Special Washington Update | UBS United States of America

Key Takeaways

Longest State of the Union speech in history (the speech in a President’s first year in office is officially called a “Joint Address to Congress”). He broke the record of President Clinton, who delivered a stemwinder of 1:28:49 in 2000.
Trump took a victory lap on his first 43 days in office on the wide range of actions he has taken.
Trump cited a mandate he received from his conclusive election victory.
Democratic lawmakers were resistant all night through their silence and occasional hissing, while Trump taunted those lawmakers (and former President Biden) on occasion.
A Democratic lawmaker, Congressman Al Green (D-TX), was removed from the chamber after refusing to stop interrupting the President and standing during the speech.
The President’s guests and their personal stories were a highlight of the evening.
Overall, if you like Trump, you probably loved this speech. If you don’t like Trump, you probably didn’t like it. It was a standard Trump rally with a brief mention of dozens of issues that he has prioritized over the years.

Significant attention on actions to discourage and halt illegal immigration, but not a strong focus on deportations.
Significant attention on government waste uncovered by Elon Musk’s DOGE project (19 examples highlighted).
Significant attention on social issues, such as DEI, women’s sports, English as official language, etc.
Modest attention on the need for energy reforms and to increase US energy production.
He cited his work on reducing inflation and cited the high inflation rate he inherited. He didn’t offer any new solutions to fight inflation. Some viewers may have hoped for more attention in the speech to this issue.
He cited the need for Congress to pass an extension of the 2017 tax cuts.

Significant attention on tariffs, justified by the high tariff rates US products are exposed to in other countries. No further economic rationale for tariffs provided, but Trump did cite that the tariffs would cause “a little disturbance.”
He cited Mexico in his call for higher tariffs specifically and said the country had been taken over by the drug cartels. Most of the countries Trump mentioned as deserving of higher tariffs are allied countries.
He reiterated his call for the US to “reclaim” the Panama Canal. He made a vague reference to a deal for an American company to take over two port operations in the canal currently owned by Chinese firms.
He invited Greenland to become a part of the US but didn’t hint at any aggressive action in taking over the island.
He didn’t outline any new plans for the Middle East.
He said that both Russia and Ukraine wanted peace and cited a letter from Ukraine President Zelensky in that regard plus his support for a mineral deal between the US and Ukraine.
He did not mention China in any notable way.
He did not mention tensions between the US and Europe other than berating some countries for not supporting Ukraine at a high enough level.
Overall, he didn’t spend a lot of time on foreign policy in this speech.

The President announced a goal of “balancing the budget.” This is significant since he has never advocated for such a policy before. He didn’t describe how he would accomplish this goal, but perhaps he hopes a big payout from government fraud, waste and abuse from the DOGE project. We are skeptical of big deficit reduction accomplishments in the near future.
He announced that his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs would begin on April 2.
He proposed legislation to give a maximum sentence to convicted killers of police officers. We do not believe this legislation will pass in the Senate.
He pledged to bring cancer rates for children down but did not add specifics.
He asked Congress to approve the building of a missile dome system for the US.
He announced the opening of a new White House Office on shipbuilding.
At the close of the speech, he said the US would one day “plant a flag on Mars,” but made no reference to how or when.