It’s Hard Not to Protest a Speech Like That

 

Opinion

It’s Hard Not to Protest a Speech Like That

 

March 4, 2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/opinion/trump-speech-al-green-protest.html

David Firestone

By David Firestone

Editorial Writer

 

It may not have been the best possible day for President Trump to declare to Congress that “America’s momentum is back.” Just before he spoke, the stock market fell almost into correction territory, the result of deep concerns about his bizarre decision to enact tariffs on what used to be two of the country’s closest allies. Though he announced that “our confidence is back,” the actual confidence of consumers, as measured by the Conference Board, has fallen by the largest amount since August 2021.

 

The cost of Trump’s disastrous first month back in office could be seen in the furious response of Democrats on the House floor. Many of them booed and catcalled throughout the opening moments of the speech, particularly when the president defied arithmetic by claiming he had a significant mandate because of his big lead in the popular vote. (He did not break 50 percent, and he beat Kamala Harris by less than 1.5 percentage points.) Some Democrats waved signs saying “Musk steals,” “No king” and “Save Medicaid.” Others wore pink as a protest color.

 

And Representative Al Green of Texas shouted at the rostrum and refused the order of Speaker Mike Johnson to sit down. Finally both Green and Johnson got the spectacle they hoped for when the speaker had Green thrown out of the chamber. It was a first in the modern era, as so many other aspects of this term have been.

 

For years, performative outbursts have been on the rise during presidential addresses to Congress. Joe Wilson of South Carolina told Barack Obama in 2009 that he lied; Nancy Pelosi tore up Trump’s State of the Union speech in 2020; and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert hooted at President Joe Biden in 2022 and 2023.

 

But this speech — overflowing with distortions, misinformation and outright lies from the president — drew what seemed to be the chilliest response from the opposition party in decades. Carl Hulse, the longtime congressional chronicler of The Times, wrote that he had never seen a bigger gap between the president and the opposition when the president entered, and having covered the Hill myself, I cannot recall anything like the fervent anger Trump inspired in members on the House floor.

 

And of course Trump welcomed the fury, encouraging it by insulting Biden as the worst president in history and calling Democratic policies “insane.” It’s hard to sit back in silence when the president is firing tens of thousands of government workers without authorization and deliberately causing a break with longtime allies in Europe and North America over Ukraine and tariffs. It’s hard not to shout at the podium when Trump ludicrously claims he will balance the budget, when his proposed tax cuts will help drive the deficit to new heights.

 

Democrats have spent weeks hand-wringing over how to respond to Trump’s machine-gunning of American institutions. Republicans will no doubt claim that Democrats were disrespectful, and in-chamber demonstrations may not be the most effective way of countering the onslaught. But it’s hard to blame those who couldn’t stop themselves from shouting at the barrage of misinformation, particularly for those who remember what happened in that same room in 2021, when members had to cower from the violence inflicted by the president’s supporters. Decorum has become a thing of the past.

 

David Firestone, a former reporter and editor for the Washington bureau and the Metropolitan and National desks of The Times, is a member of the editorial board.