President Donald Trump set new records for time and word count in his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, a speech punctuated by applause from standing Republicans and silence from seated Democrats.
Neither record was a surprise. "It's going to be a long speech, because we have so much to talk about," Trump told reporters on Feb. 23.
Key moments: Takeaways from Trump's speech.
Trump spoke for 1 hour, 47 minutes and 40 seconds, beating his own congressional address record of 1 hour, 39 minutes, 32 seconds in 2025. Bill Clinton's address in 2000 is the third-longest, at 1 hour, 28 minutes, and 49 seconds.
Trump began speaking at about 9:11 p.m Eastern time. He concluded the address at 10:59 p.m. With an estimated 10,599 words, Trump’s speech was the also longest spoken in U.S. history. Written speeches have been longer – Harry Truman wrote a 27,465-word address in 1946.
