Takeaways from Donald Trump’s State of the Union address
Originally Published: 24 FEB 26 22:45 ET
By Aaron Blake, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump is delivering the first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday night at the US Capitol.
The speech comes shortly after the Supreme Court struck down his signature global tariffs, as he considers a second round of potential military strikes on Iran and as his political fortunes appear to be about as low as they’ve ever been in either of his two terms.
Here are some early takeaways from his speech.
Trump goads Democrats on immigration
Trump has struggled to halt his declining political fortunes in recent months. But as he tried to frame up the 2026 election on Tuesday night, he turned to an old faithful: immigration.
After gesturing at “angel moms” whose children were victimized by undocumented immigrants, Trump said voting for Democrats would 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 said.
Trump then did something he loves to do with these speeches: challenge Democrats to decide whether to applaud.
He urged members to stand up and show support if they agreed with the statement that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
Democrats remained seated.
Republicans, meanwhile, sought to emphasize the moment, standing and applauding for a long time to show the contrast.
Eventually, Trump spoke again and told Democrats, “You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up.” Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota yelled at Trump, despite Democratic leaders having previously warned their members against outbursts.
Trump often turns to immigration in election years. The issue isn’t as strong for him as it once was, and in fact he’s quite a bit underwater on it thanks to what Americans overwhelmingly views as overzealous actions by federal officials in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
But polls also show Americans still tend to favor the Republican Party over the Democratic Party on the issue of immigration.
A couple key points on tariffs
Trump didn’t offer a repeat of Friday’s angry broadside against the US Supreme Court for striking down his global tariffs. He instead focused on claiming he still has great leverage with other tariff authorities (which is highly debatable).
He did, however, make some news on the tariff front.
For one, he volunteered that Congress shouldn’t bother codifying his tariffs into law.
“Congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump said.
It’s clear tariffs make even many Republicans uncomfortable, and it appears unlikely Congress could pass anything anyway. But with his tariff authorities still uncertain, Trump not asking Congress to pass something that has a better chance of passing legal muster was something to see. (The Constitution, after all, gives Congress the power to tariff.)
That suggests Trump has not heeded Justice Neil Gorsuch’s plea for American government to start including more legislating.
The president also made a big 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 said.
Indeed, early in American history, tariffs were the predominant form of taxation. But Trump probably shouldn’t hold his breath on that one.
A characteristic cavalcade of falsehoods
Trump is no stranger to false claims, and his speech Tuesday night was unsurprisingly replete with them.
When he began touting his record, the president quickly cited that he inherited “inflation at record levels.” But while the most recent reading was a rate of 2.4% in January, marking an eight-month low, it was 3.0% in January 2025, which is far off any records. (It fell sharply over Biden’s last 2.5 years in office after it hit a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022.)
He also said he inherited a “wide-open border.” But while border crossings have hit 21st Century lows in this term, they had already dropped substantially late in President Joe Biden’s tenure.
Trump claimed gas was below $2.30 per gallon in some states. AAA shows the average price isn’t that low in any state.
He claimed investment “commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.” This is wildly exaggerated.
He also said, “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country.” That is strictly true, in terms of raw numbers, but that’s because the population has grown. Indeed, the unemployment rate has risen under Trump and job growth was anemic in 2025, one of the worst years in decades.
Trump claimed we were in a “golden age” and that the “roaring economy is roaring like never before.” But to make that claim, he took plenty of liberties.
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