What Trump Said Last Night, Trump On Immigration, China Tariff Confidence

0:02President Trump addressed Congress promising new waves of tariffs on products Americans buy and criticizing Democrats for not smiling or applauding. What did the speech reveal about the administration's next moves? I'm Michelle Martin, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. The president also talked up a plan to let rich foreigners buy U.S. residency for$5 million. He also spoke of current migrants as terrorists. Every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country. His Homeland Security czar says they are short of resources, So what's the president's need from Congress?

0:37Also, how is China responding to U.S. tariffs? The communist government has its own public ritual, the annual meeting of its one-party Congress. Our colleague John Ruich is there and helps us to listen in. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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2:18Rinse. It's time to be great. President Trump took the occasion of a speech to Congress to proclaim in his view that America is back. For more than 90 minutes, he talked of securing the border, slashing government and imposing tariffs. And he said he did not expect much support from Democrats. These people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won't do it, no matter what. The opposition party did spend most of his speech stony-faced, seated, or protesting. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez was listening to all of those minutes, and he joins us now.

2:55Franco, good morning. Good morning, Steve. What was it like? Yeah, I mean, there was always some kind of tension in these kind of speeches. But last night, that tension was really so much higher. I mean, in the first five minutes, a Democratic congressman, Al Green of Texas, stood up in protest. He was waving his cane and calling out that Trump didn't have a mandate. And when he wouldn't sit down, House Speaker Mike Johnson actually had him escorted out of the chamber, which was a first as far as I can remember. And throughout the speech, Republicans were cheering, Democrats were holding up these signs that read things like false and save Medicaid, and just repeatedly Trump would go after former President Joe Biden by name and calling Democrats radical left lunatics.

3:41I mean, the partisan nature of this speech is really likely what this is going to be remembered for. Well, the president certainly celebrated some of his more divisive or partisan achievements. Yeah, Trump actually spent a lot of time touting the work of Elon Musk and his project to cut costs known as the Department of Government Efficiency. And he got into some of the nitty gritty, giving this long list of examples that he said were being cut. Here's a small part. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQI plus in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.

4:29Now, Steve, Trump's critics have said some of these cuts were for necessary services like aid for starving children. And in some cases, the White House did acknowledge this and rehired people. But NPR has also looked into some of the claims of savings posted on the Doge website, and documents show that most of those savings don't actually exist. Well, did the president talk about his plans for the year ahead? This can be a table-setting moment. Yeah, a little bit. He asked Congress to pass his tax cuts. He talked about a plan that he'll announce this week to expand production of critical minerals in the U.S.

5:02But he really spent most of his time talking about things that he's already done. Well, did he use guests in attendance to make his points, as presidents often do? He did. He did. And that kind of shows, you know, the priorities. A lot of the guests were victims of crime or worked in law enforcement. There was this really heartwarming moment when Trump honored a 13-year-old boy who has fought brain cancer. He was dressed in a police uniform, and Trump said he had a special surprise for him. Tonight, DJ, we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.

5:45Trump's Secret Service director then came out and gave him a badge and a hug. In this 90 minute or more speech, Franco, did anything go unsaid? Well, I mean, one of the biggest concerns Americans have is their grocery bills. And Trump promised to cut high prices, but we really didn't hear anything new about those plans. He just blamed Biden. That's White House correspondent Franco Ordonez. Franco, thanks so much. Thanks, Steve. Now, Democrats took note of what the president didn't say about prices. Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan delivered the party's response. President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends.

6:22He's on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America. And to do that, he's going to make you pay in every part of your life. Grocery and home prices are going up, not down. And he hasn't laid out a credible plan to deal with either of those. Slotkin argued that Trump's tariffs and other proposals will raise prices the opposite of what voters said they wanted in last year's election. Another big issue in last year's election was immigration, and the president spoke last night of rounding up migrants that he described as terrorists. Every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country or, if they're too dangerous, put in jails, standing trial in this country.

7:03NPR's immigration policy reporter Jimena Bestillo is listening in and is with us after a long night. Jimena, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Well, how did the president highlight immigration as you listened? There were several guests in the audience invited that showcased this priority not just for the administration but for Republicans. One was House Speaker Mike Johnson's guest, who was White House boarders' R. Tom Homan. Homan is one of the key advisors designating and directing Trump's immigration policy through the federal agencies and has been one of the spokespeople for the administration's goals.

7:37Other guests of the White House included Roberto Ortiz, a U.S. Border Patrol agent. And also there were family members of Lake and Riley. You might recall that she's a Georgia nursing student whose murder became a rallying cry for Republicans criticizing the Biden administration's immigration plans. The first law Trump signed in his second term was named after Riley, and it expanded the scope of who could be deported. Now, the president made a claim during the address that illegal border crossings are at the lowest level ever recorded. What do the facts show you? The agency has not reported the numbers for February yet.

8:12That's the Customs and Border Protection. However, posts on social media by the president suggests the administration is on track to report about 8 ,500 arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border in the month of February. This could be the lowest number of crossings since Homeland Security started reporting the data in 2000. OK, so that is a drop. Right. And these numbers can ebb and flow depending on various factors. During President Biden's administration, unlawful crossings nationwide peaked in 2022. There was another peak again in 2023. but they've been declining ever since and were on a downward trend when Trump took office.

8:48Now, the president, interestingly enough, also talked about letting people in to the country, future action on visas. What's he talking about? Trump recently announced a plan to create a so-called gold card, which he said would allow, quote, very high level people to apply to become lawful permanent residents. His administration has pitched this as a replacement to the current EB-5 immigrant investor visa. But the president can't solely create a new visa. That power lies within Congress. So far, a formal proposal has not been issued by the Trump administration. And speaking of Congress, Trump also took this speech as a reminder to lawmakers that his administration is asking for more money to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

9:29Speaking to reporters at the White House earlier in the day, Border Czar Tom Homan described the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency as being, quote, in the hole. And he said that they needed more money for detention beds and flights to send people out. But that money has to come from Congress. NPR's Jimena Bastillo, get some sleep. Thank you.

9:56Okay, President Trump was not the only world leader to give a big speech in front of a legislature in the past day. Yes, Chinese Premier Li Qiang delivered an annual government work report on the first day of the annual session of China's parliament. It's a State of the Union type address, and it gives us an idea of what's on the minds of the leaders of the world's number two economy. And Pierce, John Ruich was at the Great Hall of the People, big building in the middle of Beijing, to hear this, and he's on the line. John, hi there. Hi, Steve. So did China's leaders use this occasion to respond to what President Trump was saying here, including about them?

10:32Well, no. Li Chiang's speech was wrapping up as Trump was getting started. So we haven't really seen a Chinese response to Trump's speech yet. The Chinese government responded, though, to the new tariffs by Trump. You know, he ratcheted tariffs on Chinese imports up to 20 percent yesterday. They retaliated with their own tariffs on American chicken, wheat, corn, soybeans and such, blacklisted about 15 U.S. companies. The Chinese premier did not mention the U.S. by name in his address. It's the kind of document that's drafted over the course of months, doesn't change with headlines. But he did talk about, quote, an increasingly complex and severe external environment.

11:09Now, those are words we've heard from Chinese leaders before. And analysts say they're basically code for this confrontational situation they have with the U.S. On that front, Li flagged some concerns that that external environment may actually have a greater impact on China going forward. Rank-and-file delegates to the National People's Congress didn't seem too worried, though, about the tariffs. Oh, this is really interesting. I've been talking with economic and business figures connected with China who seem to think that tariffs will hurt Americans more than they're going to hurt the Chinese.

11:38But what are you hearing where you are? Yeah, well, we had a chance to talk to a handful of delegates on their way into the opening session today. One of them was Tian Xuan, who's a professor of finance, part of the Shanghai delegation.

11:52So he told me that China's basically in a better position to handle the tariffs now and to offset them than before. China has a huge domestic market, for instance. It's got comprehensive supply chains. He says the authorities are taking steps to stimulate domestic demand. And he says the tariffs are also kind of a motivator for China to promote high tech and to expand relations with other countries. Economists, like you say, say the tariffs will probably start to hurt, especially if they keep going up. But these handpicked delegates to parliament were projecting confidence, as you might expect.

12:23OK, so that's the spin. And there's not nothing behind the spin. But also, China's economy has really been struggling, sputtering and doing strange things the last couple of years. So how do they address that? Well, the premier flagged the risks like that external environment, like sluggish domestic demand. But he also projected some confidence. He set a growth target of around 5 percent this year. It's about the same as last year. And to get there, announced some fresh fiscal stimulus, a willingness to pursue more accommodative monetary policy, to increase funding for industries of the future like quantum technology, AI, these type of things.

12:56OK, so I just want to note there's a one-party Congress, not likely to have a failed vote or a close vote on anything. But it does, I guess, signal where the government is going. So what do you expect in the coming days? Well, one interesting thing we'll be looking out for is that the NPC may pass some legislation that would support and protect private businesses. And that's pretty interesting because the leadership here seems to have renewed its interest in these companies as drivers of the economy and innovation, especially after the Chinese company DeepSeek released an advanced AI model in January that shocked the world.

13:27NPR's John Ruich with some insights from Beijing. Really appreciate it, John. You're welcome.

13:36And that's up first for this Wednesday, March 5th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Michelle Martin. There is an easy way to stay connected to news and podcasts from the NPR network, the NPR app. Hear community coverage from your local station, stories from around the world, and podcast suggestions based on what you like. Download the NPR app in your app store. Today's Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Kevin Drew, Ryland Barton, Alice Wolfley, and Mohamed El-Bardisi, who was produced by Ziad Bach, Nia Dumas, and Chris Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Stacey Abbott.

14:10Join us again tomorrow.

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