German political scientist and national security expert Christian Mölling, after the US President's speech before both houses of the US Congress, said: "Donald Trump is in the process of dismantling the American state, and in doing so is probably changing society en masse." He added: "We still have four years of his presidency ahead of us, and perhaps after that time - we will no longer recognize America."
President Donald Trump's speech to the US Congress, March 4, 2025 (Source: Wikipedia)
The German television program – ZDF Heute – analyzed and assessed Donald Trump's speech immediately after the broadcast – on March 5, 2025. Some of the President's first words were quoted: "America’s momentum is back, our spirit is back, our pride is back, our confidence is back."
Of course, it was not forgotten to mention that not everyone present was delighted with these words, and apparently many congressmen from the Democratic Party protested by interrupting the speech and raising banners with slogans such as "Lie", "No to the King".
ZDF Heute commented on the speech as: "biased, deepening divisions in the nation, striking at America, which is barely recovering from the challenges of the economy and the pandemic". The speech itself was called "combative". In this ZDF program – under the title "President's Address to Congress" – one could hear the following general information: "Donald Trump spoke to the US Congress for one hour and 45 minutes. It was a speech full of references to the culture wars raging in the USA. In it, Trump touched on almost all the actions he took in the first weeks of his second term."
And the news continued: "The US President used various figures, examples and accusations that do not stand up to criticism. He spread many questionable data and claims in his speech, starting from migration to Ukraine."
And at this point, there were attempts to show these "questionable claims" of Donald Trump, starting with the topic of "Illegal immigrants".
The President was quoted as saying: "Last month, the number of illegal border crossings was the lowest in history. (...) Hundreds of thousands of them have arrived every month under Joe Biden's administration. And practically all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members or people from psychiatric institutions, have been allowed into our country." German correspondents for ZDF Heute radio – Nils Metzger and Kevin Schubert – try to give a different tone to this Trump statement: they minimize the problem by claiming that: "It is true that while the number of illegal immigrants was at a record level during the Biden administration and has fallen significantly since Trump took office (...) but towards the end of his term, Biden introduced tougher measures together with Mexico, which have already led to a decrease in the number of cases."
They also try to convince the German recipient of the news that the American media have not found "any evidence to support the claim that foreign countries are deliberately sending mentally ill people to the US". Trump's calling immigrant criminals "mentally ill" – the German media (citing the American left-wing Poynter Institute) consider to be the most mendacious statement of Trump's election campaign on immigration.
Here, it is tempting to refer to the reasons for the recent, very numerous, attempts on life in the German Federal Republic by immigrants, who – in each case – had (according to the German media) diagnosed "previous mental problems. However, similar statements by the American President were commented on as "accusations that do not withstand criticism."
The government news source – the aforementioned ZDF Heute – also criticized the project of Donald Trump's team called USAID. Elon Musk also got flak for uncovering fraud in social spending, revealing the waste of the classes that have ruled the country so far.
They also commented on the latest "White House brawl", during which a huge injustice was done to the darling of leftist Europe – the president of Ukraine, which was presented as an unequal fight, "two-on-one", and an attempt was made to convince the listeners that Trump and Vance disregard Ukraine and are Putin's spokesmen.
They did not like the fact that Trump stated in his speech to Congress that the US would provide Ukraine with more financial support than Europe and that "America has already spent over 350 billion dollars to help the struggling Ukraine." Here, according to German commentators, was Trump's next lie.
The news reported: The US Congress has so far approved five packages worth $174.2 billion for Ukraine. The report of the US coordinator responsible for aid to Ukraine mentions a total amount of (only) $182.75 billion. The Ukraine Support Tracker, published by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, lists about €114 billion from the US and about €132 billion from European countries. So (according to a German news source) the “truth” is different, namely: “Europe has long overtaken the US in terms of total aid”, because: “In reality, European countries have so far transferred significantly more money to Ukraine than the US – although the payments cannot always be compared on a one-to-one basis due to different conditions”. It was said that “A whole series of fact-checkers have recently concluded that Trump is exaggerating US aid to Ukraine – perhaps also in order to put pressure on his raw material deal.”
It is worth mentioning another point of the President of America's speech to congressmen, which German journalists did not fail to criticize, namely – difficult for most Europeans to swallow – Trump's break with the environmental protection policy pursued by his predecessor, the darling of the leftist European Union and neo-communist Germany – Joe Biden. It was presented as follows: Trump boasts in his speech that he "revoked all environmental regulations passed by his predecessor Joe Biden, which made our country much less safe"
According to ZDF Heute – Trump did not specify what exactly he meant by claiming that the United States has become “significantly less safe”. In fact, the scientific community supposedly agrees – so claims ZDF Heute – that policies that at least mitigate human-induced climate change minimize risks and thus actively contribute to security – regional, national and global. So Trump has “sinned” on this topic too! And when he mentioned ending the issue of electric car production, about which he said that: “by eliminating the mandate for electric cars – we are saving our employees and car companies from economic ruin” – the commentary of the German media sounded very sharp and unambiguous: “Trump is simplifying or lying!”
The next move by the US President also proved difficult for the German government to accept. It was the executive order “Unleashing American Energy”, by which Trump orders the end of Biden’s “Green New Deal”. Here – there is an attempt to “comfort” the listeners, the editors reassure them in this way: “But it’s not that simple: during his first term, Trump also tried to repeal the Obama administration’s environmental regulations. He partially succeeded, but he was repeatedly defeated in court.”
Democrats and environmentalists are still hoping that Trump will once again be “defeated in court by legal, scientific and political challenges.” Before Trump’s inauguration, the Washington Post analyzed how “Trump-proof” Biden’s environmental legacy is. Their conclusion was that of 20 environmental protections they analyzed, Trump could “easily” overturn only four. Helping to spread this message is the head of Harvard Law School’s environmental and energy law program, attorney Jody Freeman, who reportedly said, “It’s not easy to wave the magic wand of deregulation.”
And finally, another point of Donald Trump's speech to his American congressmen, which was given in the German public space as an example of the lie of the head of the most powerful country in the world. It is that Trump and his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth want to drive out the alleged "woke ideology" from the American military. They feel encouraged by the growing number of candidates for the military.
Trump is quoted as saying: "I am pleased to report that the US Army had its best recruiting month in 15 years in January. (...) Just a few months ago, the results were exactly the opposite. This was commented on as follows: "In fact, the US Army recently recorded a record number of new recruits. Unlike previous years, it achieved its annual goal of 55,000 recruits - and at the end of September. This shows that this positive trend began even before Donald Trump's election." So, it was Biden's merit and Trump – again – is not telling the truth!
No wonder that ZDF foreign correspondents – Ulf Röller from Brussels and Armin Coerper from the Moscow studio – comment on Trump's speech to Congress in this way: "Europeans no longer trust Donald Trump" and cannot understand "the passive attitude towards him by the Democratic Party!"
Translation from Polish by Andrew Wozniewicz.
