Ukraine, immigration and more: What to expect from Donald Trump’s big Congress speech

US President Donald Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.

This will be his first such speech since taking office on January 20. His Republican Party holds a slim majority in the House and a stronger one in the Senate.

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During his remarks, the **US president is expected** to outline his agenda and priorities for the year.

Trump’s previous address to a joint session, delivered in 2017 during his first term, focused on plans to reform healthcare and the tax system. His second such speech comes eight years later.

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The address comes as his administration moves to restructure the federal government, tighten immigration laws, and a heated public confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Notably, **Trump halted military aid** to Ukraine on Monday, intensifying pressure on Kyiv to engage in peace talks with Moscow. A White House official told AP that the US was “pausing and reviewing” its assistance to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

Trump loves grand spectacles, and few events surpass addressing a joint session of Congress. The House chamber will be filled with lawmakers, and his arrival will be announced in a booming voice by the sergeant-at-arms, leading to resounding applause.

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Although this speech is not technically a State of the Union address, that will come next year after he has been in office longer, viewers are unlikely to notice any distinction.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has rolled out a wave of executive actions. Tuesday’s address will serve as an opportunity to highlight his agenda during prime-time television. According to NPR, Trump is expected to discuss his administration’s government restructuring effort, the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which he has placed under the leadership of billionaire Elon Musk.

Unlike in previous years, there does not appear to be a widespread Democratic boycott of Trump’s speech. Instead of staying away, some Democrats have indicated they will attend to show their opposition, Politico reported.

Almost every detail of these events is carefully planned. Here’s what to watch and listen for:

Where will Elon Musk sit?

The most powerful figures in American government are typically seated on the dais during such events. As the president addresses the nation, the House speaker and the vice president, who also serves as the Senate’s ceremonial leader, sit behind him.

However, they have largely been overshadowed by Elon Musk, the entrepreneur serving as a key adviser to Trump.

There is no precedent for Musk’s role, which has deeply embedded itself within federal agencies, resulted in thousands of job cuts, and reshaped the workings of Washington.

Special guests at presidential speeches usually sit in the gallery above the chamber. Will Musk, the world’s richest person, take a seat there - or somewhere else?

The Ukraine factor

It’s been only a few days since the **most dramatic encounter** in the Oval Office in recent memory.

Trump welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to solidify a partnership involving critical minerals, only for a **deal to fall apart** after Trump and Vice President JD Vance laced into Zelenskyy over a perceived lack of respect.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance criticised Zelenskyy for what they saw as a lack of appreciation for the over $180 billion in military aid and other assistance that the US has provided to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, 2022.

A few days later, Trump ordered a pause on US aid to Ukraine. This also means that all US military equipment not currently in Ukraine would be paused, including weapons in transit and at depots in Poland, Bloomberg reported.

Now the future of U.S. support for Ukraine, which has been fending off a Russian invasion for three years, is increasingly in doubt. “You either make a deal or we are out,” Trump told Zelenskyy.

Will Russia try to press its advantage on the battlefield? Does Zelenskyy patch things up with Trump? Will fragile US relationships with European allies deteriorate further?

There are no clear answers right now. But Tuesday’s speech will be a high-profile opportunity for Trump, a Republican, to explain his vision for the war and his approach to foreign policy.

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How do lawmakers behave?

Presidential speeches to Congress have become rowdier affairs. Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, famously shouted “You lie!” at President Barack Obama’s address to Congress in 2009, and decorum hasn’t improved much since then.

President Joe Biden got into his own back-and-forth with Republicans, and Trump is known for deviating from his script with attempts to stir outrage among his opponents.

How will Democrats respond? Sometimes their protests have been quiet, such as when women wore white, the colour of the suffragette movement, to previous events. But at a time when Democratic voters have been eager for their representatives to be more aggressive, it’s possible that they become more vocal.

Reaction from Republicans is more predictable. Expect them to try to outdo one another with their embrace of the president.

Will Trump outline his agenda?

Trump has demonstrated his desire to push the limits of presidential power during his second term in office, but there are some things that he still needs congressional help to accomplish.

The president wants spending cuts, border security funding and tax cuts - a politically sensitive combination at a time when Republicans have only slim majorities in the House and the Senate. The party will need almost complete unanimity to move forward.

So far, Trump has followed his typical approach of playing one side off against the other, sometimes endorsing the House plan for one massive piece of legislation and sometimes supporting the Senate strategy of breaking the proposals into multiple bills.

Don’t expect a lot of details from the president - that’s not something that usually happens in speeches like this, regardless of who occupies the Oval Office. But Trump could reveal more about his goals or prod lawmakers to work faster. Given the power that Trump has over the party, any remark could reshape the debate.

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Which version of Trump shows up?

The president is in his element when he’s delivering freewheeling remarks, bouncing from topic to topic in what he likes to call “the weave.”

But that’s not usually how these kinds of speeches go. They’re often carefully scripted, the kind of monologue that Trump might label “BORING” in a post on Truth Social if he were watching it on television.

How long will Trump stick to the teleprompter this time? And how much does he veer off track?

A hint could be Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention last summer, when he accepted the party’s presidential nomination. He started off subdued, even sombre, as he shared the story of his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

But the appeal for national unity eventually gave way to a flood of grievances more typical of Trump’s stump speeches.

With inputs from AP