• U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s address, criticizing his economic policies and governing style.
• Slotkin argued that Trump’s tax cuts benefit the wealthy and his tariffs will increase consumer prices.
• She also expressed concern over Trump’s reliance on Elon Musk to improve government efficiency, questioning the security of citizens’ private data.

Freshman U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan gave the Democratic response to Republican President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night, arguing that while Americans clearly want change, the president’s first six weeks in his second term suggest a chaotic and morally indifferent style that threatens the nation.

“America wants change,” said Slotkin, a former congresswoman who also served as an intelligence officer and acting assistant Defense Department secretary. “But there’s a responsible way to make change and a reckless way, and we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country.”

Here’s some highlights from the senator’s 11-minute response, which was filmed in Wyandotte and broadcast shortly after Trump concluded his speech to a joint session of Congress in the nation’s capital:

She said Trump’s plans won’t help the economy

Noting Michigan’s role in helping to create the middle class through developing manufacturing, Slotkin − who won a tight race for the state’s open Senate seat last year even as Trump won in the state − said the federal government must work to bring down prices on groceries, housing and health care but said Trump has done little to address that as yet.

And she criticized a plan he says will lower taxes for everyone, arguing that it is skewed to favor more wealthy Americans.

“We need a tax system that’s fair for people who don’t happen to make a billion dollars,” she said. “Look, the president talked a big game on the economy but it’s always important to read the fine print. So do his plans actually help Americans get ahead? Not even close. President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends. He’s on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America.”

And she said grocery and home prices are “going up, not down, and he hasn’t laid out a credible plan to deal with either.” Trump’s instituting tariffs on Canada and Mexico is, as many economists agree, expected to raise consumer prices, not bring them down, though the president has maintained that any financial pain will be temporary and spark new manufacturing.

If we’re not careful, Slotkin added, Trump “could walk us right into a recession.”

She took aim at Elon Musk and wondered if retirees’ benefits are safe

Noting the widespread federal cuts the Trump administration is engaged in through a Department of Governmental Efficiency effort being led by advisor Elon Musk, Slotkin mused whether promises to protect people’s Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits will be kept.

“The president claims he won’t. But Elon Musk is called Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Slotkin said.

And she raised concerns that Musk and his workers are being given too much access to citizens’ private records.

“Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information and your bank accounts? No oversight, no protections against cyber attack, no guardrails on what they do with your private data?” she said.

“We need a more efficient government. You want to cut waste. I’ll help you do it,” she added. “But change doesn’t need to be chaotic or make us less safe. The mindless firing of people who work to protect our nuclear weapons, keep our planes from crashing and conduct the research that finds the cure for cancer, only to rehire them two days later. No CEO in America could do that without being summarily fired.”

She suggested Trump is making the US less safe

Slotkin brought up the “spectacle” that occurred in the Oval Office last Friday when Trump and Vice President JD Vance clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, insisting that he agree to a peace deal with Russian leader Vladimir Putin or the U.S. would cut off support for the war-torn nation.

Slotkin said former President Ronald Reagan, also a Republican, “must be rolling in his grave” after the televised argument between the three men that ended with a peace deal being scrubbed and Zelenskyy leaving Washington.

During his speech to Congress Tuesday night, Trump noted that Zelenskyy had sent him a letter indicating he was prepared to get a deal done.

“We all want an end to the war in Ukraine. But Reagan understood that true strength required America to combine our military and economic might with moral clarity,” Slotkin said. “And that scene in the Oval Office wasn’t just a bad episode of reality TV. It summed up Trump’s whole approach to the world. He believes in cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin and kicking our friends like the Canadians in the teeth. He sees American leadership as merely a series of real estate transactions.

“As a Cold War kid, I’m thankful it was Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s,” she went on. “Trump would have lost us the Cold War.”

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.