3️⃣ Things You May Have Missed in the State of the Union
The first State of the Union address I remember watching was during Bill Clinton’s first term, with my father quizzing me on the content afterward. While the speeches always seemed too long, I enjoyed watching the State of the Union, even as a teenager. This week, I didn’t want my teenage kids to watch Trump’s State of the Union, knowing that his speech would be replete with insults, xenophobia, and blatant lies. In a world irrevocably impacted by AI, it’s hard enough to detect fact from fiction. No one needs to hear the President of the United States distorting reality for an unprecedented 107 minutes in his State of the Union address.
Here are three key things you may have missed in Trump’s State of the Union amid the lies
First, he falsely took credit for American wins that were not his. Something that has long distinguished State of the Union speeches is the special guests. In most cases, these are average Americans whose lives were improved by the President’s policies. In his State of the Union, Donald Trump showcased wins and heroism that had nothing to do with him. He exploited the U.S. Men’s Hockey Team’s gold medal victory to conjure excitement. He honored heroic service members and elderly veterans with no connection to his presidency. He did not, and likely could not, recognize a single American with an income under a billion dollars who had directly benefited from his policies.
Touting a massive tax cut for billionaires that will cost more than 15 million Americans their healthcare might have been honest, but Trump knows it would not play well with voters. Instead, Trump created “good television” by exploiting other people’s heroism, victories, and pain.
Second, he called Somali immigrants “pirates” and praised Hamas. For the Jewish community, these aspects of the speech were particularly repugnant. Exposing the xenophobia and bigotry at the heart of his immigration policy, Trump falsely claimed “the Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption, and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception. Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA.”
We shouldn’t tolerate this hate, predicated on the racist and antisemitic Great Replacement Theory, especially not from the President of the United States. Of note, the President did not mention ICE agents when discussing Minnesota, which shows he knows the American people oppose his immigration enforcement crackdown that has resulted in two deaths of American citizens.
It was also jarring to hear the President praise Hamas for returning the bodies of Israelis they massacred, as they pledged to do as a part of Trump’s ceasefire agreement. While he has repeatedly said that Hamas cannot continue to govern Gaza, it appears Hamas is working to maintain control via Trump-supported entities affiliated with his Board of Peace. In the State of the Union, Trump took the time to laud Hamas’ efforts to find Israeli victims of Hamas terrorism. “They dug, and they dug, and they dug” were the exact words he used to praise Hamas’ “tough job” of exhuming the remains of Israeli hostages.
This wasn’t the first time Trump praised Hamas in the past week. Last Thursday, he encouraged the world to “give them credit” for “doing a lot of work” to complete the “brutal” job of digging up and returning the bodies of those it brutally slaughtered on and since October 7.
Hamas committed to returning every hostage, and, eventually, they did. But they don’t deserve obsequious praise for doing so, given the pure depravity of their actions. It’s the equivalent of a serial killer returning the bodies of its victims. One would think the U.S. president would understand this, but one can never assume a degree of morality or understanding when it comes to Donald Trump.
Third, he laid the groundwork for voter suppression and election subversion in the midterms, as Democrats won three elections during his speech. In the State of the Union, Trump repeated the baseless claim that “cheating is rampant in our elections” and “illegal aliens and other unpermitted persons” are voting. It’s illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, and research and recent state investigations have demonstrated that noncitizen registration and voting are essentially nonexistent. Trump and Stephen Miller likely know this, but it doesn’t stop them from exploiting this lie as a pretext to pass the SAVE Act, which will block millions of Americans from exercising their right to vote and require every state to hand over their unredacted voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security.
The SAVE Act is the most restrictive anti-voting bill in U.S. history, which appears to be part of the President’s plan to suppress voting and subvert elections in advance of the midterms. In his State of the Union, Trump called it “country-saving legislation” and made it clear it was his top priority, which should be passed “before anything else happens.” This is likely how Trump plans to ensure Republicans “have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country,” according to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Trump is clearly afraid of Democratic wins in the midterms, which he should be, given the fact that three occurred during his State of the Union address. In Pennsylvania on Tuesday, two Democrats won state House seats, securing a Democratic majority in the state legislature. In Maine, a Democrat won a state House seat, further solidifying Democrats’ hold on that state legislature. This continued a trend of Democrats consistently winning elections since November 2024, which clearly has Trump worried heading into the midterms, exacerbated by his plummeting approval rating.
We at JDCA are fighting the SAVE Act and fighting for Democratic election wins in November, so that Democrats can finally restore Congress’s role as a check on the White House and block Trump’s extreme agenda. Please support our work so we can do even more to ensure that next year’s State of the Union includes Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, sitting behind President Trump, as Speaker of the House and a true check on his authoritarianism.