“It was horrible and disgusting.”
“My blood’s boiling right now.”
“He clearly wants to divide America.”
That’s Reps. Sara Jacobs, Dave Min and Mark Takano, respectively, on Donald Trump’s sprawling and unapologetic Tuesday night joint address to Congress. The president doubled down on everything from steep tariffs on American allies to the upheaval caused by his Department of Government Efficiency — and along the way earned dismal reviews from California’s Democratic lawmakers, several of whom left not long into the speech.
“He didn’t say a single thing that Democrats felt obliged to stand and clap for,” Rep. Brad Sherman told NOTUS.
“This is by far the most partisan speech — this is my 29th,” Sherman said. “In every one of those other speeches from Democrats and Republicans, there were lines where both sides of the aisle would stand and clap.”
Jacobs and other Democrats took aim at Trump’s economic message.
“He started with ‘America’s back,’ but how can America be back when he’s literally picking fights with our closest allies and partners, when we’re firing the very people who would be addressing avian flu to bring egg prices down?” Jacobs said.
Jacobs urged her constituents not to believe Trump on his vow to lower prices, citing the burden tariffs could impose on American consumers.
“Whether it’s the tariffs that are gonna increase groceries, increase gas somewhere between six and 20 cents, gonna increase the cost of all of the materials that we need to build more housing — which we desperately need in San Diego — or whether it’s the anti-immigrant border policies that we in San Diego know aren’t working because we actually live at the border.”
Min echoed her concerns.
“What I really didn’t hear was any economic message at the end of the day, other than a few lies about how well the economy is doing,” Min said.
Several Democrats left early. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove left partway through Trump’s address with a group of progressives after Rep. Maxwell Frost was booted from the chamber for wearing a sweater reading “No King Lives Here.”
“There’s only so much bullshit a person can tolerate,” Kamlager-Dove said on social media. Steven Cheung, the White House’s communications director, shot back that the congresswoman was “as relevant as a used Zyn pouch.”
Reps. Norma Torres, Eric Swalwell and others departed minutes later. Meanwhile, Rep. Zoe Lofgren sat reading a newspaper for much of Trump’s speech, before also walking out.
“He’s not changed from the hot-button issues that he pressed in the campaign,” Takano said.
Democrats from California brought guests, including fired federal workers and those who would be affected by potential cuts to Medicaid. Both Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Mark DeSaulnier invited mothers whose children contend with disabilities and rely on Medicaid.
Pelosi, who famously ripped up a copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech the last time he addressed Congress, cast the president’s speech as “manifesto of mistruths.”
“All across America, people are feeling the pain of President Trump’s policies at their kitchen tables,” Pelosi said in a statement. “It is clear that President Trump does not care about the pain of the American people — but he should fear their power.”
Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff brought a Los Angeles fire captain and a 25-year federal firefighter, respectively. Padilla told NOTUS he found Trump’s speech “horrible.”
And Reps. Sam Liccardo and Takano both brought veterans who were recently laid off by Trump’s cost-cutting measures.
Liccardo brought Daniel Sandecki, a disabled combat veteran who served as the emergency manager for the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto health care system, which provides care to over 67,000 veterans. Sandecki was terminated from his post last month as part of DOGE’s headcount reductions.
“I wanted Donald Trump to see the face of someone who suffered the impacts from his policies,” Liccardo said.
But less than two hours after Sandecki was announced as Liccardo’s guest, he was notified by his local human resources that the Office of Personnel Management had rescinded his termination, Sandecki said.
“I basically obtained my dream job after working about 15 years to build the training experience knowledge, know how to be able to be competitive for this position,” Sandecki said. “There’s a misconception about government employees that they’re low skilled or underdeveloped. I’m here to dispel that myth.”
Takano’s guest, David Pasquino, was an IT recruiting manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“This president has fired more veterans than any other president in history,” Takano said. “I can only take this as a huge betrayal of the Honoring Our PACT Act, which was the largest expansion of veterans benefits since the Vietnam War.”
As Democrats blasted Trump’s speech, Republicans took it as an opportunity to get valuable face time with the president.
“He took all the gloves off when he really rocked it, man,” Rep. Doug LaMalfa told NOTUS. “He covered all the right stuff. You saw the amount of times they jumped out of the seat.”
LaMalfa, known for hanging around after presidential addresses to speak with presidents of both parties, briefly pulled Trump aside as the president made his way out of the chamber to ask for his help with a water deal.
“I talked to him about actually a local issue I need his help on in Northern California — it’s a water deal,” LaMalfa said.
After hearing his request on the floor of the House, Trump told LaMalfa: “I’ll do it.”
Samuel Larreal and Mark Alfred are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows. This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and San José Spotlight.
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