Donald Trump gave his first address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. The speech hit all his big policy goals, including repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, increased vetting of immigrants cracking down on crime and introducing a catchy new government acronym, VOICE (for Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement).
As reporters raced to check Trump’s facts, Twitter lit up with reactions to the speech and the responses from the live audience.
Democrats notably stayed seated throughout Trump’s remarks, while Republicans were on their feet and applauding after every few sentences.
Needless to say, a lot of the reviews from Hollywood stars were far from flattering, especially from those who noted how Trump read the scripted speech from a teleprompter.
https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Boy DOES Trump stress THE wrong words. #JointAddress
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) March 1, 2017
Rebuke and Replace. #2018Midterms
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 1, 2017
Pay attention: "Access to healthcare" is not healthcare. I have "access" to Ryan Reynolds. But he's not covering me.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 1, 2017
Who's the boob reading #PresidentBannon's speech?
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) March 1, 2017
#JointAddress pic.twitter.com/h3Q9DXIJ56
— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) March 1, 2017
Trump paints very bleak picture of country he inherited. Fascinating compared to one Obama described in his outgoing speech. #JointAddress
— Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) March 1, 2017
https://twitter.com/DebraMessing/status/836767173745991680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Now the lying begins w/ his "jobs" creation since Jan20. Please-is there a network who'll run a crawl w/ the facts @ the bottom of screen?
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) March 1, 2017
https://twitter.com/WhoopiGoldberg/status/836763865157369856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Trump says he’ll ‘speak from the heart’ during his first speech to Congress. And Melania will speak from Michelle Obama’s.
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) February 28, 2017
The Democrats probably aren't standing because their feet are so sore from all the marching. #DontGetTrumped #JointAddress
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) March 1, 2017
Of course, Charlie Sheen had a very “unique” view of the POTUS’ speech.
PREZ!
blowz my mind,
that the world
is on pins & needles,
salivating
to suffer the drivel
from a simpleton,
Ho-ass piglet fraud
like you.
© pic.twitter.com/FSNKuVKDYM— Charlie Sheen (@charliesheen) March 1, 2017
Comedian John Hodgman had a tough time when Trump misspoke the word “anniversary.”
I repeat. ANNIVERSE https://t.co/tydg4mOB2x
— John Hodgman (@hodgman) March 1, 2017
Recent stories that pinned down what news shows Trump has been watching right before tweeting were top-of-mind too.
How does Trump know what Lincoln said? Was he on Fox and Friends this morning?
— DavePell@threads (@davepell) March 1, 2017
The folks running the Twitter account for “Jessica Jones” appeared to be watching the speech — and not really enjoying it.
Sorry, I can't hear what you're saying over all the stupidity coming out of your mouth.
— Jessica Jones (@JessicaJones) March 1, 2017
And frequent cuts to Democrats in the audience seemed to be begging for some intervention.
I keep waiting for Elizabeth Warren to jump up and lead all the white dress wearing Democrats in 'Love is a Battlefield' #JointAddress
— Matt Oswalt (@MattOswaltVA) March 1, 2017
Quite a few people had up-to-the-moment fact checks ready to go.
FACT CHECK: Obama actually CUT the deficit by almost three-quarters.https://t.co/YhyU42vK1N #JointAddress
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) March 1, 2017
When Trump says 94 million Americans are out of the labor force. #JointAddress https://t.co/4wP1AkJ1Vo pic.twitter.com/aRnZolHC88
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 1, 2017
On average there are nearly 12,000 gun homicides/year in US.
Likelihood of a dying in a terrorist attack by a foreigner: 1 in 3.6 million.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 1, 2017
Whoops https://t.co/U94zlNbT6n
— DavePell@threads (@davepell) March 1, 2017
Notice: Trump no longer claims that Mexico will pay for the wall. He's been silent on this since the phone call with the Mexican president.
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) March 1, 2017
President Trump is talking about giving people acesss to Medicaid. Ryan wants to block grant the program and is still clapping.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 1, 2017
When reactions weren’t factual, they were emotional. Trump discussed harsher moves against illegal immigrants and doubling down on fighting “radical Islamic terrorism.” Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s face summed up a lot of feelings for many people watching.
Same pic.twitter.com/6sOm5BkerL
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) March 1, 2017
As did Sen. Al Franken’s face.
The #GOAT @alfranken pic.twitter.com/G7VHbH6IRN
— Greg Grunberg (@greggrunberg) March 1, 2017
And Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s face.
https://twitter.com/politicalmiller/status/836776922403209216
Oh, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s face.
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/836767212337840128
Many didn’t think too highly of Trump’s announcement about the formation of Voices Of Immigrant Crime Engagement, or VOICE.
https://twitter.com/misterpatches/status/836775336490717184
Comparisons to past addresses also leapt to many minds. When Trump mentioned that Americans would aspire to visit other planets in the future, it reminded of one of George W. Bush’s science-related statements.
Nothing Trump says tonight will be as crazy as the time George W Bush used his State of the Union to put mad scientists on notice. pic.twitter.com/QLpo4Mfksn
— Greg 👻 (@waltisfrozen) March 1, 2017
At least one person was very impressed by Trump’s speech.
That. Was. A. Grand. Slam. #Jointsession
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) March 1, 2017
And some people anticipated how pundits would react when it was all over.
https://twitter.com/edzitron/status/836778496416337920
But maybe the best reaction was the one people retweeted from the man himself, circa one year ago.
The #SOTU speech is really boring, slow, lethargic – very hard to watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2016