Well, the midterms are officially underway.
The State of the Union address immediately before the midterms is traditionally considered the opening gun for the political season. President Trump scored big last night with the New York Post.
“Trump Wins Gold” the Post declares—with a felicitous nod to the gilded USA Olympic men’s hockey team, guests of the President. The patriotic Olympians bolstered the President’s “winning” theme. Trump embellished the celebratory mood (but only on one side of the House!) by dispending several Medals of Honor, including one to a soldier wounded in the Maduro raid.
Pollster Doug Schoen judged the SOTU “one big winner, one giant loser and one big problem” in a GOP agenda for the midterms. Schoen writes:
President Donald Trump gave a virtuoso performance Tuesday night. He achieved a number of important goals in his State of the Union address, but it is unclear whether he fundamentally changed the political dynamic in America. Still, it was a great performance — with profound messages.
The first and most important message was that the American people should associate the progress, future and success of the country with the Trump administration and the Republican Party. The president spoke of transformations, turnarounds and, most of all, “the golden age of America.” It was moving and uplifting — though not necessarily as persuasive as he may have hoped.
To be sure, Trump made his most compelling case yet that the affordability crisis, which Democrats used to win the 2025 off-year elections, was now finally under control.
Between Trump’s attacks and the Democrats’ behavior, it is hard to see how the country emerged more united after an extraordinary presentation that had to be moving to many Americans. Indeed, another strength of Trump’s speech was that he explicitly associated the country’s success with working people — especially heroes who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments for our nation, past and present. The explicit and implicit message was this: By standing with Trump and his policies, it was the only way America could achieve the success he spoke of in the context of the turnaround, the transformation, most of all, the “golden age” he said is underway.
The Wall Street Journal headline is that Trump “hailed an economic turnaround many voters don’t see.” The Trump averse New York Times calls the SOTU “a show, casting Democrats as the villains.” Ah, the loyal opposition. House Democrat leader Rep. Hakeen Jeffries certainly didn’t know his flock if he really thought Democrats in the House Chamber could give Trump the silent treatment!
Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ad a meltdown, shouting during the SOTU that the President has “killed Americans.” So much for brotherly love. Also, at the top of her lungs, Rep. Rashida Tlaib shouted “F— ICE!” For the second year in a row, effervescent Rep. Al Green of Texas, carrying a sign that said “Black People Are Not Apes,” was escorted out of the House Chamber. Many simply skipped the SOTU for alternate programing.
Most Telling Moment. Sasha Stone got it on her Substack section:
“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants.”
With great timing and a gift for performance and storytelling, Trump pauses and lets the applause grow. He luxuriated in the moment as the Democrats sat there, stone-faced, thinking it would play well at MS-Now. It probably will. Trump wanted all of America to see it and remember it. He set a trap. They walked right into it.
The New York Times complains that these “stand-up” moments are an unfair maneuver by the President.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi must have wished she was still in a position to physically rip up the President’s speech. Pelosi’s own perfidious party members rose to applaud (the only time they did so) when President Trump called upon Congress to pass an insider trading bill. He mentioned genius stock picker Pelosi by name.
Instead of tearing into the Supreme Court for its bombshell ruling against the Trump tariffs, the President merely called the ruling “unfortunate.” Not all the Justices attended. Here are the ones who did not: Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor.
The President wisely avoided overdue attention to the tariffs last night but Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley addresses them in a column headlined “The GOP’s Last Chance to Shed the Tariff Albatross.” Riley writes:
The reality, whether or not the president accepts it, is that tariffs have been disruptive to the economy and are deeply unpopular. They haven’t reduced the trade deficit or boosted factory employment, as Mr. Trump claims they have. American consumers have grown accustomed to more options at lower prices for autos, clothing, electronics, food and countless other goods thanks to free trade across international borders. Higher levies on imports lead to higher costs and fewer choices.
In the latest development in the Nancy Guthrie case, Savannah Guthrie announced that the Guthrie family is offering a million dollars for information leading to the return of her mother. It was an extraordinary video in which the Today co-host acknowledged that her mother may no longer be living and appealed directly to the abductor to “do the right thing.” If the abductor had been struggling with conscience, Guthrie begged, “Let this be a sign.”
Snow Melts Warmth of Collectivism. Columnist Michael Goodwin writes:
For better and worse, the tenure of any new major public official is often defined by events in the first 100 days of the term.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is certainly no exception, with his awful beginning at City Hall confirmed again Tuesday. His latest big time blunder was his expression of icy indifference to police officers being attacked by snowballs in Manhattan.
I Was Born a Poor Black Child. I always remember that line uttered by Steve Martin in “The Jerk” when I read about Gavin Newsom’s life struggles. After thinking that the way to bond with black people is by claiming he’s not very smart, Newsom now chronicles his life “from privilege to heartbreak.” As was once said of another great piece of literature, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.
“The Mass Shootings the Media Wants You to Ignore” is a headline at American Greatness. Yes, you guessed what mass murders we are enjoined to overlook: ones committed by “trans”-identifying shooters:
You could be forgiven if you hadn’t heard much about these tragedies—the media virtually ignored them. By contrast, the country was subjected to around-the-clock hyperventilating on cable news after an ICE agent shot a woman in Minneapolis after she struck him with her vehicle.
That act of self-defense by an ICE agent triggered tearful pleas for national soul-searching and draconian restrictions on law enforcement. But the two mass shootings generated nary a peep.
This contrast highlights the iron law of the corporate media when it comes to gun violence: the facts always matter less than the narrative.
Within minutes after a shooting, the press begins assembling its preferred storyline like an IKEA bookshelf—only with more missing screws and more prone to sudden collapse.
Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson offers the royal family advice on winning back the loyalty of the people after the Andrew scandal. “No ‘spares’, no climate preaching: My plan to save the monarchy” is an excellent read. Ms. Must wishes to throw in her two shillings. The royals themselves seem to be signaling that they will try to “modernize.” Don’t! Look instead to the past with more pageantry and less sharing (such as this kind of unnecessary treacle from William).
