Why will Trump’s joint remarks will not be a “Union State” address

By Meg Kinnard

Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening will be held at the front of the American chamber to address a joint session of the Congress, the first of his second term.

It resembles the state of the Union, and will be transported to live television, as are these annual addresses. But this is called something else: a joint convention address. And he has his origins in the first term of President Ronald Reagan.

The American constitution requires that the president update the congress and recommends policies, although the foundation document does not specify precisely when this address should take place.

Usually, the presidents will present these remarks in January or February, reflecting on the events of the previous year and describing their political priorities for the next one. The message was known as “the annual message of the president to the congress”. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt began to describe it as “annual message at the Congress on the State of the Union”.

Shortly after taking an oath for his first mandate in 1981, Reagan addressed a joint session of the Congress, remarks which were called “address before a joint session of the congress on the program of economic recovery”, according to the draft American presidency, at the University of California in Santa Barbara.

Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton followed suit during their first years in power, with messages from 1989 and 1993 entitled “Objectives Administration”. In 2001, President George W. Bush’s speech was his “budgetary message”.

According to the draft American presidency, the impacts of these first -year speeches must be considered as having the same weight as the state of the Union which follow in the following years. And, like the address of the state of the Union, the opposing party to the one who occupies the White House gives a brief speech in response, which, like the remarks of the president, is televised. This year will be delivered by Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin from Michigan.

Originally published: March 4, 2025 at 9:17 PST