President Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress is taking place Tuesday night and guests invited by first lady Melania Trump will be in attendance. Melania Trump has invited “everyday Americans” to the address, according to the White House, including an American who was recently released from a Russian prison and the family of one of Mr. Trump’s supporters who was killed in an assassination attempt on the president.
Marc Fogel, a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania who was released from a Russian prison in February as part of a prisoner swap negotiated by the Trump administration, and his wife, Melanie Fogel, are expected to be there.
The family of Corey Comperatore, a volunteer fire chief killed at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally where Mr. Trump was shot in an assassination attempt, will also be among the guests, the White House said in a statement.
Stephanie Diller, the widow of slain New York Police Department officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed in 2024 during a routine traffic stop in Queens, will also be in attendance. Mr. Trump attended his wake on Long Island in 2024.
Mr. Trump will speak before both chambers of Congress starting at 9 p.m. ET in what will be his first speech before lawmakers since he returned to the White House six weeks ago.
The mother and sister of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student murdered by a man in the country illegally, will be there. Mr. Trump last month signed the Laken Riley Act, a bipartisan bill that expanded the federal government’s ability to detain people in the country illegally.