The Latest: Trump will lay out his midterm agenda at the State of the Union
Feb 24, 2026, 9:23 AM | Updated: 5:54 pm
Shown is the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, ahead of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m. ET is likely to be a test run of the message Republicans will give to voters in November’s elections for control of the House and the Senate.
The president and his party appear vulnerable, with polls showing much of America distrusts how Trump has managed the government in his first year back in office. In addition, the Supreme Court last week struck down one of the chief levers of his economic and foreign policy by ruling he lacked the power to impose many of his sweeping tariffs.
Though Trump is expected to focus on domestic issues, his intensifying threats about launching military strikes on Iran over its nuclear program cast a shadow over the address.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will give the Democratic Party response following Trump’s speech. California Sen. Alex Padilla, who made national headlines last year after being forced to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents, will deliver the party’s response in Spanish.
The Latest:
“He will call on Democrats in Congress to reopen the Department of Homeland Security,” Leavitt told reporters, blaming Democrats for the department’s shutdown and calling the situation “despicable.”
She said Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel are in the Northeast and working without pay as a result of the shutdown to help authorities restore power to hundreds of thousands of people after the blizzard.
DHS funding lapsed on Jan. 30 as Democrats demanded changes to federal immigration enforcement.
The shutdown is also affecting several agencies within the department, including the Coast Guard, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration.
The White House and Democrats have been negotiating potential changes to ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies after federal agents fatally shot two protesters in Minnesota.
But the two sides appear to be at a stalemate after the White House rejected the latest offer from Democrats last week.
Democrats are attempting to get ahead of Trump’s anticipated celebration of lower crime rates during his State of the Union speech.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said the drop is because of initiatives taken at the local level — not the aggressive steps from the White House.
“While mayors would welcome a federal partner who works with them, and not against them, the Trump Administration has done nothing to help,” Lucas said in a statement. “In fact, it has actively made our cities less safe.”
Lucas, who leads the Democratic Mayors Association, said the administration has “recklessly attacked our cities, undermining them at every turn.”
The president blasted the three Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices who sided against his tariffs.
He’ll almost certainly have them sitting in front of him Tuesday night. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett are regular attendees at the State of the Union.
When reporters asked Trump about his appointees, Gorsuch and Barrett, he declared their tariff votes “an embarrassment to their families.”
Trump has been similarly personal on the debate stage during campaigns. But he has a history of avoiding conflict with rivals — real and perceived — when they’re in the room. He was especially chummy with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office after previously calling him a communist.
President Barack Obama notably criticized the court during a joint address after its Citizen United decision that expanded big money in politics. Roberts shook his head, visibly perturbed by Obama’s critique.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said House Democrats intend to carry on the legacy of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The Brooklyn congressman also invited Vonetta Rougier, a bus operator and a caregiver for her family, from his district. He said she is “picking up extra shifts just to keep up with the skyrocketing price of housing, food and healthcare.”
He he is also welcoming Marina Lacerda, who is among the Epstein survivors attending as guests of the Democratic Women’s Caucus.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are preparing for Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed mission in more than half a century to venture around the moon.
They will join the House speaker’s seats at the speech.
Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., is also hosting other guests, including Claire Lai, the daughter of Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after his criticism of Beijing.
Johnson is co-hosting her visit with Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., a longtime champion of the family.
The president will have multiple guests in the House gallery, including some who will make for touching moments, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“You’re going to hear the President share the stories of everyday Americans who have benefited from his policies,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House. “You’re gunna hear the president share tear-jerking stories of American heroes past and present who really exemplify what it means to be a patriotic American.”
Trump’s guests will include a worker who is benefitting from a new tax exemption on tip and overtime income and a woman who is saving money on infertility treatments.
“He’ll be sharing these stories again of every day Americans who are benefiting from his policies,” Leavitt said on Fox & Friends.
As the lawmakers sit in the House chamber listening to Trump’s agenda for the year ahead, the moment is an existential one for the Congress, which has essentially become sidelined by his expansive reach, the Republican president bypassing his slim GOP majority to amass enormous power for himself.
The GOP-led Congress has largely stood by as Trump dramatically seized power through hundreds of executive actions, many being challenged in court, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to impose his agenda.
“It’s crazy,” said Nancy Henderson Korpi, a retiree in northern Minnesota who joined an Indivisible protest group and plans to watch the speech from home. “But what is disturbing more to me is that Congress has essentially just handed over their power.”
She said, “We could make some sound decisions and changes if Congress would do their job.”
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The State of the Union address gets its name directly from the U.S. Constitution.
Article II, which establishes the presidency and its powers and duties, states in part: “He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
But until the World War II years, presidents fulfilled that duty with an “Annual Message,” whether in writing (from Thomas Jefferson through William Howard Taft) or in person (George Washington, John Adams and every president from Woodrow Wilson to Trump).
Franklin Roosevelt’s Annual Message began being called, colloquially, his “state of the Union” message in 1942.
Harry Truman’s 1947 speech, according to the Congressional Research Service, was the first annual address officially recognized a “State of the Union” message. It was also the first to be televised.
Leavitt said one of the missions Trump will talk about during the speech is last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer, in which the U.S. bombed several nuclear sites in Iran.
Trump, who says those sites were “obliterated,” is again threatening Iran with military action and flooding the region with U.S. military assets if Iran fails to reach an agreement with the U.S. over its nuclear program. Another round of negotiations is set for Thursday in Switzerland.
“You’ll hear the president proudly and rightfully say that the United States military is the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world,” Leavitt said at the White House.
“And you will hear him talk about the threats that remain abroad” and “what the United States is doing to ensure that not only America is the safest country in the world, but remains the strongest country in the world.”
“You’re going to hear a speech that’s a celebration of 250 years of our nation and our nation’s independence,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
Trump will tell stories about “everyday Americans who have benefited from his policies” and also share “tear-jerking stories of American heroes, past and present, who really exemplify what it means to be a patriotic American,” she said.
The United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.
