Court’s order upholding a pause on one of the priorities Trump boasted about last night, his freeze on foreign aid. (Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court’s liberals in upholding the pause, both shook hands with the president as he entered the House chamber last night.)

As politics becomes more ephemeral, nobody wins — even the winners. Onto the next viral moment, and then the next.