‘A defensive posture’: Trump speaks to Congress on shakier ground than last year

The president’s State of the Union, unlike his defiant celebratory address a year ago, comes after a string of major setbacks.

President Donald Trump delivers an address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on March 4, 2025. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

When Donald Trump stepped onto the rostrum inside the House chamber nearly a year ago, his celebratory, confrontational remarks to Congress amounted to a defiant victory dance — dismissing Democrats, denigrating his enemies and declaring the dawn of a new American golden age to be defined by “big dreams and bold action.”

Just as Trump promised, things have changed.

But as he is set to deliver this year’s State of the Union, the changes Trump has wrought have left him in a far weaker position, with the political capital of his emphatic 2024 victory long since spent, his party increasingly anxious about the looming midterms andhis approval ratings near record lows.

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