Trump’s State of the Union Was a Bloated Awards Show

When we heard that Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union Address would break his own record for the longest-ever presidential speech to Congress, a lot of us figured he’d combine improvised attacks on his enemies with his assigned mission of convincing people he had a plan to deal with pervasive economic discontent. In fact, he mostly appeared to stick to his script. On many topics, he was succinct rather than expansive or weave-y. The speech was very long primarily because of its extraordinary number of gimmicks, theatrics, and props, with multiple medals being awarded right there in the gallery, and the speechifying being regularly interrupted with extra-long standing ovations from the Republicans in the room. For a while, you felt that the veteran TV star at the podium was channeling Oprah, showering awards on the worthiest people in his studio audience.

The address did not, however, break any significant new ground. He had one surprise, an endorsement of a ban on insider trading by members of Congress, and one relatively novel (already leaked) proposal: a deal with tech companies to absorb utility costs created by their AI data centers. But that was about it.

The first half-hour of the speech was the familiar “American carnage” litany of bile hurled at Joe Biden’s administration, with the usual lies and exaggerations designed to make Trump’s record look better by making his predecessor’s record look dark and even sinister. Then he moved into his own economic agenda, and visibly lost momentum. There was a tiny flutter of emotion in his voice when he deplored the Supreme Court’s decision blowing up his tariff regime, which he rather childishly dismissed as irrelevant because he had come up with an alternative scheme. But he quickly moved on.

For a good while, we wondered if we were witnessing the first truly boring Trump speech on record. It was only when he moved on to what might be described as the “culture war” section of the address that he got some of his old verve back. Murderous immigrants, gruesome murders, monstrous transgender surgeries, stuffed ballot boxes, criminals being turned out of jail to do crimes again — it was the 2024 election message all over again. He did not say a single word to address the widespread dismay, extending even to Republicans, about the murderous tactics deployed by ICE and the Border Patrol as part of his mass deportation initiative.

When he finally transitioned to the obligatory section on world events, Trump lost his mojo again. While many expected a bombshell announcement about an impending military attack on Iran, he mumbled his way through what he’s said a hundred times before about denying that country nuclear weapons. He said almost nothing about the Russia-Ukraine war, and literally did not mention China — allegedly the greatest global challenger to our country — even once.

Most of all, this was almost certainly the most partisan speech any president has ever delivered to Congress, exceeding even his belligerent message a year ago. Over and over again, he accused Democrats — not just their supposed “radical left” element, but all of them — of conscious, deliberate betrayal of the country, by opening the borders, the prisons, the very gates of hell. He called them “crazy,” too. Knowing that many Democrats had resolved to show “silent defiance” during the address, he pulled off one neat trick: presenting a phony antithesis between the interests of U.S. citizens and “illegal aliens” and demanding they stand up for the country! He expertly prolonged the moment as Republicans hooted and cheered while Democrats sat sullenly. But the fact remains that in a narrowly divided Congress, Trump will need Democrats to get anything done the rest of the year. He detonated that slim possibility instead.

This probably didn’t win over many swing voters unhappy with the economy, but it surely, like the entire speech, thrilled his base. And since he gave very much the speech scripted for him, we have to conclude that its object was to shore up that base rather than to expand it. Perhaps he and his advisors truly believe the economy is going to go gangbusters later this year, or that Trump’s party will be awarded with continued control of Congress without much of an effort to change anyone’s mind.

If you tuned into the SOTU address expecting policy innovations or a different Trump tone, you had to be disappointed. It appears he will go into difficult midterm elections standing pat on his record, his message, and his unshakable belief in his own greatness.