Trump to address Congress after pausing aid to Ukraine and launching sweeping tariffs

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump is due to give a joint address to both houses of Congress tonight. His speech will be held in the chamber of the House of Representatives at the Capitol in Washington.

It's the first time Trump will address Congress since returning to office in January.

The speech comes the day after Trump has ordered a pause on military aid to Ukraine and less than 24 hours after he announced sweeping 25% tariffs on goods entering the US from Canada and Mexico.

The president will be flanked by the House Speaker Mike Johnson and Vice-President JD Vance, who doubles as the ceremonial leader of the Senate.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the Senate will be in attendance, though a group of Democrats have said they will skip the event. Elon Musk is also expected in the audience.

Here's what the White House says about Trump's speech tonight

Earlier, the White House provided a list of four broad parts to the speech, which Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said will be "must-see TV".

Broadly, it will focus on "American renewal", the White House says.

Part one: Trump will run through his first month in office and review what the White House has termed an "extraordinarily successful" period, both in the US and overseas.

Part two: This portion of the speech will focus on the economy, Trump’s efforts to combat inflation and what the White House says was an "economic mess" left by Joe Biden.

Part three: In the third part of the speech, Trump will urge Congress to pass more funding for deportations and to continue building a wall at the US-Mexico border.

Part four: The last part of Trump's remarks will focus on "his plans to restore peace around the world".

Who is giving the Democratic response?

Senator Elissa Slotkin has been tapped by the Democrats to deliver the rebuttal to Trump’s address.

Slotkin is a first term senator from Michigan who took office for the first time in January, and has been described as a “rising star” in the party Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

"I'm looking forward to speaking directly to the American people next week," Slotkin says in a statement.

Slotkin was in graduate school in New York during the 9/11 attacks, and says on her website that that experience drove her towards a career in national security. She worked as a Middle East analyst for the CIA in Iraq, and served in national security roles at the White House and Pentagon under Presidents Bush and Obama.

Slotkin first ran for Congress in 2018, flipping a long-time Republican-leaning district as part of the Democrat midterm wave during Trump's first term.

Democrats invite fired federal workers to tonight's speech

While some Democrats are skipping Trump's speech, others are instead inviting federal workers who have been among the thousands fired by the Trump administration.

According to the BBC's US partner CBS News, external, at least a dozen former workers have been invited by Democrats, a number of those military veterans.

One of the invited former employees, James Diaz, is a disabled veteran who was laid off last month from the Internal Revenue Service, says: "I've given my life to this country, and to be laid off without warning or respect is disheartening."

"I understand the need to trim the fat, but you can't treat people this way." (Source: BBC News)