The Capitol building in Washington D.C. was the host of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union (SOTU) on Tuesday night. In a SOTU, the president addresses a joint session of Congress, typically highlighting accomplishments of the past year in office, and what their agenda will be in the following years. A requirement by the US Constitution, it is intended to inform Congress and the public of the previous year’s policies and what can be expected to follow.
The 2026 SOTU was a particularly interesting one to watch for two main reasons. Firstly, it comes at a time when the president finds himself sinking in the polls. At -27 points, this is the worst polling number seen amongst second-term presidents this century, with Bush polling at -11 points and Obama -15 points, respectively, one year into their second term. Secondly, it falls in a midterm year. The United States midterm elections are to take place this November, which could see the Democrats regain control of Washington.
Beginning at 21:15 EST (02:15 BST) on Tuesday, 25th February, President Donald Trump commenced his first official SOTU of his second term. Behind him sat Vice-President J.D. Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Other important attendees included the US Supreme Court Justices and top military officials, as well as members of Congress representing both political parties. Approximately 40 Democratic lawmakers were not in attendance this time, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to CBS News. Governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, delivered the Democratic rebuttal afterwards, a tradition which began in 1966.
Trump began his speech by heralding the strength of the economy and bashing the Biden administration: “The roaring economy is roaring like never before. I had just inherited a nation in crisis with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide-open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home, and wars and chaos all over the world.”
The president also discussed his tariff policies, which, with the recent 6-3 Court ruling against him, was to be expected. Much of the president’s policy agenda centred around his tariff proposals – and his economic message certainly aided in his reelection in 2024. Setting the scene earlier in the day, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNBC that Trump would “lay out an ambitious agenda to continue bringing the American Dream back for working people.” The president has continuously defended imposing import taxes on foreign goods as a way to encourage American innovation and manufacturing.
“I believe the tariffs, paid for by foreign countries, will substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax,” The president said. However, according to economy experts, American importers and consumers will likely pay for these levies. And, as of right now, a majority of Americans already say they think tariffs are more likely to hurt than help the economy.
Referencing the domestic policy bill passed in the summer of 2025, Trump made the exaggerated claim that, “With the great Big Beautiful Bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors.” The law passed last year creates deductions for tips and overtime, but these are only temporary. Additionally, its tax reductions for Social Security benefits are even more limited.
Immigration was a centrepiece of Trump’s agenda-setting in his second term. Yet the president has faced heavy criticism of his handling of immigration enforcement. Following the shooting and killing of two US citizens earlier in the year, the Trump administration has taken some hits. According to NBC News Decision Desk Poll, 49% of adults strongly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the border and immigration enforcement.
Nevertheless, Trump touted his southern border security efforts, “We are deporting illegal alien criminals from our country at record numbers, and we’re getting them the hell out of here fast.” The majority of people detained by immigration officials do not have criminal convictions, according to several New York Times investigations.
As very much anticipated, Trump brought up fraud in Minneapolis’ Somali community, which led to the ramped-up ICE efforts and, in turn, the killing of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. Trump ramped up the attacks against the Somalian community, many of whom are US citizens. “When it comes to the corruption that is plundering America, there has been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer.” Notably, this claim lacks evidence. The president did not mention Good or Pretti. During a heated exchange in an otherwise calm Democratic aisle, Representative Ilhan Omar shouted at Trump, “You’ve killed Americans!” To which he retorted: “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Following this, Trump took the opportunity to speak about the Department of Homeland Security – and to call on Democrats to reopen it. Thus far, Democrats have refused to approve further funding for the department, unless Republicans agree to changes to the way ICE conducts itself – for example, the implementation of body cameras and ID visible. The doors to DHS closed after a partial government shutdown commenced three weeks ago.
Mirroring former President Bush’s previous SOTU Address and its “war on terror” rhetoric, the now “war on fraud” rhetoric has become an interest of Trump. “Under Biden and his corrupt partners in Congress and beyond, it reached a breaking point with the green new scam, open borders for everyone. They poured in by the millions and millions from prisons, from mental institutions. These were murderers, 11,088 murderers.” Trump claimed. His claims that 11,088 murders took place during the Biden administration are wildly inaccurate, as are his statements about the number of undocumented immigrants.
While in office, the president has been met with several international conflicts and crises. He has repeatedly claimed to have solved eight wars and continued to claim that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would not have happened if he had been president at the time. And despite claiming he could end the war in one day, Ukraine saw the 4th anniversary of its own invasion just the day prior.
His most recent endeavours include the invasion of Venezuela and the forced removal of President Nicolás Maduro. In an interesting choice of words, Trump referred to Venezuela as “our friend and partner”, and said that the US received “more than 80 million barrels of oil” from the South American country. He took credit for the toppling of Venezuela’s leader, alleging that this stopped the flow of drugs into the US, despite drugs entering the US through many different routes.
With tensions building up around Iran, Trump appears to be considering military action. As it currently stands, the US is pressuring Iran to end its nuclear program and has not ruled out using force. Additionally, the president celebrated ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’, which last year took out three uranium enrichment plants: Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. Though he claimed they “want to make a deal” with Iran, Trump gave few details about how future relations with the Middle Eastern country would look. U.S negotiators are to meet with Iranian negotiators for further talks in Geneva on Thursday.
While on the topic of the Middle East, Trump did not discuss Gaza for long. He thanked Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for their “efforts” in the region, and boasted about his “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas. As he did so, Representative Rashida Talib yelled: “It’s a genocide!”
One year ago, the president set a record for the longest address given by a president to a joint session of Congress. This year, the president broke that record by speaking for an hour and forty minutes. It also makes the speech the longest State of the Union address by any president since records began in 1964.
