WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union in history at almost 108 minutes Tuesday night. He began the address to Congress, which totaled more than 10,000 words, by stating that America is the “hottest country” in the world.
Trump centered his fourth official State of the Union address — the first of his second term — on economic, immigration, and international policy. He framed his accomplishments around America’s 250th birthday.
“Our nation is back,” Trump said. “Bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before.”
The president also joked about “winning too much” and welcomed the Olympic gold-winning U.S. men’s hockey team, amid controversy surrounding FBI Director Kash Patel’s celebration with the team and public backlash to the players’ laughter about the women’s hockey team during a phone call with Trump.
According to a Medill News Service analysis, Trump spent more time praising the hockey players and American athletics than he did talking about Israel, Gaza, Russia, Ukraine, and Iran combined.
Policy at the forefront
Trump spent more than a quarter of the address promoting new policy measures and touting his past accomplishments.
With midterm elections on the horizon, Trump focused roughly 10 minutes on the Republican Party’s roadmap for the next two years. He spoke about regulations for artificial intelligence data centers, nationwide voter identification laws, new retirement plan options, and further restrictions on insider trading.
However, Trump spent twice as much time touting what he viewed as the successes of his second administration.
“I do think a lot of the success outlined in the State of the Union will be a part of the Republican message in the fall,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told the Associated Press.
One reference to affordability
Trump spent about 10 minutes on one of the key issues in the upcoming midterm elections: the economy.
According to a February AP-NORC poll, 59% of people disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, compared to just 39% that approve.
Trump only said the word “affordability” once in his entire speech — and it was to attack Democrats, not explain his own economic policies. However, he highlighted increased stock market growth and American oil production, as well as lower inflation and prices on various goods, including gas and eggs, to support his record.
In the Democratic response to the State of the Union, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who ran on an “affordable Virginia” agenda, argued that Trump’s policies are not helping American families.
“Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?” Spanberger said. “Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad? Is the president working for you?”
Trump also said it was “unfortunate” that the Supreme Court on Friday struck down his tariffs, a large part of his economic agenda. He added that existing deals with countries and businesses will hold because “a new deal could be far worse for them.”
10 minutes on immigration
In the middle of a Department of Homeland Security shutdown over Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding — and while two-thirds of Americans say ICE agents’ actions have gone too far — the president spent less than 10% of his speech on the topic.
But when he did talk about his immigration crackdown, he didn’t change his usual rhetoric.
Trump did not use the word “immigrant” once during his entire speech. But he mentioned the border 16 times and referred to immigrants as “criminals,” “aliens,” and “illegal” 25 times in total.
The president spent around two minutes of his address attacking Somali residents of Minnesota, calling them “pirates” and accusing them of corrupting the state. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who is the country’s first Somali-American legislator, heckled Trump during his speech.
“You have killed Americans,” Omar yelled across the chambers, in a reference to the fatal shootings of two Americans by ICE agents in her home state this year.
Trump spent another four minutes promoting his immigration policy by telling stories of Americans who were harmed by “illegal aliens.”
The state of Venezuela
After focusing on his domestic agenda for roughly an hour and 15 minutes, Trump pivoted to foreign policy by highlighting the “eight wars” he claimed to have ended in his second term.
“We’re proudly restoring safety for Americans at home, and we are also restoring security for Americans abroad,” Trump said. “Our country has never been stronger.”
In total, Trump spent less than 20 minutes discussing foreign policy.
He used more than half of this time on Venezuela, where U.S. forces captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in January. Trump recognized a freed Venezuelan politician and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor to an American pilot who participated in the operation.
Trump spent just three minutes discussing Iran and preventing the development of nuclear weapons.
The President added that he wanted to “solve this problem through diplomacy.” The Associated Press reported that the U.S. has assembled the largest force of aircraft and warships in the Middle East since 2003.
Everything else
Trump spent the second-most time, about 26 minutes, introducing non-policy-related guests.
For about seven minutes, he gave a Purple Heart to Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe and the parents of Sarah Beckstrom, a West Virginia Army National Guard specialist. An Afghan national was charged with killing Beckstrom and injuring Wolfe in a Washington, D.C., shooting in November.
Trump also recognized Erika Kirk, the widow of late right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, two World War II veterans, and a rescuer and survivor of the 2025 Texas floods.
Trump spent almost the same amount of time celebrating the Olympic U.S. men’s hockey team as he did criticizing Democrats for their handling of the economy and immigration. He did not criticize any Republicans who have spoken out against him.
He also praised Secretary of State Marco Rubio for approximately a minute and First Lady of the United States Melania Trump for almost two.
Marissa Fernandez covers politics for Medill on the Hill.
Ben Shapiro is a Politics & Policy Reporter for Medill News Service.
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Americans across the political spectrum have continued to ask about the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s connections among the political elite. (Angela Weiss/AFP)
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.