President Biden gave Ukraine top billing and said fighting inflation is the “top priority” during his State of the Union address Tuesday. But he also spoke at length about building a unity agenda and — very briefly — called for passage of election reform legislation.
Three years ago, House Democrats first introduced the For the People Act, giving the sweeping election overhaul legislation the symbolic designation “HR 1” — the first bill offered by the newly empowered Democratic majority. Three years and multiple versions later, the legislation remains mired in a partisan dispute, with Republicans in near unanimous opposition to one of the Democrats’ lead issues.
Biden called for passage of the latest version of the bill, as well as other election reforms, during his speech, but spent just 35 seconds discussing those priorities.
“The most fundamental right in America is the right to vote — and to have it counted. And, look, it’s under assault,” he said, about 45 minutes into his hour-long address. “In state after state, new laws have been passed, not only to suppress the vote — we’ve been there before — but to subvert the entire election. We cannot let this happen.”
“Tonight I call on the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And while you’re at it, pass the Disclose Act so Americans know who is funding our elections.”
The Freedom to Vote Act is the successor to the For the People Act. It was negotiated by Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, in hopes of winning enough Republican backers to overcome a filibuster. But that bill and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore elements of the Voting Rights Act struck down by the Supreme Court, remain blocked.
The other bill Biden mentioned is a favorite of those who want more transparency in campaign financing. If enacted, it would require groups like super PACs and “ dark money ” organizations to disclose many of their donors.
Biden spent far more time talking about opportunities for bipartisanship. (The words “bipartisan” and “unity” appear a combined seven times in the official transcript.)
Shortly after concluding his section on Ukraine and fighting authoritarianism, Biden thanked members of both parties for their work to pass the massive bipartisan infrastructure bill last year, and asked Congress to follow it up by enacting what he called the Bipartisan Innovation Act. He was likely referring to the America COMPETES Act, a measure designed to make the United States more competitive with China. While 19 Republicans voted for the Senate version of the bill, only one backed the House version. Lawmakers must work out differences between the chambers.
The president returned to the theme later, noting he signed 80 bipartisan bills into law in 2021 and calling for “a unity agenda for the nation” with four primary themes:
- Ending the opioid epidemic.
- Tackling mental health, particularly among children.
- Supporting veterans.
- Bringing an end to cancer.
At one point, while speaking about the Covid-19 pandemic, Biden noted that Americans have been deeply divided on the issue, generally along party lines, and called for a moment “to reset.”
“Let’s stop looking at Covid-19 as a partisan dividing line and see it for what it is: a God-awful disease. Let’s stop seeing each other as enemies, and start seeing each other for who we really are: fellow Americans,” he said. “We can’t change how divided we’ve been. But we can change how we move forward — on Covid-19 and other issues we must face together.”
There were even moments when Biden appeared to be directly appealing to Republicans and moderate Democrats at the expense of his party’s base, such as when he spoke against progressives’ “defund the police” movement.
"We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police,” he said. “Fund them with the resources and training they need to protect our communities."
Throughout the speech, Republicans seemed willing to join Biden’s call for unity. Traditionally, there’s a clear line between the parties, as the president’s party stands and applauds throughout while the opposing party sits on their collective hands. But this year, both parties appeared to offer enthusiastic support far more than in the recent past.
As he neared the final lines of his first State of the Union address, Biden spoke optimistically of Americans’ ability to defend the nation’s shared values:
“We will meet the test. To protect freedom and liberty, to expand fairness and opportunity. We will save democracy.”
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.