President Donald Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday night at the US Capitol.
The speech came shortly after the Supreme Court struck down his signature global tariffs, as he considers a second round of potential military strikes on Iran and as his political fortunes appear to be about as low as they’ve ever been in either of his two terms.
Trump’s speech clocked in at about an hour and 47 minutes, breaking the record for length set by his address to Congress last year.
Here are eight takeaways from his speech.
Trump goads Democrats on immigration
Trump has struggled to halt his declining political fortunes in recent months. But as he tried to frame up the 2026 election on Tuesday night, he turned to an old faithful: immigration.
After gesturing at “angel moms” whose children were victimized by undocumented immigrants, Trump said voting for Democrats would be voting to reopen America’s borders.
“We can never forget that many in this room not only allowed the border invasion to happen before I got involved, but indeed they would do it all over again if they ever had the chance,” he said.
Trump then did something he loves to do with these speeches: challenge Democrats to decide whether to applaud.
He urged members to stand up and show support if they agreed with the statement that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
Democrats remained seated.
Republicans, meanwhile, sought to emphasize the moment, standing and applauding for a long time to show the contrast.
Eventually, Trump spoke again and told Democrats, “You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up.” Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota yelled at Trump, despite Democratic leaders having previously warned their members against outbursts.
Trump often turns to immigration in election years. The issue isn’t as strong for him as it once was, and in fact he’s quite a bit underwater on it thanks to what Americans overwhelmingly views as overzealous actions by federal officials in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
But polls also show Americans still tend to favor the Republican Party over the Democratic Party on the issue of immigration.
A couple key points on tariffs
Trump didn’t offer a repeat of Friday’s angry broadside against the US Supreme Court for striking down his global tariffs. He instead focused on claiming he still has great leverage with other tariff authorities (which is highly debatable).
He did, however, make some news on the tariff front.
For one, he volunteered that Congress shouldn’t bother codifying his tariffs into law.
“Congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump said.
It’s clear tariffs make even many Republicans uncomfortable, and it appears unlikely Congress could pass anything anyway. But with his tariff authorities still uncertain, Trump not asking Congress to pass something that has a better chance of passing legal muster was something to see. (The Constitution, after all, gives Congress the power to tariff.)
That suggests Trump has not heeded Justice Neil Gorsuch’s plea for American government to start including more legislating.
The president also made a big prediction.
“I believe the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love,” he said.
Indeed, early in American history, tariffs were the predominant form of taxation. But Trump probably shouldn’t hold his breath on that one.
Democrats lodged multiple protests
Tlaib and Omar weren’t the only ones who ignored Democratic leaders’ pleas for lawmakers to avoid outbursts. (Tlaib urged Trump to release more Epstein files, while Omar accused the president of killing Americans.)
Early in the speech, Rep. Al Green of Texas was escorted from the House chamber, as he was during Trump’s speech to Congress last year. When Trump entered the chamber, Green displayed a sign behind him that said, “Black people aren’t apes!” – a reference to Trump recently sharing and then deleting a racist video depicting the Obamas as apes.
Green was censured by the House after last year’s outburst.
And when Trump claimed he had ended eight wars, a Democrat echoed GOP Rep. Joe Wilson’s infamous outburst aimed at then-President Barack Obama, calling Trump a liar.
Still other members made a show out of leaving the chamber mid-speech.
Showmanship abounds
Trump is nothing if not a showman. And Tuesday’s speech included plenty of stagecraft and attempts at creating memorable moments.
He spent an extended period of the early part of the speech paying tribute to the gold medal-winning US men’s Olympic hockey team, with most of the team present in the gallery. He then said he would give one of them, goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his performance.
As Trump introduced the players, he reprised his line from his 2016 campaign about winning so much that people would get tired of winning.
The president also repeatedly pointed throughout the speech to whether Democrats were standing and applauding. When many did so for the hockey team, he intoned: “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen them get up.”
Medals also abounded.
Trump awarded a Legion of Merit and two Medals of Honor. The latter included one to 100-year-old Korean War veteran Royce Williams and another to Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover, for his role in the Trump-ordered mission to oust then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
There was also a heartwarming family reunion for Enrique Márquez, a political prisoner of the Maduro regime.
The notable omissions
Trump steered clear of some key vulnerabilities.
While he attacked Democrats for the current shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, he didn’t mention the reason Democrats have held out: immigration agents killing two US citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis. Trump also didn’t mention the embattled US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. He didn’t even give much mention to his deportation efforts.
Nor did Trump mention the Epstein files, despite his administration claiming it demonstrated real transparency by releasing them (after Congress forced it to).
And Trump didn’t spend much time at all on his prescriptions for the economy and affordability – an issue that he still hasn’t figured out how to talk about, despite it probably being his party’s biggest liability.
Trump offers a rare case for potential Iran strikes
One of the most urgent questions is what Trump will do about Iran. Eight months after striking its nuclear facilities, the president has entertained further strikes if Iranian leaders don’t cut a deal.
But even as he’s done this, Trump hasn’t made a coherent or focused case for war.
He started to make an attempt on Tuesday, and his brief pitch was an all-of-the-above pitch.
Trump claimed Iran and its proxies have “killed and maimed thousands of American service members” with roadside bombs. He also said the Iranian regime had killed “it looks like 32,000 protesters.”
But perhaps most notably, he talked about Iran’s nuclear threat. And he for once tried to reconcile striking Iran again with his past claims that he had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program just eight months ago.
“They were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, in particular, nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “Yet they continue starting it all over. We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again – and are, at this moment again, pursuing their sinister ambitions.”
Trump concluded by saying he still prefers to cut a deal.
Then he added: “But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”
An ominous line on voter fraud
Another major subplot: What Trump might do on a more functional level to impact the 2026 midterm elections, which are looking increasingly dire for the GOP.
He’s pushing hard for Congress to pass strict voter ID legislation called the “Save America Act”; his Justice Department has seized 2020 ballots in Fulton County, Georgia; and he’s spoken vaguely about “nationalizing” elections.
Remember, Trump himself mounted an unprecedented effort to overturn the 2020 election based on falsehoods, showing he’s capable of going to extreme places.
One statement stood out Tuesday night.
“They want to cheat,” Trump said of Democrats. “They have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat. And we’re going to stop it. We have to stop it.”
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in recent elections, and Democrats have won plenty in recent American history. But this statement suggests Trump could again go to some pretty ugly places in a tough election year for the GOP.
A characteristic cavalcade of falsehoods
Trump is no stranger to false claims, and his speech Tuesday night was unsurprisingly replete with them.
When he began touting his record, the president quickly cited that he inherited “inflation at record levels.” But while the most recent reading was a rate of 2.4% in January, marking an eight-month low, it was 3.0% in January 2025, which is far off any records. (It fell sharply over Biden’s last 2.5 years in office after it hit a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022.)
He also said he inherited a “wide-open border.” But while border crossings have hit 21st Century lows in this term, they had already dropped substantially late in President Joe Biden’s tenure.
Trump claimed gas was below $2.30 per gallon in some states. AAA shows the average price isn’t that low in any state.
He claimed investment “commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.” This is wildly exaggerated.
He also said, “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” That is strictly true, in terms of raw numbers, but that’s because the population has grown. Indeed, the unemployment rate has risen under Trump and job growth was anemic in 2025, one of the worst years in decades.
Trump claimed we were in a “golden age” and that the “roaring economy is roaring like never before.” But to make that claim, he took plenty of liberties.
Source: CNN
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