Trump @US Congress: Ukraine, Greenland, China, India…and more
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In his first address to the joint session of US Congress after starting his second term in January, President Donald Trump on Tuesday raked up the issues now familiar with his actions so far, held his predecessor Joe Biden responsible for inflation, and threatened reciprocal tariffs against India, China, and others as he spoke for an unprecedented 100 minutes.
His close associate and tech billionaire Elon Musk received a standing ovation in the Congress for his ongoing work in the newly-formed Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the media reported on Wednesday.
On Ukraine, Trump said he received a letter from his counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, where he expressed Ukraine’s readiness to come to a negotiating table to bring lasting peace closer. Trump said that Zelenskyy also expressed Ukraine’s willingness to sign the agreement on minerals and security.
The US President said he appreciated the letter and that his administration had serious discussion with Russia as they have strong signals that Moscow is ready for peace.
“Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The letter reads: ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,” he said.
Quoting Zelenskyy, he said: “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you.”
Trump’s long speech mixed bold claims with heated confrontations. While the Democrats staged a visible protest, female lawmakers wore pink in silent opposition, and Representative Al Green was ejected after loudly challenging Trump’s mandate.
He largely avoided discussions on inflation but blamed rising costs on the previous administration. He touted his economic policies, though recent polls contradict his claims of widespread voter confidence. Trump also focused on social issues, celebrating executive orders that renamed geographical landmarks, limited government diversity programs, and restricted transgender athletes in sports.
Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, starting this week, continued to raise economic concerns. Despite his declaration that Biden was the “worst president in American history,” polling suggests that Trump himself has yet to win over a sceptical public.
Announcing reciprocal tariffs against China and India from April 2, Trump defended his plan to remake the world’s largest economy through the biggest tariff increases in a century, saying it would raise “trillions and trillions” in revenue and rebalance trading relationships that he called unfair. He cast the economic pain the levies are expected to cause in the form of higher domestic prices as a “little disturbance” the nation ought to be able to overcome.
His speech echoed worldwide. In particular, Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Bourup declared on Wednesday that “Greenland is ours” and cannot be taken or bought in defiance of a message from US President Trump, who said his administration supported the Arctic island’s right of self-determination — but added that the US will acquire the territory “one way or another”.
The Greenlanders are not American nor Danish because they are Greenlandic. The US needs to understand that, he wrote in a post in Greenlandic and Danish on Facebook Wednesday. The future of Greenland will be decided by its people, he said, hours after Trump made a direct appeal to Greenlanders in a speech to the US Congress on Tuesday, a week before islanders head to the polls for parliamentary elections.
“We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump said.
“We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before,” he added.
But Trump also said his administration was “working with everybody involved to try to get it,” referring to his wishes to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a longtime US ally.
“We need it really for international world security. And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it,” Trump said.
Many in Greenland, a vast and mineral-rich island that is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, are worried and offended by Trump’s threats to seize control of their homeland.
Asked about Trump’s comments, Denmark’s foreign minister said on Wednesday he did not think Greenlanders wanted to separate from Denmark in order to instead become “an integrated part of America.”
Lars Lokke Rasmussen sought to strike an optimistic tone, saying he believed that Trump’s reference to respecting Greenlanders’ right to self-determination was “the most important part of that speech.”
“I’m very optimistic about what will be a Greenlandic decision about this. They want to loosen their ties to Denmark, we’re working on that, to have a more equal relationship,” the minister said during a trip to Finland.
Lokke added that it was important that next week’s parliamentary elections are free and fair “without any kind of international intervention”.
Greenlanders will head to the polls next Tuesday. Trump’s recent comments about taking over the island have ignited unprecedented interest in full independence from Denmark, which has become a key issue during campaign season.
