Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address ever, marked by attacks on Democrats, warnings about Iran and controversial statements about immigration, tariffs and elections. Here are the six key takeaways
Donald Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term on Tuesday night (Wednesday dawn in Lisbon) at the United States Capitol.
The speech came shortly after the Supreme Court repealed its emblematic global tariffs, as the US president considers moving forward with a second round of possible military attacks on Iran and his political approval appears to be lower than ever in either of his two terms.
Trump’s speech lasted about an hour and 47 minutes, breaking the length record set by his speech to Congress last year.
Here are six conclusions from his speech.
Trump taunts Democrats on immigration
Trump has struggled to stem his declining political fortunes in recent months. But, when trying to define the scenario for the 2026 elections, he resorted in his speech to an old faithful theme: immigration.
After making a gesture to “angel mothers” whose children were victims of undocumented immigrants, Trump said that voting for Democrats would be voting to reopen the United States’ borders.
We can never forget that many in this room not only allowed the border invasion to happen before I got involved, but also that they would do it all over again if given the opportunity.”disse Trump.
Trump then did something he loves to do in these speeches: challenge Democrats to decide whether to applaud or not.
The US president 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, in turn, sought to emphasize the moment, standing up and applauding for a long time to show the contrast.
Finally, Trump spoke again and told the Democrats:
You should be ashamed of yourself for not standing up.
Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota shouted at Trump, even though Democratic leaders had previously warned their members against emotional outbursts.
Trump often turns to immigration in election years. The issue is not as pressing for him as it once was, and in fact he is greatly disadvantaged by what Americans overwhelmingly consider overzealous actions by federal ICE officials in Minneapolis and elsewhere.
But polls also show that Americans still tend to favor the Republican Party over the Democratic Party on the issue of immigration.
Some key points about tariffs
Trump did not repeat Friday’s furious attack on the US Supreme Court for striking down his global tariffs. Instead, it has focused on asserting that it still has great influence over other tariff authorities (which is debatable).
However, he did provide some news about the tariffs.
On the one hand, he suggested that Congress not bother codifying its tariffs into law.
“Congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump said.
Of course, the tariffs make even many Republicans uncomfortable, and it seems unlikely that Congress will pass anything. But with his tariff authorities still uncertain, it was interesting to see Trump not asking Congress to approve something that has a better chance of being legally approved. (After all, the Constitution gives Congress the power to set tariffs.)
This suggests that Trump has not heeded Justice Neil Gorsuch’s call for the US government to begin including more legislation.
The president also made a big prediction.
I believe that tariffs paid by foreign countries will, as in the past, substantially replace the modern income tax system, taking a great financial burden off the people I love.”disse Trump.
In fact, in early American history, tariffs were the predominant form of taxation. But Trump probably shouldn’t wait too long for that.
Trump presents a rare case for possible attacks on Iran
One of the most pressing questions is what Trump will do regarding Iran. Eight months after attacking its nuclear facilities, the president admitted new attacks if Iranian leaders do not reach an agreement.
But even having done so, Trump has not presented a coherent or focused argument for war.
Trump claimed that Iran and its proxies “killed and maimed thousands of American service members” with roadside bombs. And he also said that the Iranian regime killed “it seems like 32,000 protesters”.
But perhaps most notable was that Trump spoke about the nuclear threat from Iran. And, for the first time, he tried to reconcile a new attack on Iran with his previous claims that he had “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear program just eight months ago.
“They have been warned not to make any future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, in particular, nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “Yet they keep starting over. We eliminated everything and they want to start over again — and right now they’re pursuing their sinister ambitions again.”
Trump concluded: he still prefers to reach an agreement.
Then he added:
But one thing is certain: I will never allow the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world, which is them [o Irão] by far, have a nuclear weapon. I can’t let that happen.”
A sinister phrase about electoral fraud
Another important subtext: what Trump could do on a more functional level to influence the 2026 midterm elections, which are proving increasingly difficult for the Republican Party.
Trump is pushing Congress hard to pass strict voter ID legislation called the “Save America Act”; his Department of Justice seized 2020 election ballots in Fulton County, Georgia; and the president spoke vaguely about “nationalizing” the elections.
Remember that Trump himself undertook an unprecedented effort to annul the 2020 elections based on falsehoods, showing that he is capable of going to extremes.
One statement stood out Tuesday night.
“They want to cheat”Trump said about the Democrats. “They cheated, and their politics are so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat. And we’re going to stop it. We have to stop it.”
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in recent elections, and Democrats have won many of them in recent US history. But this statement suggests that Trump could again go to very unpleasant extremes in a difficult election year for the Republican Party.
A characteristic cavalcade of falsehoods
Trump is no stranger to false claims, and his speech on Tuesday night was, unsurprisingly, full of them.
When he began to disclose his record, the US president quickly mentioned that he inherited “inflation at record levels”. But while the most recent reading was 2.4% in January, marking an eight-month low, in January 2025 it was 3.0%, which is far from any record. (It has fallen sharply in the last 2.5 years of Biden’s term, after reaching a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022.)
Trump also stated that he inherited a “totally open border”. But while border crossings reached 21st century lows this term, they had already dropped substantially by the end of President Joe Biden’s term.
Trump claimed that gasoline was below $2.3 per gallon in some states. The AAA association shows that the average price is not that low in any state.
And he stated that “investment commitments of more than 18 billion dollars are arriving from around the world”, which is an unreasonable exaggeration.
Trump also said, “More Americans are working today than at any other time in our country’s history.” This is strictly true, in terms of raw numbers, but it is due to population growth. In fact, the unemployment rate rose under Trump and job growth was anemic in 2025, one of the worst years in decades.
Trump claimed that we were in a “golden age” and that the “economy is growing like never before.” But to make that claim, he took a lot of liberties.
Democrats filed several protests
Tlaib and Omar were not the only congresswomen who ignored Democratic leaders’ pleas for lawmakers to avoid outbursts. (Tlaib urged Trump to release more Epstein files, while Omar accused the president of killing Americans).
At the beginning of the speech, Representative Al Green of Texas was escorted out of the chamber, as was the case during Trump’s address to Congress last year. When Trump entered the House chamber, Green displayed a sign behind him that said, “Black people are not monkeys!” — a reference to the fact that Trump recently shared and then deleted a racist video that portrayed the Obamas as apes.
Green was censured by the House after last year’s outburst.
And when Trump claimed to have ended eight wars, a Democrat echoed Republican Rep. Joe Wilson’s infamous outburst directed at then-President Barack Obama, calling Trump a liar.
Other members even made a point of leaving the Chamber in the middle of the speech.
