Trump to Congress: Would you like some shock with that awe?

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To be fair, Donald Trump promised a shock-and-awe presidency.

"We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years or eight years," Trump declared to Republican cheers. "And we are just getting started." 

Before his inauguration, his strategists signaled that the returning president planned to overwhelm Washington with so many executive actions, so many pivots on policy that the nation would be fundamentally changed and his opposition thoroughly flummoxed before they had figured out how to respond.

In his speech Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress, the president took a victory lap for doing just that. He boasted he had slashed the federal workforce, clamped down on immigration, forced Ukraine to move toward peace talks in its war with Russia, rewritten the treatment of transgender people, and dismantled diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government and beyond.

'America is back': 5 takeaways on Trump's address to divided nation

"Wokeness is trouble; wokeness is bad," he said to cheers from the Republican side of the aisle and a stony silence from the Democratic side − a picture of a polarized nation. "It's gone, it's gone, and we feel so much better for it, don't we? Don't we feel better?"

But Trump was newly embattled as he climbed the steps to the dais of the House of Representatives, as so many of his predecessors have done before to report on the state of the union and to outline his agenda for the year.

During the day, after he imposed deep tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, the stock market plunged to below where it stood when he took office. Republican members of Congress are finding themselves so harangued about federal cuts during town halls that they've been advised to stop holding them. Polls show voters are worried that the tariffs will fuel inflation, the concern that prompted some of them to vote for him.

Trump gave not a hint of doubt about his course he has set, though.

"Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again," he declared, announcing that a wave of reciprocal tariffs would come April 2. "And it's happening, and it will happen rather quickly. There'll be a little disturbance, but we're OK with that."

He blamed the rising price of eggs, which has become a symbol of inflation, on predecessor Joe Biden.

And he said he had survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, during last year's campaign for a reason.

"I was saved by God to make America great again. I really believe that."

Introducing Elon Musk, who hardly needs one

Oh, and have you met Elon Musk?

By now, most Americans have. In a Quinnipiac University poll last month, nearly 9 of 10 of those surveyed said they had heard enough about Musk to have an opinion about him, and that opinion was negative by double digits, 50% to 38%. What's more, 55% of the registered voters said the billionaire entrepreneur had too much power to make decisions affecting the United States.

Musk got a standing ovation − from the Republican side of the aisle, that is − when Trump acknowledged him, seated in the gallery. "He's working very hard," Trump said as Musk stood and gave him a salute. The most powerful person in the world (that's Trump) has given the richest person in the world (that's Musk) the keys to the federal government, including access to the computer records of workers employed, payments made, contracts struck.

Or, increasingly, workers fired, payments frozen and contracts canceled. Trump credited Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency with saving "hundreds of billions of dollars" by identifying fraudulent and wasteful spending.

Opponents dispute the size of the savings, though, and warn about their long-term consequences.

For Democrats, silence as a message

Trump wore a dark blue suit, a crisp white shirt, a patterned red-and-blue tie and an American flag pin. Through a speech that was the longest of any presidential speech to Congress, he looked delighted to be there.

Democrats, not so much.

There was a scattering of empty seats on the Democratic side of the aisle, and some of those who showed up held up small black-and-white signs with messages including "False" and "Musk Lies" and "Save Medicaid." Texas Rep. Al Green was escorted out by the sergeant at arms after he refused to stop heckling Trump. A handful of Democrats walked out midspeech with a single-word message on the back of their shirts: "Resist."

But Democrats have failed to find a way to effectively resist what Trump called his "swift and unrelenting action," and their deliberate, disapproving silence risked underscoring their lack of louder tools to resist.

Trump mocked them. "There is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile," he said. "These people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand," even for what he called his "astronomical achievements."

"It's sad, and it just shouldn't be this way."

But he didn't look sad. Whatever happens down the road, on Day 43, he looked triumphant.