World leaders feature in Trump’s wide-ranging House GOP speech

In over a 90-minute-long speech to House Republican members at the Trump Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, US President Donald Trump touched upon a wide range of topics — from his administration’s record and America’s global dominance to lighter moments involving his own dancing skills, and even references to world leaders.

The speech, delivered at the GOP’s policy forum, aimed to rally House Republicans and bring them in line with the White House ahead of the crucial November midterm elections. Trump presented the address as a roadmap for the party’s future. However, divisions within the GOP, especially over healthcare costs, foreign policy and cooperation with Democrats, continue to pose challenges to party unity.

Midterm strategy and policy flashpoints

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Toward the end of what he described as a “roadmap” for electoral success, Trump urged Republicans to reconsider their long-standing opposition to the use of federal funds for abortion, triggering immediate backlash from within the party. He also called for reforms to insurance policies that would send money directly to consumers rather than insurance companies and pushed Republicans to take ownership of in-vitro fertilisation policy.

What was expected to be a focused midterm briefing instead evolved into a sweeping reflection on what Trump described as the achievements of his administration after inheriting what he called a “mess” following former president Joe Biden’s tenure.

One of the most striking moments of the speech came when Trump spoke about Venezuela and its ousted president, Nicolas Maduro. Praising what he called a “brilliant” US military operation, Trump defended the January 3, 2026, capture of Maduro and his wife.

“They’d been after this guy for years and years and years. And you know he is a violent guy, he gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit. But he’s killed millions of people,” Trump said, justifying the action taken against the Venezuelan leader.

Trump then shifted focus to US military strength and arms production, arguing that while America has unmatched weapons, delays in manufacturing have frustrated allies.

“Nobody has our weapons, nobody has our quality of weapons. The problem is we don’t produce them fast enough,” he said. “We have the best weapons in the world, but it takes too long to get them. Including allies, when allies want to buy they have to wait four years for a plane, five years for a helicopter, we are not doing that anymore.”

Citing India as an example, Trump referred to New Delhi’s order of 68 Apache helicopters and the long wait for delivery, which claimed said prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally reach out.

“Prime Minister Modi came to see me, ‘Sir, may I see you please? Yes!’ I have a very good relationship with him. He’s not that happy with me, cuz they are paying a lot of tariffs now, but they have now reduced it substantially, because of Russia,” Trump said.

“We’re getting rich from tariffs. Over $650 billion is set to flow into our country shortly,” he added.

Trump’s comments on French President Emmanuel Macron proved to be among the most controversial parts of the address. While discussing prescription drug prices in the US, Trump claimed Americans were paying far more than other countries for the same medications, including Ozempic.

He alleged that the US was effectively subsidising cheaper drug prices abroad and said he pressured France and other nations to raise their prices. According to Trump, resistance quickly faded once trade threats were introduced.

“Every country said the same thing,” said the president. “No, no, no, we will not do this. Some were strong. Some were very nice, some were rude. But they all said one thing – no, we won’t. And within, I’d say on average, 3.2 minutes, they were all saying, ‘we would be honoured to quadruple our drug prices’.”

Singling out Macron, Trump claimed he warned the French president of sweeping tariffs if France did not comply. “Emmanuel, if on Monday, you haven’t agreed to every single thing that we want, I’m putting a 25 per cent tariff on everything coming out of France, including your wines, your champagnes and everything else,” he said. “Emmanuel said to me, ‘Donald, uh, you have a deal, I would increase my prescription drug prices by 200 per cent or whatever. I would love to do it would be such an honour,” Trump claimed Macron responded.