Trump says US is 'just getting started' in address to Congress | The Excerpt
On Wednesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Paste BN Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page takes a closer look at President Donald Trump's address to Congress. House Republicans are being instructed to stop holding in-person town halls after DOGE complaints. The Trump administration wants to sell hundreds of federal buildings, including the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover Building headquarters. Paste BN Investigative Reporter Nick Penzenstadler discusses exclusive reporting on newly revealed documents from the National Guard Bureau that reveal incidents of racism and harassment nationwide.
Have feedback on the show? Please send us an email at podcasts@USATODAY.com.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more Paste BN podcasts right here
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson. Today is Wednesday, March 5th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today we break down Trump's address to Congress. Plus, documents from the National Guard Bureau reveal incidents of racism and harassment nationwide. And it's Ash Wednesday.
♦
President Donald Trump did not hold back during his speech to a joint session of Congress last night.
President Donald Trump:
Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this capital, and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years, or eight years. We are just getting started.
Taylor Wilson:
I spoke with Paste BN Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page for more.
Hey there, Susan.
Susan Page:
Hey, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for hopping on, Susan. Let's just start with the vibe of the room, if we could. The early stages of this speech were marked by some heckles from the Democratic side of the chamber. Congressman Al Green was even escorted out in the opening minutes. Then on the other side, Republicans seemed to spend much of the night in applause, Susan. Really, what was the atmosphere like?
Susan Page:
This is a country divided, and this was a house chamber divided, too. On one side, you had the Republicans. Over and over again, they stood up and gave President Trump standing ovation after standing ovation. On the other side, most of the Democrats sat on their hands. You did have Al Green heckling, you had a few who walked out mid-speech. Most of them sat there silently staring at Trump. At one point, he mocked them for doing that.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, we knew Trump is planning to lean in on what he views as his biggest accomplishments on the night. What were the actions his administration took these first six weeks, Susan, that Trump really leaned in on in this speech?
Susan Page:
He took a lot of credit for what he's done so far in the White House. He said it was "the most successful start for an administration in American history." He said, "We're just getting started." He defended every position he has taken. He expressed doubt about none of them. Even on the issue of tariffs, he imposed these big tariffs earlier on Tuesday. The response was the stock market fell to below the level it was at when he was inaugurated. He said, "Yes, there may be some trouble," but he defended tariffs. He promised to impose more of them on April 2nd.
Taylor Wilson:
Susan, you also write about the Elon Musk factor. I think he's impossible to ignore at this point. How did he play into the speech and the themes of the evening?
Susan Page:
Elon Musk up there in that gallery with the other administration guests, he was wearing a suit this time. Often, he shows up in a T-shirt. Trump saluted him, gave him credit for big cuts in fraudulent and wasteful spending. Musk gave him a salute back. We saw Trump expressing no doubt at all that this was the right way to go, even though there has been some blow back from all the federal workers who have lost their jobs in the first 43 days of this administration.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, this was of course an address to Congress. We're talking about a president with his party's control in both chambers, Susan. Did he give any marching orders to lawmakers on the night?
Susan Page:
He told Republicans in Congress that he wants his tax bill passed. That was the biggest legislative item that he mentioned. In fact, most States of the Union, which is what this effectively was, are laundry lists of legislation that a president wants. This was less that. This was more praise for the executive action he's taken and a reminder to Congress that he wants them to pass a big tax cut.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, we talked a little bit about the Democratic side of the coin, Susan, but I just want to focus on them for a second. How did they approach the night? Did we hear anything in their rebuttal afterwards that caught your ear? Was there any kind of peace offering from Trump, or was it all just pretty toxic?
Susan Page:
One of the remarkable things about this long speech is that there was basically no outreach to Democrats. There was instead an acknowledgement that they were divided and that they would never be on the same side. That's going to be tough for Trump down the road, tough for Speaker Mike Johnson because the Republican margin in the House is so narrow that they could really use some Democratic votes. But we saw no effort on Trump's part to cultivate that, not in this speech anyway.
Taylor Wilson:
We know Trump focused a lot on the last few weeks, Susan. Did he map any route forward for the coming weeks and months?
Susan Page:
He talked about tariffs. He repeated his determination to take over Greenland and to get control of the Panama Canal. This was Trump in his purest form.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Susan Page is Paste BN's Washington bureau chief. Thank you, Susan.
Susan Page:
Thank you, Taylor.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
House Republicans are being instructed to stop conducting in-person town halls as lawmakers face angry crowds complaining about cuts implemented under President Donald Trump's efforts to overhaul the federal government. After a closed-door meeting near the capital yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that the people who have filled up recent town hall meetings across the country are professional protesters. Trump has similarly said the attendees are paid troublemakers. Liberal groups have promoted Congressional town halls, but there is no evidence that attendees are being paid.
House lawmakers were home in their districts last week and many held town halls, a common way for members to hear from the public. Several of those town halls went viral as residents went after lawmakers over recent federal cuts. Department of Government Efficiency efforts led by Elon Musk have fired around 100,000 federal employees over Trump's first six weeks in office, and stripped down federal agencies.
♦
The Trump Administration has placed some 443 federal properties up for sale, including the headquarters of many federal agencies like the FBI. The announcement was made hours before Trump's first address to Congress last night. Many of the buildings selected are on the National Register of Historic Places, or have recently undergone massive renovations. Others, like the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover building have been waiting for Congress to approve a suitable replacement building for years.
A statement from the General Services Administration which manages the federal government's real estate portfolio estimated the sale of the properties could potentially save the government more than $430 million in annual operating costs. The news comes as hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been ordered by the new administration to return to working in the office full-time.
♦
Newly revealed documents from the National Guard Bureau reveal incident of racism and harassment across the country. I spoke with Paste BN Investigative Reporter Nick Penzenstadler for more on this exclusive story.
Nick, thank you so much for hopping on on this.
Nick Penzenstadler:
Sure. Happy to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
Nick, just starting here. How many incidents did you find? And how did Paste BN get access to this information?
Nick Penzenstadler:
This started back with a 2015 incident that drew attention from our staff that covers the Pentagon, Tom Vanden Brook. Where a Black sergeant in the National Guard was punished by putting a chain around his neck in front of his other troops. Tom and others wanted to know how many of these cases are there out there, where there's serious allegations of discrimination at the National Guard. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request way back in 2021. We waited, had to appeal, file a federal lawsuit. Now four years later, they have handed us these hundreds of pages of discrimination complaints spanning seven years. There are these 34 or 35 complaints that reached this top level of review at the National Guard.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Let's talk through some of these incidents. You wrote about this gay soldier in Idaho and his commander there, Nick. What happened there? What can you tell us about this incident?
Nick Penzenstadler:
Yeah, this is an interesting because it's a little bit of a twist on this scenario. In this case, this young soldier looks up his commander, his new commander Major Worley in Idaho, and realizes that he's already run for some local political offices. He starts to go through his social media and realizes he's anti-LGBT and has said some eyebrow-raising things about the LGBT community. He files an employment complaint. Major Worley decides not to respond to that. It spirals from there.
But eventually, Major Worley is removed from command and given this reprimand over this allegation, and for not responding, and not taking it seriously. Now he's suing the state saying he was unfairly removed. It's an example of how seriously these can spiral, and how seriously the military takes them when someone files a complaint.
Taylor Wilson:
Your reporting here, Nick, found cases of sexual harassment as well. What happened in Kentucky in the Air National Guard there?
Nick Penzenstadler:
Yeah. This is the 123rd Medical Group in Louisville, where again, a young female PA there successfully argued that she was discriminated against and sexually harassed, and denied her advancement within the organization because she declined a superior's sexual advances. A serious case there where it took years before she received the redress she was seeking.
Taylor Wilson:
We also read about a separate story from Maryland, this Iraq war veteran. What can you tell us about him, Nick?
Nick Penzenstadler:
Yeah. This is our source, George Ross, retired chief warrant officer for the Maryland National Guard. He worked his way up through the ranks, and then saw an opportunity for this new cybersecurity group at US Cyber Command in Maryland and applied for it. Despite everyone around him, he was not promoted to that job. He said, "I ranked on these tests higher and I should have been promoted," and he was passed over. He alleged it was because of his race and successfully argued that to the Maryland National Guard and the National Guard Bureau.
Taylor Wilson:
Nick, in terms of the actual complaints' process, how does it work? Can you help us just understand this, and why do we see delays in dealing with complaints? What did a National Guard official say on this point?
Nick Penzenstadler:
That's the part of the story is it takes months and years to go through this process. You initially start with your command where you file your complaint. It gets reviewed and investigated. Then what we're talking about here is this process where it goes to the National Guard Bureau in Virginia, where they're taking it out of your state. If you remember, the National Guard is all these individual state entities. The National Guard Bureau comes in and says, "This review wasn't done correctly. You need to look at this again. We find evidence that there was discrimination." The people we talked to say it takes tenacity and years to stick with something to prove that you were discriminated against.
Taylor Wilson:
Nick, would you put this story in context for us amid this change in regime and Hegseth taking over as Secretary of Defense?
Nick Penzenstadler:
Of course. This is all playing out in the backdrop of a new administration. Pete Hegseth, who is leading the Pentagon, who says, "The single dumbest phrase in military history is diversity is our strength." He's definitely in favor of rooting out some of these equal opportunity complaints at your employer at the National Guard. He thinks that some of these diversity efforts have swung too far into being woke and worrying too much about how people feel about how you treat them. Obviously, these cases prove otherwise, that there are still racist and discriminatory actions taking place all throughout the ranks.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Nick Penzenstadler is an investigative reporter with Paste BN. Thanks, Nick.
Nick Penzenstadler:
Thank you.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
It's Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, Christianity's 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and giving in preparation to honor the resurrection of Jesus on Easter.
♦
Cannabis drinks are increasingly showing up in bars and on store shelves. But should people plan to imbibe an amount roughly equivalent to their alcoholic drink consumption?
Staci Gruber:
Make sure you have plenty of time to allow these products to give you the effect that you're looking for before going any further. And allow yourself time to recover before you need to do something that requires you to be all in.
Taylor Wilson:
You can catch the conversation with Staci Gruber, director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuro-Scientific Discovery at McLean Hospital and my colleague Dana Taylor, right here on this feed, beginning at 4:00 PM Eastern time today.
♦
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.