(File Photo: Source for Photo: speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (Pool via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump loves a good spectacle, and it’s hard to top a speech to a joint session of Congress. The House chamber is packed with lawmakers, and the president’s arrival is announced in a booming voice by the sergeant-at-arms, triggering cacophonous applause.

Trump’s speech on Tuesday evening isn’t technically considered a State of the Union address — that comes next year, after he’s been on the job for longer — but there’s no distinguishable difference for anyone watching at home.

Almost no detail is left to chance in these situations. Here’s an idea of what to look and listen for:

Where is Elon Musk?

The most powerful people in American government are usually on the dais during an event like this. While the president addresses the nation, the House speaker and the vice president, who doubles as the ceremonial leader of the Senate, sit behind him.

However, they’ve been largely overshadowed by Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency and serving as a top adviser to Trump. There’s no precedent for Musk’s operation, which has burrowed into federal agencies, led to thousands of firings and counting, and rewired how Washington works.

Special guests at presidential speeches often sit above the chamber in the gallery. Will Musk, the world’s richest person, be there — or somewhere else?

What does Trump say about Ukraine?

It’s been only a few days since the most dramatic encounter in the Oval Office in recent memory. Trump welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to solidify a partnership involving critical minerals, only for a deal to fall apart after Trump and Vice President JD Vance laced into Zelenskyy over a perceived lack of respect.

Now the future of U.S. support for Ukraine, which has been fending off a Russian invasion for three years, is increasingly in doubt. “You either make a deal or we are out,” Trump told Zelenskyy.

Will Russia try to press its advantage on the battlefield? Does Zelenskyy patch things up with Trump? Will fragile U.S. relationships with European allies deteriorate further?

There are no clear answers right now. But Tuesday’s speech will be a high-profile opportunity for Trump, a Republican, to explain his vision for the war and his approach to foreign policy.

How do lawmakers behave?

Presidential speeches to Congress have become rowdier affairs. Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, famously shouted “You lie!” at President Barack Obama’s address to Congress in 2009, and decorum hasn’t improved much since then.

President Joe Biden got into his own back-and-forth with Republicans, and Trump is known for deviating from his script with attempts to stir outrage among his opponents.

How will Democrats respond? Sometimes their protests have been quiet, such as when women wore white, the color of the suffragette movement, to previous events. But at a time when Democratic voters have been eager for their representatives to be more aggressive, it’s possible that they become more vocal.

Reaction from Republicans is more predictable. Expect them to try to outdo one another with their embrace of the president.

Does Trump spell out a legislative plan?

Trump has demonstrated his desire to push the limits of presidential power during his second term in office, but there are some things that he still needs congressional help to accomplish.

The president wants spending cuts, border security funding and tax cuts — a politically sensitive combination at a time when Republicans have only slim majorities in the House and the Senate. The party will need almost complete unanimity to move forward.

So far, Trump has followed his typical approach of playing one side off against the other, sometimes endorsing the House plan for one massive piece of legislation and sometimes supporting the Senate strategy of breaking the proposals into multiple bills.

Don’t expect a lot of details from the president — that’s not something that usually happens in speeches like this, regardless of who occupies the Oval Office. But Trump could reveal more about his goals or prod lawmakers to work faster. Given the power that Trump has over the party, any remark could reshape the debate.

Which version of Trump shows up?

The president is in his element when he’s delivering freewheeling remarks, bouncing from topic to topic in what he likes to call “the weave.”

But that’s not usually how these kinds of speeches go. They’re often carefully scripted, the kind of monologue that Trump might label “BORING” in a post on Truth Social if he were watching it on television.

How long will Trump stick to the teleprompter this time? And how much does he veer off track?

A hint could be Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention last summer, when he accepted the party’s presidential nomination. He started off subdued, even somber, as he shared the story of his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

But the appeal for national unity eventually gave way to a flood of grievances more typical of Trump’s stump speeches.

(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – Rob Bresnahan speaks at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, Aug. 17, 2024, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Newly minted U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan swore he wouldn’t support gutting government benefits such as Medicaid that residents of his northeastern Pennsylvania district rely on.

Then the first-term Republican voted for a bill that could do just that.

Bresnahan and two other Pennsylvania Republicans won in November by some of the smallest margins in all of Congress, prevailing in a critical battleground state that not only helped decide the presidency but also aided the GOP in taking control of the U.S. House.

Bresnahan, fellow newcomer Ryan Mackenzie and seven-term Rep. Scott Perry now find themselves navigating the delicate politics of a divided electorate once again, this time during the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term as he makes economy-altering decisions.

Those include imposing tariffs on raw materials such as steel and aluminum, firing federal workers, shedding federal office space and, most recently, pushing for votes on budget legislation that appear likely to require major cuts to Medicaid and other programs people in Pennsylvania might care about.

There is no time to hide: Mackenzie has already drawn a Democratic challenger in 2026, and rumors are circulating about challengers to Bresnahan, who is trying to find footing that balances loyalty to the Republican president with his constituents’ needs.

Before last Tuesday night’s budget vote, Bresnahan had said he would vote against any bill “that guts the benefits my neighbors rely on.”

“These benefits are promises that were made to the people of (northeastern Pennsylvania) and where I come from, people keep their word,” Bresnahan said in a statement.

Bresnahan then voted for a GOP blueprint that sets the stage for $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years and would, Democrats and many analysts say, inevitably require steep cuts to Medicaid, the federal-state partnership that covers medical care and long-term nursing care for some 72 million people nationwide.

He played down the vote, saying it was a “procedural” step to start budget negotiations and did not contradict his earlier position.

“I will fight to protect working-class families in Northeastern Pennsylvania and stand with President Trump in opposing gutting Medicaid,” Bresnahan said in a statement. “My position on this has not and will not change.”

Trump has insisted he will not touch the safety net programs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and will only cut what he calls waste and fraud. Republican lawmakers insist there will be no direct cuts to health care through Medicaid.

Nursing home operators are watching closely, including in the neighboring districts represented by Mackenzie and Bresnahan on Pennsylvania’s eastern border, where communities are still trying to recover from the disappearance of the coal and steel industries that built them.

There, and in Perry’s south-central Pennsylvania district, many fear a devastating funding cut after years of scraping by, and they doubt there is much undiscovered waste and fraud in the program still to be unearthed.

“It’s definitely a very hot topic for us right now, 100%,” said Mary Kay McMahon, president and CEO of the nonprofit Fellowship Community, which operates a nursing home outside Allentown in Mackenzie’s district.

McMahon estimated that Medicaid covers about 35% to 40% of the cost to care for a skilled nursing patient, and a Medicaid cut might force Fellowship Community to sell the service or eliminate beds.

“There’s very few options left, to be honest, and I don’t know where these people are going to go for that care,” McMahon said. “That’s what concerns me.”

Jim Brogna, a vice president for Allied Services Integrated Health Systems, a nonprofit that runs three nursing homes in Bresnahan’s district, said representatives met with Bresnahan’s staff to press him not to support Medicaid cuts.

Any reduction in the program would mean cuts to services, Brogna said.

Nursing home operators have pushed Pennsylvania for Medicaid rate increases to help manage their costs, and Brogna said the prospect of less federal funding is “heartbreaking” at a time when nursing homes there are closing their doors or eliminating beds.

Bresnahan did not respond to an interview request from The Associated Press. Nor did he answer a constituent email from Chris Chesek, who was motivated by the layoff of five employees at Steamtown National Historic Site to organize his first-ever rally.

Last Saturday’s “Save Steamtown” rally drew dozens to downtown Scranton and, for Chesek, it is personal: Steamtown, which memorializes Scranton’s rise as a railroad and coal powerhouse in the 1900s, is like a second home where the rangers have fed his 10-year-old son’s fascination with steam engines.

“Steamtown is a vital part of Scranton’s economy, it brings people from all over the country and world,” Chesek said.

The Times-Tribune of Scranton’s editorial page echoed that sentiment, decrying Trump’s “heavy-handed, indiscriminate slashing of federal spending.”

Bresnahan’s district is also home to a heavy concentration of federal employees, potentially a sensitive spot as Trump readies for large-scale layoffs of federal workers — 80% of whom live outside the Washington area.

Many federal employees and contractors in Bresnahan’s district work at military-related installations, including at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, where they forge 155 mm howitzer shells that help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion, and Tobyhanna Army Depot, one of the region’s largest employers.

“There’s a lot of people on pins and needles right now,” said Bill Cockerill, a labor liaison for Scranton’s local AFL-CIO council. “So far, nothing’s been hit, but you just don’t know when the shoe is going to drop.”

Rumors are circulating about who might challenge Bresnahan. The developer ran a family construction company before defeating six-term Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright, who said he is considering running again in 2026’s election.

Mackenzie, a former state lawmaker who beat three-term Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, drew an opponent barely 48 hours after voting for the House budget bill when the two-term Northampton County executive, Democrat Lamont McClure, announced his candidacy.

In a statement, Mackenzie called the budget vote a “starting point” that makes no specific reference to Medicaid and said that if the program emerges in negotiations, he would “fight to end the waste, fraud and abuse in the system, and protect benefits for those who need them.”

In his Thursday news conference at Northampton County’s courthouse, McClure didn’t hesitate to link that legislation to Mackenzie.

Mackenzie’s first instinct in going to Washington was to “gut” health care for thousands in the district, McClure said, “at a time when people are most concerned about the cost of health care and the access to health care.”

(File Photo: Source for Photo: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Key Republicans and Democrats in Congress have been stalwart supporters of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the blowup between the Ukrainian leader and President Donald Trump is threatening to change that.

Zelenskyy had traveled to Washington to sign a deal that would give the U.S. access to its mineral riches as Trump attempts to pressure Ukraine into a deal to end the war with Russia. Although support for Ukraine has waned among GOP congressional members in the three years since Russia invaded, key Republicans hoped the deal would revive American support for Kyiv.

Instead, the fallout from a heated Oval Office exchange between Trump, Zelenskyy and Vice President JD Vance has many Republicans — even those who previously backed Ukraine — scolding Zelenskyy. For other GOP lawmakers who have long criticized U.S. support for Ukraine, the exchange was an opportunity to laud Trump for berating Ukraine’s leader. And for Democrats, it was proof that Trump is playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Here’s what congressional lawmakers are saying as the future of Ukraine hangs in the balance:

Republicans who have supported Ukraine in the past

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina:

Graham called the meeting a “complete, utter disaster” and said he’s “never been more proud” of Trump.

“What I saw in the Oval office was disrespectful and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelenskyy again.”

SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO:

“Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!”

HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana:

“The death and destruction of the Russian-provoked war needs to stop immediately, and only our American President can put these two countries on a path to lasting peace. President Zelenskyy needed to acknowledge that, and accept the extraordinary mineral rights partnership proposal that President Trump put on the table. What we witnessed in the Oval Office today was an American President putting America first.”

REP. DON BACON, Nebraska:

“A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom.”

REP. MIKE LAWLER, New York:

“Diplomacy is tough and often times there are serious differences of opinion and heated exchanges behind closed doors. Having this spill out into public view was a disaster — especially for Ukraine.”

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania:

“It was heartbreaking to witness the turn of events that transpired in today’s meeting regarding Ukraine’s future. It is time to put understandable emotions aside and come back to the negotiation table.”

Republicans who are opposed to Ukraine aid

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri:

“Remember: the U.S. Senate has repeatedly and for years voted BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine with no strings attached and with no true oversight. It’s time for some ACCOUNTABILITY.”

SEN. MIKE LEE, Utah:

“Thank you for standing up for OUR COUNTRY and putting America first, President Trump and Vice President Vance!”

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas:

“Not another penny.”

REP. ANDY BIGGS, Arizona:

“Dictator Zelensky had the audacity to disrespect President @realDonaldTrump and VP @JDVance during what should have been a friendly meeting, and @POTUS rightfully showed him the door. This is the leadership America has craved for four years.”

Democrats, who as a party overwhelmingly support Ukraine

SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER, New York:

“Trump and Vance are doing Putin’s dirty work. Senate Democrats will never stop fighting for freedom and democracy.”

HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADER HAKEEM JEFFRIES, New York:

“Today’s White House meeting with the President of Ukraine was appalling and will only serve to further embolden Vladimir Putin, a brutal dictator. The United States must not reward Russian aggression and continue to appease Putin.”

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut:

“My strong and passionate hope is that the talks can be resumed or restored, and this event won’t derail continued support.”

“I have very strong hopes that the coalition we have in Congress — and it is a very strong bipartisan coalition — will be persuasive to the administration and others that we have a long-term national security interest in Ukraine prevailing over Putin’s brazen aggression.”

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota:

“Answer to Vance: Zelenskyy has thanked our country over and over again both privately and publicly. And our country thanks HIM and the Ukrainian patriots who have stood up to a dictator, buried their own & stopped Putin from marching right into the rest of Europe. Shame on you.”

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY, Connecticut:

“It was a planned ambush designed to embarrass President Zelenskyy in order to benefit Vladimir Putin. That was an embarrassment. That was an abomination. What you watched was American power being destroyed in the world as everybody watches President Trump become a lapdog for a brutal dictator in Moscow.”