Tuesday night’s State of the Union address was a MAGA rally in a fancy room. For one hour and forty-seven minutes — the longest State of the Union ever, a record the president apparently considers an achievement — Donald Trump stood before a joint session of Congress to lie and brag his way through a nation he has spent a year methodically destabilizing. There was no recalibration nor hint of strategic retreat, only chest-thumping and grievance. Right-wing media lapped it up.
Trump turned the address into a two-hour variety show, complete with medals awarded, standing ovations and carefully staged anecdotes about “regular Americans.” He bragged about ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and about kicking two million people off food stamps. He applauded a World War II veteran who liberated an internment camp — a genuinely moving moment — while simultaneously cheering new detention facilities for migrants and asylum seekers. He claimed gas is down to $1.85 a gallon in some places, a figure ridiculously divorced from reality. He said he “ended eight wars” and that his administration has secured $18 trillion in investment commitments. (His own White House website puts the figure at under $10 trillion.) Crediting himself with “a turnaround for the ages,” Trump dismissed the cost-of-living crisis as a “dirty, rotten lie” cooked up by Democrats.
This attempted rebranding relied, as always, on scapegoats. In one of the evening’s ugliest moments, the president accused an entire ethnic community of pillaging the country.
This attempted rebranding relied, as always, on scapegoats. In one of the evening’s ugliest moments, the president accused an entire ethnic community of pillaging the country. He launched into an attack on Somali migrants in Minnesota, linking them to what he called a “war on fraud” and claiming Somalis had stolen $19 billion in welfare dollars from the state.
“That’s a lie,” Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota shouted from her seat in the House chamber.
The figure appears to be a grotesque distortion of a statement by a federal prosecutor who estimated that perhaps half of $18 billion in certain high-risk Minnesota Medicaid programs might be fraudulent — a hypothetical maximum of roughly $9 billion across programs, not a confirmed loss, and never attributed to one ethnic community. Trump, in his special way, doubled it and aimed it at a minority group on national television.
This is what passes for economic populism in 2026: invent a number, attach it to a racialized community and dare the media to call it what it is. The most galling part is how rarely they do. We are still litigating comments from more than a decade ago about “deplorables” and “bitter” Americans “clinging to guns or religion,” while Trump goes on national television and calls Somali immigrants “pirates” to a distinct lack of media outrage.
Bigotry has become so routine it barely registers. Worse than normalization; we have descended into numbness.
And yet here is what the political and media class insists on calling normal. They note, approvingly, that the act of inviting press to a pre-speech briefing “carried on” a tradition, as though Trump’s ongoing threats against broadcast licenses and his administration’s active Federal Communications Commission investigations into ABC and CBS over their coverage of him make the whole thing a collegial Washington ritual rather than an exercise in coerced access. Breitbart was the only print outlet invited to the White House. Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire podcasters were invited to Tuesday’s address by House Speaker Mike Johnson. This is the media ecosystem being built before our eyes.
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“It was an extraordinary speech,” CBS News’ Tony Doukopil remarked. “In some ways, vintage Trump: combative, populist. Historic for other reasons, as well.” Bari Weiss’ Free Press, which she continues to run after taking over CBS News, suggested Trump had “reset” his presidency with a “feel-good state of the union.”
Calling it “a little bit Reaganesque,” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham lauded the speech. “I think this could’ve been the best speech he has ever delivered, and I’m interested to see perhaps a little bump in the polls.” Brian Kilmeade, co-host of “Fox and Friends,” described it as “dynamic, diverse and entertaining.” Washington Post columnist and frequent Fox News guest Marc Thiessen called it “truly one of the best SOTUs ever.”
The Blaze’s Glenn Beck hailed it “The most effective speech I have seen a president give in front of Congress.” The New York Post’s cover headline read, “Trump wins gold.”
What they celebrated was a performance engineered to dazzle the president’s base and humiliate everyone else. It’s a reminder that for much of conservative media, the bar for greatness is not policy coherence or factual accuracy but emotional catharsis.
What they celebrated was a performance engineered to dazzle the president’s base and humiliate everyone else. It’s a reminder that for much of conservative media, the bar for greatness is not policy coherence or factual accuracy but emotional catharsis. If MAGA feels seen, if the libs are owned, if Democrats are forced into awkward stillness as Republicans leap to their feet, then the speech is a triumph. That it may be riddled with falsehoods is beside the point. Even Wall Street Journal editor-at-large Gerard Baker, hardly a left-wing firebrand, quipped that the address was so full of fictions he was beginning to doubt whether the USA men’s hockey team actually won gold.
There was one detail from Tuesday night that exemplifies the corruption of our media during this moment. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., posted a picture on X with Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, both grinning and giving the camera a thumbs up — Trump’s signature gesture, performed with the enthusiasm of men who understand what signaling can buy.
Meanwhile, Tuesday marked four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — a war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and destabilized European security. Trump’s discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war lasted approximately 20 seconds. Twenty seconds for the most significant European conflict since World War II — with no mention of the anniversary.
If the president dazzled parts of the media and thrilled his base, he also exposed the limits of his vision. Two hours on the biggest stage in American politics, and the offer was the same as ever: fear them, cheer me. It’s stale to nearly all but his biggest sycophants. Holly Neaton, a swing voter in Minnesota, told MSNOW she was offended by Trump’s display of religious bigotry.
As Trump held court inside the Capitol, Democrats were winning elections outside it. Not one, not two, but three state legislative seats flipped or held in Pennsylvania and Maine while the president was still mid-ramble. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Jen Mazzocco won her race in Allegheny County by 64 points — doubling the margin her predecessor had posted in 2024. Democrat Ana Tiburcio won hers with more than two-thirds of the vote. Since Trump was elected, Democratic candidates have flipped 26 state legislative seats across the country. Republicans have flipped zero.
The split screen couldn’t have been more brutal: the man who claims to have delivered an economy “roaring like never before” was being repudiated at the polls in real time — and by working people in swing districts.It’s a harsh reality too apparent for even Fox News to ignore. When Vice President JD Vance took to the network on Wednesday morning for a post-speech victory lap, even network anchor Bill Hemmer threw a wet blanket on the parade. “It seems like you’re pushing a car uphill and you’ve got nine months to turn it around,” he said. “You know Democrats are juiced. They are ready to vote tomorrow.”
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