WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump hopes to announce a minerals agreement with Ukraine on Tuesday night when he addresses Congress on his first six weeks in office, three sources said, a period in which he has stretched the limits of the presidency and upended U.S. foreign policy.
The speech – similar to a State of the Union address but not called that because Trump was only inaugurated in January – is set to take place inside the U.S. House of Representatives at 9:10 p.m. ET (0210 GMT on Wednesday).
It takes place in the same chamber where lawmakers huddled in fear for their lives four years earlier while a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol in an unsuccessful effort to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over the then-incumbent Trump.
The event promises to have a raucous element with Republican lawmakers cheering on Trump and Democrats expressing their opposition to what he lists as his achievements.
A former TV showman with a flair for the dramatic, Trump surprised the audience at his 2020 State of the Union speech by presenting the late talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Trump appeared to be preparing for another dramatic flourish: the signing of a rare minerals deal between the U.S. and Ukraine that the president has made the cornerstone of his proposed peace plan to end the Ukraine conflict. The signing of the deal was aborted last week after a shouting match between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House.
Four sources told Reuters the Trump administration and Ukraine planned to sign the deal on Tuesday. Three of the sources said Trump has told his advisers he wants to announce the agreement in his address to Congress. They cautioned that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump on Monday suspended all U.S. military aid to Ukraine, a heavy blow to Kyiv in its efforts to fight Russia which launched a full-scale invasion in 2022.
“President Trump’s joint address will be MUST-SEE TV,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who predicted the speech could stretch past one hour in length.
While Democrats are not planning a broad boycott of the speech, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut was among those who said he would not attend, calling the event “a farce.”
A senior White House official said the theme of Trump’s speech is the “renewal of the American dream” and that he will “outline his plans to restore peace around the world.”
The official said among his topics will be laying out his plans to end the Ukraine war and gain the release of hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza.
Trump is also expected to use his speech to laud his rapid-fire efforts to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy, reduce the flow of migrants over the U.S.-Mexico border, and his use of tariffs to force foreign nations to bow to his demands.
SPEECH FOLLOWS NEW TARIFFS
Trump was due to speak less than 24 hours after a fresh round of punishing tariffs takes effect against Canada and Mexico, sparking fears of an escalating trade war and unnerving financial markets.
On the domestic front, Trump is likely to use the speech to make a case for extending his 2017 tax cuts. Congressional Republicans have advanced a sweeping $4.5 trillion plan to do just that, as well as addressing Trump’s other priorities by tightening border security and funding a huge increase in deportations.
The proposal calls for $2 trillion in spending reductions over a decade, with possible cuts to education, healthcare and other social services.
MUSK TO ATTEND
Republican strategist Doug Heye said viewers will be listening for specifics about Trump policies.
“With this constant churning of news, voters are going to want to hear about obviously Ukraine, Russia and China, what the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) cuts mean, what specifics there may be that can allay some concerns,” he said.
Trump has issued a blizzard of executive orders since taking office on January 20 as he attempts to set new rules on everything from trade and immigration to plastic straws and English as the official language of the United States.
At the same time, allies in the Justice Department have fired or sidelined top officials who helped to prosecute Trump supporters who took part in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Trump has also fired agency inspectors-general and taken other steps to remove oversight over the operations of his government.
The senior White House official said Trump will push Congress to pass more funding for deportations and to continue building the border wall with Mexico.
First lady Melania Trump will be joined at the address by a number of selected guests as is customary. These include the family of Corey Comperatore, a firefighter who was killed by the gunman who also grazed Trump with a bullet during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July.
Others include Marc Fogel, a history teacher freed from detention in Russia in February.
Trump spent part of the weekend at his Florida home crafting the speech with advisers, including ally and billionaire Elon Musk, according to an aide with knowledge of Trump’s schedule.
Musk will attend the Tuesday night speech, a White House official said.
Trump has upended the federal government since taking office, working with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to jettison more than 100,000 federal workers across dozens of agencies.
Democrats plan to underscore the harm they say Trump’s policies have on everyday Americans by inviting civil servants hit by DOGE firings or funding freezes to Tuesday’s speech.
Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former CIA agent, will deliver the Democratic Party’s rebuttal.
(Reporting by Erin Banco, Gram Slattery, Andrea Shalal, Steve Holland and Gabriella BorterAdditional reporting by Richard Cowan and Trevor HunnicuttWriting by Joseph Ax and Steve HollandEditing by Colleen Jenkins, Ross Colvin, and Alistair Bell)
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