Speech comes as midterms loom and opinion polls show more voters disapprove than approve of his performance
The last time Donald Trump delivered a State of the Union address, it produced the memorable optics of Nancy Pelosi ripping up his speech after he finished talking.
Pelosi’s theatrical gesture at the end of the February 2020 address (his 2025 speech was technically a joint session of Congress, not a State of the Union) eloquently expressed the Democrats’ contempt for Trump’s rosy description of the union he presided over, when he boasted of a booming economy and restoring US strength in characteristic Maga (make America great again) rhetoric.
It is unlikely to be repeated tonight; Republican Mike Johnson now sits where Pelosi sat as speaker of the House of Representatives and is staunchly supportive and loyal to the president.
Yet six years on – and a year and one month into Trump’s second term – the union’s actual state is more contentious than ever and Democratic pushback can be expected inside and outside the chamber.
