Sign Up Account Profile Log Out

Newsletters Morning Report 12:30 Report Evening Report Business Defense Health Care Technology Newsletter Energy & Environment Whole Hog Politics The Gavel The Movement

Technology Newsletter

NEWS Senate House Administration Courts Future America Media Campaign News Education In The Know Latino LGBTQ DC News Race & Politics State Watch Print Edition People in the News

POLICY Defense Health Care Energy & Environment Technology Transportation International Cybersecurity National Security Space Sustainability

BUSINESS Budget Taxes Personal Finance Lobbying

OPINION Columnists Congress Blog All Contributors Opinions – Campaign Opinions – Civil Rights Opinions – Criminal Justice Opinions – Cybersecurity Opinions – Education Opinions – Energy and Environment Opinions – Finance Opinions – Healthcare Opinions – Immigration Opinions – International Opinions – Judiciary Opinions – National Security Opinions – Technology Opinions – White House Submit Opinion Content

All Contributors Opinions – Campaign Opinions – Civil Rights Opinions – Criminal Justice Opinions – Cybersecurity Opinions – Education Opinions – Energy and Environment Opinions – Finance Opinions – Healthcare Opinions – Immigration Opinions – International Opinions – Judiciary Opinions – National Security Opinions – Technology Opinions – White House

Opinions – Civil Rights

Opinions – Criminal Justice

Opinions – Cybersecurity

Opinions – Energy and Environment

Opinions – Healthcare

Opinions – Immigration

Opinions – International

Opinions – National Security

Opinions – Technology

Opinions – White House

Submit Opinion Content

EVENTS Upcoming Events About

Sign Up Account Profile Log Out

Trump State of the Union

Trump approval rating

Content from Google Cloud

Opinion Trump’s delusional State of the Union address  Opinions - White House | 13 minutes ago

Trump says Iran is developing missiles that can reach US  Administration | 18 minutes ago

Live updates: Trump delivers record-setting State of the Union speech Administration | 18 minutes ago

Pentagon appeals order blocking punishment for Kelly Defense | 40 minutes ago

Trump blasts Democrats as ‘crazy’ after they decline to cheer teen gender transition ban Health Care | 42 minutes ago

Trump lauds his online drug platform as prescription drug win Health Care | 1 hour ago

Omar heckles Trump during comments about Somali community House | 1 hour ago

Trump says US hockey goaltender will get Presidential Medal of Freedom Administration | 1 hour ago

Trump’s delusional State of the Union address 

Tonight’s State of the Union address was not the speech President Trump wanted to give.  

Dogged by a record-low approval rating among independents, weighed down by an economy where only the rich are recovering and still fuming after the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling left his signature economic policies in tatters, Trump for once appeared unable to bend events to his own brand of unreality. His speech offered nothing of consequence to the majority of Americans who now say they are worse off today than they were a year ago.  

And so, Trump did the only thing he knows how to do. He talked — and talked, and talked.  

Clocking in at just over 2 hours, the annual address set the record for the longest self-soothing therapy session in American history. It hardly mattered to Trump that his speech offered no solutions for the growing problems facing millions of Americans; his speech was, as always, an overstuffed tribute to himself.   

Trump claimed plenty of victories, even if he had to make them up. He repeated his frequent claim that inflation is “plummeting,” even though most consumer prices are still rising. He took credit for the “biggest decline in crime in recorded history,” even though most of that decline came between 2023 and 2024, during President Joe Biden’s term. He claimed mortgage rates were at their “lowest point in over four years,” despite the fact that 30-year rates were 2 percentage points lower at this time in Biden’s presidency.

With his presidency on the ropes, it seemed no lie was too big or too desperate for Trump. 

“Our nation is back, bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before,” Trump boasted. Few Americans today would recognize the country he’s talking about. Fewer still would say they’ve felt its supposed prosperity. Broad swaths of voters who backed Trump in 2024 now question whether he even understands the economic harm his policies have caused — or if he cares at all.

Polls show that a growing number of voters are no longer buying Trump’s unreality, which might explain why he seemed so desperate to make the sale on Tuesday night. Sixty-eight percent of respondents now say Trump is “focused on the wrong problems” according to a new CNN poll. Meanwhile, a Council on Foreign Relations survey found that Americans across party lines blame Trump’s tariffs for the nation’s affordability crisis.  

Trump and his Republican enablers lack even the concepts of a plan to solve the problems facing the American people, so they’ve decided to pretend the problems don’t exist. The GOP should ask the Biden administration how well that scheme works. 

With no meaningful domestic policy victories to crow about, Trump instead ramped up his rhetoric against legal immigrants, the transgender community, and Democrats in general. In one particularly disgraceful moment, Trump made the baseless claim that legal immigration made America weaker and lobbed a plainly bigoted jab at Minnesota’s Somali community. 

“Somali pirates ransacked Minnesota through bribery, corruption and lawlessness. We are gonna take care of this problem. We are not playing games,” Trump said. “Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA.”  

Most of Trump’s venom against immigrants was simply reheated rhetoric from the 2024 campaign, including a promise to mandate a nationwide voter identification law and new laws banning undocumented migrants from voting and operating commercial vehicles — even though current laws already ban them from doing both. But warmed-over hatred is hatred just the same, and Trump seemed to relish the opportunity to portray America’s immigrant community as a problem to be solved.  

Trump dedicated nearly the entire final hour of his speech to divisive social issues and attacks on immigrants, which should offer Democrats a clear view of how Republicans plan to mount their midterm campaign later this year. Yet multiple polls show voters are panicking about the economy and the skyrocketing cost of health care.  

The latest data suggests more than 22 million people saw their insurance premiums spike after Republicans allowed the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies to expire at the end of last year. Those voters are less interested in transgender athletes and more concerned about affording their daily medication, as Virginia’s gubernatorial election last year made stunningly clear to GOP strategists. In that kind of national climate, Trump’s attempts to stoke social division simply fall flat.  

Trump had a chance to recast his bumbling second term with a series of bold new proposals and Trumpian flash. Instead, he offered a divisive and delusional rallying cry for an America that exists only in his head. That may make Trump feel better in the short term, but he’ll be in for a rude awakening when struggling Americans turn their discontent into votes later this year. 

Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies. 

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

More Opinions - White House News

Live updates: Trump delivers record-setting State of the Union speech

Gorsuch takes aim at fellow Supreme Court justices in tariff decision

Watch live: Spanberger delivers Democratic response to Trump's State of the ...

Hegseth says he’ll order random pizzas to throw off monitoring app

Platner holds double-digit lead on Mills, Collins in Maine Senate race: Poll

Watch live: Democrats protest Trump with ‘People’s State of the Union’ on ...

Omar heckles Trump during comments about Somali community

Durbin whistleblowers accuse Patel of jet usage, decision-making that hindered ...

Wall Street Journal: ‘Smart play’ would have been for Trump to forgo, pause ...

Cornyn: Democrat winning Senate race in Texas would be ‘first crack in the ...

Pam Bondi thought grand jurors were stupid. They showed her a thing or two.

Democrat wins special state House election in Maine 

White House plays hardball with Democrats over DHS shutdown

Trump’s delusional State of the Union address 

Senate Democrats emerge from secret Iran briefing warning of ...

Pennsylvania Democrats win state House special elections, keeping majority ...

Mark Kelly to attend Trump State of the Union address: ‘I feel it’s my ...

FCC got more complaints about Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension than about his ...

2024 Election Results

2024 Election Forecast

Regulation - Administration

Energy & Environment Video Clips

Health Care Video Clips

Technology Video Clips

Transportation Video Clips

International Video Clips

Cybersecurity Video Clips

National Security Video Clips

Contributors to The Hill

Submit Opinion Content

PRIVACY POLICY 09/30/2025

Advertise with Nexstar

Journalistic Integrity

THE HILL 400 N CAPITOL STREET NW, SUITE 650 WASHINGTON DC 20002

© 1998 - 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved.

Provided by Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Sign in to create a free account. No password needed.

By clicking on any of the sign up options below, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use, which includes a jury trial waiver and class action waiver, and that you have read our Privacy Policy detailing our collection, use and sharing of your personal information.

By clicking on any of the sign up options below, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use, which includes a jury trial waiver and class action waiver, and that you have read our Privacy Policy detailing our collection, use and sharing of your personal information.

The Hill is provided by Nexstar Media Group, Inc., and uses the My Nexstar sign-in, which works across our media network.

Learn more at nexstar.tv/privacy-policy.

The Hill is provided by Nexstar Media Group, Inc., and uses the My Nexstar sign-in, which works across our media network.

Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is a leading, diversified media company that produces and distributes engaging local and national news, sports, and entertainment content across its television and digital platforms. The My Nexstar sign-in works across the Nexstar network—including The CW, NewsNation, The Hill, and more. Learn more at nexstar.tv/privacy-policy.

Provided by Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Check your email inbox

Provided by Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Thanks for registering!

Provided by Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Are you sure you want to log out?

© The Hill