Trump showed how desperate he was tonight

Feb 25, 2026

At 9 pm, Donald J. Trump began what would become the longest State of the Union address in American history. For one hour and forty-eight minutes, he stood in front of the country and delivered a speech that was not about the state of our union at all, but about the state of his own power, and how desperate he is to hold onto it as it slips further and further out of his control. It was full of deliberate lies from start to finish, packed with racist talking points, made-up statistics, twisted grievances, and the kind of unhinged rhetoric that made clear just how afraid he is, not only that the truth about his ties to Epstein will finally come out, but that the full impact of what he’s done to our economy, to our international alliances, to the rule of law, and to the basic systems that hold this country together will finally catch up to him.

And if there was still any doubt about what this night was really about, he erased it himself with this: “These people are crazy. I’m telling you, they’re crazy. Amazing. We’re lucky we have a country. With people like this, Democrats are destroying our country, but we’ve stopped it just in the nick of time, didn’t we?” That’s what the President of the United States said tonight, into the microphone, on national television, in between demands for applause and pauses to catch his breath.

“This is the golden age of America,” he said, through mouth breathing, while leaning on the podium for support. And that’s when the lies began. He said the economy was bad before he took office, and now it had a “stunning economic turnaround”, the “biggest in history.” And then he launched into one of the most bizarre moments of the night: “People are asking me: Please, please, please, Mr. President, we’re winning too much. We can’t take it anymore. We’re not used to winning in our country. Until you came along, we were just always losing, but now we’re winning too much.” No one is saying this. No one has ever said this. This is a man constructing a fantasy in real time and then responding to it as if it were a conversation he actually had. And the room clapped for it.

Then came the line he always circles back to, the one that slipped out again tonight without hesitation: “So in my first year of the second term, it should be my third term, but strange things happen.” He said it like a joke. But this isn’t a joke. This is the President of the United States once again suggesting that the two-term limit doesn’t apply to him. That what happened in 2020 was somehow stolen. That the rules are optional when he doesn’t like the outcome. Is he saying he had no plans to leave? That he still doesn’t? We can’t pretend these moments don’t matter. Because he keeps saying it out loud. And the danger is pretending he doesn’t mean every word of it.

The economic lies were relentless. He claimed tariffs were bringing in “hundreds of billions of dollars” and that the countries we trade with were “happy.” He boasted about an economic turnaround he called “the biggest in history,” saying the Dow broke 50,000 “four years ahead of schedule.” He keeps saying this, over and over again. The Dow hitting 50,000 has become his favorite talking point, the thing he clings to whenever he needs cover, whenever he wants to justify what his administration is doing to the rest of the country. It’s what they’ve been using to explain away every dangerous thing they’ve done. Yes, we might be tearing apart families, gutting federal agencies, attacking the courts, and dismantling international alliances, but look at the Dow. That’s the trade-off they want us to accept. Our rights, safety, and democracy, in exchange for a number on a screen that most Americans will never benefit from. And then he said, with a straight face, “I put America first. I love America.” A blatant lie from a man who has never put anything first but himself.

He told the country that tariffs could eventually “substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love.” This is untrue. The tariffs will not replace income tax. The Supreme Court just struck down his IEEPA tariffs, and his response was to say he would continue them under “alternative legal statutes” and that “Congressional action will not be necessary.” He said it plainly. He doesn’t need Congress. He doesn’t need the courts. He’ll do whatever he wants regardless. That’s not a president. That’s a dictator telling you to your face that the rules don’t apply to him.

And he also said, without any evidence, “22 Nobel Prize winners in economics” got it “totally wrong” about his economy and that only he called it correctly. This is the language of a man who believes he is smarter than every expert, every institution, and every system of accountability that exists. That belief is not just delusional. It is dangerous.

He talked about the military and bragged about how our “fighting force” was better than ever and mentioned Space Force, calling it “my baby, because we did that, my baby is becoming so important.” What president talks like that? Calling a department of the United States government “my baby”? This is the language of ownership, not service. Everything is his. The military is his. The government is his. The country is his. That’s not how a democracy works. That’s how a monarchy works.

There were medals and tributes to military service members, and they deserved every one of them. Nothing should change that. But he cheapens it. He makes a mockery of their sacrifice. He parades them. You can tell they’re still suffering, still battling things we can’t begin to understand, and he treats their service like a set piece in his show. And to make it worse, right after awarding actual heroes who earned their recognition through blood and sacrifice, he said this:

“I’ve always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor, but I was informed I’m not allowed to give it to myself, and I wouldn’t know why I’d be takin’ it. If they ever open up that law, I will be there with you someday.”

The President of the United States, a man who has never served a single day in uniform, just told the country he wants that sacred medal for himself. He’s not even hiding it anymore. He wants the awards without the sacrifice, or the service, and without earning any of it. And the worst part is, it’s not just embarrassing. It’s dangerous. Because it leaves this country vulnerable to strongmen around the world who know exactly how to manipulate a man like Trump, just offer him something shiny in exchange for something terrifying. And he’ll give it.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, he demanded Congress pass the SAVE Act, his voter suppression bill dressed up as election security. He demanded voter ID, proof of citizenship to vote, and the elimination of mail-in ballots. And then he said this: “Why would anybody not want voter ID? One reason: because they want to cheat. There’s only one reason. They make up all excuses, they say it’s racist, they come up with things you almost say, ‘What imagination they have.’ They want to cheat, they have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat. We’re going to stop it.” None of this is supported by evidence. The goal is to make it harder for people to vote, because fewer voters means more power for him. That’s the real election rigging, and it begs the question, if there is so much corruption in our elections and they have been rigged, why was he elected president? If they are rigged, does that mean Kamala Harris actually won?

Then he pivoted to religion. “I am very proud to say that during my time in office, both the first four years and, in particular, this last year, there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity, and belief in God. Tremendous renewal. This is especially true among young people.” This is not Trump thinking for himself. This is the Heritage Foundation talking. This is Project 2025 talking. This is Christian nationalism being delivered from the presidential podium as if it were policy, because for this administration, it is. Trump doesn’t believe in God. He believes in the people who got him re-elected, and they believe in a theocratic vision of America that the founders explicitly rejected. He’s got to pay the piper. And the piper wants a country where church and state aren’t just blurred, they’re fused.

And then came the attack on transgender Americans that was a new low for him. He told a story about a school in Virginia that he claimed tried to “socially transition [a student] to a new gender” and hide it from her parents. He used this woman’s story to push a narrative that children’s genders are being changed at school, which is absolutely not true.

But here’s what worries me the most about all of these lies. When Trump stands in front of the entire country and says the world is perfect, that rent is lower, that everything is fine, people go home and look at their own bills and think it’s just them. They think they’re the only ones struggling. That’s the trick and the con. Because when people believe it’s just them, they stop fighting and asking questions. They start voting against their own interests because they think they’re next in line for this great wealth that’s supposedly coming. Or worse, they become ashamed of what’s happening to them, so they internalize it and go quiet. And that’s when authoritarianism wins.

The reality is that numbers tell a completely different story than the one Trump told tonight. His approval rating is 36 percent, according to CNN’s latest poll.

But he wasn’t done. Because next, he went after a sitting member of Congress, and after immigrants. And this is where it became truly vile. Trump claimed the Somali community in Minnesota “pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer.” He called them “Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota” and said that “importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the U.S.A.” This is the same president who called Ilhan Omar and her community “garbage” during a Cabinet meeting in December. Tonight, standing in front of a joint session of Congress, he doubled down on that dehumanization, reducing an entire immigrant community to criminals and pirates.

When Trump says something racist, it’s not a slip. It’s a strategy. He does this to divide us and to inflame his base. It’s exactly what Hitler did. It’s what every strongman in history has done: you invent an enemy, you name them, you blame them, and then you use that shared enemy to unite your movement. It’s the oldest trick in the book. And he’s escalating his use of it now because his approval is collapsing, the economy is on the verge of a free fall, and everything around him is starting to fall apart.

And then he pulled one of the most chilling moves of the night. He demanded that every legislator stand to affirm what he called “a fundamental principle”: “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” When Republicans jumped to their feet and Democrats remained seated, Trump pointed at them and said, “You should be ashamed of yourself. Not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself.” And the room erupted into chants of “USA, USA.” That was a loyalty test on national television. He wasn’t asking for agreement. He was demanding submission. And anyone who didn’t comply was publicly shamed from the presidential podium.

And through it all, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar shouted back what needed to be said: “You have killed Americans.” She was right. And he never addressed it. He never mentioned Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen who worked at the Minneapolis VA, shot and killed by Trump’s Customs and Border Protection agents during the immigration raids in Minneapolis. He never mentioned Renee Good, another U.S. citizen killed during those same raids. And he never mentioned Ruben Ray Martinez who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent last year. He didn’t mention any of them. Because acknowledging them would mean admitting that his policies are killing Americans. And that’s the one truth he will never tell.

This whole speech, all one hundred and eight minutes of it, was tired. It was the same thing rehashed. It was exactly what we would expect from a man who has nothing new to offer and no interest in actually governing. He likes to hear himself talk. But mostly, it went on this long because he really loves the applause. He wants people to tell him he’s doing great even though he’s not. Even though the country is in crisis, the world is watching in horror. He wants a room full of people standing up and cheering for him. And tonight, that’s exactly what Republicans gave him.

And here’s the thing that I keep coming back to. He’s not well. I don’t say that to be cruel. I say it because it matters. Because a high-functioning person in that position, even one who was being lied to by the people around him, would still do their own research. They would look at the numbers and see that the ship is sinking. They would feel the water rising around their ankles and they would try to fix it. That’s what a real leader does. But Trump isn’t trying to fix anything. He’s doubling down on insanity. He’s surrounded by people who tell him what he wants to hear, and he either can’t or won’t question any of it. He repeats lies that are easily disproven and he takes credit for things he didn’t do. And instead of anyone around him stepping in, they clear the room, cue the applause, and keep the show going. Because the show is all they have left.

And in a bittersweet moment, we saw the contrast of what actual leadership looks like when Governor Abigail Spanberger delivered the Democratic response from Williamsburg, Virginia. She focused on the economy and on safety. She called out Republicans for not exercising their congressional right and responsibility to stop Trump and his tariffs. She tried to get people to acknowledge their actual reality when it comes to affordability, instead of denying what is really happening and pretending that what Trump says is true. She called out Trump’s lies and his attempts to further divide us. Senator Alex Padilla delivered the response in Spanish, which, given everything Trump said about immigrants tonight, was its own quiet act of defiance.

Spanberger’s response was what a politician should look like. It was acknowledging our shortcomings while inspiring something better. It was based on fact, and it was rooted in the true American spirit. Not the manufactured golden age that Trump keeps trying to sell us, but the real one, the one that’s built on accountability, honesty, and the belief that government should serve the people, not the other way around.

And maybe what worries me the most is not what Trump said, because this is exactly what we expected him to say. It’s what his supporters will blindly believe, because they’re not hearing anything different. They’re stuck in news echo chambers. And even the mainstream corporate media that once prided itself on fact-based reporting has been intimidated and reshaped by pressure from Trump and his allies.

This moment, right here, right now, is the catalyst that proves the absolute importance of independent media. Because the truth about what happened in that chamber tonight is not going to come from the networks that are afraid of being targeted. It’s going to come from independent voices who refuse to sanitize what’s happening for anyone’s comfort or fear of retaliation.

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