President Trump will address the joint session of Congress on Tuesday night at 9 p.m., expected to lay out his aggressive agenda for remaking the federal government and shifting U.S. foreign policy during his first televised prime-time speech of his second term.
Mr. Trump is expected to speak about the sweeping staff firings affecting nearly every corner of the federal government. He is also likely to address the strained relationship with Ukraine after the Oval Office blowup with the country’s leader last week, as he has sought to improve ties with Russia while pushing through a critical minerals deal with Ukraine.
The president may mention his administration’s crackdown on illegal border crossings that coincided with a drop in the number of migrants across the Southern border, as well as his legislative push for tax and spending cuts that together could increase the federal deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.
Here’s what you need to know.
Where can I watch?
The New York Times will stream the address at nytimes.com with live analysis from reporters. The speech will also be carried by major television networks and on cable.
Who will deliver responses?
Democrats have chosen Senator Elissa Slotkin, a first-term Democrat from Michigan, to deliver their response to Mr. Trump’s address. Ms. Slotkin, 48, narrowly won her Senate seat in November in the swing state that Mr. Trump carried. She was first elected to the House in 2018 with other centrist Democratic women who had backgrounds in the military or intelligence and who were recruited as a counterweight to Mr. Trump. Ms. Slotkin worked as a C.I.A. analyst and in national security posts for both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.
Representative Adriano Espaillat, Democrat of New York, whose Hispanic-majority district includes Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, will deliver a Spanish-language response to Mr. Trump’s speech. He is the first Dominican American and the first immigrant who was previously undocumented to serve in Congress. As a state lawmaker, Mr. Espaillat strongly supported the New York policy that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. The Trump administration has sued the state over the state policy.