There were props and costumes, guest stars, hecklers, a couple of turncoats and one freed hostage. There was wicked laughter, imperial imaginations, fantastical arithmetic and one declaration of divine providence.
President Trump’s speech on Tuesday was a long and loud spectacle that went on for about 100 minutes, making it the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history. But it was the rare moments of relative silence that seemed to say the most.
Republicans were so rowdy for so much of the night — roaring at Mr. Trump’s talk about the border and his legal and political victories; jumping to their feet at his declaration that “wokeness is trouble, wokeness is bad” — that it was telling when they just sat still.
They went mostly mute when the president began to talk about tariffs. His speech coincided with the start of a trade war he has launched against America’s neighbors, Canada and Mexico, which has sent markets tumbling. He warned in his address that there “may be a little bit of an adjustment period.”
The many members of his cabinet who will be responsible for trying to clean up whatever fallout comes listened quietly from the front row as Mr. Trump said this. Just behind them sat John Thune, the Senate majority leader who had appeared on CNN earlier that day to express wariness about the new tariffs.
Mr. Trump recalled that the last time he was president and used tariffs, things went a little haywire but ultimately seemed to work out. He asked his audience to “bear with me again” and promised that “this time will be even better.”
At this, the chamber filled with the sound of Democrats’ withering laughter.
For so much of the night, the Democrats seemed like lost creatures who’d crash-landed on a hostile new planet and were struggling to breathe the air. They wore Pepto Bismol pink, waved little black paddles and shouted in unison about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack when the president said he supported police.
The Republicans cheered anytime he toyed with the Democrats. He took pleasure in reminding them of the Kennedy scion who had defected from their party and was sitting on his side of the aisle. With a name like that, Mr. Trump cracked, “you would have thought everybody over here would have been cheering. How quickly they forget!”
Republicans rose to applaud Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to boot Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, from the chamber after he stood and shook his cane at the president, shouting, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!”
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi kept a cold, calculated look on her face through much of the night while Republicans roared at Mr. Trump’s talk about reclaiming the Panama Canal and his insistence that God had spared his life because he is destined to save America. She simply began to laugh when he asked, “So, Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America?”
The air in the House chamber became charged when the president mentioned that Elon Musk was sitting up in the gallery. Every head in the room turned toward the tech mogul as he stood up. Gone was the Bond supervillain look and the “tech support” T-shirt. Instead, he had on a suit and tie. It was a most Washington look for the man currently razing Washington to the ground.
Was it meant as a display of respect for Congress, an institution for which he normally seems to have so little respect? Or did it have to do with the fact that the president had taunted the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, for not wearing a suit when he visited the White House last week?
Republicans barely stirred while Mr. Trump rattled off figures describing the “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud” he and Mr. Musk claimed to have discovered within the Social Security Administration.
It is easy for the Republicans to make noises and jump up and down when Mr. Trump talks about the Panama Canal and making English the official language of the United States. But what about when he picks up the third rail of American politics — the popular safety net program, Social Security — and starts to play with it while millions of folks at home are watching?
At one point he began to complain about “unelected bureaucrats” trying to thwart his agenda. It was the Democrats’ turn to make noise. They began to point and shout over the many heads of the Republican Party, up into the gallery, where Mr. Musk was watching.