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Ahead of President Donald Trump’s congressional address on Tuesday night, the Concord Coalition launched their new ‘fiscal responsibility’ advocacy group, Concord Action, designed to pressure Congress to tackle America’s $36 trillion debt crisis.  

Former Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-GA, the new executive director and president, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital urged Trump to show he is serious about tackling America’s debt crisis. 

I’d like to hear that he’s really serious about putting everything on the table and putting together an effort that reaches out,’ Bourdeaux said. ‘He really needs to reach across the aisle. We know that to get the budget done, just on an annual basis, it does require Democrats to be involved. This needs to be a bipartisan effort.’

Bourdeaux, a Democrat who worked with Republicans during the Great Recession to balance Georgia’s state budget, said Trump needs to lead a ‘bipartisan effort’ that goes ‘line by line’ through the nation’s spending. 

‘It needs to be a thoughtful effort,’ Bourdeaux added. ‘It does need to tackle the waste, fraud and abuse, but anyone who is serious about balancing the budget knows that is not enough. We really have to go line by line through all the different programs that we do, including the mandatory spending, and look at places where we can find savings and efficiencies. And we also have to put the tax side on the table as well.’

The economy was the top issue for American voters in 2024, as four in 20 voters said inflation was the most important factor in their vote, according to 2024 Fox News Voter Analysis. Voters reported a negative view of the economy, with almost two-thirds rating the economy as not good, 40%, or downright poor, 24%. 

‘I know people approach this with a sense of despair, but it can be done. Back in the 1990s, I was actually a congressional staffer at the time. We did balance the budget. We did get together. It was done on a bipartisan basis. You know, Clinton was the president, but the House was Republican, at times the Senate was Republican. They got together, and they got it done. We really need to replicate that process again,’ Bourdeaux said. 

Bourdeaux said if America has balanced the budget before, then it can be done again. When former President Bill Clinton took office, the national debt was over $4 trillion, according to U.S. Treasury data. Republicans and Democrats worked across the aisle to achieve budget surpluses through legislation like the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

Bourdeaux said she wants to hear a real plan from Trump on Tuesday night. 

‘Right now, even getting to balance. Nobody has a plan. Nobody has anything serious on the table right now. We need to set up what that plan is going to be and then start executing it,’ Bourdeaux added.

Deputy White House press secretary Harrison Fields responded in a statement to Fox News Digital, ‘Since day one, President Trump has prioritized government efficiency, proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and the goal of signing a long overdue balanced budget. The Trump Administration is committed to ending the mindless spending of foreign wars, woke ideology, and unnecessary government programs that don’t serve the American people.’ 

Trump’s plan to slash federal spending is anchored in Elon Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump signed an executive order on Inauguration Day establishing DOGE ‘to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.’ The Trump administration has since directed government agencies to comply with DOGE’s departmental investigations. 

According to the official DOGE website, the department has estimated $105 billion in savings, attributed to contract cancelations, workforce reductions, improper payment deletions and other regulatory changes. DOGE has drawn the praise of many Republicans and the protest of several Democrats for its aggressive action to dismantle government waste. 

DOGE has inspired government officials at the city, state and federal level to prioritize efficiency, from San Francisco ordering employees back to the office, to the Environmental Protection Agency locating its own $20 billion in wasteful spending. 

Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-NE, and Jacky Rosen, D-NV, introduced a new bipartisan bill last week that would require the annual presidential budget to include data on improper payments to federal agencies. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-PA, announced the Payment Integrity Information Reform Act to target overpayments by the federal government on the House side as well. 

A Senate DOGE Caucus was established in November 2024 by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-IA., ‘to identify and eliminate government waste’ and works closely with Musk’s DOGE to ‘promote fiscal responsibility.’ The House also established the Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus to support DOGE through legislative action. 


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The European Union has a new plan to spend $840 billion more on its own defense after President Donald Trump paused aid to Ukraine and peace negotiations hit a wall.

‘I do not need to describe the grave nature of the threats that we face, or the devastating consequences that we will have to endure if those threats would come to pass,’ EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Tuesday. 

She said she had written a letter to the heads of state of all European governments outlining a ‘set of proposals’ to ‘rearm Europe.’ 

‘A new era is upon us,’ von der Leyen wrote in the letter. 

The plan details ‘how to use all the financial levers at our disposal in order to help member states to quickly and significantly increase expenditures in defense capabilities, urgently now, but also over [a] longer period of time, over this decade.’ 

Countries in the EU would have access to loans of up to $158 billion for defense investment, according to the proposal. It also calls for relaxing strict debt ceilings agreed to by the bloc for defense spending. 

‘This will allow member states to significantly increase their defense expenditures without triggering the excessive deficit procedure,’ she said, referring to the rule that requires nations to bring their deficits down if they breach a certain amount. 

The proposal also involves using the existing EU budget to ‘direct more funds towards defense-related investments.’

‘With this equipment, member states can massively step up their support to Ukraine. So, immediate military equipment for Ukraine,’ she said.

The new defense plan comes as Washington recalibrates its relationship with Europe, and conservative Republicans push Trump to lead efforts to pull the U.S. out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 

European leaders held an emergency summit over the weekend in London to discuss how to support Ukraine after the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy brought peace negotiations to an abrupt halt. 

At that summit, European leaders discussed ways to keep military aid flowing, increase economic pressure on Russia, and establish a ‘coalition of the willing’ of European nations ready to offer forces to act as a safeguard against another invasion by Russia once the two sides reach a peace agreement. 

‘This is a moment for Europe, and we are ready to step up,’ said von der Leyen. 

Even France’s Marine Le Pen, leader of the conservative National Rally party, called the U.S. action a form of ‘brutality.’ 

‘I consider the brutality of this decision to be reprehensible,’ she said of the move to pause aid. 

‘It is very cruel for Ukrainian soldiers engaged in a patriotic defense of their country,’ she insisted, adding that it was ‘very questionable’ not to give the Ukrainians a warning before doing so. 

The temporary pause will apply to all U.S. military aid not yet in Ukraine. It is expected to last until the White House determines that Zelenskyy is committed to peace talks.

‘We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,’ a White House official said.

After President Joe Biden shipped over a $500 million aid package on his way out the door in January, some $3.86 billion from previously approved aid packages remains, a defense official told Fox News Digital, including Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) and anti-tank weapons and thousands of artillery rounds and armored vehicles. 


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A conservative nonprofit group will blanket the airwaves with an ad before and after President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night, touting his tax cut plan and promising more ‘winning’ as his term unfolds. 

‘He’s back,’ says the 30-second ad from the Plymouth Union Public Advocacy, a conservative nonprofit organization that ‘aims to advance public policies that make America stronger and more prosperous.’ 

‘And that means tax cuts. Not just one, not just a couple, a lot of tax cuts. President Trump is fighting to extend his 2017 tax cuts. To end taxes on tips, overtime, social security. And will stand in the way of a tax on our healthcare that would drive up costs.’

The new ad, titled ‘Winning,’ will bracket Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday and is backed by a six-figure buy and will run nationally on television and digital platforms. 

‘Trump’s back. That means we’re going to win,’ the ad says. ‘Not just a little, a lot. Thank President Trump for fighting to protect our tax cuts. We’re not tired of winning.’

The ad comes shortly after a Fox News focus group of Independent voters approved of Trump’s promise to cut taxes and eliminate wasteful government spending.

The House of Representatives adopted a resolution last week that would eventually become a massive multitrillion-dollar bill full of Trump’s priorities on the border, defense, energy and taxes.

Fox News Digital exclusively reported on Monday that Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress will have the theme, ‘Renewal of the American Dream.’

White House officials told Fox News Digital that the speech will feature four main sections: accomplishments from Trump’s second term thus far at home and abroad; what the Trump administration has done for the economy; the president’s renewed push for Congress to pass additional funding for border security; and the president’s plans for peace around the globe.

Several Democratic members are planning to boycott Trump’s address, including Sen. Chris Murphy, D-CT, who will instead hold a live prebuttal of the speech. 

‘I think that State of the Union speech is going to be a farce. I think it’s going to be a MAGA pep rally, not a serious talk to the nation,’ Murphy told CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Aubrie Spady and Liz Elkind contributed to this report.


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The advocacy group Concord Coalition has tapped former Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-Ga., to lead its new ‘fiscal responsibility’ group aimed at lowering the country’s $36 trillion in national debt. 

Concord Action said they will lead a grassroots effort to achieve a ‘sustainable’ national budget. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital ahead of the launch, Bourdeaux, the group’s president and executive director, previewed Concord Action’s plan to pressure Congress to balance the budget. 

‘We are getting ready to launch Concord Action, which will complement the Concord Coalition and is intended to build on all the grassroots energy out there around the debt and deficit, to try to start moving the needle in Congress to bring fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline to Washington,’ Bourdeaux said. 

Bordeaux, who represented Georgia’s 7th Congressional District for one term beginning in 2021, worked on bipartisan legislation to tackle the national budget crisis during her tenure.She was a member of the Blue Dog Task Force on Fiscal Responsibility and Government Reform, a national group that says it’s committed to reducing the federal deficit through bipartisan policy development.

Georgia had a Republican-led legislature while Bourdeaux led Georgia’s Senate Budget and Evaluation Office from 2007 to 2010. Bourdeaux played an advisory role to the Georgia State Senate in balancing the budget during the 2008 economic downturn.

‘I was director of Georgia’s Senate Budget and Evaluation Office during the Great Recession,’ Bourdeaux said. ‘I helped Georgia balance its budget during the worst fiscal crisis in modern memory. One message coming out of that is it can be done. I was working largely with the Republican leadership to balance the budget. But when we did that, those budgets passed by broad and bipartisan majorities. So this can be done through our regular democratic processes. I want to bring that sensibility to what we’re working on here in Concord.’

Bordeaux said to expect a digital campaign with a newsletter to get the public involved in Concord Action’s grassroots efforts. There will also be a town hall element to build energy on the ground. 

A 2024 Fox News Voter Analysis found the economy was the top issue for Americans, with 4 in 10 voters saying inflation was the most important factor in their vote. Voters had a negative view of the economy, with almost two-thirds rating the economy as not good, 40%, or downright poor, 24%. 

As the country approaches another government shutdown deadline and Congress begins budget negotiations for fiscal 2026, Bordeaux said it’s a necessary time to launch Concord Action. 

‘I think the issue of the debt and deficit is particularly salient to everyone,’ Bordeaux said. ‘We’ve obviously just been through inflation. We’ve seen interest rates rise. So it really is top of mind for lots of Americans right now.’

Concord Action said they will pressure Congress to stop adding to the federal debt and create a ‘sustainable budget’ through ‘fiscal responsibility.’

‘We just experienced some pretty serious inflation, and it was driven in part by the deficit in the growing debt,’ Bordeaux said. 

‘We are $36 trillion in debt right now just based on our current trajectory. The Congressional Budget Office thinks we will add another $25 trillion to that,’ she said. ‘We are spending more on just the interest on debt than we spend on national defense, more than we even spend on Medicare. It’s really starting to put a lot of pressure on a lot of big priorities that we have for this country. It is extremely important that we address this now.’


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President Donald Trump is expected to showcase the avalanche of activity during his first six weeks in the White House when he heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to deliver a primetime address to Congress and the nation.

‘Best Opening Month of any President in history,’ Trump wrote in a social media post last week, as he touted his accomplishments – many of them controversial – since his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Trump, on the eve of his first major speech to Congress during his second presidential administration, vowed that ‘TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!’

However, the latest polls indicate Americans are divided on the job he’s done so far in the White House.

Trump stands at 45% approval and 49% disapproval in one of the latest polls, a Marist College for PBS News and NPR. Additionally, a CNN survey, also conducted last week, put the president’s approval rating at 48%, with 52% disapproving. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings were slightly above water in other new polls, including one for CBS News that was also in the field in recent days and released over the weekend.

With the president an extremely polarizing and larger-than-life politician, it is no surprise that the latest polls indicate a massive partisan divide over Trump’s performance. The surveys spotlight that the vast majority of Democrats give the president a big thumbs down, while Republicans overwhelmingly approve of the job he is doing in office.

While Americans are split on Trump’s performance, the approval ratings for his second term are an improvement from his first tour of duty, when he started 2017 in negative territory and remained underwater throughout his four-year tenure in the White House.

One reason – Trump nowadays enjoys rock solid Republican support.

‘He never had support among Democrats in the first administration, but he also had some trouble with Republicans,’ Daron Shaw, a politics professor and chair at the University of Texas, noted.

Shaw, who serves as a member of the Fox News Decision Team and the Republican partner on the Fox News Poll, emphasized ‘that’s one acute difference between 2017 and 2025. The party’s completely solidified behind him.’

Trump has been moving at warp speed during his opening six weeks back in the White House with a flurry of executive orders and actions. His moves not only fulfilled some of his major campaign trail promises, but also allowed the returning president to flex his executive muscles, quickly put his stamp on the federal government, make major cuts to the federal workforce and also settle some long-standing grievances.

Trump as of Monday had signed 81 executive orders since his Jan. 20 inauguration, according to a count from Fox News, which far surpasses the rate of any recent presidential predecessors during their first weeks in office.

Expect Trump in his address to Congress and the nation to showcase the moves – many of them controversial – that he has taken so far. That includes a high-profile crackdown on immigration, threatening tariffs on major trading partners, including Canada and Mexico, and upending the nation’s international agenda and freezing foreign aid.

‘It’s been a flooding-of-the-zone here every day, often multiple times a day,’ Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, told Fox News Digital. ‘We’re just seeing a lot of things happening with little time for the public to digest. The net effect of it all is there’s a sense, on the part of the public, that some things are moving just a little too fast.’

While an improvement over his first term, Trump’s approval ratings are lower six weeks into his presidency than any of his recent predecessors in the White House.

Shaw noted that neither Trump nor former President Joe Biden ‘started out with overwhelming approval. This is not like the honeymoon period that we historically expect presidents to enjoy….Historically the other side gives you a little bit of leeway when you first come in. That just doesn’t happen anymore.’

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during the first six months of his single term as president, with his disapproval in the upper 30s to the low to mid 40s. 

However, Biden’s numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, in the wake of his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation’s southern border with Mexico.

Biden’s approval ratings stayed underwater throughout the rest of his presidency.

‘He just got crippled and never recovered,’ Shaw said of Biden.

An average of all the most recent national polls indicates that Trump’s approval ratings are just above water. However, Trump has seen his numbers edge down slightly since returning to the White House in late January, when an average of his polls indicated the president’s approval rating in the low 50s and his disapproval in the mid 40s.

‘The honeymoon is over, and he’s actually governing, and that typically does bring numbers down,’ veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, the president of New Hampshire-based New England College, told Fox News Digital. ‘I expect the numbers to continue to slip as the changes in Washington really do begin to impact people’s everyday lives.’

Shaw noted that Trump’s ‘rating on the economy is about minus four, which is 25 points better than Biden. He’s above water on immigration. His best issue right now is crime. He’s plus ten on crime.’

However, Shaw emphasized that inflation, the issue that helped propel Trump back into the White House, remains critical to the president’s political fortunes.

‘If prices remain high, he’s going to have trouble,’ Shaw warned.


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Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is fundraising off Friday’s explosive Oval Office meeting last week that left Europe and other U.S. allies shaken and frustrated.

Cheney’s group, Our Great Task, emailed donors suggesting that President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk were ‘tools of the Kremlin.’

‘Too many leaders in Washington are afraid to speak the truth, afraid to stand up for the fundamental values and institutions that safeguard our Republic. And now, Donald Trump is attempting to put America on Putin’s side as he continues his brutal assault on Ukraine,’ the message read.

‘Here’s some truth: Putin invaded Ukraine. NATO is the most successful military alliance in history. Since 1945, American leadership has ensured freedom and security for ourselves and millions of others around the world. Together with our allies, we defeated the Soviet Union — an evil empire that had to build gulags and walls to keep its own people in.’

She accused Trump of ‘appeasement’ tactics with Russia’s strongman president, Vladimir Putin.

‘Donald Trump, JD Vance and Elon Musk have made clear who they are. Only naive fools—or tools of the Kremlin—would abandon NATO, side with Russia, and demand Ukraine surrender in the face of Putin’s brutal aggression,’ her email continued.

‘We all have an obligation at this moment to be the guardrails of democracy, to speak truth to power to defend the rule of law, American freedom, and the Constitution itself.’

It ended with the appeal, ‘Please join me today — donate now to help elect leaders of courage and honor, to show that the determination of those who love freedom is greater than the dedication of those who would destroy it.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was kicked out of the White House by Trump’s top foreign affairs officials on Friday after an intense meeting where he and U.S. leaders traded verbal jabs in front of dozens of journalists and the rest of the world.

He had been in Washington to sign an anticipated deal giving the U.S. access to profits from Kyiv’s rare earth mineral deposits. 

Instead, the meeting devolved into Zelenskyy and Vance talking over each other, with Trump accusing Zelenskyy of toying with World War III.

The Ukrainian leader wanted more assurances of security guarantees beyond the vague contours of the deal, which Trump officials criticized.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ over the weekend of Zelenskyy’s demands, ‘It’s just ridiculous. His requests were ridiculous. They were not reasonable.’

There is still no public resolution as of Monday afternoon, but the sit-down fractured the continuously shrinking bloc of Republicans who support continued aid to Ukraine.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., compared Trump and Vance to Democrats of the late 20th century who favored Soviet appeasement and said the U.S. was now ‘on the wrong side’ of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Others, like Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., lamented that Russia came out the winner in the fight but did not place blame on Trump.

And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., known as both a top Trump ally and Ukraine supporter, praised the president’s handling of the situation and called on Zelenskyy to step away from leadership.

When Fox News Digital reached out for comment on Cheney’s email, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly simply replied, ‘Who?’


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Fox News Digital spoke to two political analysts on where President Trump stands grade wise with the American public on some of the top issues heading into his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. 

Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of the Daily Signal, and Julian Epstein, longtime Democratic operative, attorney, and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, gave Trump grades of A-F on some of the top issues he is expected to touch on in his speech. 

BLUEY: A

‘Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan are among the most visible members of the Trump administration,’ Bluey told Fox News Digital. 

‘Their work is paying off. Customs and Border Protection is encountering a record-low number of illegal aliens at the southern border. Thanks to combination of increased enforcement and the threat of deportation, President Trump is delivering on his promise to end illegal immigration. He’ll need more resources from Congress to finish the job and finally secure the border.’

EPSTEIN: A 

‘Promises made, promises kept, the public is strongly behind him on this, and Democracies don’t survive too long under the Biden open borders approach,’ Epstein said. 

BLUEY: B

‘President Trump promised to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours. That’s proving to be more difficult, mostly because of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s unrealistic demands,’ Bluey said. ‘After Friday’s blowup in the Oval Office, it’s unclear when peace talks will resume. In the Middle East, Trump is hoping to replicate the success of the Abraham Accords negotiated during his first term. Trump set the tone with his ultimatum for Hamas to release hostages, although there are approximately 59 still in captivity. With the first phase of the ceasefire coming to an end, it’ll take more U.S. diplomacy to get a deal done.’

EPSTEIN: B

‘The Zelenskyy Presser meltdown didn’t make anyone look good on the global stage, Epstein said. ‘Rule #1: get your act together before you go public. And where are our hostages in Gaza?  On the other hand, Trump is playing three-dimensional chess in each theater, where Biden was playing checkers and never made much meaningful progress.’

Bluey: A+

‘Using his executive powers, President Trump ordered an end to DEI throughout the federal government—and exposed its deep roots across the bureaucracy,’ Bluey told Fox News Digital. ‘By eliminating DEI jobs, he’s ensuring that taxpayers no longer subsidize this Marxist idea. He also signed an executive order banning men from women’s sports, an iconic moment with young athletes cheering him on. His confrontation with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the issue shows he’s serious about enforcing it.’

Epstein: A 

‘The American people never wanted the cultural revolution that the far left was trying to impose on race and gender, the president will have a super majority of public support on this,’ Epstein said. 

Bluey: A

‘Elon Musk and the DOGE team are on the hunt to save taxpayers $1 trillion, which would cut the budget deficit in half,’ Bluey told Fox News Digital. ‘They’ve already found $65 billion and showcased the results on a public website. But that represents just 6.5% of Musk’s goal, revealing what a daunting task it will be. Fortunately, there’s finally someone in Washington with the guts to cut spending and bring accountability to federal agencies. Musk shows no signs of slowing down, buoyed by recent polls showing support for spending reductions.’

Epstein: B+ 

‘Trump, must, will have public support to rid the bureaucracy of all its flab, self dealing and cultural revolutionary ideology,’ Epstein said. ‘But they’re acting like they are in a breathless race against father time on this, when in fact they have time to make sure they don’t cut off important things like cancer research.’

Bluey: B

‘President Trump acknowledged that inflation will be hard to tame, placing the blame on his predecessor,’ Bluey explained. ‘It’s true that the Biden administration’s spending spree got us into this mess. And it doesn’t help that Trump is also facing a bird flu outbreak causing a spike in egg prices. Voters, however, expect Trump to deliver on his promise to help with the cost of living. His efforts to reduce regulatory burdens and provide tax relief are important steps. He’ll need to keep a watchful eye on Americans’ views of their personal finances to measure his success.’

Epstein: B

‘Biden made a lot of mistakes and did a lot of dumb things, probably the dumbest was back shelving inflation,’ Epstein said. ‘For all of the whirlwind, we’ve seen very little in the way of Trump tackling inflation in the first month. This has to change.’

Trump will address Congress on Tuesday night in a speech expected to tout his accomplishments to date while previewing his agenda in the months and years ahead.


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President Donald Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night for the first time in his second term and is expected to deliver a speech to outline his plans for the nation under the theme of ‘The Renewal of the American Dream.’ 

The president is scheduled to speak before all members of Congress on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST. 

The speech is not officially called the ‘State of the Union’ because Trump has not been in office for a full year, though it operates in a similar fashion. The yearly presidential address is intended to showcase the administration’s achievements and policies. 

The president has been working at a breakneck pace to align the federal government with his ‘Make America Great Again’ policies. The president took more than 200 executive actions on his first day in office on Jan. 20 and has not slowed the pace since. 

White House officials exclusively told Fox News Digital that the speech, themed ‘The Renewal of the American Dream,’ will feature four main sections: accomplishments from Trump’s second term thus far at home and abroad; what the Trump administration has done for the economy; the president’s renewed push for Congress to pass additional funding for border security; and the president’s plans for peace around the globe.

Trump’s joint address ‘will be must-see TV,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. 

‘President Trump has accomplished more in one month than any president in four years, and the renewal of the American Dream is well underway,’ Leavitt said. ‘In his joint address to Congress, President Trump will celebrate his extraordinarily successful first month in office while outlining his bold, ambitious and commonsense vision for the future.’

The president will review his administration’s ‘accomplishments from his extraordinarily successful first month in office, both here at home and abroad,’ White House officials told Fox News Digital.

Officials said the president will also discuss what his administration has done and continues to do to ‘fix the economic mess created by the Biden administration and end inflation for all Americans.’

The president is expected to highlight the more than $1.7 trillion in investments made since he took the oath of office to bring manufacturing back to the United States, including increases in energy production, investments in the private sector on AI and more. 

Also in the address, the president will push Congress to pass more border security funding to fund deportations and the continued construction of the border wall along the U.S. southern border. 

On foreign policy, the president is expected to outline his plans ‘to restore peace around the world.’ A White House official told Fox News Digital that he will lay out his plans to end the war in Ukraine. He will also focus on the work of his administration to ensure the release of all hostages from Gaza.

The president posted on his Truth Social account on Monday morning teasing his address, saying, ‘Tomorrow night will be big. I will tell it like it is!’ 

When asked for comment on the president’s post, a White House official told Fox News Digital, ‘As always, President Trump will keep it real and speak the truth.’

Fox News Channel, Fox News Digital and Fox News Go will have live coverage of the event Tuesday evening.

Fox News Channel will also preview the speech during its prime-time and afternoon programming.


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President Donald Trump will make the first address of his second term to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. His first six weeks were dominated by ongoing executive actions, redefining international relations and government efficiency efforts. Political strategists shared with Fox News Digital what to expect from Trump’s big speech. 

Republican strategists say Trump should tell the story of his first six weeks, drawing contrast with former President Joe Biden’s administration. Meanwhile, Democrats are focused on what they say is Trump’s failure to lower prices. 

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., is tasked with the party’s rebuttal. 

‘Trump is going to contrast himself with the previous administration. The previous administration was weak and directionless. No one knew who was in charge. No one really understood what the Biden administration stood for. There couldn’t be a more dramatic change from Biden to Trump,’ political columnist Kristin Tate said. 

Republicans say Trump should highlight the themes of his first six weeks and explain how his executive actions reflect his greater vision for the country. 

‘He needs to tell a story. He needs to weave in all the things he’s done, all this progress over the last month into a story and a theme and tell it,’ Republican strategist Matt Gorman said. ‘He did it really well during his inauguration. It’s a status update. I think it’s really important that he weaves all of these actions and all the things he’s done into one big story about what it means for us as Americans but also what it means for his vision for the next three and four years.’

Republican strategists told Fox News Digital that Trump should tell Americans how he has already delivered on key campaign promises, including slowing illegal border crossings, reversing Biden’s green energy policies, his ‘de-weaponization’ of the Justice Department and his work to eliminate DEI.

‘I expect, and he will, take a victory lap on some of those items because it represents promises made, promises kept. But then he needs to cast the forward-facing vision: Where do we go from here? What are the big-ticket legislative items? How do we get past this legislative debate over one big bill or two separate initiatives and focus on what those bills contain, because time is fleeting,’ said Republican strategist Colin Reed.

Reed said Trump should focus on ‘the legislative priorities and go beyond just the executive orders.’ And as leaders grapple with the fallout of Trump’s heated meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, Reed said Trump could reset the narrative on Tuesday night. 

‘For everything that’s happened over the last few days on foreign policy, I think it’s an opportunity for him to reset the narrative on what he wants to do domestically,’ Reed said. ‘The events of Friday are going to obviously cast a shadow over tomorrow. But look, President Trump is in many ways dealing with the leftover mess [of] his predecessor on the global front. In his mind, the issues he’s facing, the challenges that happened in Ukraine would not have happened on his watch. He still has the residue of the Biden administration to deal with. That’s going to be an overarching narrative for the foreseeable future,’ Reed added.

To contrast Trump’s speech, the Democratic National Committee argues that Trump is failing to deliver on his campaign promise to lower costs and boost the economy. DNC Chair Ken Martin has been traveling the country leading up to Tuesday night, telling Americans about the chaos Trump and Elon Musk are creating throughout the U.S. 

During Trump’s fifth address to a joint session of Congress, Democrats and Republicans agreed that he is unlikely to invite new Americans into the fold. 

‘He’s president for everyone, but I don’t expect Democrats to suddenly have a change of heart. They’re trying to figure out less what they think about Trump and more what they’re going to do about him. And they don’t have an answer for the latter at all. They’re very much in an era of confusion right now in their party, trying to figure out what they stand for and how they’re going to adjust to actually get a majority of voters, again, just to support them,’ Gorman added. 

Brad Bannon, president of Bannon Communications Research, said Trump has done very little in his first few weeks to appeal to anyone beyond his ‘base MAGA vote.’

‘I don’t see any sign that he’s trying to appeal to anybody who didn’t vote for him last year,’ Bannon said. ‘He has control of Congress, a compliant Supreme Court. It seems to me everything he’s done … has been to appeal to the people who already support him, and he’s not making any effort to reach out. I would be very surprised if he does Tuesday night.’

Tate, however, urged Trump to extend an olive branch to moderate Democrats during his speech.

‘I even believe that he is going to reach out across the aisle and throw some compliments to some of the more moderate Democrats. He really needs to do this. Sen. [John] Fetterman from Pennsylvania would be a great first choice to highlight as a Democrat who is not blinded by hateful partisanship but is rather looking to find common ground to help everyday Americans,’ she said.

‘Trump has a lot to be proud of, and rest assured he will shine a light on all of those grand achievements which have taken place in such a short period of time, and he is going to paint a grand vision for the future of America, including not just what America represents, but what it can be at its finest,’ Tate continued. 

Trump has the headlining speech Tuesday night, but Democrats also have an opportunity with Slotkin’s response to frame their own message about what the Democratic Party stands for. Bannon said Trump won because Americans believed the country was headed in the wrong direction. 

‘Democrats would be making a mistake if their response to Trump is just trying to preserve the status quo,’ he said. ‘I think Democrats have to be bold and go bold. Not only a need to defend the worthiness of programs that Trump is arbitrarily cutting, but they need to go beyond that and define the Democratic Party version of what they would do to change the status quo. That’s Trump’s biggest appeal. He appeals to people who are unhappy with the status quo, and Democrats will fall into a trap if they just say, ‘Well, we have to preserve what we already have.”


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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed that the Department of Justice has received more Jeffery Epstein files from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the document release she touted last week fell flat. 

Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Bondi confirmed that a ‘truckload’ of Epstein files were delivered by the FBI after she gave the agency until 8 a.m. on Friday morning to deliver them. 

‘I gave [the FBI] a deadline of Friday at 8 a.m. to get us everything,’ Bondi explained. ‘And a source had told me where the documents were being kept, Southern District of New York, shock. So we got them all by Friday at 8 a.m.’

‘Thousands of pages of documents. I have the FBI going through them…and Director Patel is going to get us a detailed report as to why the FBI withheld all of those documents,’ she continued.

Bondi went on to describe the documents as being ‘a truckload of evidence,’ and emphasized that a detailed report is incoming.

‘And, you know, we’re going to go through it, go through it as fast as we can, but go through it very cautiously to protect all the victims of Epstein,’ she said.

The attorney general also accused the Biden administration of ‘sitting’ on the documents.

‘No one did anything with them. And why were they sitting in the Southern District of New York? I want a full report on that,’ Bondi said. ‘You know, sadly, these people don’t believe in transparency. But I think more unfortunately, I think a lot of them don’t believe in honesty.’

‘And it’s a new day. It’s a new administration, and everything’s going to come out to the public. The public has the right to know Americans have a right to know.’

The highly-anticipated rollout of the Epstein files drew criticism across the country on Thursday, disappointing those who expected a ‘client list’ or any significant new information about the disgraced Palm Beach-based sex trafficker. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., was one of the many vocal critics of the rollout.

‘I nor the task force were given or reviewed the Epstein documents being released today… A NY Post story just revealed that the documents will simply be Epstein’s phonebook,’ the Florida congresswoman wrote on X. ‘THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!’

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.


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