Outside the Beltway

The State of the Union, 2026 Edition

USA! USA! USA!

James Joyner · Wednesday, February 25, 2026 · 9 comments

As has been my custom in recent years, I skipped the speech in favor of family time. Once again, it proved a wise decision.

Alex Leary and Aaron Zitner, WSJ (“Trump Hails an Economic Turnaround Many Voters Don’t See“):

President Trump told a national audience on Tuesday that he had unleashed a new age of economic prosperity. One thing he didn’t say: I feel your pain.

At the core of Trump’s State of the Union address was a calculation that he can persuade Americans that the economy is in better shape than many think it is. In touting “a turnaround for the ages,” the president opted against sending a message to voters that he understands the anxiety that polling shows is widely felt, including among swing voters the GOP needs to preserve its congressional majorities in this fall’s midterm elections.

“Our nation is back: bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before,” Trump declared at the start of his speech, which clocked in at a record one hour and 48 minutes.

[…]

On Tuesday, Trump made the economy a central focus of his speech, even as he touched on other subjects. He blamed his predecessor for high inflation and other problems and outlined affordability proposals. He said he would move to impose limits on investors buying large numbers of homes and give Americans without access to a retirement savings plan at work the opportunity to invest in the retirement plan for federal workers. He defended his aggressive use of tariffs, which have strained longtime GOP orthodoxy and given air to Democratic arguments he is driving higher prices on consumers.

In between remarks about the economy, Trump launched pointed attacks against Democrats over immigration and crime, setting off tense exchanges with lawmakers in the House chamber. He emphasized themes of patriotism and American exceptionalism, heralding the 250th birthday of the nation and celebrating the U.S. men’s gold-medal hockey team.

[…]

Trump pointed to the robust stock market and 401(k) retirement accounts, as well as falling mortgage interest rates. He touted last year’s tax cuts, which are producing larger refunds this year, as well as provisions such as “no tax on tips” and deals to lower prescription-drug costs.

He announced a plan to shield consumers from electricity rate increases caused by AI data centers. He pressed Congress to pass legislation codifying the healthcare framework he released earlier this year, which calls for redirecting federal subsidies from insurers to consumers. That plan has lukewarm support among Republicans facing elections.

[…]

Some of the proposals showed Trump adopting a populist stance in which he is willing to intervene in markets and place restrictions on corporations, continuing his partial break from the traditional Republican pro-business outlook that long guided the GOP. He cast himself as the champion of voters disillusioned by political leaders.

“From trade to healthcare, from energy to immigration, everything was stolen and rigged in order to drain the wealth out of the productive, hardworking people who make our country great, who make our country run,” Trump said.

One of Trump’s challenges is that his natural impulses as a salesman conflict with what many strategists see as a political imperative to show that he understands the economic anxiety many feel. Last week in a speech in Georgia, Trump said, “I’ve won affordability,” citing lower gas prices and moderating inflation.

Katie Rogers, NYT (“Trump Puts On a Show, Casting Democrats as the Villains“):

It was spectacle as survival strategy.

In his State of the Union address, President Trump didn’t bother to introduce a raft of new policies — unusual in a midterm election year with control of Congress on the line. He did not seem concerned with making the case that he gets it when it comes to the issue Americans are most worried about. “Affordability,” he said, was part of a “dirty, rotten lie” perpetuated by the Democrats.

Instead, with the slashing style of a natural campaigner and the instincts of a onetime reality television producer, he spent the better part of two hours baiting the ranks of incensed Democrats in the chamber and endeavoring to define them to the electorate as “sick,” unpatriotic and utterly out of step with the values of most Americans.

“These people are crazy, I’m telling ya, they’re crazy,” Mr. Trump said at one point, while relaying the story of a young person who had been forced to undergo a gender transition. “Boy oh boy, we’re lucky we have a country with people like this — Democrats are destroying our country, but we’ve stopped it just in the nick of time.”

Going into the speech, Mr. Trump knew that he needed to use it to maneuver out of a politically treacherous moment for himself and his party. A majority of Americans oppose how Mr. Trump is pursuing his anti-immigration agenda, and more than 70 percent of them think his priorities are in the wrong place. His approval rating has plummeted to 41 percent.

His solution was to wrap himself in the imagery of American heroism with staged asides throughout the speech while throwing the blame for every problem, from the security of elections to the state of the economy, back on his opponents.

In a number of cases, Democrats gave Mr. Trump the confrontations he sought.

Representative Al Green of Texas, who was ejected from the chamber last year for waving his cane at Mr. Trump, was once again removed after he held up a sign proclaiming “BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T APES” — a reference to a racist video Mr. Trump recently shared on social media.

Representative Lauren Underwood of Illinois got up and walked out rather than “take another minute” of the speech. And Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a frequent target of Mr. Trump’s, was one of a handful who yelled at him.

“You’ve killed Americans!” she shouted as Mr. Trump talked about immigration enforcement.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” the president shot back.

Karen Tumulty, WaPo (“Trump reframes America, in two acts“):

President Donald Trump on Tuesday night delivered what was effectively not one, but two State of the Union addresses.

In one, he tried to paint a new reality for the majority of Americans who, according to polls, say they are dissatisfied with what he has done in the first year of his second presidency.

[…]

“Our nation is back — bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before,” Trump said at the outset of a speech that stretched past one hour and 45 minutes, breaking the record for the longest presidential address to a joint session of Congress that Trump himself set last year. He hailed the first year of his second presidency as “the golden age of America” and “a turnaround for the ages.”

With his showman’s theatricality, Trump then orchestrated a parade of heroes.

[…]

But as Trump pivoted to issues such as immigration, gender and election security, he made hairpin rhetorical turns from gilding his own achievements to vilifying the Democratic side of the House Chamber, where many seats were empty.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” he chastised, when the opposition party sat silently as he called for them to stand up if they believe the government’s first duty is to “protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”

Trump called the Democrats “sick people,” and said of them: “I’m telling ya, they’re crazy. Boy, oh boy, we’re lucky we have a country with people like this — Democrats are destroying our country, but we’ve stopped it just in the nick of time.”

[…]

Unsurprisingly, Trump also leveled criticism at the U.S. Supreme Court for what he said was a “very unfortunate ruling” last week that struck down most of the tariffs that have been his preferred instrument of economic and foreign policy. Of the four justices present, three were among the six who ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority. All four sat silently as he rebuked the high court.

Trump tends to defy tradition with his speeches, and he did so again Tuesday — dispensing with the typical list of policy goals, or even a broad outline of what he wishes to accomplish for the American people. The handful of proposals he offered, involving data centers, congressional stock trading rules and curbs on corporations buying private homes, may end up being popular. But they are unlikely to serve as directional guideposts that many Republicans had hoped would become an electoral agenda.

On the looming question of threatened military action against Iran, he continued to make the case for it but provided little clarity on precisely what the objectives would be.

Trump once again dismissed the public’s concern about high prices, which is considered a central issue in this year’s midterm elections. He suggested that “affordability” is no more than a slogan confected by Democrats — or, as he put it, “a word. They just used it. Somebody gave it to them, knowing full well that they caused and created the increased prices that all of our citizens had to endure.”

“They knew their statements were a lie. They knew it,” he continued. “They knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie. Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them. We are doing really well.”

Good to know.