House Democrats greeted President Trump’s return to Congress on Tuesday with a spirited series of disruptive protests – and a number of painful looks as they suffered through an address in which the returning president repeatedly cajoled and mocked them.
All in all, it was an extraordinary display of partisan scuffling even by the standards of the polarized modern era.
The clashes began just minutes into Trump’s joint address to Congress, when Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), a 77-year-old liberal from Houston, stood from his seat and heckled Trump with charges that the president’s proclaimed “mandate” was nothing of the sort.
The outburst prompted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was seated on the dais behind Trump, to warn Green to “maintain decorum in the House.” When that didn’t work, he ordered Green to “take your seat.” When that also failed, Johnson directed the House Sergeant at Arms to remove Green from the chamber.
The episode seemed to pain the top Democratic leaders — Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Katherine Clark (Mass.) and Pete Aguilar (Calif.) — who have criticized Republicans for occasional outbursts during Democratic speeches, and watched with glum expressions as Green was escorted from the room.
Republicans had a lighter response. They belted out a chorus of “Hey, Hey, Hey — Goodbye.”
It was the most dramatic episode of a dramatic evening, but hardly the only one.
Shortly after Green’s ejection, several other Democrats stood and turned their backs on Trump to display a one-word message on the back of their shirts: “Resist.” Then lawmakers — including Democratic Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) — marched out of the chamber on their own accord.
Other Democrats repeatedly yelled out to protest specific remarks from Trump. One lawmaker, for instance, shouted “Jan. 6” when Trump broached the issue of law enforcement — a reference to the 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, and the president’s recent pardon of more than 1,500 rioters.
All told, the chorus of disruption made the 2009 “You lie!” outburst from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), described with revulsion by Democrats and some Republicans at the time, seem mild by comparison.
If Trump was bothered by the demonstrations, he didn’t let on. Indeed, the president delivered a gladiatorial speech that pulled no punches, offered no olive branches and doubled down on vows to advance the same assertive policies that have stirred so much controversy during his first six weeks back in power.
“America is back,” Trump boomed at the outset. “And we are just getting started.”
Trump also lobbed plenty of his own salvos across the aisle — even in his prepared remarks, where he characterized Joe Biden as the worst president in history and attacked congressional Democrats for what he considered a failure to appreciate his successes.
“I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or make them stand and smile or applause,” Trump said, looking out into the Democrats’ side of the chamber.
“These people standing right here will not clap, will not cheer.”
The speech thrilled the president’s Republican supporters, who occupied one side of the House chamber. They roared their approval after each claimed victory — closing the border, eliminating foreign aid, defeating “wokeness” — and jumped in applause at each new promise to realize the “America First” agenda that brought him to power.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a conservative firebrand and staunch supporter of the president, stuck out from the crowd in her red hat with a proud message: “Trump Was Right About Everything.”
On the other side were Trump’s Democratic adversaries, who cast a dour shadow on the president’s triumphant return to Capitol Hill. Despite the sporadic outbursts, most sat in stoic silence through the vast majority of the address — a sea of glum faces incredulous that Trump had won a second term and horrified by the same policies the president was eulogizing from the lectern.
On a milder note, a number of Democrats in the chamber held up signs throughout Trump’s speech: “Musk Steals,” read some. “Save Medicaid,” read others. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) held another: “This is not normal.” And Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) carried a white board into the chamber, penning various messages to Trump throughout the address. “No king,” she wrote at one point.
There were other, more symbolic, gestures of protest, as well.
Some Democratic women were decked out in white, a symbol of the suffragists who fought a century ago for women’s rights to vote. Dozens of other Democratic women were dressed in pink — a more generic symbol of protest designed to highlight Trump’s policies affecting women and families. And some members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) donned black to demonstrate against the president’s policies.
Democrats are also up in arms over Trump’s recent overtures to Russia amid their ongoing invasion of Ukraine. To show solidarity with America’s democratic allies in Kyiv, a number of lawmakers wore the colors of Ukraine: blue and gold.
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) was among those pro-Ukraine Democrats, who went to the chamber in a blue and gold tie.
“I give this credit to Marcy Kaptur. She bought 100 ties, and she told me to wear it,” Lynch quipped. “So I’m doing what I’m told.”
