WASHINGTON — On Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST, President Donald Trump will stand before a joint session of Congress and give his first major address since returning to office on Inauguration Day. The speech will give him an opportunity to pitch and defend his agenda of drastic changes to U.S. domestic and foreign policy that he has so far implemented without much input from the Republican-controlled Congress that is nevertheless largely supportive of the president's efforts.

Trump has set billionaire Elon Musk and the U.S. DOGE Service loose on federal agencies, firing thousands of employees and asserting more Oval Office direct control over each corner of the executive branch than prior administrations in modern U.S. history, triggering numerous court battles that have yet to resolve.

And the president has sparked outrage and sent allies scrambling across the globe as he’s ramped up deportations, called for the removal of all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and proposed U.S. control of the territory, and turned U.S.-Ukraine diplomatic relations hostile as he’s blamed the Kyiv for the war with Russian invaders and begun to cut a deal with the Kremlin to bring an end to the war in eastern Europe. Tariffs, which he has threatened to levy on friend and foe alike, are set to take effect on Canada and Mexico on Tuesday before Trump speaks. 

“TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, early Monday morning. 

The traditional address to a joint session of both chambers of Congress in a president’s first year is not considered a State of the Union address but is virtually identical in structure and format, if not substance. Trump, only the second president in U.S. history to serve nonconsecutive terms, will have both the opportunity to herald his accomplishments so far and also lay out his aspirations for the next four years.

There’s much to be done. Congress is busy negotiating a federal budget with a March 14 shutdown deadline looming and as Trump’s administration wreaks havoc on longstanding bureaucracies and pledges drastic cuts in some areas, while also seeking to bolster its border security and immigration enforcement apparatuses. And with Trump and his closest allies, Musk and Vice President JD Vance, openly challenging the authority of the federal courts, he may need to lean on the continued loyalty of the slim GOP majorities in the House and the Senate to insulate himself from legal battles seeking to slow or halt his aggressive domestic agenda.

“Fireworks,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” when asked what Americans could expect out of Trump on Tuesday. “President Trump is coming in a triumphant return to Congress to address as the president once again, and in the first month of office, he has accomplished so much that it could fill three hours.”

“I suspect he’ll speak in a shorter time frame than that,” Johnson added. The often verbose Trump averaged roughly an hour and 20 minutes for each of his annual addresses to Congress during his first term, though his first speech in 2017 was his shortest at an hour and 10 seconds.

Democrats out of power in Congress are adopting a handful of different strategies to counter Trump on Tuesday night. The official responses to Trump’s speech, aired directly afterward on TV news networks including Spectrum News, will be delivered by newly elected Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin in English and New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat, an influential Hispanic Democrat and the first formerly undocumented immigrant to serve in Congress, in Spanish. The progressive Working Families Party has tapped California Rep. Lateefah Simon, a member of House Democratic leadership and a Congressional Progressive Caucus vice chair, to deliver its response.

Other Democrats are planning to bring fired federal workers, including veterans, as their guests to highlight Trump’s cuts and disruptions to federal services. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is encouraging his caucus members to bring guests who “have suffered under the Trump administration’s policies,” his office told NBC News. 

Schumer is inviting a disabled Army veteran who was fired from the Department of Veterans Affairs. According to multiple media reports, Democrats are also expected to bring a guest who relies on Medicaid to survive as Republicans consider cuts to the health insurance program for poor adults and children, a child with a genetic spinal condition whose life was saved by a National Institutes of Health program that was cut by the Trump administration, and a former U.S. Agriculture Department worker who was fired from a rural development program that aided farmers and small businesses. 

But some are planning to skip the occasion entirely. 

“That … speech is going to be a farce," Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who has grown increasingly aggressive in his opposition to Trump, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. "I think it’s going to be a MAGA pep rally, not a serious talk to the nation. I think Donald Trump is going to spew a series of lies about his alignment with Russia, about what he’s trying to do to allow Elon Musk to essentially monetize the American government to enrich Musk and his billionaire crowd. I’m just not going to be part of that.”

Instead, Murphy and fellow Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Ed Markey of Massachusetts will join other Democratic officials and progressive media figures for a “prebuttal” and live watch-along hosted by Democratic advocacy group MoveOn.

Trump’s post-speech schedule has not yet been confirmed by the White House, but Vance’s team confirmed to Spectrum News that the vice president plans to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border Wednesday to tout the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. 

Spectrum News’ Taylor Popielarz contributed to this report.