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President Donald Trump will address a joint session of the 119th Congress on Tuesday for the first time in his second term. House Speaker Mike Johnson formally invited Trump in late January to speak, asking the president to share his “America First vision for our legislative future.”

Although this speech isn’t technically a “State of the Union” address, it’s a similarly orchestrated affair full of pomp and ceremony. It’s an opportunity for Trump to outline his administration’s goals and address the nation’s most pressing issues.

When Trump takes the dais on Tuesday night, Vice President JD Vance and Johnson are expected to be seated behind him on either side.

In front of the president, Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, Joint Chiefs of Staff, former members of Congress and members of the diplomatic corps will be seated. Seats in the rest of the chamber are not assigned, according to the Congressional Research Service. Senators and House members are seated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Presidents and first ladies also typically invite about two dozen guests to sit in the gallery, to help put a human face to a president’s message. Elon Musk will also be in the House chamber, a White House official told CNN.

One person will be absent during the speech: the designated survivor. The designated survivor is a member of the Cabinet chosen to remain in a secure location during the speech in case of catastrophe, to ensure continuity of government.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting to this post.

Top Trump officials have had backchannel conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team following Friday’s Oval Office dustup, two sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

The Trump officials stressed the importance of stabilizing relations with the White House sooner rather than later and urged the Ukrainians to get talks back on track before the president’s speech to Congress Tuesday night, the sources said.

Among those who reached out to Zelensky is Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, one of the sources said. The warning was quickly followed by Zelensky’s X post on Tuesday morning calling the Oval Office meeting “regrettable.”

As of Tuesday evening, one White House official told CNN the rare minerals deal with Ukraine had not yet been signed. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is directly involved in the discussions over the deal, told Fox News there is currently no plans for it to be signed before Trump’s speech, which is set for around 9 p.m. ET.

However, the White House official argued that the Trump administration is confident the discussions on resurrecting the minerals deal were heading in the right direction.

The president — who plans to address the wars abroad during his speech, including the war between Ukraine and Russia — is eager to declare a win on the minerals deal, the official said.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that President Donald Trump could announce a trade deal with Mexico and Canada as soon as tomorrow, just one day after the US imposed punishing tariffs on the two nations and sparked retaliatory levies.

“I think he’s going to work something out with them,” Lutnick said on Fox Business. “It’s not going to be a pause, none of that pause stuff, but I think he’s going to figure out, you do more, and I’ll meet you in the middle some way, and we’re going to probably be announcing that tomorrow.”

The White House imposed 25% across-the board tariffs on Mexican imports and on most Canadian imports early Tuesday. Canada responded swiftly, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing plans to implement a 25% tariff on C$30 billion ($20.7 billion) of US goods immediately, followed by an additional C$125 billion ($86.2 billion) in 21 days’ time. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would will unveil Mexico’s response on Sunday.

Lutnick said he had spoken with both Canadian and Mexican representatives about trade among the three countries.

And a Canadian government source confirmed to CNN that Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc spoke with the US Commerce secretary today.

CNN’s Elijah Shama contributed to this post, which was updated with details on conversations Lutnick had today with officials from Canada and Mexico.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico could severely impact the economies of both countries, potentially slowing down production of certain goods, raising prices on products and sparking fears of a recession, analysts warn.

The US on Tuesday imposed 25% tariffs on imports from both of its neighbors, as well as a 10% tax on Canadian energy.

Though both countries have also warned they will impose reciprocal tariffs that will affect the US economy, Canada and Mexico stand to lose far more because they depend so heavily on America for trade. The US is considered their largest export market.

Impact on Canada: Canada’s car manufacturing and energy sectors will be among the most affected, said Drew Fagan, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. According to the US Census Bureau, about $185 billion worth of goods in those sectors are imported into the United States from Canada. Canada is also considered the single largest supplier of energy to the US. In 2023, it provided approximately 60% of crude oil imports to the US, 85% of electricity imports and 99% of natural gas imports, according to the Canadian government.

Impact on Mexico: Like Canada, Mexico’s car manufacturing industry is deeply intertwined with the United States and heavily dependent on American consumers. The US imported $87 billion worth of motor vehicles and $64 billion worth of vehicle parts from Mexico last year, excluding December, according to the Department of Commerce. Tariffs would make these products more expensive for US consumers — so much so that Americans could stop buying from Mexico, and that could subsequently affect the Mexican economy, said Jason Marczak, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

Read more tariff analysis here.

When he steps onto the dais in the House chamber on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump will have another major platform to relay his second-term priorities. For Democrats, the moment will present a fresh test of whether they can effectively counter Trump’s prime-time programming.

Democratic leadership chose a first-term senator elected in a battleground state Trump won in November to deliver the party’s official response. A Democratic senator whose name is often talked about for 2028 is among those skipping the address, predicting it will be a “MAGA pep rally.” And a protest movement organizing online has identified March 4 — the day of Trump’s speech — as its next day of action.

The varying tactics of Democrats in Washington and across the country will be on display as Trump delivers his address to a joint session of Congress six weeks into a second term during which he’s swiftly moved to remake the federal government and implement his foreign policy vision, at times unnerving US allies.

While Democrats have rallied against Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency cuts, lawmakers in Washington have struggled to stop the president’s early actions or settle on a cohesive approach to push back on them. It comes amid a debate within the Democratic Party about the best way to handle Trump’s second term and position Democrats for success in the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election — with some saying party leaders aren’t doing enough.

Heading into Tuesday’s speech, Democratic leaders — from Capitol Hill to the Democratic National Committee — are hoping to present a united front.

Read more about what Democrats are doing

Pete Marocco, the Trump appointee behind the sweeping changes in US foreign assistance and at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is expected to brief the House Foreign Affairs Committee behind closed doors on Wednesday, a congressional source told CNN.

The source said the briefing is members-only and not classified. CNN has reached out to the State Department and the committee for comment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also serving as acting administrator of USAID, delegated Marocco “authority to perform the duties of the Deputy Administrator of USAID, to begin the process of engaging in a review and potential reorganization of USAID’s activities to maximize efficiency and align operations with the national interest,” he told Congress in early February.

Marocco is also serving as the director of foreign assistance at the State Department.

More context: Congressional Democrats have reacted with frustration and alarm at the major moves taken under Marocco and his team at USAID, which have had consequences for US workers. At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday, numerous Democratic lawmakers called for Rubio to testify.

Under Marocco’s tenure overseeing US foreign assistance and USAID, the State Department put in place a sweeping foreign aid freeze with immediate stop work orders on nearly all foreign assistance work, pending a review. Marocco is the one who drafted that directive.

The Trump administration said in a court filing last week it had finished that review and terminated nearly 10,000 foreign aid awards. Some of that funding went to programs that had received waivers to continue lifesaving work.

Marocco is a named defendant in a number of lawsuits challenging the changes, including one before the Supreme Court.

President Donald Trump’s second term is off and running with a cascade of executive actions signed in his first few weeks and more promised in the weeks to come.

Trump has vowed to enact a sweeping agenda and reshape the federal government, saying in his inaugural address that “the golden age of America” was starting and naming priorities such as immigration, trade and national security.

Here’s a recap of Trump’s executive actions so far:

Democrats are rejecting House Republicans’ plan to pass a stopgap spending bill through the end of September, raising the s​​pecter of a government shutdown in President Donald Trump’s first 100 days and setting up a test of how far Democrats are willing to go to counter his administration.

Top Democrats in the House and Senate are sharply opposed to Speaker Mike Johnson’s strategy for a six-month funding extension, insisting it would give even more leeway to Trump and Elon Musk to slash government programs. They also fear that agreeing to the GOP’s lengthy extension could weaken some of the only leverage they have in a GOP-controlled Congress, and could potentially damage an argument in court cases challenging the White House’s spending actions.

With Republicans in control of Washington, Democrats are limited in what they can do, but Republicans will need their votes to pass a spending bill through Congress, creating an opportunity for the party locked out of power to make demands and potentially extract concessions.

But, Republican leaders still believe that Democrats will ultimately fold in the face of a possible shutdown after the March 14 deadline and deliver the votes to help a funding bill reach Trump’s desk. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have not yet communicated a plan to their members.

Other options: If Democrats remain dug in, Johnson would need to deliver the votes for his so-called clean continuing resolution with Republican support alone. But with a small majority — and two Republicans, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Tony Gonzales of Texas, already opposed — Johnson may fall short of the votes he needs to execute on that plan, too.

Read more about what Democrats are saying about the upcoming funding deadline

“Evict Elon!” was the passionate chant of protesters outside the Office of Personnel Management in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, as dozens of terminated federal employees and their supporters gathered to call for Elon Musk and his colleagues at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to be removed from the premises.

The rally was led by the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of government workers in the US, representing over 800,000 people.

CNN spoke with two employees who were terminated from the OPM, both of whom said their firings came with very little warning.

Shernice Mundell, an insurance health specialist at the department, said her termination came on February 13 in the form of an email, which linked to a video call. It was pre-recorded, she said, not a live person speaking with her, and it instructed her that she had until 3 p.m. that day to get her affairs in order.

Karen Fenner, who worked at the OPM’s Office of Procurement Operations, said she first got a heads up from the director of her division about the reduction in force notice on February 21, about 15 minutes before she and her colleagues received emails saying they were on administrative leave.

She said, “It was horrible. I mean, it was like our hearts stopped. … I’ve gone through every state of emotion.”

At least three members of Congress also attended the rally, including Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin and Virginia Rep. Don Beyer.

Van Hollen told CNN, “We want to shut down this illegal operation that Elon Musk is running.” Asked what his biggest concern is for the weeks and months ahead, Van Hollen said, “There’ve been comments out of folks at the White House that they might ignore court orders. That would be just another huge breach of our checks and balances and our constitutional framework.”

Near the end of the speeches, Beyer exhorted the crowd to keep up the fight. Drawing loud applause, Beyer added, “And when we do that, we’re gonna send Elon back to South Africa.”

President Donald Trump enacted 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico while also doubling the tariff on Chinese goods to 20% today, a move that will have immediate impacts on consumers and businesses.

The Trump administration said the tariffs were necessary to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States. But the tariffs threaten to raise the prices Americans pay for a wide array of goods that are imported from the three nations. Over 40% of the goods America imported last year came from Canada, Mexico and China.

Following Trump’s increase in tariffs, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced retaliatory tariffs on some American goods on Tuesday. China also immediately retaliated with tariffs on US goods, threatening to ignite a damaging trade war. Mexico said it would announce retaliatory measures on Sunday.

US stocks whipsawed Tuesday after Trump’s tariffs went into effect. After dropping by around 800 points in the morning, the Dow recouped its losses before plunging at the end of trading to close lower by around 670 points, or 1.55%, at 42,521. The broader S&P 500 fell 1.22% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.35%, paring some of its losses after dipping into correction territory earlier.

American retailers and farmers have already raised concerns about how the increase in tariffs will adversely impact them and consumers.

Here’s what industry experts are saying:

• US retailers: Two of America’s largest retailers, Target and Best Buy, warned that prices will increase following Trump’s tariffs on imported goods from Mexico, Canada and China. Those import taxes sit atop existing tariffs on hundreds of billions in Chinese goods. Target CEO Brian Cornell said in an interview with CNBC that Trump’s tariffs on Mexico may force the company to raise prices on fruits and vegetables as soon as this week. Target also said that “tariff uncertainty” will impact its profit this quarter. Best Buy also expects tariffs to cause prices to rise. China and Mexico are the top sources for consumer electronics at Best Buy. The company expects its vendors to pass along some tariff costs to retailers, “making price increases for American consumers highly likely.”
• Farmers: American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall warned that the tariffs will “take a toll on rural America.” Canada and China’s retaliatory tariffs of 25%, 15%, and 10% take aim directly at US agricultural products like corn, soy, beef, dairy, and poultry. Last year, the US exported more than $83 billion in agricultural products to China, Canada, and Mexico, according to the farm bureau. In 2018, during the first Trump administration, the US Department of Agriculture had to set up a Market Facilitation Program for farmers to offset financial losses on their crops due to China’s retaliatory tariffs.

After visiting Brantley County, known as the Trumpiest county in Georgia, in the fall, CNN’s Elle Reeve returned to gauge sentiment one month into President Donald Trump’s second term in office.

She also discussed with residents their opinion of Elon Musk, tapped by Trump to run the Department of Government Efficiency.

More than 91% of the population of Brantley voted for Trump in November.

@cnnCNN’s Elle Reeve returns to Brantley County, Georgia, where she talks to residents about how they feel about Donald Trump’s first month in office, and his relationship with Elon Musk. #news #cnn

♬ original sound – CNN

President Donald Trump is mindful of the skepticism and criticism he is facing from many Republican lawmakers over an emerging trade war with Canada, Mexico and China, which threatens to close trading markets and raise prices.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other top advisers have been fielding calls “all day long,” one senior administration official tells CNN, with some of the loudest concerns coming from members of Congress representing the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Trump’s comment telling “the great farmers of the United States” to “have fun” next month was among the complaints lodged.

However, the president, basking in a popular vote victory and a sweep of battleground states in the election four months ago, is unfazed by the criticism, aides say.

But to deflect from the furious critiques over tariffs, Trump plans to shine a light in his speech tonight on a series of executive orders he has signed on cultural issues that are widely popular with the Trump base.

“Watch, our Republicans will be clapping all night long,” the senior administration official tells CNN.

Democratic senators are confident in Sen. Elissa Slotkin to deliver the party’s response speech to President Donald Trump’s congressional address tonight, and they shared messaging they hope the Michigan senator prioritizes.

“I hope she’ll just look right in the camera and say, ‘President Trump, stop firing veterans.’ He’s fired more veterans in six weeks than any president in the history of the United States, and he’s not done, and it’s time for him to stop firing veterans,” said Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

New York Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he hopes Slotkin talks about the state of “chaos and confusion” the country is in, highlighting high gas and grocery prices, rising “corruption” from Iran and Russia, and the federal layoffs and firings initiated by Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“I am excited that she’s the person doing the response,” said New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim. “She’s the right person for the Democrats’ platform.”

Fellow Michigan senator Gary Peters said he hopes Slotkin brings a “good Michigan sensibility” and is “confident she is going to do a good job.”

Blumenthal, Kim and Kaine confirmed they will be attending Trump’s address. Peters said he was “still considering” sitting out the event.

Some context: The speech will give a high-profile platform to Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who in November held off an experienced Republican challenger in a state that voted for Trump. Congressional Democratic leaders views her as up-and-coming in the party and believe her ability to win a Senate seat in a state Trump won is evidence of her broad appeal to voters.

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, but so far, the pace of deportations has held steady compared to last year, according to a CNN analysis of deportation flight data.

The data, provided by Thomas Cartwright of the advocacy group Witness at the Border, which tracks publicly available information on ICE flights, reveals that the number of deportation flights so far are similar to those under the Biden administration.

While there are slight changes in the countries receiving flights, the pace is relatively stable between 2024 and 2025. The majority of flights also continue to go to Latin America.

How this breaks down: Since Trump took office, the United States has struck new agreements with multiple countries to accept third-country migrants — and in the case of Venezuela, restarted deportation flights.

According to the data, there are 14 countries that are new for this time period in 2025, compared with the same time last year, including Brazil, Panama, and India.

The top three destinations for repatriation flights were Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador — in line with previous administrations.

A group of House conservatives are planning to meet with President Donald Trump tomorrow as Republicans work to determine whether they have the GOP votes to fund the government, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

Part of the discussion, according to one of the sources, will be about how the Trump administration will continue to make cuts to the federal government, which won’t be reflected in the package that would extend funding at current levels.

“It’s a meeting to get clarity from the president and his team on what they’re going to do to continue to constrain spending, through (the Department of Government Efficiency) DOGE, through (the Office of Management and Budget) OMB, through potential impoundments and like, what things will look like if we go ahead and fund things at the current level,” that source said.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his Canadian province is responding to US tariffs by banning American companies from local procurement deals and “ripping up” an agreement with SpaceX’s Starlink to provide high-speed internet.

“We’re ripping up Ontario’s contract with Starlink. It’s done. It’s gone,” Ford said in a press briefing Tuesday.

Elon Musk’s company SpaceX had been set to offer its Starlink satellite internet service to some 15,000 homes and businesses in the province, according to an Ontario press release in November 2024.

Ford also threatened to apply a 25% surcharge on the electricity Ontario supplies to the US if the tariffs persist. “We will not hesitate to shut off their power as well,” Ford warned.

“We need to make sure America feels the pain,” he said, adding that the measures would primarily hurt states that support US President Donald Trump, whom he criticized for launching a trade war with Canada.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario, considered the largest alcohol buyer in the world, is also removing US products from its store shelves, Ford said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he wants a “respectful dialogue” with the US, reiterating his desire to end the war with Russia.

In a video message on Tuesday, Zelensky said, “many people have one question: what will happen next with the aid from America?”

“People should not have to guess. Ukraine and America deserve a respectful dialogue, a clear position of each other. Especially when it comes to protecting lives during a full-scale war,” he said.

“What happened in the White House instead of our talks is regrettable,” Zelensky said, repeating an earlier tweet in which he referenced his disastrous meeting with US President Donald Trump last week and put forward terms of a potential ceasefire.

The Ukrainian president expressed the need to “find the strength to move on, to respect each other, as we have always respected America, Europe, and all our partners, and to do everything together to bring peace closer.”

Zelensky added that “the Russians have not changed their positions and demands” and that their asks are intended to weaken Ukraine.

“They will demand a reduction of our army, they will want a legal abandonment of our territories, and they will want a significant political deformation of Ukraine with a weakening of the Ukrainian Constitution,” Zelensky said.

He concluded his message by saying, “As long as we all in Ukraine stand together and firmly, as long as we are here, no one will succeed — the peace will be worthy.”

It will be smiles and handshakes when President Donald Trump bumps into several members of the Supreme Court on the House floor Tuesday evening before he delivers his first address to Congress of his second term.

But there have been subtle signs that the justices, in private, have been wringing their hands.

Dozens of lawsuits challenging Trump’s deluge of executive actions have put considerable scrutiny on federal courts in recent weeks — including the Supreme Court, which is considering two appeals tied to the new president’s flurry of executive orders.

Trump and his aides have repeatedly toyed with ignoring federal courts, a scenario that would give rise to a constitutional crisis. Trump appeared to channel Napoleon in a recent social media post by claiming that “he who saves his country does not violate any law.” More recently, two top Justice Department nominees were cagey when senators asked if the administration will adhere to all court orders.

On Tuesday, the gap between Trump’s teleprompter and the court’s front row seats may feel wider than ever — particularly if the president discusses the slew of adverse court rulings.

The court’s history with Trump: The Supreme Court, undeniably conservative, has already handed Trump high-profile victories, most notably last year’s decision that shielding presidents from criminal prosecution for official actions once they leave office. Not only did that decision go Trump’s way, critics complain the court’s timing essentially scuttled special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal charges.

And yet court has also ruled against Trump in other major cases since the election: In January, five justices voted to allow Trump to be sentenced in his New York hush money case. The court also upheld a ban on TikTok that same month that Trump urged the justices to pause. The court late last month allowed the head of an independent watchdog agency to stay on the job temporarily over the president’s objections.

Read more about the collision looming between Trump and the Supreme Court.

The chair of a critical agency that reviews federal employee firings can stay on the job, a judge ruled Tuesday, formally reversing President Donald Trump’s “unlawful” decision to fire her.

District Judge Rudolph Contreras handed a major victory to Cathy Harris, chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), an independent agency that has the power to review and reverse federal employee firings. The little-known board has taken on new importance as Trump initiates mass government layoffs, leading to thousands of firings, and more on the way.

The judge ruled that Harris can remain on the board for the rest of her term, which expires in 2028, unless she is fired for cause, as specified by the statute that established the MSPB. Trump administration officials didn’t cite any cause when they attempted to fire her in early February.

“The President thus lacks the power to remove Harris from office at will. Because the President did not indicate that he sought to remove Harris for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, his attempt to terminate her was unlawful and exceeded the scope of his authority,” Contreras wrote Tuesday in the ruling.

Why this matters: The ruling tees up a likely appeal from the Justice Department. The next stop would be the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, and then after that, the Supreme Court. This is one of a few ongoing cases where the Trump administration is fighting in court for the right to fire agency heads.

Harris is a Democrat who was appointed by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate. She has said she wants to remain at the MSPB to help deal with the avalanche of claims, which have flooded in this past month, as Trump lays off thousands of federal workers.

The decision to keep Harris at her post is a boost to the agency. Without her, the MSPB would lose a quorum, hampering its ability to process new cases and issue final rulings on cases. One member of the three-person board retired Friday when his statutory term expired.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday responded to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, threatening to “immediately” increase reciprocal tariffs on the neighboring country.

“Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The US’ reciprocal tariffs, which could match other countries’ tariffs dollar for dollar, are set to go into effect April 2.

Trump’s response comes after Trudeau announced Canada will be implementing 25% tariffs against 155 billion Canadian dollar worth of American goods.

The Canadian prime minister said the US “launched a trade war against Canada” and that there was “absolutely no justification or need whatsoever” for the tariffs imposed by the US on Canada, which went into effect Tuesday.