On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, at 9:00 p.m. ET, President Donald Trump will deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress since returning to office. The address will be streamed live online and on major broadcast television networks.
Just more than a month since President Trump’s return to power, Americans are already feeling the harms of his administration’s dangerous agenda, with child care programs unable to pay their bills, community health centers closing, and farmers watching their debts pile up as the administration withholds resources they were promised. At the same time, Americans have watched the president and the world’s richest man gut our system of checks and balances, flout the law, and put Americans’ hard-earned benefits on the chopping block. Now more than ever, the American people have questions about their grocery bills, America’s alliances, and what Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is doing with their private data. These difficult questions demand answers and accountability, but Americans are not likely to get them from President Trump when he addresses the nation.
To give Americans the facts on what they need to know in advance of this year’s congressional address, the Center for American Progress has put together a guide on the real story behind Trump’s first month in office with the help of CAP policy experts.
The implementation of Project 2025
As CAP previously warned, the threat of Project 2025 continues to loom over the country. Roughly two-thirds of all executive orders signed by President Trump so far this term were effectively copied and pasted from the authoritarian playbook. Among those are the administration’s plan to slash the civil service, bypass funding laws Congress has passed, and further gut the U.S. system of checks and balances. These changes seem to have one goal: to make Donald Trump the most powerful president in American history and remove systems of accountability designed to look out for everyday people and their communities.
Read the following CAP and CAP Action pieces to learn more:
The Trump administration’s dismantling of the federal government
It is hard to make sense of the Trump administration’s dangerous decisions to shutter essential federal agencies and departments and to threaten to cut off critical federal funding to millions of Americans and lifesaving programs all around the world. But Americans must remember that causing disruption, panic, and pain is seemingly the point. Worse yet, although the administration likes to cast the work of DOGE as running the government like a business, many of the organization’s efforts have been executed with grave incompetence. For example, at the direction of DOGE, the administration fired bird flu experts, Federal Aviation Administration employees in charge of airline safety, and those who protect America’s nuclear weapons stockpile—and DOGE posted classified information online about a U.S. intelligence agency.
Read the following pieces to learn more:
“One big beautiful bill” to enrich billionaires at the expense of American families
As Congress attempts to pass a conservative tax and budget bill in the months ahead, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have prioritized the interests of the billionaires over the health, security, and future of American families. Their proposed budget plans would require Congress to severely cut critical health and food assistance programs, among others, in order to help pay for a massive tax giveaway to the richest people in this country and to the corporations.
Read the following pieces to learn more:
Conclusion
Elections have consequences. The Trump administration’s plans for the United States are no longer hypothetical. They are a sobering reality weighing on millions of anxious Americans and their families suffering because of the administration’s cruel policies and incompetence. President Trump will no doubt use his address to Congress to try to deceive Americans about the pain his policies are inflicting on them. CAP wants to make sure Americans have the facts.
Authors’ note: The authors would like to thank Ben Olinsky, Allison McManus, Robert Benson, Devon Ombres, Michael Sozan, Bobby Kogan, Kennedy Andara, Mimla Wardak, Alan Yu, Laura Kilbury, Jared Bass, Veronica Goodman, Casey Peeks, Alan L. Cohen, Brendan Duke, Kyle Ross, Emily Gee, Sage Warner, Colin Seeberger, Daniella Gibbs Léger, and Julia Cusick from the Center for American Progress for their leadership, research, and commentary on these critical policy issues and decisions.