Trump’s State of the Union: A Political Blueprint for the Midterms
President Donald Trump is trying almost singlehandedly to save the midterm elections for the GOP. He gave a State of the Union address on Tuesday night that was fit for the age of the algorithm, using his showmanship to great effect. A short clip showing Republicans standing for protecting American citizens first over illegal aliens, while Democrats sit, looking sullen or heckling the president, will flood all media platforms in the coming months. “A billion dollar ad!” one political consultant texted The Daily Wire’s Ben Domenech.
All told, the White House counted at least 26 separate times that the Democrats didn’t stand and applaud. Though some of it was surely political theater, other instances laid bare the fanatical nature of the modern Democratic Party. Perhaps the most devastating moment was when President Trump castigated Democrats from the podium, saying, “How do you not stand?” as he recognized the mother of Iryna Zarutska, who was murdered while riding North Carolina’s public transit system. A party that cannot even briefly suspend its hatred of the president and support a woman whose daughter was murdered is not worthy of being in power.
Trump leaned heavily into framing the Republicans as being the American party and the Democrats as the anti-American party, a similarly stark choice FDR famously adopted against the “rightist reaction” of his time in his 1944 State of the Union address. Unlike previous Republican presidents, Trump wants to make voting for the Democrats unthinkable—and break up the Democratic Party permanently by showing Americans that it stands squarely against the American way of life.
Bookended by celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary, Trump’s was the longest State of the Union address in modern history, clocking in at one hour and 47 minutes (20 minutes longer than Bill Clinton’s previous record). The 47th president continually baited the Democrats—traps they continue to fall for a decade later—as he listed the many wins his administration has racked up since he was sworn into office for the second time.
The president also took ample opportunity to recognize and honor what seemed like a small platoon of American heroes in the House gallery. After all, the golden age needs golden heroes.
President Trump gave six commendations in total: a Presidential Medal of Freedom for goaltender Connor Hellebuyck; Congressional Medals of Honor to Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover, an elite aviator wounded in Venezuela, and legendary Cold War-era fighter pilot Royce Williams; Purple Hearts to National Guardsman Andrew Wolfe and the family of Sarah Beckstrom; and the Legion of Merit to U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskan, who saved over 160 people during the devastating flood in Texas last year.
The address was surely the blueprint for the Republican midterm campaign. If the GOP wants to have a shot at keeping the House and Senate in November, it would behoove them to keep hitting on the same themes until Election Day. Interestingly, Trump did not mention issues like abortion, MAHA, or ICE (and there was only one reference to DEI); instead, he highlighted a number of 80/20 policies that are in his favor, while relegating foreign policy to the end of the speech, when many viewers had likely stopped watching.
Central to his domestic case was a laundry list of positive accomplishments, as he made the case that the golden age is already at hand. As the president laid it out, the economy is on the rise for both working families and people closer to retirement. Core inflation, gas prices, mortgage rates, and interest rates are all down, while the Dow and S&P 500 hit record levels. The president also touted $18 trillion in commitments that the administration has received to invest in America.
Unsurprisingly, he catalogued the benefits of tariffs, even saying he hoped they would one day replace the income tax. This happened as four Supreme Court justices looked on, as the Court recently ruled (incorrectly) against the president’s tariffs enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Taking advantage of the mess in Minnesota, Trump put a new spin on the old claims of wanting to eliminate fraud and abuse in the federal Leviathan. As Ilham Omar shouted at the president from the House floor, he announced he was appointing Vice President JD Vance to head up a task force committed to waging a war on fraud. And that is already having an effect. Vance said on Tuesday that the administration is withholding over $250 million in Medicaid funding from Minnesota until it gets its house in order.
Borders are another kitchen-table issue. In contrast to Joe Biden, who threw open America’s borders, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has done the opposite—and the results have been positive: the flow of fentanyl coming across the border is down 56%, and 2025 saw the first negative net migration in over 50 years, which will help tamp down housing prices, traffic, and more.
The president spoke at length on the issue of crime more broadly, which federal Democrats seem to care very little about. Trump noted that the murder rate is plummeting, hitting an astonishing 125-year low by some estimates. As the New York Times reported last month, cities like Washington, D.C., Memphis, and Baltimore are seeing historic drops in crime, though the media is loath to admit that the president’s tough-on-crime policies have had anything to do with it.
According to Drew Holden of American Compass, “Better approaches to law and order—anchored by aggressive enforcement, targeting of habitual offenders, and a rollback of anti-police policies—helped drastically reduce violent crime. And those policies are ones the president supported and his agencies put into effect.”
Memphis, Tennessee, long a haven for crime, has seen tremendous results. The Times reports a federal task force there, in conjunction with the city’s police department, helped make “6,300 arrests, conducted more than 68,000 traffic stops and recovered 1,532 firearms.” And since October 1, murder and sexual assault “are down nearly 42 percent, while aggravated assault is down about 35 percent.” Meanwhile, the murder rate in Baltimore has plummeted to a 50-year low. And that’s happening in cities with Democratic mayors.
Returning to the question of immigration and citizenship, Trump backed common-sense bills like Dalilah Law’s, which would bar a state from granting commercial drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens, and the SAVE Act, which would make it so that only American citizens can vote in federal elections. That there’s a fundamental disagreement about whether the nation has a duty to serve its citizens, first and foremost, shows the nature of the Democrats’ radical ideology.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Senate Republicans are up to the task. Senate veteran Rachel Bovard lays out how establishment Republicans are trying to wriggle out of making a good-faith effort to pass the SAVE Act: “Leadership is confronted with something they don’t want to do, [so] they use one of the campus regime mouthpieces to trash it, quote senators who are responding to the wrong issue (a talking filibuster isn’t nuking), and authoritatively declare something over before they’ve ever tried.” This is why an important part of the ongoing political realignment is electing better Republicans to federal offices.
Going forward, Trump clearly set the tone for the midterms, with the Republicans being the party of affordability, law and order, and borders, while the Democrats are the “crazy” party. Clearly a nod to the Democrats’ labeling Vance “weird” in 2024, Trump is looking to show how out of step the Democrats are with America’s traditions, history, and mores. They are pushing policies that destroy regimes.
As per usual for a State of the Union address, some conservatives expressed their frustration with the current presentation, pining for the days when the president’s annual message was delivered in written form to Congress. But that age of culture and technology is long gone. Perhaps the SOTU can once again be more dignified than what it has become in our age, which is making a slow transition from the televisual age to the digital age. But that will take the work of generations to achieve; foregoing the currently available media platforms would simply be a disastrous choice. Unduly emphasizing this wish prevents the necessary focus on what needs to happen politically for the president and his party to navigate the midterms successfully.
Part of that calculation involves recognizing the challenges that Trump and the GOP are facing. Though the president’s disapproval numbers are high, they are not outside of the norm. The RealClearPolitics average shows that far more Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance on the economy (55.6%) than approve (40.8%). But his speech before the joint Congress, along with future addresses, may help turn the tide. Multiple network polls found that Trump’s SOTU was received warmly among Americans. For example, CNN found that among those Americans who watched his speech, those who think Trump’s policies will move the country in the right direction went up by 10%.
According to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Trump will campaign for midterms like it’s 2024, traveling across the country to fire up his supporters at rallies. He must harness his unique abilities to spur the love his supporters have for him—and channel it toward keeping his party in power. Though some may want to burn the Republican Party down due to its many shortcomings, letting Democrats win the House and Senate, or both, is not the path to American reformation. That will end any hope of making Trump’s executive orders permanent through legislation—and a third impeachment will undoubtedly be set in motion.
Closing the speech, Trump stated, “The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended. It still continues, because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot. And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before.”
President Trump seems to understand the stakes. Let’s hope that the rest of the Republican Party understands these sentiments—and acts on them.
