Takeaways from Trump's address to Congress

By James Oliphant, Jeff Mason and Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress in a televised speech on Tuesday, six weeks into a tumultuous term during which he has upended decades of U.S. foreign and domestic policy and stretched the limits of the presidency.

Here are some takeaways from Trump’s 100-minute-long speech:

FOREIGN POLICY GETS SHORT SHRIFT

The opening weeks of Trump's presidency have been dominated by foreign policy, with several cabinet members engaging in furious shuttle diplomacy throughout Europe and the Middle East in a bid to wind down the Ukraine war and the conflict in Gaza.

But you wouldn't know it from Trump's speech on Tuesday, which was focused almost entirely on domestic affairs.

The president waited until the end of his address to discuss the Ukraine war, the Middle East or national security generally. And when he did, he largely repeated his greatest hits, reiterating his intention to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal and describing the war in Ukraine as a bloody war of attrition that needs to be stopped.

He did make two pieces of news, however.

Trump said he received a letter earlier in the day from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying he was ready to sign a proposed critical minerals deal between the two nations, just four days after an Oval Office meeting between the two leaders devolved into a nasty public argument.

Trump also said the mastermind of a 2021 bombing during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan had been detained. While Trump offered few additional details, a White House official identified that individual as Mohammad Sharifullah, a high-ranking member of ISIS in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

APPEALS TO CONGRESS

Since taking office on January 20, Trump has disrupted and upended foreign and domestic affairs through the use of trade policy, diplomacy, immigration controls and executive orders.

As with any administration, Congress will now have to do some heavy lifting, beginning with the massive tax cut and border bill Trump is seeking to pass. He also asked Congress for funding to build a massive "Golden Dome" missile shield over the country and ultimately to balance the budget.

Unlike his predecessor, President Joe Biden, who sought dialogue with Republicans and bipartisan victories, Trump did not look to enlist support of Democrats for his agenda. Instead, he largely mocked and dismissed them during the speech as if he were still a candidate on the campaign trail.

In response, several Democrats either turned their backs to Trump or walked out of the chamber. By the time Trump was finished, their side of the aisle was half empty.

Trump used the speech as an opportunity to highlight some easy early wins to please his conservative supporters.

But the next months likely will tell a more complete tale about the early arc of his second term, as he tries to push his legislative agenda through and keep his promises to bring an end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

PROTEST IN PINK

Before Trump's speech on Tuesday, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi advised her Democratic colleagues not to become part of the story.

That didn't work out so much.

Shortly after Trump began his remarks, Democratic Representative Al Green from Texas stood up and shouted that the president did not have a mandate.

"Sit your ass down!" Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican, shouted at Green, who remained standing.

The ruckus did not end, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson directed the sergeant at arms, in charge of maintaining order in the chamber, to escort Green out.

Some other Democratic lawmakers found an unobtrusive way to show protest with a collective fashion choice: pink clothing.

Multiple female lawmakers, including Pelosi, donned outfits in that hue for the Republican president's speech, creating a show of unity and solidarity in a room otherwise dominated by blue and gray suits.

The color choice was different but the aim was similar to Trump's 2019 State of the Union address, when Democratic women wore white to celebrate 100 years of women having the right to vote, projecting a picture of calm displeasure during the president's remarks.

EGGS IN BIDEN'S BASKET

The No. 1 issue that helped get Trump elected was inflation and the cost of basic goods like groceries. On Tuesday, it was a subject the president was not eager to discuss.

When he did, he put the blame on Biden’s administration while providing little detail on how he would bring down, for example, the cost of eggs.

“Joe Biden, especially, let the price of eggs get out of control," Trump said.

Egg prices are at an all-time high, but largely because bird flu outbreaks have led to shortages by wiping out millions of hens.

“Secretary, do a good job on that,” Trump said, presumably to Brooke Rollins, the new secretary of agriculture.

Beyond that, Trump didn’t have much to propose in terms of bringing down costs other than what he said during the election campaign: increased energy production and cutting what he calls fraud and waste in the federal government, both of which may affect inflation indirectly over time.

Trump drew cheers when he introduced tech billionaire Elon Musk as the spearhead of the effort to downsize the federal payroll and spending. Trump credited Musk with identifying "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud," an assertion that far exceeds even what the administration has claimed so far.

Trump spent more time discussing his actions on hot-button social issues and conservative talking points, each of which earned him rousing applause from the Republicans in the chamber.

They included renaming the Gulf of Mexico and a mountain in Alaska, making English the official language of the country, ending government diversity programs and preventing transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams.

All of those were a result of Trump's executive orders and came at a stroke of his black Sharpie pen. The price of eggs: That’s harder.

DIFFERENT NUMBERS

Trump began his address in an expansive and celebratory mode, suggesting that he had turned voter attitudes around since taking office on January 20. But he still may have real work to do to win over skeptical viewers at home.

“For the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction — an astonishing record 27-point swing, the most ever,” Trump said.

Trump may have polls of his own that support his boast, but Reuters/Ipsos polling does not. The most recent poll, taken over the two days ahead of the speech, had 49% of Americans saying the country was on the wrong track compared to just 34% of those who said it was on the right one.

With Trump levying steep tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and inflation still not tamed, the president is getting low marks on economic concerns, with only 1 in 3 Americans approving his handling of cost of living issues, the poll found.

Overall, Trump’s approval rating is holding steady at 44%. That’s only slightly higher than Biden's during much of his latter time in office, the man Trump assailed throughout the evening.

(Reporting by James Oliphant, Jeff Mason and Gram Slattery; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Deepa Babington and Howard Goller)