8 takeaways from Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is on a sales pitch, using his State of the Union address to present an upbeat view of the U.S. economy.

He watches: President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address

But this portrayal conflicts with the feelings of Americans who remain concerned about their finances and feel that they have not benefited from Trump’s policies. He took the high road to honor the gold medal-winning and war hero U.S. Olympic hockey team before suddenly shifting to a darker tone as he mocked Democrats.

Here are the conclusions from the speech.

Trump’s “booming” economy belies bad public sentiment

Much of the nation is concerned about the direction of the economy, but Trump says the good times have arrived and has repeatedly insisted that rising costs are no longer a problem.

“The booming economy is roaring like never before,” he said. He cheered the falling cost of gasoline, mortgage rates, prescription drug prices, and the rising stock market: “Millions and millions of Americans are all gaining.”

He watches: A new poll shows that a majority of Americans say the country is worse off than it was a year ago

Such optimism, with many Americans feeling economic pressure, risks portraying Trump as out of touch. Only 39% of American adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy in February, according to an AP-NORC poll.

However, the president focused much of the first hour of his speech on the economy, something Republicans have urged him to do as they head toward the midterm elections.

Trump wraps himself in the flag

For a president who always seems ready to fight, Trump also tried to call on Americans’ innate patriotic impulses. In addition to the hockey team, he singled out war heroes and those who took courageous stands in other countries, using the moment to award several presidential medals in an effort to give the speech a more positive sheen.

This underscored the president’s media savvy and understanding that even if a moment is not fully appreciated in real time, it may have an afterlife in the days following the speech, especially on social media.

However, in one revealing moment, Trump expressed his regret at not being able to award himself the Congressional Medal.

Royce Williams, a 100-year-old naval aviator and Korean War veteran, receives the Congressional Medal of Honor from First Lady Melania Trump during US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, February 24, 2026. Photo by Nathan Howard/Reuters

Targeting Democrats

Honoring an Olympic hockey team and a World War II veteran didn’t unite the room for long.

The Republican president quickly targeted Democrats, blaming them for many of the country’s ills.

He watches: Democratic lawmakers joined the People’s State of the Union rally during Trump’s speech

Trump said rising health care premiums were “caused by you,” suggested Democrats were “not protecting” Social Security and blamed them for the country’s affordability crisis. “You caused that problem. You caused that problem,” Trump said, staring at the Democratic side of the room.

He seemed to get angrier as the speech progressed.

“These people are crazy, I’m telling you, they are crazy,” he said. “Democrats are destroying this country.”

Trump’s MAGA base loves such aggression. But it’s unclear whether the rest of the country feels the same way.

“Unfortunate” Supreme Court decision.

By Trump’s standards, he has been silent when it comes to the Supreme Court.

After the court struck down the tariff policy last week, Trump said the justices who voted against one of his signature cases were “an embarrassment to their families.” By Tuesday, he simply called the ruling “unfortunate.”

He watches: Why did the Supreme Court rule against Trump’s tariffs?

Trump sought to treat the ruling nonchalantly, insisting that tariff revenues would “save” the United States, ignoring the fact that the tariffs did not make a significant change in the government’s debt. He said the tariffs were paid by foreign countries even though nearly every study concluded that American companies and consumers paid the costs.

At one point, he seemed to take the long view that history would eventually vindicate him even if the Supreme Court did not.

“Over time, I believe that tariffs paid by foreign countries, as was the case in the past, will largely replace the modern income tax system, relieving a huge burden on the people I love,” he said.

This is unlikely. The federal income tax is authorized by the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the authority to raise revenue is ultimately determined by Congress, not the president.

Trump pledges to take action on “rigging” the election

The president used the largest platform in American politics to attack the integrity of the American election.

“Fraud is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant,” Trump said.

Trump has made such claims for years, focusing on his 2020 election loss, despite repeated court rulings and investigations that have found no such evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Read more: The Trump administration is full of people who supported his false claims in the 2020 election

But the timing of Tuesday’s peak claims, less than nine months before voters across America were scheduled to decide control of Congress, was noteworthy. So was Trump’s suggestion to take action to address a problem that does not appear to exist.

“They want to cheat,” Trump said of Democrats. “They cheated, and their politics are so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat.” “And we will stop him. We have to stop him.”

Trump called on Congress to pass a bill requiring voters to show a photo ID before casting their vote. But he also recently pledged to issue an executive order to address the issue, though the White House has not explained what that might entail.

He didn’t mention Minneapolis

Sometimes what is not said is as noticeable as what is.

Trump has highlighted immigration since the first speech announcing his 2016 presidential campaign. On Tuesday night, he revived much of the same language he has used throughout the past decade, criticizing “criminal aliens” and warning of “drug lords and murderers all over our country.”

What he didn’t mention: More aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that threatened to push the United States over the brink earlier this year. He did not mention the killing of American citizens in Minneapolis last month at the hands of federal agents.

In fact, it was Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, who shouted, “Alex was not a criminal,” referring to Alex Peretti, one of the American citizens killed in Minneapolis.

During her Democratic response, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger said that law enforcement must work to build trust in communities, and said that Trump “every minute he spends sowing fear is a minute he is not investigating murders.”

He watches: Gov. Abigail Spanberger offers Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union address

Trump said nothing about the shift in his administration’s tactics, including recalling agents in the Twin Cities. He did not acknowledge widespread concerns in the United States about Trump’s approach to immigration, as shown by the 60% of American adults who disapproved of his handling of the issue in February, according to an AP-NORC poll.

The drums of war are beating louder

Trump has already built the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. In his speech, he laid out the rationale for using those forces to launch a major military strike against Iran.

The president said that Iran and its proxies “have spread nothing but terrorism, death and hatred,” adding that its leaders have killed at least 32,000 protesters in recent weeks. He also warned that the country has developed missiles that could threaten Europe, and is developing missiles that will “soon reach” the United States.

More worryingly, he said that Iran is trying to rebuild its nuclear program.

“I would prefer to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism, which is until now, to have a nuclear weapon. We cannot allow that to happen.”

Trump’s MAGA base has long welcomed his promise to end costly wars abroad. It is unclear how they would respond to another major military action in the Middle East.

On brand, the speech was SOTU’s longest ever

The president, always aware of the records that allow him to say that he was the first and the best or that he did more, clearly succeeded in one thing: he broke his own record for the longest time, clocking in at just under an hour and 48 minutes.

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