Describe Trump’s State of the Union speech in one word

At times President Trump sounded like a Democratic Socialist. He railed against corporations — insurance companies siphoning off healthcare dollars and Wall Street private equity firms preventing Americans from buying homes. He denounced Congressional corruption, bringing Elizabeth Warren to her feet with his endorsement of a bill that would prevent members of Congress from profiting from insider trading. A president who shamelessly uses his office to enrich himself and his family with billions of dollars announced that corruption “shreds the fabric of a nation,” and that ending corruption in states like Minnesota and California would allow the federal government to balance the budget. And the clincher: The president said, “No state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” then added, “Who would believe that we’ve been talking about that?” Who indeed? ICE agents are ripping parents from their children’s arms and sending them to detention centers across the country. The whole experience was through the looking glass.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is the CEO of New America.

President Trump’s State of the Union leaned into division rather than unity, framing politics as a battle between sides instead of a shared national project. Democrats were derided as “crazy” and portrayed not simply as political opponents but as existential threats, even as the president also warned against political violence. That contradiction matters. Rhetoric sets the tone, and language that dehumanizes or mocks opponents undercuts calls for calm and restraint. While some invited guests reflected the strength, resilience and generosity of the American spirit, those moments were overshadowed by grievance-driven messaging that elevated conflict over persuasion and loyalty over governance. Absent was a genuine effort to speak to Americans outside his base or to acknowledge the role of democratic norms in managing disagreement. The result was a speech that may energize supporters but does little to lower the temperature at a moment when leadership demands exactly that.

Brittany Martinez is the executive director of Principles First.

President Trump’s SOTU was a powerful reminder that “our nation is back” and we are entering “the golden age of America.”

He has led “a turnaround for the ages” with a booming economy, established new Trump accounts, enforced secure borders where zero illegal immigrants are permitted, delivered a stake to the heart of divisive DEI programs, and taken aim at the transgender insanity targeting children.

As he put it, “America is respected again” and “the hottest country anywhere in the world.” Trump rightly contrasted these historic wins with the failures of the previous administration.

He awarded goalie Connor Hellebuyck the Presidential Medal of Freedom and congratulated the men’s Olympic hockey team for bringing home the gold medal.

“The state of our union is strong,” he declared. “We’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it.” This is true leadership delivering results for every American family.

Corey A. DeAngelis is a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

I settled on “exhausting” not simply because of this speech’s Fidel Castro-esque length (or its Fidel Castro-esque commitment to democracy) but also because it is exhausting to constantly be asking oneself: Can this be true? Can this be right? The answers, for the most part, were no and no. Not on gas prices, inflation, job creation, immigration, crime, war and peace, and so on. It was exhausting to brace against the mental whiplash of Donald Trump of all people talking about the scourge of corruption. It was exhausting to parse through all he said, and remember all the things he did not address. And it was exhausting to mentally toggle between three very different speeches: one that was an ugly and misleading attack on immigrants, one that was an exploitation of people’s loss, death and suffering in service of some never specified policy goal, and one that celebrated true heroes. Perhaps that was the real tragedy of this speech: By the time we heard about the true heroes, the exhaustion had already set in.

Jeff Nussbaum, a partner at Bully Pulpit International, is a former speechwriter and special assistant to President Biden. He is the author of “Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History.”

An hour and forty-seven minutes. That’s a new length record for a speech already known for being way too long.

In theory, these remarks had something for everyone in the Trump coalition — exaggerated statistics about the economy, false claims of voter fraud, nasty attacks on immigrants, the possibility of a new war in the Middle East. But it was so loaded up with digressions, long anecdotes and moments disconnected from any broader argument that it’s hard for me to recall any of the main points. If I were a GOP lawmaker in a competitive district, I don’t think I’d feel better about my fortunes after tonight.

If, however, I were looking for an example to illustrate why less is more when it comes to rhetoric, I would consider this State of the Union a great success.

David Litt is a former speechwriter for President Obama and the author of “It’s Only Drowning: A True Story of Learning to Surf and the Search for Common Ground.”