US President Donald Trump promised a “more peaceful and prosperous” future for the Middle East on Tuesday as he gave his first address to Congress since returning to office, in a lengthy speech filled with campaign-style promises.
The nearly two-hour address underscored the deep divisions in American politics, with Republicans greeting most of Mr Trump's remarks with thunderous applause, while Democratic politicians repeatedly taunted him with hand-held signs accusing him of lying. One politician was escorted out after heckling Mr Trump.
“America is back,” Mr Trump declared to the joint session Congress. “We are just getting started.”
Mr Trump's second term has been marked by an unrelenting series of presidential decrees that have sought to undo many of his predecessor Joe Biden's policies.
He has launched a landslide of court-challenged executive orders, crackdowns on the press and a trade war with allies Canada and Mexico. He has also hired Elon Musk to cull the federal workforce and slash government expenditures.
Mr Trump announced that the US government is extraditing a suspect in the deadly Abbey Gate bombing in the final days of the Afghanistan withdrawal that killed 13 American troops.
The White House identified the man as Muhammed Sharifullah and said he was on his way to the US to face charges.
The address came after Arab leaders rallied in Cairo to craft their counter to the Trump administration's Gaza plan. Mr Trump has endorsed a US “takeover” in Gaza, and on Tuesday praised the Abraham Accords as a model for peace building in the region.
“We're going to build on that foundation to create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region, a lot of things are happening in the Middle East,” Mr Trump said.
He reiterated his calls to build a “Golden Dome,” modelled after Israel's US-funded Iron Dome missile defence system.
“It's a very, very important this is a very dangerous world. We should have it. We want to be protected. And we're going to protect our citizens like never before, to boost our defence industrial base,” said Mr Trump.
At the weekend, the administration circumvented Congress to green light billions of dollars in additional arms sales to the Israelis – a decision Republicans on the Hill have largely justified.
Ahead of the address, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told The National that the State Department's decision to circumvent his legislative chamber and expedite the $4 billion arms sales to Israel was “well within the President's authority.”
“They have discretion on some of these funds and how to use them,” he added.
In a show of solidarity with Mr Trump's role in clinching the ceasefire and hostage release deal, Mr Johnson brought Noa Argamani, who was held hostage by Hamas for nearly 250 days, as a guest to the address.
On Ukraine, Mr Trump said he is “working tirelessly to end the savage conflict”, and spoke out against Europe's energy relationship with Moscow.
“The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defence. Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine – by far,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump cut off aid to Ukraine this week after he and Vice President JD Vance admonished Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House Oval Office.
The dispute saw Mr Trump angrily accuse Mr Zelenskyy of gambling with World War Three, absent territorial concessions to Russia, and upended a mineral deal that was scheduled to have been signed.
Mr Trump read out a letter he received earlier on Tuesday from Mr Zelenskyy, saying that the wartime president wants to come back to the table.
“We’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace,” Mr Trump said. “Wouldn’t that be beautiful?
Mr Trump, whose business interests in Russia date back to the 1980s, has been speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin about a potential peace deal. Criticism of Mr Zelenskyy and an apparent sympathy to Mr Putin is being seen by many as the biggest realignment of American foreign policy in decades.
Mr Johnson told The National that the decision to halt assistance to Ukraine does not violate the separation of powers, assuring the move was a “temporary pause” and a “strategic move”.
Mr Trump's address centred on his domestic policy blitz, including extended applause for his crackdowns on diversity initiatives and immigration, and a call on the Congress to increase funding for his campaign to deport undocumented immigrants and finish building the wall at the southern border with Mexico.
Fired federal workers impacted by the administrative purge joined Democrats as guests to the address, while several Democrats in both the Senate and House of Representatives, including progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, skipped the address.
