Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address in history … and ran out of steam | Ted Widmer

Pursuant to Clause 1 of Section 3 of Article II of the U.S. Constitution, Donald Trump duly provided Congress with a “State of the Union Briefing” last night.

Information… and more information. Lasting one hour and 47 minutes, it was the longest State of the Union address in history. As he has so often in the past, Trump wobbled and weaved impressively (“weaving” is his own term for his meandering speaking style). He zig-zagged and zagged, taunting Democrats for much of the speech (he called Zohran Mamdani a “communist” and took shots at Democrats all night), while pretending to be a unifier when the mood arose.

He was sometimes alert, working the room like a borscht comic, calling out to his friends, throwing jabs at his enemies – the menacing Jerry Lewis of The King of Comedy. But for long periods, he read robotically from the teleprompter, as if fatigued by the ordeal of going up to the Capitol.

Of course, he had his work cut out for him. This presented a major opportunity for a reset, just over six months before the midterm elections. He needed it. Trump’s approval rating has plummeted in recent weeks, driven by outrage over the killings of American citizens by federal immigration agents and an inconsistent foreign policy that has sowed confusion among his Maga base and alienated most of our traditional allies.

A president who once vowed to avoid forever wars is now deeply entangled in Iran, where a U.S. flotilla is poised to launch airstrikes, and in the Caribbean. His “Peace Council” has failed to convince America’s closest allies and threatens to degrade the United Nations and the international Pax Americana once created by the Americans.

His tariff policies are deeply unpopular among both Republicans and Democrats, and signs of a “Trump crisis” are looming, dragging the economy down. A recent report says the U.S. lost 108,000 manufacturing jobs over the last year, despite Trump’s promises that his tariffs would bring factories “back into full swing.”

In short, reality bites. Trump continues to attack his enemies and the previous administration, but it has been a year under Republican control and the American people can clearly see that he is not keeping his promises. More than two-thirds of Americans – 68% – say he has failed to pay attention to important issues and is hemorrhaging independent voters. More than half of voters – 57% – disapprove of his handling of the economy. He has tried to claim that he inherited a bad economy, but this is easily refuted (The Economist called the US economy the “envy of the world” in October 2024).

Trump came to the Capitol hoping to distract from these issues, and to some extent, he did. There were the usual cultural attacks, and more than a few “Lenny Skutniks,” the name given to an outward hero (after a precedent set by Ronald Reagan in 1982, honoring a civilian who jumped into a frozen Potomac to save a plane crash survivor). In this case, the highly acclaimed members of the United States men’s hockey team were the star attraction. Trump also spoke about American history, including the 250th anniversary celebration that began this year and World War II (several veterans were in the room).

But the result was sometimes a Bataan death march and a long speech in search of an argument. The State of the Union Address has been in decline for decades as a television broadcast, and Trump has likely accelerated that trend.

Does anyone remember any of his addresses during his first term? Tonight will be no different. He ignored topics of great importance for the days to come (Are we going to war in Iran? Can we say anything too significant to Ukraine on the fourth anniversary of Putin’s invasion?), while dwelling on private obsessions of dubious relevance.

He claimed the United States was the most “hot” country, while ignoring the sharp decline in favorable ratings. He denounced immigrants while failing to address a subject of great concern to Americans, the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. This omission seems all the more striking at a time when so many Americans are questioning a justice system that seems rigged to reward the rich and forget everyone else, as in the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

In another way too, “the weaving” seemed to be running out of steam. At times, Trump seemed to think that Nancy Pelosi was still Speaker of the House. Far from “defeating” affordability, as he claims, Trump seems overwhelmed by it. The price of the hamburger increased by 17.2% compared to a year ago. Coffee increased by 18.3%. Nearly two-thirds of Americans – 65% – cannot afford a median-priced home. Trump’s expiration of health care subsidies will make health care unaffordable for millions of people. At the same time, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act delivered $1 trillion in tax cuts to the top 1 percent.

Trump has often spoken about 1776 and the start of the anniversary year. He is far from the first president to do so. But 1776 was also the year that Edward Gibbon wrote his classic History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In this work, Gibbon asked why a great people had allowed their civic institutions to wither away. He then answered his own question.

They blamed their problems on anyone other than themselves, usually focusing on strangers. They abandoned their libraries and cultural institutions and were drawn to “circuses and theaters” for sensational entertainment. They also demolished many of their best civic buildings. As Gibbon says:

The monuments of consular or imperial grandeur were no longer venerated as the immortal glory of the capital: they were only esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of materials, cheaper and more convenient than the distant quarry. Specious petitions were continually addressed to the easy magistrates of Rome, who denounced the lack of stones or bricks for some necessary service: the most beautiful forms of architecture were grossly degraded, in favor of a few paltry or pretended repairs; and the degenerate Romans, who converted the spoils into their own emolument, demolished, with sacrilegious hands, the works of their ancestors.

Sound familiar?

• Ted Widmer is a historian and former White House speechwriter (in the Clinton administration). He is the author of a forthcoming study of the Declaration of Independence, The Living Declaration: A Biography of America’s Founding Text, with the Library of America.