Trump threw some elbows in his speech, but hardly beat back his critics

Taking advantage of a large stage on Tuesday night, President Trump delivered a State of the Union address filled with political generalizations, blaming Democrats for the country’s problems, including immigration and the economy, and praising him and his administration for launching a “comeback for the ages.”

He failed to mention that after a year in which he held the White House and his party controlled both houses of Congress, many Americans remain disgruntled and financially frustrated, with polls showing a growing number of Trump denouncers.

The speech was heavy on partisan attacks but light on actual acknowledgment or proposed path out of the rising political tensions roiling the country under his leadership and threatening his party’s chances of staying in power in the upcoming midterm elections.

“President Trump’s State of the Union address was deeply disconnected from the lived reality of most Americans and deeply insulting to the immigrant communities that strengthen and sustain this country every day,” Angelica Salas, executive director of the Los Angeles Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said in a statement. “As working families struggle with rising costs, threats to civil liberties, and attacks on fundamental rights, the Trump Administration continues to choose distortion over truth, division over unity.”

Trump repeatedly criticized Democrats in the room; for not taking his bait and applauding him as he polished his immigration agenda, disagreeing with his statements against transgender athletes, and not giving enough praise to members of the U.S. men’s hockey team that won the gold medal at the recent Winter Olympics.

“These people are crazy,” Trump said of Democrats who disagreed with his comments about transgender athletes. After they did not applaud his remarks about “illegal aliens,” he said, “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

The speech pleased many Republicans.

“Last Night, President Trump gave the BEST and LONGEST State of the Union address in history because of ALL his victories,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). wrote to x. “In one year, we have reversed the damage we inherited from Biden and the Democrats, and we are serving the American people.”

Democrats watched calmly or with barely concealed disdain, with brief quips and a few vocal rebuttals. But in later statements, they criticized Trump for ignoring Americans’ growing discontent with his agenda.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DY) called the speech “a case of Trump’s delusion.”

“For nearly two hours, the president inflated his ego, rewrote reality, and offered zero solutions to the problems American families deal with every day,” Schumer said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DY) said the speech was “full of dirty rotten lies.”

Many other Democrats also bristled at Trump’s rosy portrayal of the country as thriving, with the economy “roaring.”

Trump has repeatedly talked about his campaign to curb illegal immigration and his administration’s success in reducing border crossings. But he made no mention of one of the biggest scandals of his first year in office, the killings of U.S. citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, or of public support for his immigration campaign in general.

He mentioned bombing Iran’s nuclear sites last year and said negotiations against future weapons development are ongoing. But he did not explain why the Pentagon was leading a buildup of US planes and warships in the Middle East or address growing concerns that he was preparing to lead the country into war.

He talked about lowering health care costs through a variety of unproven programs, such as the “TrumpRx” prescription platform, but did not mention that millions of Americans face rising health care costs due to his party’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” and cuts to Obamacare subsidies.

He mentioned that violent crime had decreased under his administration; This is a trend that any president would claim as a success. But he omitted the fact that the declines were a clear continuation of sharp declines under the Biden administration; those declines were the same ones he vociferously denied during the 2024 campaign.

Each president sees the State of the Union as a chance to highlight their victories rather than a space to reflect on disagreements or losses. This is a long-established tradition, but it is also political theatre; It’s a chance for a president to assert his power no matter what headwinds they face, as Trump did repeatedly in his nearly two-hour speech.

But as many Democrats noted, his assessment also contradicted the feelings of many Americans.

“The truth is that the State of our Union does not feel strong for everyone,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said in a Spanish-language rebuttal to the speech. “Not when rent, food, and utility costs continue to rise. Not when Republicans increase our medical costs to fund tax cuts for billionaires. And certainly not when armed and masked federal agents terrorize our communities by targeting people, including legal-status immigrants and citizens, because of the color of their skin or because they speak Spanish.”

Minneapolis and other parts of the country are besieged by poorly trained federal forces conducting immigration roundup operations that have left communities in fear and resulted in American citizens being detained and even dying in the streets. Anger at these tactics has dominated political debate for months. Trump never directly addressed the Minneapolis campaign in his speech.

For months, Trump has rattled key U.S. allies, including partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, by repeatedly demanding that the United States be given Greenland, a territory of Denmark. He described the striking violation of diplomatic norms as a necessity given US security concerns in the region. However, he did not mention his demands or these concerns in his speech.

And while Trump claims that “the state of the union is strong,” he has offered little explanation for why he repeatedly denigrates and targets the cornerstones of the federal system.

Over the past year, Trump has portrayed himself and his administration office as very powerful; a significant portion of the federal judiciary are viewed as “radical left” lunatics; that the country’s state-controlled voting system is corrupt and unreliable; and many Democrats and other political opponents are viewed as illegitimate or even criminal.

He has repeatedly asserted his authority to reject resolutions and reallocate federal spending by Congress, to rewrite the Constitution and the fundamental rights within it, such as birthright citizenship, by executive action, and to order or pressure states and a broad civil society, including universities and law firms, to adjust politically or face devastating financial losses, including demanding an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting by red states to increase the chances of a Republican victory in the midterm elections.

Trump sought to assert his will over the Federal Reserve, which was designed to independently lead the nation’s economy, calling Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell “incompetent”; This cannot bode well for the country’s economy no matter how you analyze it.

As Trump left the room Tuesday night citing several of his unprecedented moves, Republicans showered him with praise; some said he delivered the best State of the Union ever.

Many Democrats, meanwhile, wondered which union the president was describing.