Trump to Congress: 'America Is Back' and 'I Was Saved by God to Make America Great Again' (March 4, 2025)

Donald Trump stepped to the rostrum of the House chamber at 9:19 p.m. on March 4, 2025, 43 days after he returned to office, and opened with three words: “America is back” [1]. He spoke for about 1 hour, 39 minutes and 32 seconds, longer than Bill Clinton’s 2000 State of the Union, which had stood as the record, Fox News reported [3]. The video above shows the two passages featured in the clip: the opening, and the closing tribute to Corey Comperatore, where Trump said he had been “saved by God to make America great again.” Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1][2].

Key Moments

”America is back”

Trump tied the night to his inauguration. “Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action,” he said. “We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in 4 years or 8 years, and we are just getting started.” He said he had signed “nearly 100 Executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions—a record” [1].

The mandate, and an interruption

“The Presidential election of November 5 was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades,” Trump said. “We won all seven swing States, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes” [1]. The National Archives’ certified results show 312 electoral votes for Trump and 226 for Kamala Harris [4].

As Trump began to add that he had won the popular vote, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, cut in: “You are—you have no right to cut Medicaid.” Trump pressed on, saying he had won “by big numbers” and “won counties in our country 2,700 to 525 on a map that reads almost completely red for Republican” [1].

”An astonishing record”

Trump then pointed to the national mood. He said that “for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction,” calling it “an astonishing record: 27-point swing, the most ever.” “Likewise, small-business optimism saw its single largest 1-month gain ever recorded,” he went on. Speaker Mike Johnson broke in, and Trump finished the line: “a 41-point jump” [1].

Green kept at it. “He has no mandate to cut Medicaid,” he shouted. Johnson warned members “to cease any further disruptions,” and when Green kept going, Johnson said the chair “now directs the Sergeant at Arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the Chamber.” Green answered, “Shame on all of you,” and, the transcript records, members sang “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” [1].

The border and Laken Riley

“Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the U.S. military and Border Patrol to repel the invasion of our country,” Trump said. “As a result, illegal border crossings last month were, by far, the lowest ever recorded—ever” [1]. Three days later, the White House said the Department of Homeland Security had reported that February crossings “fell to the lowest level ever recorded, down 94% from last February” [5].

He introduced the mother and sister of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student murdered on the University of Georgia campus in 2024. “That’s why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th President mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety,” he said. “It’s called the Laken Riley Act.” The law, Public Law 119-1, was approved on Jan. 29, 2025 [1][6]. “America will never, ever forget our beautiful Laken Hope Riley,” he told the family [1]. HYGO News covered the Biden White House’s response to her murder in its page on that briefing.

D.J. Daniel and the Abbey Gate arrest

Trump introduced D.J. Daniel, 13, who has always dreamed of being a police officer. “But in 2018, D.J. was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months at most to live,” Trump said. He then asked Secret Service Director Sean Curran “to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service,” and Curran presented the boy with a credential as the audience chanted his name [1].

Trump also made news. Speaking of the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 American service members during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said: “Tonight I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity, and he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice” [1]. On March 7, the White House said the Justice Department had “arrested the ISIS-K terrorist who orchestrated the murders of 13 U.S. service members at Abbey Gate” [5].

The White House later listed both moments among those it said Democrats “refused to applaud,” including “the capturing of an ISIS terrorist that masterminded the Abbey Gate attack” and “a young boy fighting brain cancer” [7].

Corey Comperatore and “saved by God”

The speech’s most personal passage came near its end. Trump recalled the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania: “My life was saved by a fraction of an inch, but some were not so lucky.” He described Corey Comperatore as “a firefighter, a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a devoted father, and, above all, a protector,” who “threw himself on top of his wife and daughters and shielded them from the bullets with his own body.” Comperatore’s widow, Helen, and their daughters, Allyson and Kaylee, were there to hear it. “It was love like Corey’s that built our country,” Trump said. Then: “I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason. I was saved by God to make America great again. I believe that” [1].

Background

The speech capped six weeks of fast action. On his first day back, Trump signed an order restoring the name Mount McKinley and renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America [8]. On March 1, he signed an order designating English as the official language of the United States [9]. “I renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America,” he reminded Congress [1].

Trade was the day’s news. Hours before he spoke, 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico took effect, with Canadian energy at 10%, and the tariff on all Chinese imports doubled to 20% [10].

Many Democrats sat on their hands. “There is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud,” Trump said [1][7]. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan delivered the Democratic response [11].

By the Numbers

312: electoral votes Trump won in 2024, according to the National Archives [4].
43: days Trump had been back in office [1].
About 1 hour, 39 minutes: the length of the address, longer than Bill Clinton’s record-setting 2000 State of the Union, Fox News reported [3].
94%: the drop in illegal border crossings from February 2024 to February 2025, according to the White House [5].
13: American service members killed in the Abbey Gate bombing [1].
224-198: the House vote to censure Al Green [12].
218-214: the House vote that sent the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to Trump’s desk [15].

What Happened Next

Al Green was censured. On March 6, 2025, the House voted 224-198 to censure Green, with 10 Democrats joining 214 Republicans [12]. A year later, the official transcript of Trump’s 2026 State of the Union notes that Green “was escorted from the House Chamber” again [18], as HYGO News reported in its page on that speech.

The tariffs arrived. “April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in,” Trump told Congress [1]. On April 2, he signed the order imposing them [13]. On April 9, he suspended the higher country-specific rates for 90 days for every trading partner except China [14].

No tax on tips became law. Trump asked Congress for “no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors” [1]. The House sent him the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 3, 2025, by a vote of 218-214 [15], and he signed it the next day. The White House said the law delivered “NO tax on Tips,” “NO tax on Overtime” and “NO tax on Social Security,” along with funding for the Golden Dome missile defense system he had asked Congress to fund [16].

Musk stepped back. “Thank you, Elon,” Trump said in the speech, introducing the head of the Department of Government Efficiency [1]. On May 30, 2025, Trump hosted Musk in the Oval Office to thank him “for his time as a special Government employee” and said, “Elon is really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth, I think” [17].