President Donald Trump made his State of the Union Address on Feb. 24, 2026, and it has received praise from Republicans and scorn from Democrats. Here are some of the main takeaways from Trump’s address in case you missed it.
The address lasted one hour and 48 minutes, surpassing Trump’s previous record of one hour and 39 minutes. He focused heavily on the U.S. economy, immigration and border security. However, many Members of Congress felt the address poorly represented the genuine condition of the country.
“Tonight as we watched our nation’s lawmakers gather for a joint session of congress, we did not hear the truth from our president,” said Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia in a broadcast address on Feb. 25. “Since this president took office last year, his reckless trade policies have forced American families to pay more than $1,700 each in tariff costs… everyday Americans are paying the price.”
Along with Spanberger, Trump’s speech garnered responses from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as well as Representatives Al Green (TX-9), and Ilhan Omar (MN-5), along with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
“Members of Congress, the state of our union is strong,” Trump said. “Our country is winning again, in fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it. People are asking me ‘please please please Mr. President, we’re winning too much. We can’t take it anymore, were not used to winning in our country until you came along we were always losing but now were winning too much.’”
Many people present for the speech applauded, cheered, and whistled for Trump throughout. A habit that Jeffries labeled as “cult-like” in an interview with MS NOW.
“What we’ve seen repeatedly from these folks is that they regularly bend the knee to Donald Trump and behave like they are nothing more than reckless rubber stamps for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda,” Jeffries said. “They’ve broken promises, they’re visiting extremism on the American people, they fail to actually address anything that is designed to make life better for everyday Americans, and then they lie about it regularly.”
Fact checking
During the opening minutes of his speech, Trump acknowledged many successes of the country under his second term in office.
“In 12 months my administration has driven core inflation down to the lowest level in more than 5 years. In the last three months of 2025, it was down to 1.7%,” Trump said.
Trading Economics states that the inflation rate has fluctuated over the past year between 2.3% and 3%. Their recent study shows that it currently sits at 2.4%. A rate that falls slightly above the desired threshold of 2%. The same source finds the inflation rate at its lowest, save for April 2025 when it was at 2.3%.
Trump also said that gas was over $6 in some states under his “predecessor,” Joe Biden. He then said that gas is now below $2.30 per gallon in most states and even $1.99 in some states.
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), no state in 2025 had an average gas price below $2.40. Every state’s average is above the number which Trump said is accurate for “most states”.
The price he provided is not representative for any individual state. It also does not represent the country which has an average gas price of $2.98 per gallon.
Furthermore, while gas prices reached record breaking levels under the Biden administration, they never reached $6. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the highest retail gas reached was roughly $5.11 in June 2022.
Later in the speech, Trump said that egg prices have dropped 60% since he took office. The Trading Economics affirmed this in a study which tracked the price of eggs over the last year.
Sen. Sanders posted a response YouTube video on Feb. 25, arguing that Trump’s details were misleading.
“Today in America, hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and over 40 million are struggling with outrageous levels of student debt,” Sanders said.
“We have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth,” Sanders continued. “Now, if that is the booming economy – the greatest economy in the history of humanity – if that is what Trump is talking about, God help us.”
Continued partisan polarization
When Democrats did not show support for Trump, he took the opportunity to acknowledge them.
Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican from Florida described the Democrats’ behavior during the address as “stupid,” “nuts” and “insanity” in an interview posted on his Instagram account.
During his speech, Trump encouraged everyone in the room to stand up and cheer if they agree with his following statement: “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants.”
The audience recognized the comment with two minutes of applause. The majority of the room, except for the Democrats, cheered. During the applause, Trump gestured in confusion to the silent and seated Democrats.
“You should be ashamed of yourself [for] not standing up,” Trump said after the applause.
He went on to condemn Democrats for defending sanctuary cities, and while doing so Rep. Ilhan Omar shouted back, “You have killed Americans! You should be ashamed!”
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler (N.Y.-17) told CNN afterwards that Trump played that interaction very well, and he showed the American people where Democrats stand.
“My democratic colleagues really walked right into it when he asked every member of congress to stand and show the American people where they stood on the issue of protecting American citizens over illegal immigrants,” Lawler said. “I think that’s a moment that is going to resonate across the country for the American people”
Trump later made a Truth Social post reflecting on the shouted exchange between himself, Omar, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
“They had bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick, who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized,” Trump said in describing Omar and Tlaib. “We should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible. They can only damage the United States of America, they can do nothing to help it.”
In regard to returning back to where they came, Tlaib was born and raised in Michigan, and Omar has lived in the United States since 1995 and has been a U.S. citizen since 2000 when she was 17 years old. While Omar’s parents are from Somalia, her dedication appears to be to her constituents and to Americans.
“The president talked about protecting Americans, and I just had to remind him that his administration was responsible for killing two of my constituents,” Omar said in an interview with CNN.
During the interview, Wolf Blitzer from CNN asked Omar if she regrets her actions. Her response refers to the two recent killings of Alex Pretti and Renée Good carried out by ICE.
“I brought four Minnesotans as guests for the Minnesota delegation,” Omar said in the interview. “It was important for us to be there, to bear witness, to hold the space for our constituents that have lived through an occupation from federal law enforcement, that have been terrorized, that have seen their neighbors killed and traumatized in so many ways.”
Capitol Police arrested one of Omar’s constituent guests, Aliya Rahman during the speech. After Rahman refused to sit down, Capitol Police pulled her – already injured – out of the aisle.
Rahman told DemocracyNow! that she sustained a torn rotator cuff tendon and multiple cartilage tears in both of her shoulders. These injuries resulted from a previous engagement. Despite being informed of her injuries, Capitol Police still removed Rahman forcefully. Officers then took her to George Washington University Hospital and later booked her at Capitol Police Headquarters.
Al Green’s removal
Trump was roughly two minutes into his speech when the Sergeant at arms escorted Al Green out of the chamber. His removal was caused by his sign which read, “Black People Aren’t Apes!”
Green showed the sign to the president as he walked in and another individual attempted to grab Green’s sign.
“Judging from the look on his face, he felt it and he understood it,” Green said in an interview with AFRO-American Newspaper Capitol Hill Correspondent, Ashlee Banks. “The president has got to understand that he is not above the law and that we’re not going to tolerate it.”
As Green exited, he still showed the sign to Republicans. Certain broadcast even show Green saying the words on the sign to their face. An act met with more attempts to take the sign from him.
“This country has a history of demeaning people of color who have African ancestry by portraying them as apes,” Green said to a KCCI reporter outside of the chamber while Trump’s speech continued in the background. “When you tolerate it, you perpetuate it. I refuse to be a part of the perpetuation of this level of racism.”
In referencing fear of consequences, Green acknowledged Civil Rights trail blazers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘48 and Rosa Parks.
“Dr. King did not allow the consequences to prevent him from going to Birmingham, and he went to jail… We are back to a point where people have to take a stand.”
For more details regarding Al Green’s actions on Feb. 24, 2026, click here. Al Green delivered his remarks in the House of Representatives the day after the State of the Union Address.
