With his approval rating at an all time low – lower than any other President ever at this point in his second term – Trump will have to get up and insist the “state of our union is strong”, even as he stares down an absolute pasting in November’s midterms
Donald Trump will give his annual State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday – and this year’s address is likely to be …eventful.
With his approval rating at an all time low – lower than any other President ever at this point in his second term – Trump will have to get up and insist the “state of our union is strong”, even as he stares down an absolute pasting in November’s midterms. And while his strategists will want him to stick to issues that matter to American voters – chiefly what he’s planning to do about the spiralling cost of living – there is exactly zero chance of anything resembling message discipline from his lengthy speech. Trump’s 2026 State of the Union will take place on Tuesday night, 24th February, at 9pm ET – which is 2am in the UK.
Here’s some things to look out for during Trump’s 2026 State of the Union.
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1. Affordability
Trump’s strategy team are very keen to get him to talk more about affordability, and specifically the things he’s done or has planned to make the cost of living more manageable for struggling families. An example they’re very keen to push is the deal Trump struck to lower drug prices.
Problem with Trump, though, is that he doesn’t want to talk about people struggling to get by. He wants to boast about how great everything is. So when he talks about affordability, he tends to talk about it like it’s a hoax, a trap set by the Democrats, or something he’s already fixed.
Which if you’re an American family looking at the price of Corn Flakes, does not resonate, to put it mildly.
The other problem is that he’s genuinely not at all interested in how families are struggling to get by. It’s not a topic that he spends time thinking about. His team had a big summit meeting last Friday about being laser focused on the cost of living – and within days he was hosting a meeting of his “Board of Peace”, the poundshop SPECTRE of the leaders of repressive regimes he’s assembled to rival the UN and make him world king for life. His first speech of a rebooted “affordability tour” saw him spend most of the time talking about tariffs, a policy which literally makes the cost of living higher. He’s been signing orders promoting the production of weedkiller, boasting that he’s been “completely exonerated” in the Epstein Files, which he absolutely has not, and banging on about Iran. Speaking of which…
2. Iran
By the time he gets up on stage on Tuesday evening, there’s every chance the US will have launched strikes against Iran. Troops were reportedly served some pretty fancy grub last night, which led many to suggest the strikes might be launched as soon as today. All of which means all anyone will be interested in from the speech will be what he says about Iran.
3. Tariffs
Asked at a press conference last night whether the Supreme Court Justices were still invited to the State of the Union, despite ruling his tariffs were illegal, Trump said: “Yes, barely.”
The Supremes tend to sit front and centre at the SotU, which will be exceptionally awkward given the pasting the linchpin of Trump’s entire agenda got from them this week. Given how furious he clearly is about the decision, we can’t imagine he’ll get through the speech without having a few pops at them.
And every time he brings them up, he undermines the one thing he should be talking about – affordability. It’s an incredibly unpopular policy, because most people blame it for their shopping getting more expensive. And at this point he’s not only championing a policy that makes life more costly for struggling families, he’s looking for loopholes to keep the policy going.
4. Special guests
Usually the President invites special guests to attend the State of the Union. Real people, public servants like hero cops or dedicated doctors, they’re used as props to help the President tell a story about his agenda.
For example, in 2018, Trump invited the family of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016, was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died soon after his parents requested his feeding tube be removed. Trump told Warmbier’s story during his speech, giving his feud with Kim Jong Un some emotional weight in the speech.
He also surprised many by handing the late right wing shock jock Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom mid-speech in 2020 – a moment which his base very much enjoyed.
We don’t yet know who his special guests will be, but their names are likely to be trailed heavily on the day.
5. Protests
Trump’s more recent addresses to congress have been interrupted by protests from Democrats.
At last year’s joint address to congress (which is what they call the State of the Union during the first year of a president’s term), Texas Congressman Al Green stood and shouted early in the speech, objecting to Medicaid cuts among other things, refused to sit, and was escorted out by the Sergeant at Arms after Speaker Mike Johnson called for order.
Democrats held up protest signs including “Save Medicaid” and “No King!”, and other outlets reported signs such as “This is NOT Normal.”
6. It will be long
Last year’s speech was the longest on record, at 100 minutes. This year’s speech will almost certainly be longer.