Read the transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress.
A transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, May 4, 2025, as transcribed by The Associated Press:
Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, the first lady of the United States, members of the United States Congress, thank you very much and to my fellow citizens: America is back. Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the Golden Age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in 4 years, 8 years — and we are just getting started. I return to this chamber tonight to report that America’s momentum is back. Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. Our confidence is back. And the American Dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.
The American Dream is unstoppable, and our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed, and perhaps will never witness again. Never been anything like it. The presidential election of November 5th was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades. We won all seven swing states, giving us an Electoral College victory of 312 votes. We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country 2,700 to 525 on a map that reads almost completely red for Republican.
Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction — in fact it’s an astonishing record, 27-point swing — the most ever. Likewise, small business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded, a 41-point jump. Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 Executive Orders and taken more than 400 Executive Actions, a record to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land. The people elected me to do the job, and I am doing it. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency, it’s our presidency, is the most successful in the history of our nation. By many.
And what makes it even more impressive, is that you know who number two is? George Washington. How about that? I don’t know about that list but we’ll take it. Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the U.S. military and Border Patrol to repel the invasion of our country, and what a job they’ve done. As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded, ever. They heard my words and they chose not to come. Much easier that way.
In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members and people from mental institutions and insane asylums, were released into our country. Who would want to do that?
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, 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 the 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. They won’t do it no matter what, five, five times I’ve been up here. It’s very sad, and it just shouldn’t be this way.
So, Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America, for the good of our nation? Let’s work together and let’s truly make America great again. Every day my administration is fighting to deliver the change America needs to bring a future America deserves and we’re doing it. This is a time for big dreams and bold action.
Upon taking office, I imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations, and a freeze on all foreign aid. I terminated the ridiculous green new scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying. I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization, and I also withdrew from the anti-American U.N. Human Rights Council. We ended all of Biden’s environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable. And importantly, we ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction. To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated, just like I did in my very successful first term. And in that first term, we set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations like no other president had done before.
We ordered all federal workers to return to the office. They will either show up for work in person or be removed from their job. We have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent like me. How did that work out? Not too good, not too good. And I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America, it’s back. And two days ago I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America.
I renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. And likewise, I renamed for a great president, William McKinley, Mount McKinley, again. Beautiful Alaska. We love Alaska. We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military. And our country will be woke no longer.
We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender. You should be hired based on merit, and the Supreme Court in a brave and very powerful decision has allowed us to do so. Thank you, thank you very much. We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools and I signed an order making the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports. Three years ago, Payton McNabb was an all-star high school athlete, one of the best, preparing for a future in college sports. But when her girls volleyball match was invaded by a male, he smashed the ball so hard in Payton’s face, causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side and ending her athletic career. It was a shot like she’s never seen before. She’s never seen anything like it. Payton is here tonight in the gallery, and Payton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls team or they will lose all federal funding.
And if you really want to see numbers, just take a look at what happened in the women’s boxing, weightlifting, track and field, swimming or cycling, where a male recently finished a long-distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record by five hours. Broke the record by five hours. It’s demeaning for women, and it’s very bad for our country. We’re not going to put up with it any longer.
What I have just described is only a small fraction of the common sense revolution that is now because of us sweeping the entire world, common sense has become a common theme, and we will never go back. Never, never going to let that happen. Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans, they’ve never had anything like it. We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country, they’re not sure. As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again.
Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg prices out of control. And we are working hard to get it back down. Secretary, do a good job on that, you inherited a total mess from that administration. Do a good job. A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy. The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95%, slowed pipeline construction to a halt, and closed more than 100 power plants. We are opening up many of those power plants right now. And frankly, we have never seen anything like it.
That’s why, on my first day in office, I declared a national energy emergency. As you’ve heard me say many times, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on Earth. And by far, and now, I fully authorize the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it. It’s called drill, baby, drill.
My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska, among the largest in the world, where Japan, South Korea and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each. It’s never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular. It’s all set to go. The permitting has gotten and later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA.
To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars.
And to that end I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE! Perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. Thank you, Elon, you’re working very hard. He didn’t need this, he didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it I believe. They just don’t want to admit that.
Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified: $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens, $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma, $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQ+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of, $60 million for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. $60 million. $8 million for making mice transgender.
This is real. $32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Moldova. $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique. $20 million for the Arab “Sesame Street” in the Middle East, it’s a program, $20 million for program. $1.9 billion to recently created decarbonization of homes committee — headed up and we know she’s involved just at the last moment, the money was passed over by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her? A $3.5 million consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring. $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia, $14 million for social cohesion in Mali, $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City, real estate developers done very well. $250,000 to increase vegan local climate action innovation in Zambia, $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda, $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia, $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Asia is doing very well with learning. You know what we’re doing? Should use it ourselves. A $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education. The most ever paid, nothing even like it. Under the Trump administration, all of these scams and there are far worse, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to talk about them, they’re so bad. Many more have been found out and exposed and swiftly terminated by a group of very intelligent, mostly young people headed up by Elon, and we appreciate it. We found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.
And we’ve taken back the money and reduced our debt to fight inflation and other things. Taking back a lot of that money, we got it just in time. This is just the beginning. The Government Accountability Office, federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation, and we are working very hard to stop it. We’re going to. 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 that elderly. 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, and money is being paid to many of them, and we’re searching right now. In fact, Pam, good luck, good luck. You’re going to find it. But a lot of money is paid out to people, because it just keeps getting paid and paid, and nobody does, and it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country, 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old. We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby.
Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229, one person between the age of 240 and 249 and one person is listed at 360 years of age — more than 100 years, more than 100 years older than our country. But we’re going to find out where that money is going, and it’s not going to be pretty, by slashing all of the fraud, waste and theft. And theft we can find. We will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors and put more money in the pockets of American families.
And today, interest rates took a beautiful drop. Big beautiful drop. It’s about time. And in the near future I want to do what has not been done in 24 years — balance the federal budget, we’re gonna balance it.
With that goal in mind, we have developed in great detail what we are calling the Gold Card, which goes on sale very, very soon. For $5 million we will allow the most successful job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship. It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated. And these people will have to pay tax in our country. They won’t have to pay tax from where they came, the money that they’ve made, you wouldn’t want to do that. But they have to pay tax, create jobs. They’ll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country, instead of having them being forced out. Number one at the top school as an example, being forced out and not being allowed to stay and create tremendous numbers of jobs and great success for a company out there.
So while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers and child predators who are allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people, the Democrats, the Biden administration, the open border, insane policies that you’ve allowed to destroy our country, we will now bring in brilliant, hardworking job-creating people. They’re going to pay a lot of money, and we’re going to reduce our debt with that money.
Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change. For nearly 100 years the federal bureaucracy has grown until it has crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits, and held back America’s potential in every possible way. The nation founded by pioneers and risk takers, now drowns under millions and millions of pages of regulations and debt. Approvals that should take 10 days to get instead, take 10 years, 15 years, and even 20 years before you reject it. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work. My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again. Any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately.
Because we are draining the swamp, it’s very simple, and the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over. And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody. They’re in there, they’re waiting for you to vote. And I’m sure that the people on my right — I don’t mean the Republican right, but my right, right here — I’m sure you’re going to vote for those tax cuts, because otherwise I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office. So I’m doing you a big favor by telling you that. But I know this group is going to be voting for the tax cut. A very, very big part of our plan, we had tremendous success in our first term with it, a very big part of our plan. We’re seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board and to get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation. I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax overtime and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors.
And I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America. Oh, and by the way, we’re going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody’s ever seen. Plants are opening up all over the place. Deals are being made like never seen. That’s a combination of the election win and tariffs. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it? That that along with our other policies will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom. It’s going to boom. Spoke to the majors today. All three, the top people and they’re so excited. In fact, already numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in Indiana, one of the largest anywhere in the world. And this has taken place since a great victory on November 5th, a date which will hopefully go down as one of the most important in the history of our country.
