President Trump started in sales mode, using his State of the Union address to deliver an upbeat vision of the US economy. But that portrayal collides with the sentiment of Americans who remain anxious about their finances and feel they haven't benefited from Trump's policies. He took the high road to honor the gold medal-winning US men's Olympic hockey team and a war hero before pivoting abruptly to a darker tone as he ridiculed Democrats. He focused much of the first hour of his record-setting one-hour, 48-minute speech on the economy, something Republicans had urged him to do as they head into the midterm elections. Here are takeaways from the speech from the AP:
- Economy: Much of the nation is worried about the direction of the economy, but Trump says the good times are here, insisting repeatedly that rising costs are no longer a problem. "The roaring economy is roaring like never before," he said. He cheered the lower cost of gasoline, mortgage rates, prescription drug prices and the rising stock market: "Millions and millions of Americans are all gaining." Such optimism, as so many Americans are feeling economic strains, risks painting Trump as out of touch. Just 39% of US adults approved of Trump's handling of the economy in February, according to AP-NORC polling.
- Patriotism: For a president who always seems to be spoiling for a fight, Trump also tried to summon Americans' innate patriotic impulses. In addition to the hockey team, he singled out war heroes and those who had taken brave stands in other countries, using the moment to bestow numerous presidential medals in an effort to give the address a more positive gloss. It underscored the president's media savvy and understanding that even if a moment isn't appreciated completely in real time, it can have an afterlife in the days following speech, especially on social media. Yet in one revealing moment, Trump lamented why he couldn't give a congressional medal to himself.
- A negative turn: The Republican president soon took aim at Democrats and blamed them for many of the nation's ills. Trump said rising health care premiums are "caused by you," suggested Democrats "are not protecting" Social Security and blamed them for the nation's affordability crunch. "You caused that problem. You caused that problem," Trump said as he glared at the Democratic side of the room. He seemed to get angrier as the speech progressed. "These people are crazy, I'm telling you, they're crazy," he said. "Democrats are destroying this country."
- SCOTUS: By Trump's standards, he held his tongue when it came to the Supreme Court. After the court struck down his tariff policy last week, Trump said the justices who voted against one of his signature issues were an "embarrassment to their families." By Tuesday, he simply called the ruling "unfortunate." Trump sought to treat the ruling with indifference, insisting that tariff revenues were "saving" the US, ignoring the fact that the levies haven't made a significant dent in government debt. He said the tariffs were paid by foreign countries even as virtually every study concludes that costs have been paid by US firms and consumers.
- Elections: The president also used the speech to reprise his attack on the integrity of US elections. "Cheating is rampant in our elections," Trump said. Trump has made such claims for years, focused on his 2020 election loss, claims rejected by dozens of courts and his own attorney general at the time. "They want to cheat. They have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat," Trump said of Democrats. "And we're going to stop it. We have to stop it."
- Minneapolis: Sometimes what's not said is as notable as what is. Trump has highlighted immigration since the very first speech in which he announced his 2016 presidential campaign. And on Tuesday night, he revived much of the same language he's used throughout the past decade, blasting "criminal aliens" and warning of "drug lords, murderers all over our country." What he didn't mention: the most aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that threatened to bring the US to the brink earlier this year. He didn't mention the deaths of two US citizens in Minneapolis last month at the hands of federal agents. And he made no acknowledgement of the broad concerns in the US about Trump's approach on immigration, as demonstrated by the 60% of US adults who disapproved of his handling of the issue in February, according to AP-NORC polling.
- Iran: Trump has already built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. And in his speech, he outlined a rationale for using those forces to launch a major military strike against Iran. The president said that Iran and its proxies have "spread nothing but terrorism, death and hate," adding that its leaders have killed at least 32,000 protesters in recent weeks. He also warned that the nation has developed missiles that can threaten Europe and is working on missiles "that will soon reach" the US.
For more, the AP fact-checks the SOTU here.
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