Donald Trump gave the longest joint address to Congress in history on Tuesday night, and it was arguably the most partisan one ever, too. The trade-warring, government-gutting new president championed himself and his administration’s six weeks of achievements, chastised and insulted Democrats, once again insisted America would get Greenland, and shouted out Elon Musk, who thankfully hadn’t yet sold the U.S. Capitol to condo developers beforehand. One Democratic congressman got kicked out early, and a lot more had walked out by the end. Republicans stood and cheered, over and over again. Below is what happened as it happened.

From my review of the joint address:

Since this speech was so very similar to what he said every day on the 2024 campaign trail, and repeated in his inaugural address and in the turgid, debased language of his executive orders and his administration’s memoranda and other public statements, it’s time to conclude that we can never expect anything different from this president. He has all but stopped communicating with those of us who aren’t wearing red hats and cheering his boasts and lies. This speech was supremely self-indulgent, and there’s no reason to believe he will exercise self-restraint until the courts or the midterm electorate denies him the power to do exactly what he wants.

Read the rest here.

No surprise: Trump was wrong a lot tonight. The Washington Post dug into 26 suspect claims, including his whopper about Social Security recipients of extreme old age:

“We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129, 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139, 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. …”

This is false. Trump’s riff continued until he got to the end —“one person between the age of 240 and 249 and one person listed at 360 years of age.” His numbers roughly mirrored figures posted on social media by billionaire Elon Musk, who is slashing government programs with a shock team of assistants that has been dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency. As The Washington Post has reported, this is largely a coding issue. The Social Security Administration maintains its databases using COBOL, a nearly 70-year-old computer programming language that doesn’t have a standardized way to store and work with dates. Often a default date is chosen, most commonly May 20, 1875, if no birth date is known.

As is often the case with Trump’s claims, there is an existing government report that would have cleared up matters.

A 2023 report from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general found that virtually every beneficiary who lacked a birth date had died. Of the 18.9 million people with Social Security numbers born in 1920 or earlier with no record of their deaths, the report said “approximately 18.4 million (98 percent) number holders are not currently receiving SSA payments and have not had earnings reported to SSA in the past 50 years.”

Read the rest here.

In her rebuttal to Trump, freshman Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin cited the economy and pushed back on “reckless” change. Politico captions:

“Americans made it clear that prices are too high and that government needs to be more responsive to their needs,” Slotkin said in the Democrats’ official rebuttal to Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress.

“America wants change,” she continued. “But there is a responsible way to make change, and a reckless way. And, we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country, and as a democracy.”

Slotkin: In closing, we all know that our country is going through something right now. We are not sure what the next day is going to hold, let alone the next decade. But this isn't the first time we have experienced a significant and tumultuous change as a country. pic.twitter.com/0z6DtrFRyA

Final length of Trump's speech: 1 hour, 40 minutes, the longest in history.

Trump just addressed this, saying he “appreciates” this. But also says Russia has sent signals that they’re ready for “peace” https://t.co/JJjOR1RApR

Presidential dignity has not been notable in this speech, but Trump’s weird little snipe at Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas” — an allusion to an ancient Republican slur against Warren based on her claim of having Cherokee ancestors in an academic document many, many years ago — shows that bad MAGA jokes never get too old.

Trump calls Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” while discussing Ukraine pic.twitter.com/QH3JBv5f8H

And it prompted more walkouts:

Lots of Dems just left after President TRUMP called out Sen Elizabeth WARREN by calling her “Pocahontas” while she was clapping for Ukraine - she kept clapping

Trump touted Blackrock’s purchase of two ports in Panama as a victory in his push to take over the Panama Canal. The president shouted out Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the point person in the America First effort. “Good luck, Marco,” Trump said. “We know who to blame if it goes wrong.”

House Democrats have left in waves throughout the address. Several Progressive Caucus members, including Jayapal and Omar, now heading out as Trump talks about his ambition to take over Greenland.

There had been a lot of talk that Trump would back off threats to retake the Panama Canal because of the steps Panama had taken to reduce Chinese involvement in canal operations. But tonight Trump flatly said of the canal, “We’re taking it back.” He........

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