Trump gives longest US presidential speech to Congress
Donald Trump gave the longest-ever address to a joint session of Congress by any U.S. president on Tuesday, clocking in at more than one hour and 40 minutes.
Republican Trump's speech beat the previous record set by Democratic President Bill Clinton in his State of the Union address in 2000.
Trump said the United States had started to take back the Panama Canal after a deal by a Hong Kong firm to sell ports to a U.S.-led consortium.
"To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we've already started doing it," he said. "We're taking it back," adding that the U.S. will also get Greenland "one way or another."
He also praised his billionaire adviser Elon Musk for his work leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is tasked with trimming the federal government.
"Thank you Elon, he's working very hard," Trump said during an address to Congress, after Musk stood up in the gallery to applause from Republican lawmakers. "Thank you very much, we appreciate it."
A Democratic lawmaker was ejected from the joint session after he booed and shouted at Donald Trump while the president delivered a prime-time address.
Veteran congressman Al Green of Texas stood up, raised and shook his cane and shouted at Trump, prompting jeers from Republicans across the aisle and leading congressional aides to escort the African-American lawmaker out of the House of Representatives chamber as Trump looked on.
Source: Agence France Presse
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