Trump touts economic record in State of the Union, seeking reset ahead of midterm elections

Highlights:

US President Donald Trump touted his economic record during his State of the Union address on Tuesday (24 February), boasting that he had ushered in a "golden age" as he sought to project an aura of success at a fraught moment for his presidency.

Heeding calls from fellow Republicans facing a challenging midterm election in November, Trump spent the first hour of his televised speech focused on the economy, saying he had curbed inflation, driven the stock market to record heights, signed sweeping tax cuts and lowered drug prices.

"Our nation is back -- bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before," he said after taking the stage to cheers of "USA, USA" from his party's members of Congress, while Democrats stood in stony silence.

The annual speech to Congress carried enormous stakes for the president, with his approval ratings slumping, anxieties rising over Iran and Americans frustrated that he has not done more to address the high cost of living.

While Trump declared that inflation is "plummeting," prices for groceries, housing, insurance and utilities remain significantly higher than they were a few years ago. New data released on Friday showed the economy slowed more than expected last quarter while inflation accelerated.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found only 36% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy. Democrats hope to seize control of both houses of Congress from Republicans in November when all 435 seats are on the ballot for the House and about a third of the 100 seats in the Senate.

For nearly an hour, Trump was uncharacteristically disciplined, mostly appearing to stick to the written script and eschewing his typical stream-of-consciousness digressions.

While he levelled some familiar attacks on his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, and Democratic lawmakers, Trump held his fire when it came to the US Supreme Court, which struck down his signature tariff regime on Friday.

Unlike the hours after the decision, when Trump insulted the justices in deeply personal terms, the president shook hands with the four justices in attendance upon entering the House of Representatives and simply called the ruling "unfortunate."

Clashes with Democrats

As the speech progressed, however, the fireworks began to spark.

When Trump turned to his favourite topic, immigration, he repeated the same rhetoric that animated his 2024 campaign, claiming undocumented migrants were responsible for a wave of violent crime despite studies showing that is not the case.

"You should be ashamed," he told Democrats, chastising them for refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless measures are taken to curb the aggressive tactics of immigration agents under Trump.

Opinion polls show a majority of Americans believe Trump's immigration crackdown has gone too far, after two US citizens were shot dead by masked federal agents in Minneapolis.

As Trump praised his immigration enforcement, Democrat Ilhan Omar, who represents a Minneapolis US House district, shouted in his direction, "You have killed Americans!"

Trump, who has falsely claimed for years that election fraud in the US is rampant, also attacked Democrats for not supporting a voter identification requirement.

"They want to cheat," he said. Democrats argue that the Republican-backed legislation would impose unnecessary burdens on voters and suppress turnout.

Democratic US Representative Al Green was removed from the House chamber for the second consecutive year after waving a sign at Trump that read: "Black people aren't apes." The message was a reference to a social media video Trump posted this month that included a clip depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

The White House eventually took down the video, and Trump said a staffer posted the video. The 79-year-old Green, who is Black, was also ejected last year after shouting at Trump during his address to Congress.

Other Democrats offered quieter messages of protest. US Representative Jill Tokuda, a Hawaii Democrat, wore a white jacket emblazoned with words like "affordability" and "healthcare."

A number of Democratic women wore tags saying "release the files," a reference to the scandal surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. About a dozen Epstein accusers attended as guests of Democrats.

Meanwhile, more than 40 Democratic lawmakers skipped the speech entirely in favour of anti-Trump rallies outside.

Befitting a former reality television star with a penchant for the dramatic, Trump bragged about all the "winning" the country was experiencing before introducing some other winners: the US men's ice hockey team, which won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics on Sunday.