Declaring "a turnaround for the ages," President Donald Trump offered a version of America's standing in his State of the Union address Tuesday night that is at odds with the perceptions of the electorate.
Wearing a red power tie with a flag pin on the lapel of his navy suit and speaking to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber, Trump rolled off a list of statistics and policies to support his view that the nation is "back bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before" — a "golden age of America."
A "roaring economy," Trump said near the start of his record-breaking 1-hour, 47-minute speech, "is roaring like never before."
He vowed to maintain unilateral tariffs on foreign goods despite an adverse Supreme Court decision, promising that "these powerful, country-saving, peace-protecting tariffs will remain in place under fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes." Four of the justices, including three who voted for what he called "a very unfortunate ruling," were in the chamber for Trump's speech. He said the levies, which most economists say are paid for primarily by Americans, will eventually replace the income tax.
Trump touted popular policies in his controversial 2025 tax cut, from eliminating taxes on tips for wage workers to investment vehicles for newborns dubbed “Trump accounts.”
"With modest additional contributions," Trump said, "accounts could grow to $100,000 or more by the time children turn 18."
But Americans tell pollsters, in survey after survey, that they are not satisfied with the economy 13 months into Trump's second presidency. Nor do most of them approve of his handling of the other key pillar of his agenda, a mass deportation campaign or of the overall job he has done in the Oval Office.
It remains to be seen whether Trump's remarks will sway voters as they gauge whether they want to give him two more years with a Republican Congress.
Republican leaders betrayed no concern about hitching their electoral wagon to Trump after his address.
“House Republicans are proud to stand with President Trump to keep our majority and continue advancing an agenda focused on safety, opportunity, and common sense,” Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement. “The choice couldn’t be clearer as we continue building an America that works again.”
In a speech laced with insults for his Democratic adversaries — and punctuated by a heated exchange with several lawmakers over his deportation campaign — Trump insisted that the "affordability" message that helped Democrats win off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey and New York last year is a figment of their own creation.
"They caused and created the increased prices that all of our citizens have to endure," he said, turning his gaze toward the Democratic side of the chamber. "You caused that problem!"
He added that Democrats "knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie."
Saikat Chakrabarti, a progressive Democratic candidate for a House seat based in San Francisco, said in an interview before the speech that Trump has accelerated existing economic challenges facing American workers rather than restored prosperity.
“He campaigned on bold, sweeping economic changes, getting the prices down, ending our forever wars, and all we’ve seen since he’s come into office is him super-charging that decline,” said Chakrabarti, who is one of several candidates running for the seat that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is leaving open with her pending retirement.
At one point Tuesday night, as Trump credited himself for closing the U.S. border with Mexico and pursuing mass deportation, He triggered perhaps the fiercest exchange between a president and members of Congress during a joint session in a modern history replete with examples of interruptions.
Trump said Democrats should "be ashamed of yourselves" for not standing when he said, "The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens."
Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., yelled back, "You have killed Americans!"
Federal agents killed American citizens Renee Nicole Goodman and Alex Pretti last month in Minneapolis, which Omar represents in the House, during a Trump administration immigration crackdown that repeatedly turned violent.
"You should be ashamed!" Omar shouted at Trump.
Trump opened on a more nonpartisan note, bringing the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic men's hockey team into the gallery above the House floor to a standing ovation from both sides of the aisle and chants of "USA!" He also got bipartisan support when he called on Congress to pass legislation to ban stock trades by lawmakers.
But that measure, along with others Trump proposed Tuesday night, would require Congress to legislate at a time when narrow partisan margins, bitter political divides and the upcoming midterms have conspired to stall Congress.
As Trump spoke, lawmakers remained in a stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, whose funding authorization expired in the middle of the month.
Trump said, for example, that he will "remedy this gross disparity" in which many workers are not benefiting from record stock market performance by contributing $1,000 per year to earners' retirement accounts — a move that would necessitate congressional action.
And he called on Congress to pass what he called "the Dalilah law," which would ban states from giving commercial driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. One of his guests at the speech was Dalilah Coleman, a young girl who was severely injured when a truck driven by an undocumented immigrant slammed into the car she was in.
As presidents often do, Trump saved his assessment of America's global position for the end of his remarks. What was different Tuesday night is that he has been locked in brinkmanship with Iran, and top congressional leaders were given a classified briefing on the topic earlier in the day.
Trump praised the June mission that he said at the time had knocked out Iran's nuclear capabilities. And then he said the regime in Tehran is "pursing their sinister nuclear ambitions."
"My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy," he said. "But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world's No. 1 sponsor of terror to have a nuclear weapon."
He repeated his mantra that he believes in "peace through strength."
As he gets ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence this summer, Trump made repeated references to the founders and the longevity of the American experiment.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told NBC News he thought it was "a great kickoff to America's 250th" and lauded Trump for "doing a good job showcasing all the greatness in America."
Dozens of Democrats attended a separate rally, but Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said he made a conscious decision to listen to Trump and then resisted the urge to leave at times during the address, taking particular exception to Trump calling members of Congress corrupt while ignoring "grift by the president."
Other lawmakers and analysts noted that Trump did not mention his administration’s failure to comply fully with the law he signed requiring the full release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. More than a dozen House Democrats invited survivors of Epstein's abuse to be their guests Tuesday night; some Democratic lawmakers also wore pins supporting the survivors and criticizing the administration's handling of the files.
"He kept trying to pull rabbits out of a hat, lying to Americans that everything is perfect while people struggle to pay for groceries, rent and child care," Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said. "He couldn't explain away his reckless tariffs, dangerous foreign policy or why his administration is still hiding millions of Epstein files."
But Coons said, all in all, there wasn't much said.
“The ratio of minutes to substance was stunningly low,” he said.
