Constitutional LawGovernmentLegislative Process
February 24, 2026Trump delivers first formal State of the Union of his second term
DHS shutdown, Iran buildup, and SCOTUS tariff loss frame the address
Trump's Feb. 24 address clocked in at one hour and 48 minutes — the longest since at least 1964, according to data from the American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara. He had set the previous modern record himself in March 2025 with a 100-minute address to a . Bill Clinton's 2000 SOTU, which had previously held the record, ran nearly 90 minutes.
The address came four days after the Supreme Court struck down Trump's IEEPA tariffs 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump. Trump didn't repeat his Friday broadside against the court. Instead, he claimed he still had great leverage with other tariff authorities and told , Congressional action will not be necessary — declining to ask lawmakers to codify his new Section 122 tariffs into law, even though the Constitution gives Congress the power to levy tariffs.
Rep. Al Green of Texas was escorted out of the chamber by the House Sergeant-at-Arms within minutes of the speech's start. Green held a sign reading 'Black People Aren't Apes' — a direct response to a video Trump's Truth Social account posted earlier this month depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
The White House defended the post as a meme showing 'Trump as the King of the Jungle.' Majority Leader Steve Scalise grabbed the sign.
Rep. Troy Nehls tried to snatch it from Green's hand as he left. Green was also removed from Trump's 2025 joint address and later censured.
Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib broke from the Democratic caucus's strategy of restrained silence. When Trump criticized Democrats for blocking DHS funding, both stood and shouted 'You killed Americans!'
Tlaib yelled: 'We saw the videos too.' Omar called Trump a 'liar' when he claimed the Somali community had 'pillaged an estimated $19 billion from American taxpayers.' When Democrats shouted about the Epstein files, Trump responded: 'These people are crazy.'
Trump claimed he secured '$18 trillion in commitments' from foreign investors. CNN, ABC News, and FactCheck.org all rated this false. The White House's own website that night listed $9.7 trillion in 'major investment announcements' — and a detailed CNN review from October found the White House was counting vague pledges, statements about 'bilateral trade,' and non-binding commitments that don't amount to actual investment in the United States.
Trump called his One Big Beautiful Bill 'the largest tax cut in American history.' The Tax Foundation — a right-leaning think tank — found it's the sixth largest since 1940, measured as a share of GDP.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget placed it seventh since 1918.
Reagan's 1981 tax package, which cost 2.9% of GDP over four years, remains the largest. Trump has repeated this false claim since signing the bill last summer.
Trump said he 'lifted 2.4 million Americans off food stamps.' NBC News noted this needs context: nearly 42 million Americans still rely on SNAP.
Trump also said he added '70,000 new construction jobs.'
Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows 44,000 construction jobs were added from January 2025 to January 2026 — about 37% fewer than Trump claimed. He said 'zero illegal aliens' entered in the past nine months. Border encounters have never been zero; CBP data shows continued crossings throughout 2025 and into 2026.
Trump honored two service members with the Medal of Honor during the address — Navy Capt
E
Royce Williams, 100, for his secret Korean War mission, and Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover, wounded in the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that captured Nicolás Maduro Trump also awarded goaltender Connor Hellebuyck a Presidential Medal of Freedom from the podium and brought in the U.S. men's Olympic gold medal hockey team The team had visited the Oval Office earlier in the day.
Trump claimed he 'ended eight wars.' A Democratic member echoed Rep. Joe Wilson's 2009 outburst at Obama, shouting 'Liar!' at the claim. Trump did not enumerate the eight wars.
The U.S. concluded operations in the Syria conflict during Trump's second term. Trump also talked extensively about Iran, saying he'd 'wiped out' Iran's nuclear program in June 2025 but acknowledged Iran was rebuilding — contradicting his previous claim that the program was 'obliterated.'
The Gang of Eight — the top congressional leaders and intelligence committee chairs from both parties — received a classified briefing from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Iran just hours before the speech. Trump addressed Iran's nuclear threat in the SOTU, saying: 'I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror to have a nuclear weapon.' He said he still preferred a deal but added the military option remained on the table.
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Feb 24, 2026
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Trump delivers first formal State of the Union of his second term
On Feb. 24, 2026, President Trump delivered the first formal State of the Union address of his second term — the longest in recorded history at one hour and 48 minutes, topping his own 2025 record. The speech came as the DHS shutdown entered its 11th day, as Trump weighed military strikes on Iran, and four days after the Supreme Court struck down his IEEPA tariffs. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released that Sunday found Trump's overall disapproval rating at 60%, a high for his second term. Rep. Al Green of Texas was ejected within minutes of the speech's start after holding a sign reading "Black People Aren't Apes" — a reference to a video Trump's Truth Social account posted showing the Obamas depicted as apes. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib repeatedly heckled Trump, shouting "You killed Americans!" during his immigration remarks. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivered the Democratic response from Williamsburg, saying Trump "lied, scapegoated, and distracted." Trump made a series of false and misleading claims throughout the evening — on investment totals, jobs, inflation, taxes, prescription drugs, and crime — that fact-checkers at NPR, CNN, NBC News, and ABC News disputed within hours of the speech's conclusion.
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