Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Donald Trump’s Dishonest And Divisive Joint Address To Congress
Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress, condemning his reckless rhetoric and falsehoods, while emphasizing that Senate Democrats and Americans of all parties will continue to organize against Trump's harmful agenda that prioritizes tax cuts for billionaires and cuts critical programs for working families. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:
Last night, Donald Trump subjected the American people to a deluge of falsehoods, misrepresentations, and outright lies.
What Americans heard last night was easily the nastiest, most divisive, and most dishonest Presidential address in American history.
In a speech that lasted almost two hours, Donald Trump spent over ten minutes falsely ridiculing and delegitimizing Social Security, following DOGE’s lead alleging this program, which serves tens of millions of Americans, is a scam. They seem to be preparing to go full steam ahead to take benefits away from you, the American people.
It's amazing. Tens of millions of Americans depend on that check, that Social Security check, to buy food, which is becoming more expensive under Donald Trump, to pay for prescription drugs. And they want to repeal the laws we did that make them cheaper for the average American, and so much else. Calling it a scam. Ridiculing it with false information. And cutting seven thousand workers out of Social Security offices? It shows you where they're headed – to hurt Social Security, ever one of the most sacred programs in America.
Why are they doing this? Why would they do this? So unpopular. Only for one reason. The motivation of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Republican party is tax cuts for the billionaires. That's their number one goal, and they'll twist America in knots, hurting people, many people, millions of people, to get it done.
Trump also lied about his plans to eviscerate Medicaid.
He lied about his plans to cut taxes for billionaires while making working Americans pay the costs.
There was more truth in 10 minutes of Senator Elissa Slotkin’s rebuttal than in 2 hours of Donald Trump’s longwinded, self-serving diatribe.
Senator Slotkin did an outstanding job last night dismantling Donald Trump’s nonsense with clarity, with facts, and with some desperately-needed common sense. And I am so glad I asked her to deliver the Democratic response, because she knocked it out of the park.
Now, when Donald Trump wasn’t lying, he was distracting.
He talked again about renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
He talked about renaming mountains.
He said that he was a better president than George Washington. What a bubble this guy is in.
What planet is he on? For a moment I wondered if Donald Trump was utterly clueless of the disaster his administration has been under his watch.
And the one thing Donald Trump did not mention last night was a real, serious plan to bring down costs, the number one thing Americans wanted to hear most.
Instead, Donald Trump doubled-down on his plans to send costs skyrocketing by starting a trade war with Canada and Mexico.
Let’s be very clear about this: Donald Trump’s tariffs are a tax on working and middle class families.
The average American household could see an extra $2,000 a year in expenses.
Tariffs mean the cost of pretty much everything would go up—not just cars, although he could destroy the car industry. Remember, about 40% of the parts that are in
American cars come from Canada. But also housing, and groceries and food! Beef, dairy, eggs. The cost of furniture and smartphones and laptops and fertilizer for farmers, even going out to dinner with friends will all be more expensive because of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Tariffs will slow growth, they’ll erode profits, they’ll worsen unemployment and inequality, and wreak havoc on supply chains that tens of millions of people and businesses depend on.
And let’s be clear: the administration has obviously not thought these tariffs through. They seem to be changing their plans by the hour.
Even this uncertainty is extremely harmful to the economy—it makes it impossible for businesses to plan ahead, it depresses spending, it slows growth, eats away at consumer confidence. Yes, there are certain tariffs, particularly against China which is competing with us economically in unfair ways, that might make some sense. But these have not been thought through. They're creating chaos for the economy.
That's the one thing that the tariffs are accomplishing: chaos for the economy, stock market plummets. And why? Why are they doing this? Well, it's not different here than Social Security or Medicaid.
Why is Donald Trump hell-bent on starting a trade war, when virtually every expert knows the casualties of a trade war will be families and consumers?
The reason is simple. One reason: he and DOGE say Social Security is a scam—they want to take away people’s benefits to pay for billionaire tax cuts.
That’s the whole ball game. I can't think of a time when any president ridiculed Social Security the way Donald Trump did. And I can't think of any time where someone was more chaotic and deleterious on tariffs than Donald Trump was.
What they're seeking, in return, is the greatest transfer of wealth from working families to billionaires in the history of America.
They want to take Social Security benefits away from you, the American people.
They want to take away health care from you, the American people.
They want to take away education, and medical research, and infrastructure, and basic public services. Why?
Well, it's pretty expensive to give tax cuts to the wealthy elite. But that's what they're doing.
That is what a transfer of wealth looks like to the average American, taking so much away from you, things you need and depend on.
But Donald Trump and Republicans forget one thing: the American people aren’t going to just roll over and let Republicans ruin this country.
Democrats—and all Americans of good will regardless of party—are organizing and mobilizing to defend health care, Social Security, and the livelihoods of American families.
Americans are organizing in public. And Republicans have seen these frustrations at town halls. That should be the first clue that they should drop their terrible agenda. When a lead Republican in the House tells Republicans that you better cancel your town halls, they're running away from their policies and priorities.
And we are organizing online. I set up a call with some of the leading activists and people who have been out there on the front lines protesting in New York last week. I thought about 500 people would get on the zoom. It was three thousand New Yorkers—a turnout exceeding all expectations—to talk about how we can defend health care, defend public services, stop tax cuts for the very wealthy, and make people’s voices heard in the halls of power.
And we’re organizing in the courts. New lawsuits are happening every single day. Through March 1st, that’s four, five days ago, at least 35 court rulings have come down halting or pausing some of the administration’s worst abuses. The courts are one of the best tools available for protecting the rule of law and preventing the worst abuses of the administration.
Organizing is not easy. It takes persistence. But it works. It makes change happen. It is the cornerstone on which democracy is founded.
Donald Trump’s exhausting speech in now in the rear view mirror. So, Democrats will keep fighting every day to protect this precious democracy, and hold the line against Donald Trump’s attempt to rob American families of their livelihoods, taking so much away from the average American family, and giving it to the very, very wealthy.
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