President Donald Trump is delivering his first State of the Union address since his historic comeback victory in 2024’s presidential election on Tuesday night at a pivotal time for the American economy and ahead of contentious midterm elections that could decide the lasting power of the political realignment he has facilitated in his decade atop the Republican Party.
Trump hosted several top journalists in the nation at the White House, including me and our editor-in-chief, Alex Marlow, from Breitbart News, for lunch at the White House on Tuesday to preview the address and prepare the country’s top broadcasters for what is to come in his address. Breitbart News was the only outlet without a television network present for the lunch, which was also attended by Vice President JD Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and top aides like Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and communications director Steven Cheung.
Trump told us he intends to focus heavily on the economy, highlighting victories he has already achieved and laying out the pathway forward for working Americans — arguing he believes the best years of this country lay ahead in the rest of his term. He said he intends to push for more tax relief for Americans beyond his One Big Beautiful Bill passed last summer, and address many of the major challenges that still remain for Americans. He is also likely to address major foreign policy challenges and successes, and highlight individual stories of Americans who have made great sacrifices for the nation. Trump loves showmanship, so expect some big and powerful moments this evening as the speech progresses.
He views the State of the Union address as a serious chance, given the wide viewership it commands, to break beyond the chattering class and get his message directly to the tens of millions of Americans who will tune in to watch.
The speech comes at a time when tensions with the Islamic Republic of Iran are as high as ever, and the president told those of us assembled today at the White House that he thinks Iran wants a deal more than he does but he is not sure Iran will ever agree to the terms the United States considers a must for an agreement and deescalation. It’s unclear how much he will take this on in his address, but do expect him to talk about the successes of last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer where U.S. stealth bombers wiped out Iran’s nuclear program. He is also almost certainly going to talk about the successful capture of now-former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in Operation Absolute Resolve and successes in procuring Venezuela’s oil for the United States.
Trump’s address also comes at a pivotal time for immigration in the country, in the aftermath of the tragic shooting deaths of two Americans in Minnesota at the hands of federal immigration enforcement officers, but also a little over a year after Trump retook office and shut down the flow of illegal aliens across the border and has ramped up immigration enforcement from the nation’s interior. How Trump handles this all moving forward could very well define his presidency, as this is the signature issue on which he was elected — but expect Trump to highlight cases of illegal alien criminals who were stopped cold due to his administration’s actions.
Trump is also expected to address the concerns Americans have about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with big tech companies building data centers in communities across the nation. White House officials told Breitbart News and others assembled at the president’s home on Tuesday afternoon to expect the rollout of what they call the “Ratepayer Protection Plan,” an effort they say the president brokered where the tech companies have agreed to pay for the entire cost of electricity to run these data centers they build so Americans’ energy bills do not see rate hikes.
Trump is also very proud of his efforts to severely cut the cost of prescription drug prices through most-favored-nations status deals with drug companies, so expect he will address that in his speech too.
Follow along here on Breitbart News for live news and analysis from the president’s State of the Union address in 2026.
UPDATE 11:23 p.m. ET:
Spanberger has finally stopped screaming into the camera.
UPDATE 11:19 p.m. ET:
Spanberger is now openly encouraging radical leftists and illegal aliens to resist immigration enforcement, cheering on protesters in Minneapolis. She’s literally openly proving Trump’s point, that these people do not care about Americans and are crazy but only care about illegal aliens.
UPDATE 11:17 p.m. ET:
Spanberger is attacking Trump personally, calling him corrupt.
“Is the president working for you?” Spanberger asks. “We all know the answer is no.”
Spanberger is openly torpedoing her political future right now with this screed.
UPDATE 11:14 p.m. ET:
Radical crazy psychopathic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is giving the Democrat response now, sounding like a shrill screaming wild woman not the “moderate” that establishment media lied to the public claiming she is. She’s falsely claiming Trump is raising taxes–while she actually did raise taxes–and now she is claiming Trump is empowering the Russians. Spanberger is coming off like a radical crazy person.
UPDATE 10:59 p.m. ET:
Trump wraps speech by again harkening back to America’s 250th birthday, and says the “golden age” is upon the country. Jake Tapper from CNN immediately calls it the “longest” recorded State of the Union address on record.
UPDATE 10:55 p.m. ET:
Trump awarded pilot Eric Slover the Congressional Medal of Honor for his role in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Slover “planned the mission and was the flight lead in the cockpit of the first helicopter” and received severe injuries from which he is still recovering. In a moving moment, Slover stood to receive the medal with the assistance of a walker. “While preparing to land, enemy machine guns fired from every angle, and Eric was hit very badly in the leg and hip, one bullet after another,” Trump said. “He absorbed four agonizing shots, shredding his leg into numerous pieces.”
UPDATE 10:42 p.m. ET:
Trump is laying out why he designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and classified fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. He details how the U.S. took down a major cartel kingpin. And while explaining how the U.S. is protecting the Western Hemisphere, he turns next to the sophisticated operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
UPDATE 10:35 p.m. ET:
Trump says Iran is trying to rebuild its nuclear program, and that while he would prefer to solve this problem via diplomacy he will never allow Iran a nuclear weapon.
UPDATE 10:33 p.m. ET:
Trump is now talking about Operation Midnight Hammer which he said totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear program.
UPDATE 10:31 p.m. ET:
Trump noted that the peace deal he negotiated between Israel and Hamas has secured now the release of all the hostages, both living and dead.
UPDATE 10:29 p.m. ET:
Trump runs next through the various wars he has ended and peace deals he has negotiated, and thanks Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner–and Secretary of State Marco Rubio–while Democrats in the chamber continue to misbehave and Trump berates them. Trump notes that Rubio got 100 percent of the votes, and that several Democrats regret voting for him something he says Rubio enjoys.
UPDATE 10:26 p.m. ET:
Trump is giving the Purple Heart award to Andrew Wolfe now live in the Chamber, noting that with “God’s help” he has recovered from the shooting but “still has work to do” in his recovery. Trump has a general give him the Purple Heart and give one to Sarah Beckstrom’s parents posthumously too.
UPDATE 10:25 p.m. ET:
Trump is now telling the story of National Guard soldier Sarah Beckstrom, who was brutally killed by a criminal in the nation’s capital. Her parents are in the gallery and Trump honors them and Sarah for her service.
“I’m so sorry, thank you very much–she was a great young lady,” Trump said.
Trump also is now turning to the other Guardsman shot that day, Andrew Wolfe, and is talking about his mother telling him that her son would be okay. Melanie, his mother, was right, Trump said, and both she and Andrew Wolfe are in the gallery after he has made a recovery from the shooting.
UPDATE 10:17 p.m. ET:
Trump is now honoring Charlie Kirk, and the president points to his “wonderful wife Erika” in the gallery. Erika Kirk fights back tears, as Trump calls for rejecting “political violence of any kind.”
UPDATE 10:16 p.m. ET:
As Trump continues his full-on open warfare against Democrats in the chamber, he rips them saying “THESE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY.” He says they are trying to destroy the country. Cameras panned to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) who looked wild-eyed as Trump lambasted the pyschos on the Democrat side of the chamber.
Next, he’s highlighting the first lady and her work to help children.
UPDATE 10:12 p.m. ET:
Trump is now highlighting the story of Sage Blair, a young woman taken from her parents as a school tried to secretly transition her to a transgendered “man.” Trump is using the story to call for the banning of making children transgendered in secret against parents’ wills. He calls for an immediate ban on this insanity.
UPDATE 10:10 p.m. ET:
Trump roasts the Democrats for sitting. “You should be ashamed of yourselves,” he says multiple times.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) begins shouting like a crazy woman back at him. Republicans start chanting “USA USA USA.”
“Perhaps most importantly, I’m asking you to approve the SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump then adds, arguing that illegal aliens have to stopped from cheating in elections. “It’s very simple: All voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship to vote. And no more crooked mail-in ballots except for military, disability…”
UPDATE 10:06 p.m. ET:
Trump is telling the story now, pointing to an Angel mom in the gallery, of a young girl who was brutally murdered by an illegal alien in 2023.
He says he is doing so to show why he is deporting illegal alien criminals from the country.
He also points out how “many in this room” allowed the illegal alien invasion to happen, and says they would do it again if they ever won power back. He says that only he and the Republicans in Congress stand in the way of these criminal illegal aliens running amok murdering Americans.
“As we speak, Democrats in this chamber have cut off all funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” Trump says.
He calls on Democrats to end their latest Democrat shutdown, also correctly noting the last one they did of more of the government cost the United States two percent of gross domestic product.
Trump says the duty of the American government is to protect American citizens not illegal aliens and invites those in the room who agree to stand up. Notably, the Democrats are remaining seated.
UPDATE 10:00 p.m. ET:
Trump is ripping Biden for allowing in an illegal alien truck driver who ran over a young girl named Delilah who is in the gallery. Delilah, Trump says, has defied the odds and is learning to walk and in the first grade now despite the devastating illegal alien driver.
Trump calls on Congress to pass “the Delilah Law” banning any states from giving commercial drivers licenses for illegal aliens.
Trump is now talking about the Angel Families event at the White House yesterday.
UPDATE 9:58 p.m. ET:
Trump is now recounting how he signed an executive order to ban large institutional investors from buying up big numbers of homes in this country. He has a guest in the gallery who tried to buy 20 different homes and did not win due to big companies buying them all in cash and then turning them into rentals. He calls on Congress to codify this as well.
Trump then turns to Social Security and Medicare saying he will always protect these programs, and then talks about how 401Ks are increasing and that the government will now start matching contributions for many American workers up to $1,000 per year in their retirement plans for those whose employers do not do so.
Trump laughs at Democrats who stood up for this, and then asks if Nancy Pelosi was there. Then he calls on Congress to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act “without delay.”
Trump then turns to Minnesota and lights up Somali fraud there and fraud in other blue states like California and Massachusetts.
Trump is calling on the “war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President JD Vance.”
UPDATE 9:54 p.m. ET:
Trump is celebrating his wins in cutting costs of prescription drugs through his most favored nations status deals, and TrumpRX.com–and has a woman in the audience who he says was the very first customer to get a reduced drug price. He calls on Congress to codify his cuts to prescription drug prices.
Side note: Trump’s full scale populism here is very welcome for the Republicans ahead of the midterms.
Trump then announces the Ratepayer Protection Plan described above, getting tech companies to pay for the electricity they need for AI data centers.
UPDATE 9:49 p.m. ET:
Trump is ripping Democrats for inventing the term “affordability” despite causing the problem of prices rising with open borders, government spending causing inflation, and “Green New Scam.”
“They knew their statesments were a lie–they knew it–they knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie,” Trump says as he turns to the Democrats and bashes them before laying out how he is bringing prices of major goods like eggs down. He turns to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins when he mentions the drop of egg prices–60 percent, he said–and said “Madam Secretary, Thank You.”
Trump rips Democrats for Obamacare’s price hikes on Americans’ healthcare costs, and continues lighting up the left in the chamber. Trump argues that money should be given directly to the people rather than the Democrat scams hiking healthcare costs.
UPDATE 9:45 p.m. ET:
Trump is ribbing the Supreme Court for its tariff ruling, but argues that the deals he’s negotiated with nations and companies will almost all certainly remain in place and that the Court’s ruling actually gave him more power.
Trump also argues that eventually the tariffs will replace income taxes, “taking a great financial burden off the people that I love.”
UPDATE 9:42 p.m. ET:
Moments ago, President Trump awarded the Legion of Merit to Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskin, who descended from a helicopter to save Milly Cate McClymond from the July 2025 Texas flood which decimated a girls summer camp. Ruskin and McClymond were both in the gallery. Trump said Ruskin earned the award for his “extraordinary heroism.”
UPDATE 9:40 p.m. ET:
Trump is now highlighting Trump Accounts, and praising Michael and Susan Dell for their $6.25 billion donation for the Trump Accounts.
UPDATE 9:37 p.m. ET:
Trump praises the Republicans for voting to pass the tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill, and admonishes all the Democrats who voted against the plan. He said the Republicans are the ones who delivered no taxes on tips, overtime, or Social Security and no tax on auto loan interest for U.S.-made cars.
UPDATE 9:31 p.m. ET:
Trump is now honoring World War II veteran Buddy Taggart, whose 100th birthday is upcoming on July 4. Here is some more information on Taggart, who is in the gallery now.
UPDATE 9:30 p.m. ET:
Trump is touting that Los Angeles will host the 2028 Olympics here in the United States. He says “Los Angeles is going to be safe, just like Washington DC is now one of the safest cities in the country.”
UPDATE 9:28 p.m. ET:
Trump says he has never seen a goaltender play as well as Team USA goalie Connor Hellebuyck and announces that he is awarding Hellebuyck the nation’s highest civilian honor of the United States–the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
UPDATE 9:27 p.m. ET:
Trump says the women’s Olympic gold medal winning hockey team is also soon coming to the White House, and jokes that when he introduced the men’s team it was the first time he saw many of the Democrats in the chamber stood up to cheer for them.
UPDATE 9:25 p.m. ET:
Trump says the United States is the “hottest” country anywhere in the world, laying out massive investments into the United States and building of new factories. He also says that Venezuela has provided the United States with 80 million barrels of oil and says that American natural gas production is at an “all-time high.”
Trump also says more Americans are working today than any point in U.S. history and that all jobs created in his administration are private sector and that he has ended DEI–diversity, equity, and inclusion–in the country and gotten millions of Americans off food stamps.
Trump wraps his accomplishments list by arguing that the “state of our union is strong.”
“Our country is winning again,” Trump says, and repeats some OG MAGA jokes about “winning too much” and then invites into the chamber the Olympic gold medal-winning hockey team. The chamber breaks out into USA chants.
UPDATE 9:19 p.m. ET:
Rep. Al Green (D-TX) has already been thrown out of the chamber:
Meanwhile, Trump is hyping low gas prices now as a great success of his administration and falling mortgage rates as well.
UPDATE 9:18 p.m. ET:
Trump is touting how he has completely sealed the border, saying that “zero illegal immigrants have been admitted to the United States” in the past year. He is also touting the drop in the national murder rate, and the drop in the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
UPDATE 9:16 p.m. ET:
Trump lays out all the crises he inherited from Biden on the economy, crime, the border, war, and more, then says in the one year since he’s been back it’s been a “turnaround for the ages.”
“We will never go back to where we were before,” Trump said.
UPDATE 9:14 p.m. ET:
Trump starts right off the bat saying America “is back,” and stronger than ever before. He jumps right into the 250th anniversary of the United States upcoming on July 4. “You’ve seen nothing yet–we’re going to do better and better and better,” he said. “This is the golden age of America.”
UPDATE 9:12 p.m. ET:
Johnson introduced Trump, and Trump has now begun his remarks.
UPDATE 9:10 p.m. ET:
Trump shook the hands of all the Supreme Court Justices present, which is very notable because he just aggressively criticized them after their tariff decision.
Trump is now at the podium and enjoying applause from the chamber.
UPDATE 9:06 p.m. ET:
The president is entering the chamber now.
UPDATE 9:05 p.m. ET:
While it is not yet formally confirmed, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins appears to be the designated survivor.
UPDATE 9:00 p.m. ET:
Trump is set to roast Democrats for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security:
Meanwhile, First Lady Melania Trump is in the chamber in her box now flanked by Barron Trump.
The president’s Cabinet has now entered the chamber as well.
UPDATE 8:56 p.m. ET:
U.S. Supreme Court Justices are entering the chamber now.
UPDATE 8:52 p.m. ET:
Speaking of Johnson, he has a lot of special guests in attendance:
Meanwhile, the diplomatic corps is entering the chamber now headed by Monica Crowley, the chief protocol officer for the U.S.
UPDATE 8:51 p.m. ET:
Johnson is gaveling the joint session of Congress to order now.
UPDATE 8:43 p.m. ET:
Manu Raju of CNN is saying that many more Democrats are boycotting the speech than usual, something that comes after Democratic leaders like Hakeem Jeffries encouraged Democrats to do so rather than obstruct the president’s speech.
The president’s limo, the Beast, has arrived at the Capitol.
UPDATE 8:40 p.m.
Vance is now up on the dais with Johnson, and CNN’s panel is talking about how Vance is the “heir apparent” to Trump ahead of 2028.
UPDATE 8:36 p.m. ET:
Vice President Vance has entered the House chamber and Speaker Mike Johnson is calling the Congress into order. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is walking with Vance into the chamber. Expect key parts of the delegations of the Supreme Court, Cabinet, Diplomatic Corps, and more to be brought in soon.
UPDATE 8:34 p.m. ET:
Some excerpts of the speech are beginning to seep out:
UPDATE 8:33 p.m. ET:
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are leaving the White House and are en route to Congress now.
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