President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union (SOTU) address Tuesday night was not only the longest such speech in history but also perhaps his best ever. It serves as a bookend to his second innaugural speech, where sour Democratic representatives and senators also grimaced and shook their heads.
Trump stuck to a clear message and theme: America is great again, America is respected again, America is, indeed, America again “and we will never go back to where we were just a very short time ago. We’re not going back.” Not going back to those Democrats sitting on their hands.
Trump referenced America’s “roaring economy” that has so far outstripped the dismal fiscal performance of the previous Democratic administration and said we are only talking about “affordability” because the Democrats made life unaffordable under former President Joe Biden.
And while Trump condemned Democratic policies – especially the ones that left the southern border open to a literal invasion of the United States by illegals and human traffickers – he did not spend much of the evening eviscerating his political opponents, choosing instead to remind not just the Republican base but all Americans of the record he has already amassed.
But this was certainly about reminding the MAGA base that they need to come out in great numbers in November to vote in the midterm elections so that his 2027 address is before a joint session of Congress that is led by a Republican speaker and Senate majority leader, and not one that's been turned over to Democrats.
Trump emphasized the policies that have continued to embolden conservatives and libertarians who call the Republican Party home because it is led by a man who actually listens to what they believe the public policy debate should be about. Trump delivered for them: he talked about how he has ended Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, defended parental rights against transgender mutilation ideology, scrapped the “Green New Scam,” undermined sanctuary cities, insisted upon voter ID so elections can’t be “stolen,” opposed giving drivers’ licences to illegal immigrants and, of course, sealed the southern border with Mexico and stopped the horrible importation of sex slaves that the Biden administration still hasn’t been brought to account for allowing and perhaps even encouraging.
“But surely we can all agree, no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents will. Who would believe that we've been talking about? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.”
He reminded his global audience that America was again a land of faith in God as he lamented the murder of his “friend,” former Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk with Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk among those in the gallery and clearly affected by the president’s brief eulogy.
But perhaps the highlight of the evening was the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor to two heroes from conflicts that were over 70 years apart. Trump gave the nation’s highest military decoration to US Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover for his high-risk participation in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Madura and a second to retired US Navy Captain E. Royce Williams for his service in the Korean War.
The introduction of the Olympic gold medal winning US men’s hockey team was a close second. Trump loves to surround himself with winners as he said America just can’t win too many times: “And I say, No, no, no, you're going to win again. You're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever. And to prove that point, to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud The men's gold medal Olympic Hockey Team. Come on in.”
The last 20 minutes of Trump’s speech was all about heroic Americans, not just those exhibiting courage in the military but those average Americans who demonstrate how the United States remains the home of the brave.
And Trump insisted that as a president of peace, he will not use those Americans in endless foreign wars.
Although you’re never quite sure when a Trump speech is concluding – he could be almost there but then get distracted by his own words and begin to follow a different path – that was not the case on Tuesday night.
“Americans built this nation from 13 humble colonies into the pinnacle of human civilization and human freedom, the strongest, wealthiest, most powerful, most successful nation in all of history … We raised up the world's greatest cities together. We mastered the world's mightiest industries and shattered histories, monstrous tyrannies, and we liberated millions from the chains of fascism, communism, oppression and terror. Americans lifted humanity into the skies on the wings of aluminum and steel, and then we launched mankind into the stars on rockets powered by sheer American will and unyielding American pride,” he said.
And for anyone who believes the best is yet to come under Trump, it is perhaps his unshakeable belief in America's heritage and unquenchable faith in America’s future that keeps that dream alive.
