Sketch Lies and boasts cheered and jeered by bitterly divided Capitol

Well, at least he didn't give a Nazi salute, declare war on Canada or pull the plug on Nato. You never know these days. But Tuesday night was when Donald Trump finally turned the once reverential occasion of a speech to Congress into just another sordid campaign rally.

- David Smith

Deigning to address the branch of government he has so comprehensively sidelined in his first six weeks in office, Trump went off script and went long (a record 100 minutes). He lied, he weaved, he demonised immigrants, he sold his economy as the greatest ever, he played the victim, he praised Elon Musk, he lambasted Joe Biden, he repeated himself and he lied some more.

And how Republican senators and representatives lapped it all up. They leaped to their feet countless times, clapping and cheering, shouting, "Yes!" and "Thank you!", chanting, "USA! USA! USA!" and "Trump! Trump! Trump!" and "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Among them was Marjorie Taylor Greene, sporting a red "Trump was right about everything" cap and clutching a mini-Stars and Stripes as if listening to him in a sports arena on the campaign trail.

But this was a Trump rally with a difference, putting all the tensions and faultlines and sickness of the American body politic on full display. Half the chamber was made up of Democrats, forced to sit and have their noses rubbed in the dirt like the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at last week's Oval Office shakedown.

They looked grim, they looked glum, they looked as if they were reliving the 5 November election nightmare all over again. More than a dozen Democratic women wore pink in protest. When Trump entered, the Democrat Melanie Stansbury held up a sign that said, "This is NOT Normal," until the Republican Lance Gooden grabbed the sign out of her hand.

Once Trump got going, several Democrats held up round signs that said, "Protect veterans", "Save Medicaid" and "Musk steals", and when flipped around, the signs said "False" on the back so they could factcheck Trump instantly.