President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET is likely to be a test run of the message Republicans will give to voters in November’s elections for control of the House and the Senate.
The president and his party appear vulnerable, with polls showing much of America distrusts how Trump has managed the government in his first year back in office. In addition, the Supreme Court last week struck down one of the chief levers of his economic and foreign policy by ruling he lacked the power to impose many of his sweeping tariffs.
Though Trump is expected to focus on domestic issues, his intensifying threats about launching military strikes on Iran over its nuclear program cast a shadow over the address.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will give the Democratic Party response following Trump’s speech. California Sen. Alex Padilla, who made national headlines last year after being forced to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents, will deliver the party’s response in Spanish.
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Lisa Phillips, who was invited by Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter of Oregon to attend in her place, said she was “just hoping for some type of acknowledgment” from the president during his address.
Phillips said she is “really close” with the other Epstein survivors who are attending, and while she felt a bit overwhelmed before her first State of the Union, it is always empowering to “stand here with my survivor sisters.”
“We’re not stopping until all the files are released,” she said.
Here are some recent averages:
— Joe Biden: 1:07:22
— Barack Obama: 1:02:45
— George W. Bush: 52:35
— Lyndon Johnson: 50:38
— George H.W. Bush: 45:32
— Gerald Ford: 45:31
— Ronald Reagan: 40 minutes (approx.)
— Jimmy Carter: 36:53
— Richard Nixon: 35:26
Measured in words, the brevity award goes to George Washington for his first speech. On Jan. 8, 1790, he spoke 1,089 words.
The president will be entering a Capitol where lawmakers are at an impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security as Democrats demand changes to how federal immigration agents conduct raids.
Legislation to fund the department failed to advance in the Senate yet again Tuesday evening as every Democrat present except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted against it. There has been little sign of movement toward an agreement to reopen DHS since it shut down 10 days ago.
The president says to expect a long address. He’s already been the most loquacious president from LBJ forward, as measured by the University of California Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project.
Trump’s joint addresses and State of the Union speeches in his first presidency averaged 80 minutes and 20 seconds. Last year, his joint address topped 99 minutes – longer than any recorded State of the Union.
Only Bill Clinton, at almost 75 minutes, regularly approached Trump’s duration.
At 11 years old, Everest Nevraumont has three regional history bee titles and her own TEDx talk. On Tuesday she’ll add another honor: guest to the first lady at the State of the Union.
“Like everybody in the entire world is watching it, and I’m right there in the same room,” Everest said in a Tuesday interview.
The first lady champions the use of artificial intelligence — one of Everest’s passions. Her TEDx talk explores how she uses AI to learn, and she’s a student at the Alpha School in Austin, Texas, where learning is powered by AI.
Everest said she’s been using AI tools to study the history of the State of the Union. She was thrilled to get a tour of the White House (she loved the paintings and the “poofy” furniture).
Being chosen to sit with the first lady reflects AI’s growing national importance, she said, and also that “academic achievements like the history bee actually really pay off.”
The administration is trying to make the case that, despite Trump’s rewiring of global trade and tax cuts, the economy is still struggling because of choices made in 2021 and 2022 by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. But Trump is also seeking to take credit for positive signs in the current economy, such as recent stock market gains.
“Watch the State of the Union. We’re going to be talking about the economy. We inherited a mess,” Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.
Of course, Trump made the same kind of argument in his address to a joint session of Congress last year, invoking the Biden name 13 times.
Just days ago, a new Gallup poll found that Democrats have an extraordinarily dark view of national conditions — even compared to Trump’s first term in office.
The poll measured Americans’ attitudes toward 30 conditions in their lives and in the U.S. more broadly, including personal finances, moral values, quality of health care, and the quality of public education.
Only about 27% of Democrats rated these conditions positively, on average, giving them a more negative outlook than either major party has seen under any recent presidency.
Republicans, meanwhile, have a much sunnier outlook, which is typical for the party currently in power.
Speaker Mike Johnson will display George Washington’s gavel during the State of the Union.
The U.S. Capitol Historical Society says it’s the first time the gavel will be displayed during the president’s speech to Congress. It will sit on the rostrum in honor the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
Washington used the gavel in 1793 to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol building, according to the Historical Society. It’s been maintained ever since by the Potomac Lodge No. 5, a Masonic Lodge in Washington, D.C.
“At the Capitol site, Washington stepped into a dug trench, laid a silver plate onto the ground, and set the cornerstone atop it,” the Capitol Historical Society wrote in a news release. “He was accompanied by brethren who conducted a Masonic ritual with corn (a symbol of nourishment), wine (a symbol of refreshment), and oil (a symbol of joy). Witnesses then chanted and celebrated until night.”
Rep. Katherine Clark, the House Democratic whip, says she will skip the State of the Union address and instead attend an alternative event.
A large portion of the Democratic Caucus is planning to not attend the president’s speech, and Clark is one of the highest ranked in leadership to make that move.
“Rather than listen to Donald Trump lie to the American people, I will be hearing from the people of my district about their personal experiences with skyrocketing costs, new barriers to health care, dismantled Social Security services, and brutal cuts to medical research,” she said in a statement.
In the era of written messages, Americans could read the president’s report to Congress because newspapers around the country routinely reprinted excerpts or full text.
Then came mass media, allowing Americans to hear and see the president in real time. Radio audiences first heard Calvin Coolidge’s State of the Union in 1923. Truman followed with the first televised address in 1947. Lyndon Johnson moved to prime time in 1965.
Cable network expansion led to televised focus groups. Select voters listened and reacted word by word — a breakthrough in public opinion research.
George W. Bush’s White House offered the first livestream address in 2002. Barack Obama’s White House set a new curve in 2013 by adding infographics to the stream.
And now, in the social media age, snippets of the speech and commentary circulate widely — from power players and everyday voters — even as the president still speaks.
Speaking at a news conference with Senate Democrats, Dani Bensky said she and other victims want the Department of Justice to release “every single file,” to investigate those “who caused harm to so many victims” and to properly redact their information when files are released.
Bensky has said she was sexually abused by Epstein two decades ago. She said Tuesday that she felt victimized again when her information was exposed in a recent release of Epstein’s case files.
Schumer said “the American people deserve the truth and survivors deserve accountability.”
The president’s annual message was once a catch-all report of the executive branch, especially in the era when it was written.
That changed over the first half of the 20th century. In 1921, Congress passed the National Budget and Accounting Act, which effectively required the president to submit a separate budget proposal — even if Congress never acts on it. The Employment Act of 1946 paved the way for a separate economic report from the administration.
The latter change dovetailed with the advent of the television political era, with Truman’s televised speech in 1947.
The speech has remained policy-heavy since then but presidents from Truman forward have been freer to make an inherently political pitch for their agenda — speaking in front of Congress but clearly aiming beyond the House chamber to voters at home.
Jeffries says Trump should use his speech “as an opportunity to apologize to the American people for breaking every single promise that he made — particularly his promise to lower the high cost of living on Day One.”
Affordability has been top of mind for many lawmakers after Trump late last year called affordability a “hoax.”
“Nobody out there in America believes it’s a hoax, because far too many people are struggling to live paycheck. to paycheck,” Jeffries said.
While inflation has cooled some, dropping to 2.7% in January, the cost of food, gas, and apartment rents have soared after the pandemic, with consumer prices still about 25% higher than they were five years ago.
Following a classified briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the escalating tensions with Iran “an extraordinarily serious time.”
Warner said Trump should “make the case what our country’s goals are, what our country’s interests are and how we’re going to protect American interests in the region.”
One of the traditions of a president’s State of the Union is the customary lunch with anchors from the major television networks.
Usually off the record, the lunch is a chance for the president to fill in top newscasters on his thinking ahead of the high-profile address.
This year, Trump invited three other outlets to the lunch: Breitbart, Newsmax and NewsNation. Leavitt said all those outlets “deserve a seat at the highly coveted table.”
LBJ delivered the first prime time State of the Union in 1965. Networks gave Republicans a response time the following year and have done so since.
Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois and House Minority Leader (and future President) Gerald Ford of Michigan shared that first response.
The role often goes to perceived rising stars (Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will follow Trump). But it’s a thankless task. The president has the pomp and circumstance of the House chamber — impossible scenes and effects to replicate.
Results vary widely. Some, like Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams in 2019, get mostly positive reviews only to fade from the spotlight. Others, like Marco Rubio in 2013, get panned — and end up as secretary of state and a potential presidential contender.
Only Ford, George H.W. Bush (1978), Bill Clinton (1985) and Joe Biden (1986) have later given a State of the Union address themselves.
“I recognize every one of you. I know every one of you,” Trump said as the players entered. “Big guys,” he observed.
Trump stood by his desk and shook hands with the players as each one approached. They wore dark long-sleeved tops with “USA,” the American flag and the Olympic rings on the front and light colored pants.
Their gold medals hung around their necks.
The teammates posed for a photograph on the South Lawn and also took in the collection of presidential portraits Trump installed along a walkway between the White House residence and the West Wing.
Democratic leaders say negotiations with the White House over reopening the Department of Homeland Security are at a stalemate as they demand changes to federal immigration enforcement.
The department’s funding expired Jan. 30. Schumer said Tuesday that Democrats “have heard crickets” from the White House since they sent a proposal to end the shutdown last week.
He said the White House “has not budged on the key issues” like requiring agents to take off masks and obtain warrants before entering homes. Federal agents shot and killed two protesters in Minneapolis last month.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that “until that changes, the DHS funding bill is not going to move forward.”
“There hasn’t been any real, recent communication with the White House,” Jeffries said.
Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump will call on Democrats to reopen the department in his State of the Union speech Tuesday evening.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said there will be some members who sit in “silent defiance,” and others who choose not to attend Trump’s speech.
“Some are coming and some are not,” Senate Democratic Leader Schumer said.
Speaker Mike Johnson had criticized those boycotting, but Jeffries said it’s each member’s choice based on what makes the most sense for their constituents back home.
Jeffries said the Republicans, in the majority in Congress, are in no position to lecture because rather than operate as a separate and co-equal branch of government, they’re a “reckless rubber stamp” for Trump’s agenda.
Trump will announce as part of his State of the Union that tech companies involved in artificial intelligence are agreeing to pay higher electricity rates in areas where their data centers are located, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the speech.
The official said it would be one of many announcements related to the economy.
Data centers tend to use large volumes of electricity, creating a concern that they could lead to higher prices for households at a time when affordability is a leading concern for the electorate. The Wall Street Journal first reported the president’s plans to discuss.
— Joshua Boak
Trump invited the team to his State of the Union address after it brought home a gold medal by defeating Canada at the just-concluded Olympics in Italy.
It was not immediately clear if Trump would hold a press appearance at the White House with the members of the team.
The address comes on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Olga Stefanishyna, said she expects that Trump, who has made ending the war a priority and whose advisers have been mediating peace negotiations, will touch on the conflict in his address.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained maximalist demands, insisting Kyiv pull its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured. Trump argues it’s inevitable that Russia will win control of the Ukrainian territory and has pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to save lives.
“We do not expect that … everything we heard before will change into something new, and you know we will hear something extremely like positive or you know inspiring,” Stefanishyna told reporters. “But at the same time, we want President Trump to hear us ahead of the speech that, you know, despite all the complexity and tragedy of what is happening in Ukraine, still Ukrainian people very much rely on his leadership.”
Some Democrats in Minnesota’s congressional delegation are using their privilege of inviting guests to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech to protest his administration’s immigration crackdown.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minneapolis, invited four people impacted by Operation Metro Surge. They include Aliya Rahman, a disabled U.S. citizen who was filmed being pulled from her car by ICE officers on her way to a medical appointment; and Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights School Board, who championed 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, an Ecuadorian boy who was detained with his father and sent to a detention center in Texas.
But GOP Rep. Pete Stauber, from northeastern Minnesota, invited two conservative YouTubers — Nick Shirley and David Hoch — whose report alleging fraud at Minnesota child care centers caught Trump’s attention and provided an impetus for the surge.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel will be worth watching for anyone wanting clues about their standing.
Trump has publicly backed all three but each is under public scrutiny.
Noem survived a shake-up of Trump’s immigration crackdown. But she did not testify during DHS congressional hearings after two citizen protesters were killed in Minneapolis.
Bondi defended the president in a congressional hearing over the Jeffrey Epstein case files but has drawn criticism even from some Republicans for her handling of the matter.
Patel, after taking heat over the Epstein files, as well, is getting renewed attention after traveling to Milan for the Olympics even as he previously critiqued Democratic officials’ use of government resources to travel.
Trump notably did not call on either Noem or Bondi during his last Cabinet meeting that featured agency heads praising the president.
Leavitt said on X that Charlie Kirk’s widow will be one of the president’s guests.
“The president will call on Congress to ‘firmly reject political violence against our fellow citizens’ with Charlie Kirk’s widow in the chamber,” Leavitt posted.
Trump spoke at Kirk’s Arizona memorial service, where Erika Kirk said she forgave her husband’s assassin “because it was what Christ did. And is what Charlie would do.”
The president said during the service that he held a different view: “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry. I am sorry, Erika.”
The White House says the guests who will sit with the first lady in the House gallery during the speech include:
Ten-year-old Everest Nevraumont, a student at the Alpha School in Austin, Texas, where learning is powered by artificial intelligence. Everest is a public speaker and advocate for AI education who gave a TEDx talk on how she uses the technology in her learning.
The first lady champions the use of AI and launched the Presidential AI Challenge, a White House-sponsored contest for students.
Foster care advocate Sierra Burns, 24, of Greenville, South Carolina. Burns grew up in foster care and benefited from the first lady’s Foster Youth to Independence Program. Last year, Melania Trump secured $30 million in funding to help young people transition out of foster care.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver Tuesday night’s Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union from Colonial Williamsburg, invoking the historic backdrop as she frames her message.
Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum with restored 18th-century buildings and interpreters, is seen as the center of Virginia’s early opposition to British rule. Spanberger’s team says she plans to draw on that legacy and connect it to the country’s current political moment.
In her brief rebuttal, Spanberger is also expected to emphasize affordability — the message her team credits with helping her secure a double-digit victory in flipping a previously Republican-held office.
The women of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus and their guests, including a number of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, are dressing in all white for the address this evening, modeling themselves after the early 20th-century women who pressed for the right to vote and other rights.
“Tonight, when Donald Trump looks out into the chamber, he will see a wall of white,” said Democratic Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaii.
Some lawmakers are also wearing pins that express support for Epstein survivors and call for the release of case files on Epstein that do not redact information on his associates.
“We are standing here in solidarity so that we are not forgotten,” said Sharlene Rochard, one of the survivors,
The House speaker said Democrats protest everything, from the president’s joint address to the administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.
“It’s shameful,” Johnson said.
He said the Democrats have nothing to offer but their “TDS agenda” — what the president’s supporters call “Trump Derangement Syndrome” by those opposed to the president’s policies.
Shown is the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Shown is the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Shown is the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Containers are stacked at the Port of Long Beach Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Long Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Allyson Phillips, the mother of Laken Riley, is hugged by President Donald Trump, during an event to proclaim "Angel Family Day" in the East Room of the White House, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Shown is the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
