Key events
David Smith
Why the longest-ever State of the Union address was the most inconsequential
He wanted to give the king’s speech. Donald Trump entered the US House chamber on Tuesday like a medieval monarch, with Republicans lined up eager to touch his royal robes (or, in two cases, grab a selfie with him). But within moments, the illusion was shattered.
As the US president strolled by, soaking up adulation, Democratic representative Al Green of Texas held aloft a handwritten sign: “Black people aren’t apes!” – a reference to Trump recently sharing a racist video depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama.
When the first State of the Union address of Trump’s second term got under way, Republicans moved in on Green menacingly and tried to tear the sign away. But he persisted until being escorted out for the second year in a row. As he departed, there were more acrimonious exchanges with Republicans, a few of whom tried to start a chant of “USA! USA!”
It was the first but not the last time that a person of color would take a stand during the wannabe autocrat’s record 107-minute speech while others remained silent or raucously egged him on. It was a night where Trump again sought to poison US politics and divide Americans along various fault lines, none more inflammatory than race.
Key takeaways from Trump’s State of the Union speech
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During his one hour and 47 minute speech, the longest State of the Union address ever delivered, Donald Trump proclaimed a “turnaround for the ages” in his first year back in office, despite low public approval ratings and voter concerns over the state of the economy.
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A resolute Trump sought to paint over the affordability concerns at the centre of upcoming midterm elections by insisting the good times are here. “Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before,” he said. Many voters, however, disagree, with recent polling showing the population harbouring significant doubts about his priorities.
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The US president took aim at the Democratsbranding them as “crazy”, unelectable and anti-American. Several Democrats walked out early – Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, posted on Bluesky that he “couldn’t sit through an hour of Trump’s lies”.
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Trump spent about three minutes talking about Iran without offering any clarity on his intentions regarding a possible attack against Tehran. He said he prefers to “solve this problem through diplomacy”which did little to explain why he has assembled the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades.
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The former reality TV star welcomed several guests during his speech to present numerous presidential medals to “extraordinary American patriots”. These included the men’s hockey team that just won gold medals at the Winter Olympics, and a national guard soldier who survived a fatal shooting in Washington.
We factchecked some of the claims made by Trump during his speech, click on the link below to find out more:
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our US politics live blog.
Iran has accused the US of spreading “big lies” about its missiles programme, after Donald Trump claimed Tehran was building weapons that could strike the US.
During his State of the Union speech last night, the US president said Iran has “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach” the US.
He described Iran as “the world’s number one sponsor of terror” and claimed at least 32,000 protesters were killed during recent unrest in the country.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei rejected those claims, without mentioning Trump directly.
“Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest, is simply the repetition of ‘big lies’,” he posted on X.
His remarks came just a day before Iran and the US are due to hold a third round of Oman-mediated nuclear talks in Geneva. Trump said he preferred to solve tensions through diplomacy but that the US has not heard Iran say “those secret words – we will never have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran has repeatedly denied seeking a nuclear weapon and maintains that uranium enrichment is a sovereign right, but evidence over the years suggests it has tested materials and components directly related to the development of nuclear weapons.
Trump did little to explain why he has amassed the largest amount of US military power in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. While he apparently has been weighing a military strike against Iran in recent weeks, he only spent about three minutes talking about Tehran in his near two-hour speech last night.
Read our full report on Trump’s State of the Union address here:
