President Donald Trump is delivering the first State of the Union address of his second time period Tuesday night time at the US Capitol.
The speech comes shortly after the Supreme Court struck down his signature international tariffs, as he considers a second spherical of potential military strikes on Iran and as his political fortunes seem like about as low as they’ve ever been in both of his two phrases.
Here are some early takeaways from his speech.
Trump has struggled to halt his declining political fortunes in current months. But as he tried to border up the 2026 election on Tuesday night time, he turned to an outdated trustworthy: immigration.
After gesturing at “angel moms” whose youngsters have been victimized by undocumented immigrants, Trump stated voting for Democrats can 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 stated.
Trump then did one thing he likes to do with these speeches: problem Democrats to determine whether or not to applaud.
He urged members to face up and present help in the event that they agreed with the assertion that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
Democrats remained seated.
Republicans, in the meantime, sought to emphasise the second, standing and applauding for a very long time to indicate the distinction.
Eventually, Trump spoke once more and instructed Democrats, “You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up.” Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota yelled at Trump, regardless of Democratic leaders having beforehand warned their members towards outbursts.
Trump typically turns to immigration in election years. The subject isn’t as robust for him because it as soon as was, and actually he’s quite a bit underwater on it due to what Americans overwhelmingly views as overzealous actions by federal officers in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
But polls additionally present Americans nonetheless are likely to favor the Republican Party over the Democratic Party on the subject of immigration.
Trump didn’t supply a repeat of Friday’s angry broadside against the US Supreme Court for putting down his international tariffs. He as a substitute targeted on claiming he nonetheless has nice leverage with different tariff authorities (which is highly debatable).
He did, nevertheless, make some information on the tariff entrance.
For one, he volunteered that Congress shouldn’t trouble codifying his tariffs into regulation.
“Congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump stated.
It’s clear tariffs make even many Republicans uncomfortable, and it seems unlikely Congress might cross something anyway. But together with his tariff authorities still uncertain, Trump not asking Congress to cross one thing that has a greater likelihood of passing authorized muster was one thing to see. (The Constitution, in any case, offers Congress the energy to tariff.)
That suggests Trump has not heeded Justice Neil Gorsuch’s plea for American government to start including more legislating.
The president additionally made an enormous 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 stated.
Indeed, early in American historical past, tariffs have been the predominant kind of taxation. But Trump probably shouldn’t hold his breath on that one.
Trump isn’t any stranger to false claims, and his speech Tuesday night time was unsurprisingly replete with them.
When he started touting his file, the president rapidly cited that he inherited “inflation at record levels.” But whereas the most up-to-date studying was a charge of 2.4% in January, marking an eight-month low, it was 3.0% in January 2025, which is way off any data. (It fell sharply over Biden’s final 2.5 years in workplace after it hit a 40-year excessive of 9.1% in June 2022.)
He additionally stated he inherited a “wide-open border.” But whereas border crossings have hit twenty first Century lows on this time period, that they had already dropped considerably late in President Joe Biden’s tenure.
Trump claimed gasoline was beneath $2.30 per gallon in some states. AAA exhibits the common worth isn’t that low in any state.
He claimed funding “commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.” This is wildly exaggerated.
He additionally stated, “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” That is strictly true, in phrases of uncooked numbers, however that’s as a result of the inhabitants has grown. Indeed, the unemployment charge has risen underneath Trump and job development was anemic in 2025, one of the worst years in a long time.
Trump claimed we have been in a “golden age” and that the “roaring economy is roaring like never before.” But to make that declare, he took a lot of liberties.