Closing Summary
Donald Trump delivered a historically long State of the Union address on Tuesday evening in which he made a series of claims about his policy successes, despite his approval rating being at 36%, according to latest polling figures. Here’s a wrap-up of key moments from his speech, as well as reactions:
He introduced the US men’s Olympic hockey team at the beginning of his speech, saying: “Here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud.” The move came shortly after Trump stirred controversy by joking to the men’s team that he “guesses” he would have to invite the women’s team – which also won gold – to the White House as well.
Democratic representative Al Green, held up a sign that said “Black people aren’t apes!”, a reference to Trump recently sharing a racist video depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama. Green ultimately left the chamber after being confronted by several Republicans.
Trump bemoaned the supreme court’s ruling that he exceeded his presidential authority by implementing many global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The president called the supreme court’s ruling “unfortunate”, as the four justices attending the address sat right in front of him.
The president repeated his xenophobic comments that the “Somali pirates ransacked Minnesota” through “bribery, corruption and lawlessness” during his speech. Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from Minnesota called the president a “liar” from her seat in the audience.
More than an hour and a half into his address, Trump mentioned the escalating tensions with Iran. “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s No 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Trump announced new “ratepayer protection pledges”, claiming they will protect Americans from rising electricity costs driven by increased demand from AI datacenters. “We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” he said.
Abigail Spanberger, Virginia’s Democratic governor, delivered the party’s response to Trump’s State of the Union address. She went on to admonish the Trump administration for the violent immigration crackdown throughout the country – particularly in Minnesota, and also criticized him for his “reckless trade policies.”
Annie Farmer, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors and a guest of the representative Robert Garcia at the State of the Union address, issued a pointed rebuke after Donald Trump’s address, saying she and other survivors in the chamber were “met with silence”. Farmer said Trump had pledged to bring Epstein’s network of abuse into the open, yet “powerful individuals remain shielded” and basic questions – including why authorities failed to act when her sister, Maria Farmer, reported Epstein in 1996 – remain unanswered.
Several speakers at the People’s State of the Union rally encouraged Americans to exercise their right to vote, looking ahead to November’s midterm elections. “Voting is our superpower,” one attendee shouted as California senator Adam Schiff explained how voting and elections are under threat.
Fact check: Trump makes false claims about prescription drug prices
One of Trump’s most prized policies is his “most favored nation” drug pricing with several pharamceutical companies.
The president claimed in his speech: “I took prescription drugs, a very big part of health care, from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest.”
Trump also flaunted his new TrumpRx website where people can obtain discounts for certain medications.
However, as my colleague Melody Schreiber reported earlier this month, Trump’s new website lists only a limited number of medications, with many of them costing less in generic form elsewhere.
Moreover, across the US, healthcare is set to be even more expensive amid the expiration of the Affordable Care Act tax credits, as well as Republican proposals in Congress that seek to slash nearly $1bn in Medicaid funds.
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Donald Trump delivered a historically long State of the Union address in which he boasted about a series of successes despite his approval rating being at 36%, according to a new CNN poll.
The poll, conducted just days before his address, also found only 32% of Americans believe that Trump has the right priorities while 68% believe that he has not focused enough on the country’s most important issues.
The latest approval ratings mark a significant decrease from last year when a CNN poll found that Trump had an all-time high of 48% approval before his 2025 State of the Union address.
Among Republicans, strong approval towards Trump dropped from 64% last year to 49% this year.
The CNN poll also found that nearly three in 10 Republicans believe that Trump has not focused on core issues of the country while 16% indicated that his policies will shift the country towards a wrong direction.
Nevertheless, Trump took center stage tonight to make a series of claims about the US’s economic successes, including his false claim that his tariffs have led to “no inflation” and “tremendous growth” across the US.
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Several speakers at the People’s State of the Union rally encouraged Americans to exercise their right to vote, looking ahead to November’s midterm elections.
“Voting is our superpower,” one attendee shouted as California senator Adam Schiff explained how voting and elections are under threat.
“Between now and November, the president will make every effort to discourage Americans from voting. He will make it harder to register and turn out,” Schiff said. “He may send ICE agents to polling places to intimidate our citizens. He will cast doubt on the results when his party loses.” The crowd erupted in cheers when Schiff asked: “Are you ready to throw the bums out in November? Are you ready to defend our democracy?”
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Fact check: Trump repeats false claims about 'rampant' cheating in US elections
During his address, the president urged lawmakers to pass the Save America Act, the bill that would require proof of citizenship in order to vote. The legislation, which passed 218 to 213, now faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
Trump, along with many of his Republican allies in Congress, have routinely railed against non-citizens voting in US elections, when the actual number of those committing voter fraud is exceedingly small. A reminder that it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal races.
Nevertheless, Trump repeated his common, baseless refrain that “cheating is rampant in our elections” during his speech. According to a recent report by the non-partisan Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), while investigations do reveal instances of noncitizens who have registered to vote or cast a ballot, “such instances are rare, detected by election officials, and prosecuted by the proper authorities”. For example, CEIR noted that Michigan’s department of state audited its voter rolls in early 2025, comparing millions of driver records with the state’s voter file. The review found 16 apparent noncitizens who voted in the 2024 general election. All were referred to the attorney general for possible charges. The total represents an extremely small share of the electorate – about 0.00028% of all Michigan votes cast.
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Annie Farmer, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors and a guest of the representative Robert Garcia at the State of the Union address, issued a pointed rebuke after Donald Trump’s address, saying she and other survivors in the chamber were “met with silence”.
Farmer said Trump had pledged to bring Epstein’s network of abuse into the open, yet “powerful individuals remain shielded” and basic questions – including why authorities failed to act when her sister, Maria Farmer, reported Epstein in 1996 – remain unanswered.
The administration’s handling of the Epstein files has become an unrelenting flashpoint. Earlier Tuesday, Democrats on the House oversight committee launched an inquiry into whether the justice department withheld materials involving allegations against Trump in its latest document release.
“While the DoJ might want to wash their hands of Epstein, this fight is far from over. The president can still live up to his promise,” Farmer said. “I’m here to fight for the whole truth survivors and the American people deserve.”
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Fact check: Trump vows to 'always protect' Medicaid despite steep cuts in tax bill
During his State of the Union address, Donald Trump vowed to “always protect” Medicaid. This is the federal health insurance program for low-income Americans that saw steep cuts with the passage of the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The congressional budget office estimated the sweeping tax policy legislation would reduce federal Medicaid spending by $793bn, and increase the number of uninsured people by at least 7.8 million over the next decade.
The majority of these cuts will come from work-reporting requirements, increasing barriers for enrollment and renewal of Medicaid coverage, and limiting states’ ability to raise state Medicaid funds through provider taxes.
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Fact check: Trump's victory lap on Thailand-Cambodia conflict
The century-long border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia is one of various conflicts Trump claims to have resolved.
Trump presided over the signing of a ceasefire deal between the two sides in October, calling it “a monumental step”.
He had pressured leaders from both countries to make a deal by warning trade talks with the US would otherwise be put on hold.
However, the underlying causes of the conflict, which is rooted in longstanding disagreements over colonial-era maps, has never been resolved.
The ceasefire broke down just weeks later in November, and fighting erupted again in December, forcing half a million people to flee their homes.
Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of provocations. On Tuesday, Thailand’s military said its troops exchanged fire with Cambodian forces, accusing its neighbour of first firing “a single 40mm grenade round” near a Thai patrol in the border province of Sisaket. Cambodia has denied this.
Cambodia has accused Thai forces of occupying Cambodian territory, saying Thai troops have laid shipping containers in a way that prevents its citizens from returning to their villages. Thailand denies this, saying the land belongs to Thailand.
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Fact check: Trump pushes misleading claims on DC crime rates
Earlier, the president said that crime in Washington DC was now “at the lowest level ever recorded” and that murders in DC this January “were down close to 100%” from a year ago.
However, data from the Metropolitan police deparment (MPD) shows that homicides are down 67% compared with this time in 2025.
While violent crime in DC fell in 2025, it had started to fall in the year before Trump took office, sent national guard troops to the nation’s capital and federalized the MPD.
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Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, speaking at the State of the Swamp counter-event at the National Press Club, drew on her time inside the first Trump administration to call him a liar mid-State of the Union speech.
“He used to tell me: ‘Stephanie, if you tell them enough, they will believe it,’” she told the crowd, after his speech was turned off.
“I can tell you, he is lying right now to this country,” she added.
Grisham left the administration in 2021 and has since become one of Trump’s most outspoken critics.
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The Virginia governor wrapped her speech in 12 minutes, ending her remarks hopeful that her success is indicative of more Democratic wins come November:
I was the first Democrat elected in 50 years, swinging our district 17 points. Those who are stepping up now to run will win in November, because Americans, you at home, know you can demand more and that we are working to lower cost. We are working to keep our communities and our country safe, and we are working for you.
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Spanberger’s gubernatorial victory last year was a bright spot for Democrats as they reckoned with Kamala Harris’s 2024 election loss.
“I won my election by 15 points, and we won 13 new seats in our state legislature because voters decided they wanted something different,” Spanberger said in her address today, telegraphing a blue wave in the upcoming midterms.
“This is happening across the country. New Jersey elected Mikey Sherrill as governor in a double-digit victory,” the Virginia governor added. “Democrats flip state legislative seats in places like Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi and Texas. The list goes on and on. Ordinary Americans are stepping up to run in the spirit of our forefathers. They are running to demand more and to do more for their neighbors and communities.”
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Spanberger condemns violent immigration crackdown
The Virginia governor went on to admonish the Trump administration for the violent immigration crackdown throughout the country – particularly in Minnesota.
“They have sent children, a little boy in a blue bunny hat, children to far-off detention centers,” Spanberger said of Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis.
“They have killed American citizens in our streets,” Spanberger added, referring to the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers. “They have done it all with their faces masked from accountability … Our broken immigration system is something to be fixed, not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities.”
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Spanberger says Trump tariffs 'forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each'
In her opening remarks, Spanberger is homing in on how Trump’s economic policy is affecting Americans at large.
“Since this president took office last year, his reckless trade policies have forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each in tariff costs,” Spanberger said of an estimate from congressional Democrats.
“Small businesses have suffered. Farmers have suffered, some losing entire markets every day. Americans are paying the price,” she added, while noting that Republican members of Congress “remain unwilling to assert their constitutional authority to stop him [Trump]. They’re making your life harder. They’re making your life more expensive.”
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Virginia governor delivers Democratic response to Trump's State of the Union address
Abigail Spanberger, Virginia’s Democratic governor, is now delivering the party’s response to Trump’s State of the Union address.
She kicked off her remarks focused on the economy:
Let me ask you, the American people watching at home, three questions: is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?
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Fact check: Trump boasts misleading claims about US energy prices
During his State of the Union address, Trump suggested that energy prices were decreasing.
“When they see energy going down to numbers like that, they cannot believe it,” he said.
But the average household energy bill went up by 6.7% from 2024 to 2025 in the US, my colleague Oliver Milman and I found last month. That’s despite Trump’s oft-repeated promise to cut electricity costs in half within his first year back in office.
Since Trump retook the White House, utility companies have raised or sought to raise rates on American families by at least $92bn, raising bills for 112 million electric customers and 52 million gas customers, according to an analysis from liberal thinktank the Center for American Progress. The president’s attacks on clean energy expansion are also expected to increase electricity rates by up to 18% by 2035, data from power research group Energy Innovation shows.
The Trump administration has also gutted energy assistance for US families. Last year, the administration eliminated tax credits for cost-cutting home energy-efficiency upgrades. It also attempted to eliminate the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps 6 million low-income Americans with their energy bills each year; the program survived, but has been significantly hindered after the administration laid off the program’s entire staff. The cuts and a government shutdown caused unprecedented delays in the disbursement of aid.
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Reporting from Washington
When it comes to foreign policy in Donald Trump’s address, the newsiest bit was the president claiming that Iran was developing missiles that could threaten the United States.
“They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas,” he said. “And they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”
Trump did not provide any more information on those weapons systems.
The president is seeking to broaden negotiations from just Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon to its ballistic missiles program and its support for overseas proxies as well.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister today reaffirmed that Tehran would only negotiate over the country’s nuclear program, leaving negotiations in something of a dead end before the next round of talks in Geneva on Thursday.
“We are in negotiations with them,” he continued. “They want to make a deal. But we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘we will never have a nuclear weapon’.”
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Trump breaks record for longest State of the Union address in history
The president broke the record for the longest State of the Union address since the American Presidency Project began recording addresses in 1964.
Trump’s speech came in at 108 minutes.
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Trump announces plans to limit electricity price hikes amid datacenter expansion
As expected, Trump announced new “ratepayer protection pledges” during the State of the Union address, claiming they will protect Americans from rising electricity costs driven by increased demand from AI datacenters.
“We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” he said. “No one’s prices will go up, and in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for communities.”
The president reportedly negotiated these plans with tech giants for them to pay for increased electricity costs in locations where new datacenters are being erected.
Amid bipartisan pressure before midterm elections later this year, Microsoft last month released a plan it said will cut consumer energy costs. Tech firm Anthropic issued a similar pledge this month.
Green groups are largely unimpressed with Trump’s “ratepayer protection pledges” plan.
“Trump’s datacenter announcement is a toothless, empty promise based on backroom deals with his own billionaire donors,” said Jesse Lee, a senior adviser at the climate advocacy non-profit Climate Power. He noted that though Trump pledged to halve utility bills within his first year back in office, they have instead gone up nationwide.
A new poll from Lee’s group and Blue Rose Research found that voters are deeply concerned about datacenters’ effect on energy consumption and energy costs. When participants were asked to pick the more concerning issue in randomly paired matchups, they selected utility costs 64% of the time and energy consumption 59% of the time.
Ari Matusiak, the CEO of pro-electrification and climate non-profit Rewiring America, said the ratepayer protection pledges are “a good start” to take on that issue, but don’t go far enough.
“They’re not enforceable, and tech companies don’t set electricity rates. Utilities and regulators do,” he said in a statement. “The way to earn trust is to make investments families can actually see and feel. That means investing not just in power plants but in people’s homes, freeing up grid capacity while helping families lower their energy bills.”
Energy demand fromdata centers in the US is expected to increase up to threefold from 2023 to 2028, and by the end of that time frame could consume enough electricity annually to power more than 28m American households, an analysis from progressive environmental group Food and Water Watch found.
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Trump turns to Iran and says he will 'never allow' country to have a nuclear weapon
More than an hour and a half into his State of the Union address, the president has finally mentioned the escalating tensions with Iran, as the world awaits with baited breath the US’s next move.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s No 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Earlier, the president repeated his misleading and exaggerated claim that he’s “solved eight wars”. In response, Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat, shouted: “It’s a lie”.
My colleague, Joseph Gedeon, debunked this often-repeated statement from Trump earlier this year.
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Fact check: Killer of Iryna Zarutska was not an immigrant
When Trump introduced the mother of Iryna Zarutska – the Ukrainian woman murdered on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina – he falsely claimed the man who stabbed her was “a hardened criminal set free to kill in America [who] came in through open borders”.
However, Decarlos Brown Jr, the man arrested for killing Zarutska, was not an immigrant. According to local reports he was born and raised in North Caolina. Trump has long insisted that non-citizens are responsible for violent crime throughout the US. Data shows that relative to undocumented immigrants, US-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, and 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes.
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Trump introduced Sage Blair, a Virginia teenager whom the president claimed school officials “socially transition[ed] … to a new agenda, treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents”.
The president said that Sage is now living as “a proud and wonderful young woman with a full-ride scholarship to Liberty University”.
As the president continued his well-trodden rant against gender-affirming care, Democrats looked on in disapproval, while many Republicans cheered.
“These people are crazy. I’m telling you, they’re crazy,” Trump said of Democrats.
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Trump attacks Democrats for not giving a standing ovation
Trump sparred with Democrats when he asked all lawmakers to stand if they agreed that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens” and restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which remains shuttered.
It was a clear opportunity to chide lawmakers on the left, while Republican lawmakers stood with gusto. “You should be ashamed of yourself for not standing up,” Trump told Democrats, as several shouted back in response. “You’ve killed Americans,” Ilhan Omar said, as the president managed to provide his first visual example of the chasm in Congress.
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Trump repeats xenophobic rant against Somali community
The president repeated his xenophobic comments that the “Somali pirates ransacked Minnesota” through “bribery, corruption and lawlessness” during his speech.
“Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA,” Trump added. Democratic representative Ilhan Omar from Minnesota called the president a “liar” from her seat in the audience.
Trump said that the administration’s “war on fraud” would now be led by his vice-president, JD Vance.
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Reporters in the House chamber are noting that Democratic representative Lauren Underwood, of Illinois, appears to have walked out of the president’s State of the Union address.
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Trump said what congressional Republicans have been wanting him to emphasize before the midterm elections: the tax cuts they enacted last year through his massive policy legislation.
The president said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act brought the “largest tax cuts” in history, which is not accurate because they’re actually the sixth-largest, according to the Tax Foundation, and this messaging does not appear to have really broken through.
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Trump calls tariffs ruling 'unfortunate' but says administration is pursuing legal alternatives
As we expected, the president bemoaned the supreme court’s ruling that Trump exceeded his presidential authority by implementing many global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“I used these tariffs, took in hundreds of billions of dollars, to make great deals for our country, both economically and on a national security basis, everything was working well,” Trump said. “They were ripping us so badly. You all know that. Everybody knows that, even the Democrats know it.”
The president called the supreme court’s ruling “unfortunate”, as the four justices attending today’s address sat directly in the president’s eyeline.
While Trump falsely claimed the tariffs led to “no inflation” and “tremendous growth”, he said Friday’s decision was “disappointing”.
However, the president went on to tout his new 15% global tariffs under section 122 of the Trade Act. “They’re a little more complex, but they’re actually probably better, leading to a solution that will be even stronger than before,” he said.
Trump incorrectly said that these duties won’t require congressional oversight; however, these tariffs can only last 150 days before Congress has to agree to extend them.
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Trump has touted his “drill, baby drill” agenda at the State of the Union address.
“American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day,” he said. “American natural gas production is at an all-time high because I kept my promise to drill, baby, drill.”
Since re-entering office, Trump has worked to boost fossil fuels and roll back dozens upon dozens of environmental policies and incentives. Data shows that agenda has not worked out for the fossil fuel workers Trump claims to protect, one advocate noted on social media.
“Since President Trump took office, the drive to achieve energy dominance has resulted in the loss of 15,000 mining, oil, and natural gas jobs,” Sean O’Leary, a senior researcher at the Appalachia-focused clean energy and jobs thinktank Ohio River Valley Institute, wrote on social media, citing US Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
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Trump boasts low gas prices despite scrapping key environmental finding
Trump touted low gas prices during his state of the union speech, saying they are “now below $2.30 a gallon in most states and in some places, $1.99 a gallon”.
But a major environmental rollback his administration enacted two weeks ago could push gas prices up.
The repeal of the endangerment finding – the legal underpinning for all greenhouse gas regulations in the US – is expected to create a rise in gas prices, as I explained in an analysis last week. That’s according to the administration’s own data. Check it out here.
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Trump is spending a lot of time boasting about sports accomplishments in a way that he does at rallies. He just announced that the US men’s Olympic hockey team goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who played a key role in their gold medal win against Canada, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Reporting from the House chamber
When Trump began his address, everyone in the chamber sat down except for the representative Al Green, who continued to brandish his sign – which read “Black people aren’t apes!”, a reference to the US president recently sharing a racist video depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama.
Then a man came over – perhaps from security – and senator Markwayne Mullin again approached Green menacingly.
Green decided to leave. As he walked up the aisle, clutching his walking stick and protest sign, there were some acrimonious exchanges with Republicans, a few of whom began chanting: “USA! USA!”
Green’s seat is now empty save for a handwritten cardboard sign that says: “Al Green.”
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Trump welcomes US men’s Olympic hockey team into House chamber to standing ovation
This is some extraordinary choreography organized by Trump: he introduced the US men’s Olympic team, who entered the House chamber on the steps of the press gallery.
“Here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud,” Trump said, before the Olympians appeared, raising their gold medals to raucous applause.
Trump says the US women’s Olympic hockey team will soon be coming to the White House. It’s unclear whether something has changed since the team earlier declined an invitation this morning citing scheduling conflicts.
Before introducing the team, Trump said: “Our country is winning again. In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it. People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr President, we’re winning too much. We can’t take it anymore.”
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Trump’s first mention of foreign policy is with Venezuela, which he calls “our new friend and partner” and boasts the US has gotten 80m barrels of oil from the country.
This comes after the ouster of Venezuela’s deposed leader, Nicolás Maduro.
While Trump touted the plummeting border crossings, he noted that “we will always allow people to come in legally”.
However, his administration has worked to weaken legal pathways to live and work in the US, including scrapping Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several countries.
Democratic representative Al Green, who was reprimanded for interrupting Trump’s address last year, was just ejected from the House chamber.
My colleague, David Smith, is at the Capitol and notes that Green held up a handwritten sign that says: “Black people aren’t apes!”
A Republican tried to make him put it down but Green refused. Senator Markwayne Mullin walked over and tried to stop Green before the pair had a brief argument.
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Off the bat, the president has branded the US as “back”.
“Bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before,” Trump said. “This is the golden age of America.” He went on to disparage the Biden presidency, noting that he inherited “a nation in crisis”, but noted that his administration has “achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before”.
“It is indeed a turnaround for the ages,” he added.
Chants of “USA, USA” erupted ahead of the president speaking in the House chamber.
Trump enters House chamber for State of the Union address
Donald Trump has just entered the House chamber to deliver his State of the Union address. He’s shaking many attendees’ hands, listening to their messages as he walks to the podium. Some lawmakers are posing for selfies with Trump.
He just shook hands with the supreme court justices in attendance tonight, including Amy Coney Barrett. On Friday, Trump said that Barrett’s family should be “ashamed” of her concurring opinion to invalidate many of the president’s tariffs.
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First lady Melania Trump just walked into the House chamber to some applause. She’s followed by members of Trump’s cabinet and White House team.
Many of the president’s family, including daughter Ivanka Trump, are already seated for his address.
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Four supreme court justices arrive for Trump's State of the Union address
Four supreme court justices – John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – are in the House chamber tonight. This comes just days after the court ruled that many of Trump’s global tariffs are illegal.
• This post was amended on 25 February 2026. An earlier version of the caption misidentified Justice Brett Kavanaugh as Justice Neil Gorsuch.
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Trump arrives at the US Capitol
Donald Trump has arrived at the US Capitol, where he’s set to address a joint session of Congress in a few minutes.
We’ll bring you the latest as it happens.
A reminder that the president’s address takes place against the backdrop of an ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.
Following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents, during the administration’s crackdown in Minnesota, Democratic lawmakers decried tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Now, members of Congress are at an impasse as they hammer out guardrails for greater oversight of both agencies.
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The crowd chanted “Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE!” as senator Chris Murphy introduced his guest, Afghan refugee and immigrant advocate Fereshteh Ganjavi. Murphy explained he wasn’t at the State of the Union address because “these are not normal times, and Democrats have to stop behaving normally”.
Moments later, a Trump supporter pushed through the barricades on the grounds and confronted Murphy. An organizer pulled the heckler off the stage as the crowd booed.
Host Joy Reid addressed the interruption. “Attention all Maga trolls: Your bullshit is not welcome here,” she said. “We are here to hear the truth and to hear from impacted people.”
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Counter rally to Trump's address begins
On the National Mall, hundreds of people, including about 30 Democratic members of Congress, are gathered for the “People’s State of the Union,” a counter rally to protest President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. Attendees held signs that read “No Money for ICE” and “Healthcare Not Warfare”. One person on stage carried a large poster with the photographs of the more than 30 people who were killed in dealings with ICE since Trump took office in 2025.
The event kicked off about an hour before the president’s speech is scheduled to begin.
MoveOn’s executive director Katie Bethell, who helped organize the event, told attendees they organized the boycott, “because we know that Donald Trump’s State of the Union will bear no resemblance to what’s actually happening in this country today”.
Mike Johnson just gavelled the House into session, as lawmakers funnelled into the chamber. Vice-president JD Vance is walking to his seat as he greets guests, members of Congress and officials.
Trump leaves White House for US Capitol
The president is on the move.
Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have left the White House for the US Capitol. It’s just a 2 mile drive through Washington DC.
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Republican House speaker Mike Johnson has arrived for Trump’s State of the Union address. He’ll be seated next to the president as he speaks, alongside the vice-president, JD Vance.
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Trump will tout negotiations with tech giants to curb datacenter electricity bill hikes
During his State of the Union speech tonight, Trump is expected to roll out a “ratepayer protection pledges” plan, which the White House says will shield Americans from electricity price spikes driven by increased demand from AI datacenters.
Trump reportedly negotiated the plans with tech giants, who have agreed to pay for increased electricity costs in locations where new datacenters are being erected. But green groups are skeptical that they will effectively lower bills.
“Let’s be honest: big tech isn’t going to do anything for the benefit of anyone but itself,” said Mitch Jones, managing director of policy and litigation at progressive environmental group Food and Water Watch.
The president promised to halve electricity costs within his first year back in office, but the average US household paid nearly $116 more for electricity in 2025 than the year before, a 6.7% increase, the Guardian found last month. In communities near datacenters, electricity prices increased even more – by as much as 267% compared with five years ago, a Bloomberg analysis found last year.
The real solution, Jones said, is to place a pause on AI expansion.
“With the Trump administration’s complete unwillingness to hold corporations accountable for any number of harmful impacts on society, it’s imperative we halt new datacenter construction now,” he said. “We must take the time to truly study the full range of impacts of datacenters on our local communities – most certainly including the skyrocketing electricity rates already being thrust on families and small businesses – before determining not how, but if this industry can operate in a responsible way.
“This is a big ‘if’, and right now no one – literally no one – knows if it is possible.”
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Cabinet members arrive for Trump's State of the Union address
We’re now seeing pictures of Donald Trump’s cabinet arriving at the US Capitol before the president’s State of the Union address. They’re walking through Statuary Hall and into the House chamber, where Trump will speak.
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Just hours before the State of the Union address, the mood inside the National Press Club for one of the capital’s bigger counter-events is restless and defiant.
“I got into DC a few hours ago and got to this event just minutes ago,” Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey told the Guardian. “It’s full of people trying to stand up for democracy right now – angry about the trajectory of where our nation is going. They’re frustrated by the lack of abiding to the United States constitution.”
Frey, who will be making a rebuttal tonight, gestured to the range of anxieties animating the ballroom: abortion rights, international tensions with Iran, environmental protections.
Hundreds of people are at the event, which is just getting under way.
A glimpse of the mood at the counter "state of the swamp" SOTU panel pic.twitter.com/91G7f9iGiq
— Joseph Gedeon (@JGedeon1) February 25, 2026
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In 2025, when Trump made a joint address to Congress, he spoke at length about his efforts to cut the size of the federal workforce, change US foreign policy and implement a risky trade agenda, which included massive tariffs. In the speech lasting an hour and 40 minutes – the longest in US history – he also pointed to executive orders and actions implemented in the first weeks of his second term.
This year, despite facing opinion polls showing growing disapproval on a range of issues, it’s likely Trump will continue to insist he is “making America great again”. Expect the president to address issues of tariffs, which were struck down by the supreme court last week and then implemented again this weekend, alongside a range of other issues including immigration and foreign policy.
This year’s address could also run long. According to the official White House schedule, he is not expected to return to the White House until 11.30pm.
A reminder that major news networks will broadcast Trump’s address live. CBS will broadcast a livestream on its YouTube page, as will PBS. The Guardian will have a live feed of the address to Congress and our team of reporters will be covering and factchecking the president’s speech.
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As we noted earlier, Trump’s last address to Congress was the longest in recent history. The second-longest was Bill Clinton in 2000, who spoke for 89 minutes, according to the American Presidency Project. The former Democratic president also holds third-place for his State of the Union address in 1995, which lasted 85 minutes.
Trump, however, claims the remaining spots in the top five. His addresses in 2019 and 2018 ran for 82 and 81 minutes, respectively.
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Erika Kirk to attend address as Trump's special guest
Erika Kirk, the widow of the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, will attend tonight’s State of the Union address as a special guest of the president.
After her husband was assassinated at a college event for his non-profit Turning Point USA, Erika Kirk took over the organization.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president would call on Congress to “firmly reject political violence against our fellow citizens” with Kirk as a guest.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, criticized fellow Democrats who are planning to boycott Donald Trump’s State of the Union address tonight, a decision party leaders have left up to individuals.
Klobuchar told reporters on Capitol Hill earlier:
If he’s coming to our house, you got to be there. Otherwise, you let him own the house.
At least a dozen Democrats are planning to skip the address tonight and attend a rally organized by progressive advocacy groups on the National Mall instead.
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The Democratic senator Mark Kelly also confirmed to reporters that he plans to attend the State of the Union later.
Kelly said that Trump wants to see him “sitting in prison right now”, after the president branded the Arizona lawmaker “seditious” for taking part in a video where several Democratic members of Congress urged members of the military to defy illegal orders.
Earlier this month, a grand jury in Washington DC declined to indict the six members of Congress featured in the video: Kelly, Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin and House members Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania.
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Warren confirms she'll be at State of the Union: 'I will be there as he tries to put a spin on this economy'
Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, said she would be at the president’s State of the Union address tonight.
“I think it’s important to do. And I will be there. And I will be there as he tries to put a spin on this economy,” she told CNN. “He can spin it however he wants, but the Trump economy works great for billionaires and is not working for American families, and American families know that.”
The Massachusetts senator will be joined by Dr Geralde Gabeau, who leads the Boston-based Immigrant Family Services Institute Inc (IFSI), which works to support immigrant communities and protect immigrants’ rights. Warren noted that Trump’s immigration crackdown across the country, as well as the actions of federal immigration enforcement agents, are “making all of us less safe”.
“Dr Gabeau’s work makes our communities stronger, and I’m proud to have her by my side,” Warren added.
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Supreme court justices expected to attend address days after monumental tariffs ruling
We’re expecting to see at least some of the supreme court’s nine members at this evening’s address. This comes just days after the court ruled that many of Donald Trump’s global tariffs are illegal.
In a 6-3 decision, the court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – a 1977 statute that grants the president authority to regulate or prohibit certain international transactions during a national emergency – does not authorize Donald Trump to unilaterally impose tariffs. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
After Friday’s ruling, the president was incensed and vented his frustration during an impromptu press conference. Trump said he was “ashamed” of the justices who ruled against his use of IEEPA. He hurled insults at them while speaking to reporters, calling them “fools and lap dogs” and “very unpatriotic and disloyal to our constitution” and even made baseless claims that they were being swayed by “foreign interests”. He also said that the justices were “barely” invited to his State of the Union address. “Honestly, I couldn’t care less if they come,” the president told reporters.
Notably, Trump didn’t say whether he regretted nominating Neil Gorsuch or Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court, after they concurred with liberal justices on the bench. “I think the decision was terrible,” Trump said. “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families, if you want to know the truth, the two of them.”
By contrast, Trump praised the justices who broke from the rest of the bench. “I’m so proud of him,” the president said of Kavanaugh, whom he nominated in his first term, while lauding the judge’s “genius and his great ability”. The president highlighted Kavanaugh’s dissenting opinion, which argued that other legal pathways remain for a president to impose tariffs. Trump announced that he plans to pursue some of those options.
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Epstein survivors attending State of the Union as guests of Democratic lawmakers
Many Democratic members of Congress have invited several of Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
The House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries announced that one of his guests tonight is Marina Lacerda, who said that she was groomed and abused by Jeffrey Epstein when she was a teenager. Jeffries’s counterpart, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, has invited Dani Bensky, who said she met Epstein when she was 17. “Dani has turned unimaginable pain into unrelenting advocacy,” Schumer said. “Survivors deserve justice. Trump must end the cover‑up and release the full Epstein files – NOW.”
While several Democrats are skipping the address, many are attending with survivors to intensify their calls for the justice department to release additional documents related to Epstein, after the latest tranche of files did little to quiet frustration with the Trump administration.
Ro Khanna, the Democratic representative who co‑authored legislation compelling the justice department to release the Epstein files, will bring another survivor, Haley Robson, who has said she was trafficked by Epstein at age 16.
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Democrats choose Alex Padilla to deliver party’s Spanish-language response
In a statement, the 52-year-old senator said he planned to discuss “a federal government that weaponizes enforcement agencies against immigrants and US citizens alike”, as well as the Trump administration’s “failed economic agenda” and its effort to restrict voting access.
“Americans don’t need another speech from Donald Trump pretending everything is fine when their bills are too high, paychecks are too low, and masked and militarized federal agents are roaming our communities violating constitutional rights on a daily basis,” Padilla said in a statement.
Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants and the first Latino to represent California in the Senate, was tackled to the ground by federal agents and handcuffed after attempting to ask the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, a question at a news conference in Los Angeles during the administration’s immigration crackdown in the city last summer.
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Virginia governor to deliver the Democratic response
Virginia’s governor, Abigail Spanberger, will deliver the Democratic response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, after tonight’s speech wraps up.
Spanberger, a former undercover CIA officer who served three terms in Congress, became Virginia’s first female governor earlier this year, resoundingly winning an office previously held by a Republican. She won the race by a double-digit margin, campaigning on affordability and lowering costs for families.
Spanberger said she plans to use her rebuttal to address Americans’ concerns with “rising costs, chaos in their communities, and a real fear of what each day might bring”.
“I look forward to laying out what these Americans expect and deserve – leaders who are working hard to deliver for them,” she added.
In choosing Spanberger, 46, Democratic leaders are handing the spotlight to a battleground-tested moderate with national security credentials and a reputation for message discipline, particularly on economic issues and highlighting the impact of federal policies on everyday Virginians. Her 15-point victory in a purple state last November, alongside Mikie Sherrill in the New Jersey’s governor’s race, provided a jolt of optimism for Democrats still searching for an effective response to counter a president who dominates the national political conversation.
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Several Democrats to boycott Trump’s address
Several Democratic lawmakers will boycott Donald Trump’s State of the Union address tonight. Instead, many will rally on the National Mall.
So far, at least 30 Democratic members of Congress have said they will skip the State of the Union. These include senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Adam Schiff of California, as well as progressive representatives Pramila Jayapal, Maxwell Frost and Greg Casar.
The event, dubbed the “People’s State of the Union”, is being coordinated by progressive media network MeidasTouch and the liberal advocacy group MoveOn. Attorney and commentator Katie Phang and former anchor Joy Reid will co-host the rally. The event’s organizers say it will spotlight federal workers, immigrants and Americans affected by the Trump administration’s policies.
In a statement, Van Hollen said that he would not attend the address. “Trump is marching America towards fascism, and I refuse to normalize his shredding of our Constitution & democracy,” he said. “This cannot be business as usual.”
My colleagues will be covering the latest developments from the counter-protests.
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Welcome to our coverage of the State of the Union address
Welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address of his second term. We’ll bring you the very latest from Washington and beyond, as my colleagues and I cover the main event, the counter-programming and the responses to the president’s speech.
Trump telegraphed that he’s not particularly concerned about the length of tonight’s address, which will begin at 9pm ET. “It’s going to be a long speech because we have so much to talk about,” he told reporters at a White House event on Monday.
Last year, the president spoke for a record-breaking 100 minutes. As that was Trump’s first year back in office, it was considered an address to a joint session of Congress, as opposed to a State of the Union speech. This year’s address doubles as his pitch to voters to keep Republicans in control of both chambers.
Trump’s frequent press appearances mean that we’re expecting many of his greatest hits, as he touts what he sees as the primary achievements of his second administration. We can expect to hear several jabs about Joe Biden’s presidency, mass deportation numbers, the state of the economy, the president’s perceived diplomatic victories and the number of “wars” he’s settled. Throughout the night, we’ll also be factchecking the president’s comments.
Earlier, top Democrats predicted Trump’s speech would be “long, painful and tedious”. At a press conference on Capitol Hill, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer slammed Trump’s address, just hours before it was set to begin. “Never in our lifetime have we gone into a State of the Union where the president’s rhetoric and the country’s reality are so far apart,” Schumer said.
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