Trump addresses Congress amid backlash to tariffs, Ukraine military aid pause, DEI rollback
When Trump addresses Congress tonight, he will continue a tradition that Americans are now accustomed to but one that was unimaginable for more than 100 years.Â
In April 1913, Woodrow Wilson had been president for only a month and a battle was brewing in his own party over tariff reform. To persuade skeptical lawmakers to support legislation reducing tariff rates, Wilson decided the best course of action was for him to speak to Congress directly, something a president had not done since 1800. Â
Wilson’s decision “caused profound astonishment among Senators and Representatives,” The New York Times reported at the time. Congressional leaders were “delving into old records tonight to learn the proper course to pursue” with the visit.Â
While George Washington and John Adams gave annual in-person speeches to the legislative branch during their terms as president, Thomas Jefferson instead sent a written message starting in 1801. Every president for the next century followed that mold until Wilson.Â
 “The town is agog about it,” Wilson wrote in a letter the morning of his speech. “It seems I have been smashing precedents almost daily ever since I got here.”Â
The new president said he thought speaking was “more natural and dignified” than a written message. “It at least seems to amuse the town to have these unusual things done, and the newspaper men are very grateful!” Â
In his remarks to Congress, Wilson said he wanted people to recognize that the “president of the United States is a person, not a mere department of the government.” He said the president “is a human being trying to cooperate with other human beings in a common service.” Â
While the speech was about tariffs, many newspaper accounts focused on the breaking of precedent. “Congress Breathless As President Wilson Reads His Message,” read a headline in The Washington Times. The paper called the speech a “history-making event” and said the “old precedent is shattered.”Â
Later that year, Wilson returned to give the first in-person annual message since John Adams, re-starting a tradition that continues today.Â
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