Trump Touts Economic Accomplishments in State of the Union

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 U.S. President Donald Trump touted his economic record during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, boasting that he had ushered in a "golden age" as he sought to project an aura of success at a fraught moment for his presidency.

Heeding calls from fellow Republicans facing a challenging midterm election in November, Trump spent the first hour of his televised speech focused on the economy, saying he had curbed inflation, driven the stock market to record heights, signed sweeping tax cuts, and lowered drug prices.
"Our nation is back -- bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before," he said after taking the stage to cheers of "USA, USA" from his party's members of Congress, while Democrats stood in stony silence.
The annual speech to Congress carried enormous stakes for the president, with his approval ratings slumping, anxieties rising over Iran, and Americans frustrated that he has not done more to address the high cost of living.
While Trump declared that inflation is "plummeting," prices for groceries, housing, insurance, and utilities remain significantly higher than they were a few years ago. New data released on Friday showed the economy slowed more than expected last quarter while inflation accelerated.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found only 36% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy. Democrats hope to seize control of both houses of Congress from Republicans in November when all 435 seats are on the ballot for the House and about a third of the 100 seats in the Senate.
For nearly an hour, Trump was uncharacteristically disciplined, mostly appearing to stick to the written script and eschewing his typical stream-of-consciousness digressions.
While he leveled some familiar attacks on his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, and Democratic lawmakers, Trump held his fire when it came to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down his signature tariff regime on Friday.
Unlike the hours after the decision, when Trump insulted the justices in deeply personal terms, the president shook hands with the four justices in attendance upon entering the House of Representatives and simply called the ruling "unfortunate."

CLASHES WITH DEMOCRATS

As the speech progressed, however, the fireworks began to spark.
Item 1 of 11 U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 24, 2026. REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE
[1/11]U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 24, 2026. REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
When Trump turned to his favorite topic, immigration, he repeated the same rhetoric that animated his 2024 campaign, claiming undocumented migrants were responsible for a wave of violent crime despite studies showing that is not the case.
"You should be ashamed," he told Democrats, chastising them for refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless measures are taken to curb the aggressive tactics of immigration agents under Trump.
Opinion polls show a majority of Americans believe Trump's immigration crackdown has gone too far, after two U.S. citizens were shot dead by masked federal agents in Minneapolis.
As Trump praised his immigration enforcement, Democrat Ilhan Omar, who represents a Minneapolis U.S. House district, shouted in his direction, "You have killed Americans!"
Trump, who has falsely claimed for years that election fraud in the U.S. is rampant, also attacked Democrats for not supporting a voter identification requirement.
"They want to cheat," he said. Democrats argue that the Republican-backed legislation would impose unnecessary burdens on voters and suppress turnout.
Democratic U.S. Representative Al Green was removed from the House chamber for the second consecutive year after waving a sign at Trump that read: "Black people aren't apes." The message was a reference to a social media video Trump posted this month that included a clip depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
The White House eventually took down the video, and Trump said a staffer posted the video. The 79-year-old Green, who is Black, was also ejected last year after shouting at Trump during his address to Congress.
Other Democrats offered quieter messages of protest. U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda, a Hawaii Democrat, wore a white jacket emblazoned with words like "affordability" and "healthcare."
A number of Democratic women wore tags saying "release the files," a reference to the scandal surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. About a dozen Epstein accusers attended as guests of Democrats.
Meanwhile, more than 40 Democratic lawmakers skipped the speech entirely in favor of anti-Trump rallies outside.
Befitting a former reality television star with a penchant for the dramatic, Trump bragged about all the "winning" the country was experiencing before introducing some other winners: the U.S. men's ice hockey team, which won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics on Sunday.
 Over the past four decades, it has become a ritual for presidents, and more recently, lawmakers, to invite guests to the presidential State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.
Here are some of those invited to sit in special galleries above the House of Representatives floor during President Donald Trump's speech at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday (0200 GMT on Wednesday):

EPSTEIN ACCUSERS

Haley Robson, who has accused late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of abuse, will be a guest of Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California, the lawmaker announced. Dani Bensky, another Epstein accuser, will be the guest of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Democratic Representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia have invited Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in 2025.

OLYMPIANS

The White House said the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team had arrived at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. It was not immediately clear if they would attend the speech. The team won the gold medal in Italy on Sunday against Canada.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he expected the U.S. women's hockey team, which also won the gold medal by defeating Canada, to be invited. However, media reports said they declined because of previous commitments.

NASA ASTRONAUTS

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, the crew of NASA's planned lunar spaceflight mission Artemis II, will be guests of Johnson. NASA is aiming to launch the four astronauts for a journey around the moon and back on March 6 in what would be the first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years.

WORRIED FARMERS

Farmer Doug Rebout, president of the Wisconsin Soybean Association, is an invited guest of Democratic Representative Mark Pocan.
Many U.S. soybean producers worrythat  Trump's tariffs on foreign goods have hurt American farmers, resulting in retaliation from China that has at times interrupted soybean trade and has contributed to higher prices for many consumer goods.
Security fencing surrounds the U.S. Capitol ahead of the State of the Union address, in Washington
Security fencing surrounds the U.S. Capitol ahead of the State of the Union address, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 23, 2026. REUTERS/ Kylie Cooper Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

ICE DETAINEE

Raiza Contreras, the mother of Dylan Lopez Contreras, a Venezuelan school student allegedly detained by immigration agents, will be another guest of Schumer. The Senate Democratic leader said Dylan entered the United States legally and was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after he attended a mandatory court hearing.

DAUGHTER OF IMPRISONED CHINA CRITIC

Claire Lai, daughter of imprisoned China critic and former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, will be the joint guest of Johnson and Representative Chris Smith. Lai's 20-year imprisonment in a landmark foreign-collusion case has drawn criticism from the United States and other nations.

BROTHER OF SLAIN ISRAELI DIPLOMAT

Hanan Lischinsky, brother of slain Israeli diplomat Yaron Lischinsky, will be the guest of Johnson. Yaron and fellow diplomat Sara Milgrim were killed by a gunman last May while leaving an event at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

FAMILY OF FALLEN LOUISIANA POLICE OFFICER

Relatives of slain Louisiana police officer Marc Tyler Brock are invited by Johnson, who represents a district in and around Shreveport. Brock was shot while serving a search warrant, according to local media reports.

PARENTS OF NATIONAL GUARD MEMBER FATALLY SHOT

The parents of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who was fatally shot in an ambush in downtown Washington, D.C., late last year, will be official guests, a White House official said.

ERIKA KIRK

Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, will be one of Trump's special guests, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
OLHA STEFANISHYNA, UKRAINE AMBASSADOR TO U.S. Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Olha Stefanishyna, told reporters in Washington that she was invited to attend Trump's address. She said she expected the speech to touch on foreign affairs and end Russia's war in Ukraine.
 Six in ten Americans, including a significant slice of Republicans, think President Donald Trump has become erratic as he ages, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The six-day poll concluded on Monday, the day before the 79-year-old president gives his annual State of the Union address to Congress following a month of angry reprimands of lawmakers and judges.
Overall, 61% of respondents in the poll said they would describe Trump as having "become erratic with age." Some 89% of Democrats, 30% of Republicans ,and 64% of independents described him this way.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the poll results were examples of "fake and desperate narratives" and that "Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility" set him apart from his predecessor in office, Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump's overall popularity has been little changed in recent months. Some 40% of respondents in the latest poll approved of Trump's performance as president, up two percentage points from earlier this month. While he started his term with a considerably higher rating at 47%, his approval has held within a point or two of its current level since April.

AGING U.S. LEADERSHIP

Most Americans think the country's political leadership is generally too old.
Some 79% of poll respondents agreed with a statement that "elected officials in Washington, D.C., are too old to represent most Americans." The average age in the U.S. Senate is about 64, and in the U.S. House of Representatives, it's 58.
Democratic respondents were slightly more likely to call for younger politicians, with 58% of them saying top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, 75, was too old to work in government.
Trump returned to office in January 2025 at age 78, becoming the oldest president on inauguration day in history. Since then, he has unveiled new policies and proposals at a dizzying pace, ordering sweeping tariffs on imports from dozens of countries and deploying masked federal agents across the country to crack down on unauthorized immigration.
He has often struck an angry tone in his public remarks, including last week when he said he was "absolutely ashamed" that the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court struck down many of his tariffs as illegal. Trump went on to reinstate a series of new tariffs, arguing he could do so under a different legal authority. In November, he assailed Democratic lawmakers who urged members of the U.S. military to refuse any illegal orders, calling them traitors who could face execution.

AGE WEIGHED PREDECESSOR BIDEN

Trump won the 2024 presidential election in part because Biden, his Democratic predecessor in the White House, was widely seen to have lost mental acuity as he aged in office. Biden ended his tenure at age 82 - older than any president in U.S. history. Trump is on track to beat that record and will be 80 in June.















Only 45% of respondents in the February poll said they would describe Trump as "mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges," down from 54% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in September 2023.
Republicans continue to see the president as sharp, with 81% of them describing the president that way in the latest poll, little changed from the 2023 survey. Among Democrats, the share seeing the president able to deal with challenges fell to 19% from 29%. Among people who don't identify with either political party, 36% saw Trump holding onto his mental acuity, down from 53% in 2023.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 4,638 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of two percentage points.

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