Address to Congress, Tariffs, and a Shouting Match
Hello Everyone, and welcome back to another week of Politics Explained. So sorry for the no post last week; we have been battered with exams. The past two weeks have been filled with information coming out of the White House within the first few months of the Trump presidency. We have topics from Trump’s address to Congress, Tariffs, and a shouting match in the Oval Office. Without more ado, let’s dive right into all the news.
Earlier this week, President Trump made an address to Congress in which much happened. To start, as President Trump walked into the House, behind him in the camera's view was a sign held by Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), which stated “This is NOT normal.” Soon after that, Rep. Al Green (D-TX), in response to Trump stating he had won a mandate, screamed across the floor at Trump, “You have no mandate,” and waved his cane. The Sergent at Arms removed Rep. Green from the floor. Later, Trump congratulated his friend Elon Musk for creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump also talked about his tariffs for a bit, stating reciprocal tariffs would be put in place on April 2nd (I’ll talk about the original tariffs soon). Trump also called out wokeness and stated that it's bad and is gone. Shortly after that, he also stated his previous plans on trying to acquire the Panama Canal and Greenland. He said if the people of Greenland want to be a part of the USA, we can definitely make that happen. Toward the end of the speech, Trump talked about the Russia-Ukraine war and the attempt towards peace. He said that Russia is willing to work for peace, so we will see how that goes.
Next up, we have the tariffs that went into effect earlier this week. On Tuesday morning at 12 AM, President Trump enacted* tariffs on our neighbors Canada and Mexico. He put a 25% tariff on all goods imported into the US. Trump also put 10% extra tariffs on top of the tariffs he already introduced for China. Canada responded with a 25% tariff on all US imported goods to Canada. As stated earlier, Trump and his administration will put reciprocal tariffs on goods on April 2nd, seeing how other countries react to the original tariffs. Shortly after the tariffs went into place, the stock market plummeted, hitting some very low numbers.
Lastly, last week, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Oval Office to talk about the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and to sign a deal to give the U.S. 50% of Ukraine’s rare minerals in exchange for the monetary support the U.S. has already provided. After a yelling match due to some of Vice President Vance’s remarks (saying that Zelenskyy had never said “thank you” for the U.S.’s support), both Trump and JD Vance said that Zelenskyy disrespected the U.S. while in the Oval Office meeting and asked him to leave, without signing the minerals deal. The war between Ukraine and Russia has gone on for over 3 years now, and it looks like more is to come between the two countries.
*Definition of the Week (Enact): To make a bill or a proposal a law.
