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Trump's retirement proposal

State of the Union Takeaways

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Democrats humiliated after SOTU stunts fail to stop Trump 

Another state of the union speech, another opportunity for Democrats to beclown themselves with pointless theatrics and feckless resistance. They booed and they jeered, and they sank to depraved new lows. More on that in a minute. 

As for President Trump, he treated us to an incredibly positive, moving State of the Union speech that celebrated the greatness of America and the triumphs of individual Americans — including the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team, which won the Gold Medal over Canada last weekend. Trump chose to recognize the players and even award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to goalie Connor Hellebuyck. 

And he recognized so many other American heroes, like Warrant Officer Eric Slover, who received the Medal of Honor for his heroism during the successful effort to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. 

I’ll be honest with you, folks, I am typically not a fan of the State of the Union, which usually involves endless interruptions and clapping for bad policy ideas — no matter who is in charge — most of which will never be implemented anyway. There’s too much pomp and self-importance. It’s a long commercial for a political party and I don’t care for those. For the first hundred years of our country, the president simply wrote a letter to Congress informing them of the State of the Union. It was Woodrow Wilson, one of America’s most authoritarian presidents, who started this tradition of making a big showy speech. I don’t like it. 

All that said, if we’re going to have a State of the Union, this is how it should be: short on unworkable policy ideas and long on celebration. Because this is America’s 250th anniversary. This is a great nation that has accomplished so much. We should celebrate our achievements, historically and presently. We should cheer our veterans and our all-star athletes. We should recognize greatness, and provide a source of inspiration to the next generation. 

And for as much as Trump is often portrayed as self-interested, or even self-obsessed, last night was the president at his best. Trump celebrated the greatness of others, delighting in handing out medals and calling for applause for exceptional individuals. Good for him. 

On the other hand, some Democrats descended to an embarrassing new low. No one fared worse than Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat I previously had a great deal of respect for. Khanna as of late has gone all in on the Epstein files conspiracy, and has accused random men of being criminally indicated Epstein co-conspirators. He even brought with him, as his guest, a self-described Epstein victim named Haley Robson. Here he was with Robson on CNN immediately prior to the State of the Union. 

Robson was apparently victimized by Epstein when she was underage. But after that, she actually became an Epstein accomplice. Yes, she has admitted publicly that for years she received payments from Epstein to supply him with access to underage girls. She instructed them to lie and say they were over 18. She referred to herself as a sort of Heidi Fleiss, the notorious madam, as far as Epstein goes. 

Let me state this very, very clearly: If anyone in Epstein’s orbit can be credibly accused of trafficking underage girls for sex, Haley Robson qualifies. 

So that’s a pretty stark difference between the two parties, no? For the state of the union, Trump brought a gold-medal-winning hockey team. The Democrats brought a woman who trafficked underage girls to Jeffrey Epstein. 

How very interesting. 

Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary. 

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

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