Trump's address to Congress: Ukraine war, Greenland, duties, US Golden Dome and Biden VIDEO

US President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address before Congress.

The Republican entered the hall to the applause of his fellow party members. The broadcast was conducted by the White House.

War in Ukraine

The US President during his speech in Congress raised the topic of the military conflict in Ukraine. He stated that “it is time to stop this madness.” According to him, he received signals from Russia about the readiness to start negotiations.

“We’ve had serious discussions with Russia. Then I’ve received strong signals that they are ready for peace,” Mr. Trump said, without providing details.

The US leader noted, “If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.” He also said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had sent him a letter in which he expressed readiness to sit down at the negotiating table.

According to Mr. Trump, the document also includes Kyiv's agreement to the rare earth metals deal.

“Today I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The letter reads: “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” the president.

“Historic actions” on rare earth metals in the US

The United States will make a “historic action” in the coming days to ramp up rare earth mining, President Donald Trump said during a speech to Congress.

“Later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the U.S.A.,” Trump noted.

”We need Greenland” 

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would approve of the decision of the people of Greenland to become part of the United States.

Speaking about the people of Greenland, he emphasized: “We strongly support your right to determine your own future. And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.”

“We need Greenland for national security and even international security,” Trump added, addressing the House of Representatives and the Senate of Congress with a speech on the situation in the United States, domestic and foreign policy priorities. “And we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it,” he emphasized, referring to Greenland's entry into the United States.

Donald Trump announced his intention to impose new, retaliatory duties on imported goods starting April 2. He announced this while speaking before the House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress with a speech on the situation in the country and the priorities of domestic and foreign policy.

Reciprocal duties

“If you don’t make your product in America, however, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and in some cases, a rather large one. Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada — have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair,” the US leader said.

The President stressed that he originally wanted to set the date for the introduction of tariffs on April 1, but decided to move it to April 2 to avoid associations with Fool's Day. “I’m a very superstitious person. April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in, and whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them,” Trump said.

“India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 percent. China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them. And South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that. Four times higher. And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea. But that’s what happens. This is happening by friend and foe,” the US president said.

Trump also said the new measures are aimed at protecting the U.S. market from unfair competition. “If they [other countries] do nonmonetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do nonmonetary barriers to keep them out of our market,” the Americal leader emphasized. 

Golden Dome

The US government plans to develop and deploy a new missile defense system Golden Dome. He said this during a speech before the House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress.

“As commander in chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future. As a first step, I am asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art golden dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland — all made in the U.S.A.,” he underscored.

Evaluating the Biden administration's policies

The actions of the administration of the 46th President of the United States Joe Biden led to a sharp rise in inflation in the country and economic disaster. This was stated on Tuesday by the American President Donald Trump.

“As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans. They’ve never had anything like it. We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years. But perhaps even in the history of our country, they’re [experts] not sure. As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again,” the president said, speaking before the House of Representatives and the Senate of the US Congress with a speech on the situation in the country, priority directions of domestic and foreign policy.

According to him, the Washington administration intends to reduce the cost of energy resources to reduce the rate of inflation. “A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy. The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95 percent, slowed pipeline construction to a halt and closed more than 100 power plants — we are opening up many of those power plants right now. And frankly, we have never seen anything like it,” Trump said. He recalled that he had therefore declared an energy emergency in the country, allowing for the accelerated dispatch of additional funds to the area.

Traditionally, presidents deliver annual State of the Union addresses to Congress. However, since Trump only took office as American leader for the second time on January 20, this time it is not formally a full-fledged address, during which the results of the past year are summed up and plans for the future are announced.

By Khagan Isayev