Less than two months after his inauguration, President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress last night for his first major speech of his second term in office. Trump’s 100-minute speech broke the record as the longest by any President in history. But while he spent most of the time patting himself on the back for signing a flurry of executive orders and bragging that “America is back,” plenty of people weren’t buying what he was selling, and many of the reactions online and in the room reflected just how tired the American people are already.
A Major Walkout
Some members of Congress couldn’t wait for the President to finish his MAGA monologue and made a point of letting him know that they are not on board with his agenda by walking out in the middle of his speech. Rep. Maxwell Frost posted a picture of himself along with other House members who participated in the exodus.
“We just walked out of the state of the Union. My shirt showed Trump an important message: NO KINGS LIVE HERE,” he captioned his post.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), who also participated in the walkout, co-signed Rep. Frost’s sentiment, accusing President Trump of “spewing all kinds of nonsense and BS.”
“If he had some sense then maybe we would have been about that life, but ya’ll know he ain’t got no sense,” she said in a post on X.
Calling out BS
But it wasn’t just members of Congress who spoke out against Trump’s speech. TikTok user @blackbeltbabe pointed out that in the one hour and 40 minutes that Trump spoke, he never offered any real solutions, just concepts of a plan.
“If you were hoping for a plan to lower prices and fix the economy, you didn’t get one,” she said. “If you wanted a speech that was full of culture war rants, lies and power grabs, Trump delivered exactly that.
MSNBC host and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele called out even more of Trump’s hypocrisy on air, pointing out that while he claims to be “restoring true democracy to America,” he’s handed over some pretty major responsibility to Elon Musk – someone the American people did not vote for.
“It was a rich moment for me when Trump talked about an unelected bureaucracy,” he said. “The most obvious unelected bureaucrat at the center of all this is Elon Musk.”
But because this is America, we also found some people who were thrilled by the things Trump had to say.
TikTok user @queentruth thought Trump’s address was “exceptional,” saying it was about the people and how he wants to “move America forward.
“He highlighted real issues that affect real people and how his policy changes and executive orders either benefitted them or will make sure that they’re less likely to occur again,” she said.
TikToker @kingd9855 said he loved what he heard, adding that he was disappointed that Democrats refused to stand and clap for it all.
“It was so refreshing to see America look strong, no longer weak, competent, not incompetent,” he said. We are a force of nature once again.”