ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
President Trump is giving a prime time address tonight to Congress. It's the first big speech since his meeting last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That Oval Office meeting blew up, putting a minerals deal at risk that Trump has said is key to forging a broader peace deal for the country. Yesterday, reporters asked him if the minerals deal was dead, and here's what he said.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I'll let you know. We're making a speech - you probably heard about it - tomorrow night, so I'll let you know tomorrow night. But no, I don't think so. I think it's - look, it's a great deal for us because...
SHAPIRO: So what will he say about this and other parts of his agenda tonight? For more, NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson is here in the studio. Hey, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Hi there.
SHAPIRO: Before we get to Ukraine, lay out the bigger picture of what you're expecting tonight.
LIASSON: You know, traditionally, these speeches have been an opportunity for presidents to command the undivided attention of tens of millions of people and lay out their agenda, but Donald Trump has already done that. He's already dominated the media narrative since he was elected. He's moved very quickly to dismantle the administrative state, to change the world order, to put in place his agenda on economic and social issues. And usually, this first address is a curtain-raiser to a new presidency.
But this presidency feels like it's way past that already. It's - we're already into Act 2. So Trump has talked about just about every single thing he wants to do over and over. By one count, he's been asked and answered over a thousand questions from the press, so this is not the debut.
SHAPIRO: Right. So what has the White House said about what this speech will be?
LIASSON: The White House says the theme of the speech is the renewal of the American dream. White House aides say the president is going to talk about the economy and border security and foreign policy, and immigration is going to be at the top of that list. Trump believes that the border and illegal immigration is one of the main reasons that he won.
And a mainstay of all Trump speeches at rallies or at conventions is to have people in the audience who've been victims of crimes committed by people who are in the country without legal status, and there will be some of those people there tonight. There are also going to be invited guests in the first lady's box, and the White House describes these people as everyday Americans, but they include the family members of the firefighter who was killed during the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, and he will certainly talk about that.
SHAPIRO: Besides immigration, he also spoke a lot on the campaign and since he won about inflation and prices. How do you think he'll address that tonight?
LIASSON: Well, that is a really good question because this was one of his most politically significant promises. People voted for him because they didn't like inflation. They - he promised to bring prices down, and he was very explicit about it. But since he's been in office, he has backed off from those promises. He's talked about how hard it is to bring down prices.
And what I'm watching for tonight is how he talks about something that he hasn't prioritized but that we know voters are very concerned about, because polling shows more than half of Americans think Trump is not doing enough to bring down prices. We saw the consumer confidence index drop in February, and his speech is happening on a day when markets are down sharply because of his new tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
SHAPIRO: And then there's Ukraine, on the heels of that spectacle in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy. What do you expect him to say tonight?
LIASSON: Well, if there's any suspense at all about tonight, it's what he's going to say about Ukraine. The U.S. has just paused all military aid to Ukraine until Trump determines that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making a good-faith effort at negotiating with the Russians. This happened, of course, after that incredible blow-up that you talked about in the Oval Office. Not only did Zelenskyy leave the White House empty-handed that day, but Trump also was left empty-handed because he wants this deal with Ukraine on minerals to be part of his overall plan to somehow end the war in Ukraine. Trump has asked Zelenskyy to be more appreciative. Today, we saw the Ukrainian president on social media effusively expressing gratitude towards the U.S. and Donald Trump. And the question for tonight is, will that be enough to get these negotiations back on track? And we'll see what the president says about it.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Mara Liasson, thank you.
LIASSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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