Takeaways from Trump’s State of the Union address

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Trump struck a confident and defiant tone — claiming huge victories in fighting crime in America’s major cities, securing the nation’s borders, deporting undocumented immigrants, lowering costs for American households and respecting the United States on the world stage.

“The state of our union is strong,” Trump said — at a time when he is significantly weakened politically, with a sluggish economy, declining support for his immigration crackdown and approval ratings among the lowest of his political career.

Trump delivered his speech — the longest State of the Union address on record — before a closely divided Congress, receiving steady applause from Republicans and nothing but glares and momentary bursts of outrage and frustration from Democrats.

Trump used his usual superlatives

Throughout his speech, Trump used superlatives, as is common for him – mainly to project a rosy image.

He said he “inherited a nation in crisis”, with a “stagnant economy” and a “wide open border”, with “rampant crime” and “wars and chaos” across the world, but that under his leadership “we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before and a turnaround for the ages”.

“Our nation is back – bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever,” he said.

He said U.S. military forces carried out one of the largest military actions “in the history of the world” when they entered Venezuela earlier this year to depose and capture then-President Nicolás Maduro and face U.S. drug charges.

He said America’s enemies were now “scared.” He said the economy was now “booming”. He said the U.S. military and police were now “on top of each other” and the country now had “the strongest and most secure border in American history,” with “zero” undocumented immigrants entering the United States in the past nine months.

He said the country has seen the “biggest decline” in violent crime since 1900, despite reliable crime data that doesn’t go back that far, that the military is setting “recruiting records,” that natural gas production is at an “all-time high” and that more Americans are working than “at any time in our nation’s history.”

He presented two Medals of Honor, a Purple Heart and a Presidential Medal of Freedom during his speech.

“We’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do. People ask me, ‘Please, please, please, Mr. President, we’re winning so much that we can’t take it anymore,'” Trump said. “I say, ‘No, no, no, you’re going to win again, you’re going to win big, you’re going to win bigger than ever.'”

Bullish on the economy, despite the polls

Trump was clearly trying to convince Americans that the economy is strong.

Many Americans are unhappy with Trump’s handling of the economy, a poll shows. A recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that 57% of respondents disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy and 64% disapprove of his handling of tariffs.

However, Trump delivered an optimistic message about its impact on the economy, saying President Biden gave him “the worst inflation in the history of our country” and brought it down.

“We’re doing really well,” he said. “These prices are plummeting.”

He cited his policies to end taxes on tipped wages, said mortgage rates had fallen and argued his policies would soon substantially reduce health care costs for American families — despite millions facing higher costs due to Republicans’ elimination of health care subsidies in their recent “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Trump suggested that Democrats ruined the economy and drove up costs for Americans. “You caused this problem,” he told those in the room, as Republicans stood and applauded. He also suggested that Democrats had chosen the issue of “affordability” as a political issue to focus on for nothing.

“They just used it – someone gave it to them,” he said.

Demonstrate flexibility on the global front

Trump said that in addition to increasing security in the United States, he had increased the “security” of Americans abroad and American “dominance” in the Western Hemisphere.

He claimed to have “ended eight wars” in foreign countries, a dubious claim that Democrats in the room rejected.

He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be considered “the best ever.”

Trump has called Venezuela a “new friend and partner” since the United States deposed Maduro, from whom the United States has since received some 80 million barrels of oil.

“As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever I must,” Trump said.

He praised the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear sites in June and said the country had been warned not to build new military capabilities and that the United States was in negotiations with Iran but had not heard the “secret words” that it would never have nuclear weapons.

Four judges are present

Trump criticized the U.S. Supreme Court — but not strongly, as some expected.

Days earlier, the court ruled that the massive tariffs Trump had imposed on his international trading partners – a key plank of his economic policy – ​​were illegal.

The 6-3 decision — in which Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the two Trump-appointed justices, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, joined the court’s three liberal-leaning justices in ruling against the president — irked Trump. He said he was happy with the three conservative justices who voted to uphold his tariffs — Samuel A. Alito Jr., Brett M. Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas — and unhappy with the other six.

He said these six people were “barely invited” to attend the speech. He also suggested, without evidence, that the court was under foreign influence and was not ruling in the best interests of Americans.

On Tuesday evening, four justices showed up for the speech, including three who had voted against the president: Roberts, as well as Justices Barrett, Kavanaugh and liberal Elena Kagan. Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas and the court’s two other liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, were not present.

Before his speech, Trump cordially shook hands with the four justices present. During his speech, Trump said the decision was “very unfortunate,” but the good news was that many of the countries that had trade deals with the United States based on tariffs would continue those deals. The judges sat with impassive faces, hands on their knees.

Big claims and promises

Trump ramped up his speech with several teased programs and is calling on Congress to act.

He suggested that in the future, the tariffs he imposes on trading partners could replace the income tax system in the United States.

He said his administration would begin providing American workers with retirement plans similar to those held by federal workers, with the government making up to $1,000 in contributions to those plans each year by those Americans.

He alleged that Somali immigrant “hackers” had “looted” and “ransacked” Minnesota through fraud, that similar frauds were occurring in California and other states, and that he was launching a “war on fraud,” led by Vice President J.D. Vance.

He also called on Congress to pass a law prohibiting states from granting commercial driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

Shortly after, Trump asked everyone in the room to stand if they agreed with the statement that “the first duty of the United States government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”

Republicans stood and applauded. The Democrats remained seated. Trump told them they should be ashamed of themselves. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), born in Somalia, shouted “Liar” and “You killed Americans!” »

Times Staff Writer Ana Ceballos in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.