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President Donald Trump took a partisan victory lap in the first address to Congress of his second term Tuesday night. 

touted dramatic disruptions to foreign and domestic policy

 that his administration had taken in his initial 45 days in office. Trump was cheered by Republican members of Congress while Democrats held up small black signs that said “false” or “Musk steals.” U.S. Rep. Al Green of Texas was ejected for protesting early in the nearly 100-minute speech. 

Minnesota U.S. Sen. Tina Smith dissented along with the Democratic caucus. She joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer on Wednesday with her reaction to the president’s address. 

Which of the president’s ‘swift and unrelenting’ actions concerns you right now? 

“One of the reasons that I invited my guest Kate Severson to join me at the president’s address was because of the chaotic actions that Elon Musk and DOGE have taken to fire so many Minnesotans,” Smith said. Severson was a Voyageurs National Park ranger fired by the Musk-run Department of Governmental Efficiency last month. “This is the kind of, I think, unaccountable actions that the administration is taking that is, I know, bad for Minnesota, bad for Voyageurs National Park.” 

Smith said that similar concerns prompted many of her colleagues to bring other people who’d recently lost their jobs as guests last night. 

Follow NPR's annotated fact check of President Trump's address to Congress

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Trump’s speech didn’t mention a potential government shutdown next week. How likely is that? 

“Typically these State of the Union or joint addresses are talking about the work that the executive branch and the legislative branch would do together to govern the country, and there was really none of that in President Trump’s speech,” Smith said. 

The senator said she’s worried about Congress being able to ensure the federal government stays funded. 

“We are barely a week away from a deadline, and we await the next actions from the U.S. House of Representatives,” she said. Smith hopes to come up with a compromise in the meantime, “because the shutdown would be terrible and bad for Minnesota and bad for the country.” 

According to Congressional leaders, Smith says they’re close on the financial figures to fund the government for the next six months. 

“And there’s going to be things in there that we don’t like, but way better than having us go into a shutdown, which would honestly give Elon Musk and Donald Trump, huge power to do whatever they want with the federal government.” 

Some analysts felt that Democrats are having a tough time coalescing around a message of dissent. What's your take on that? 

Smith responded she’s sat through seven or eight such Congressional addresses prior and the “sense of theater” is always present, including members of the party not in the White House refraining from ovations. 

“I don’t recall any Republicans giving Joe Biden much credence when he gave his last speech last year,” she said. “It’s sort of par for the course.”

“The number of, just lies and misstatements that President Trump reeled out last night was really unprecedented,” Smith said, then pointed to Michigan U.S. 

Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s response on behalf of Democrats

She really laid out such a just excellent description

 of what Democrats want to do to lower costs for Americans, to make sure that we protect our national defense and to, I think, reclaim some of the common ground that should really be the way we think about leading this country forward.” 

Spanish-language rebuttal to Trump’s joint address focuses on immigration

MPR News reached out to all of Minnesota’s Congressional Republicans multiple times for interviews, but did not receive responses to those requests. 

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The Minnesota Democrat dissented along with her caucus. She joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer on Wednesday to talk about the president’s speech promoting his administration’s accomplishments so far. 

Dem reax to Trump address (Sen. Tina Smith)

U.S. Sen. Tina Smith responds to Trump address, looming government shutdown

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