President Donald Trump delivered the marathon State of the Union (SOTU) he promised, speaking for more than an hour and 40 minutes and setting a modern record for the longest address before a joint session of Congress—surpassing both his own mark from last year and the benchmark held since Bill Clinton’s 2000 speech.
Barbara Perry: POTUS v. SCOTUS
It was meaningful that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett attended this year’s SOTU. Arrayed in their traditional black robes, their garb separates them from politicians, as did the recent decision in which three Republican-appointed justices, including two by Trump (Barrett and Neil Gorsuch), led by Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, decided against his unconstitutional imposition of tariffs as an “emergency” action.
Trump attacked the High Court as issuing an “unfortunate” ruling, while the three justices (Roberts, Kagan, Barrett), who had joined the six-person majority, and Kavanaugh, who authored a dissent, sat impassively. Like the uniformed military leader, justices do not join in the partisan pep rally.
J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center
Paul du Quenoy: Trump Laid Out ‘Irrefutable Triumphs’
In a superbly crafted and highly memorable speech, President Trump laid out the irrefutable triumphs of his second administration’s first year – falling inflation, declining prices, record-low unemployment, record-high stock markets, solid border control, falling crime, and numerous foreign policy successes, among others.
In between, he recognized deserving American heroes, from a serviceman who performed heroic feats in the Korean War to the U.S. Olympic hockey team, which won the gold medal just two days ago.
With “affordability” the key word in the approaching 2026 midterm elections, the President flipped the script, correctly observing that the Democrats ushered in the troubled economic conditions that threatened to immiserate the country while his administration has worked steadily to reverse them. Scowling and miserable, all the Democrats – other than the 72 who unpatriotically boycotted the speech – could do was contemplate how high a hill they have to climb to convince Americans that they will be a better choice.
Paul du Quenoy is President of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute.
Daniel R. DePetris: Trump ‘Failed to Deliver’
For those looking for a little more clarity about Trump’s strategy toward Iran, the two-hour State of the Union speech was not the place to get it.
Other than reiterating his demand that Iran not be allowed to have nuclear weapons—a goal nobody would find controversial—Trump’s remarks didn’t provide us any clue about how he intends to tackle the challenge or what kind of agreement would be acceptable to him.
This was disappointing considering that dozens of fighter aircraft and two carrier strike groups are now in the Middle East to execute another bombing mission against Tehran if the order is given. Trump had the opportunity to make a cogent, detailed case but failed to deliver it.
Daniel R. DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a syndicated foreign affairs columnist at the Chicago Tribune.
Steve Cortes: ‘Focus Should be on Topeka, Not Tehran.’
Our problems are here at home, not across the oceans. After four years of the slog of Bidenomics, working-class Americans are still anxious and pessimistic, for totally understandable reasons. They worked harder to get poorer, all through the misery of Biden’s inflation nightmare.
Now, the trajectory improves, markedly. Real incomes soar, the true “mother’s milk” of Main Street prosperity. Inflation is tamed. Rents hit a 4-year low.
These are tangible achievements, with more to come! In the SOTU, the president owned this message of economic ascent, and he should!
But too much of the address tonight focused on overseas issues.
Our focus should be on Topeka, not Tehran.
Political commentator and former financial market strategist.
Kevin Powell: All The President’s Mud
President Trump’s State of the Union address was circus-like fanfare masquerading as unity and success.
He bullied, finger-pointed, and peddled fear and racism. Whether an endless tirade on “illegal aliens” (people of color), the dismantling of DEI (people of color), or proof of voter citizenship (people of color), on display was an ugly verbal violence that eerily undermines his proclamation of a “golden age.”
I travel America nonstop: prices for basic necessities are too high, ICE is even assaulting and killing American citizens, and best he offered was more division and meanness, in the midst of this nation’s 250th birthday.
Grammy-nominated poet and author
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