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Welcome to a special edition of the newsletter, in which we recap President Donald Trump’s record-long State of the Union address.
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— Adam Wollner
Takeaways from Trump’s State of the Union speech
By Sahil Kapur
President Donald Trump gave a triumphant State of the Union speech tonight, proclaiming that he has ushered in a “golden age of America” while taunting Democrats in the House chamber and blaming the country’s problems on them.
The address comes at a perilous moment for Trump as his approval ratings have slipped. Americans have lost trust in him on the economy for the first time in his political career, according to a wide range of polls, presenting troubles for his party ahead of the November midterm elections.
Still, Trump didn’t suggest he would adjust his domestic or foreign policies in response. On issues from immigration to the economy to foreign policy, Trump’s speech was heavy on touting his existing policies and light on offering new ones.
Here are three takeaways from his speech, which clocked in at 1 hour and 47 minutes.
Celebrating his economy: Trump unabashedly celebrated the economy, touting a stock market at “all-time highs.”
“We have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before. A turnaround for the ages,” he said. “We will never go back to where we were just a short time ago.”
Trump said little to acknowledge the economic pain and pessimism that many Americans report they feel when it comes to wages and costs, instead declaring that prices are coming down. To the extent that he admitted problems exist, he blamed them on his predecessor and Democrats in Congress.
Touting immigration crackdown: Trump took credit for his immigration crackdown, boasting that he had slashed illegal immigration and brought about “the strongest border in American history by far.”
He gave extended remarks highlighting victims of violence and crimes committed by people who were in the U.S. illegally, with some of the victims’ family members seated in the audience.
Trump didn’t mention Alex Pretti and Renee Good, the American citizens killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. But Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., held a sign showing photos of them. Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., repeatedly shouted at Trump: “You have killed Americans.”
Clashing with Democrats: Trump extended no olive branches to Democrats, instead repeatedly taunting them and blaming them for high costs. He showed indignation at the perception that he hasn’t delivered on his promise to quickly lower prices.
He slammed former President Joe Biden “and his corrupt partners in Congress and beyond” for inflation and the “green new scam” and accused them of backing “open borders for everyone.”
“The same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly use the word ‘affordability.’ A word — they just used it, somebody gave it to them,” a visibly frustrated Trump said. “You caused that problem,” he added, gesturing at Democrats.
More State of the Union coverage from NBC News
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.
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