Pod Save America - 1126: The State of the Union Is Long

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Donald Trump breaks his own record for longest State of the Union in history, delivering a meandering, angry, tone-deaf speech that utterly fails at its single most important goal: laying out a clear plan for lowering prices. Jon, Lovett, Dan, and Tommy react to Trump's stunts—including bringing on the members of the USA Hockey men's team—what he said about his plans for Iran, the fights he tried to pick with Democrats, and the official Democratic response from Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

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holder also Donald Trump. We're going to get into all the gory details, but let's start with some some general reactions. What did you guys think? Dan? Speech was a crime. Speach is a crime. Yeah. It was a speech crime. It was a speech crime. It was a rhetorical crime, political crime, just really stole people's time. Yeah. Time crime. A time crime. Pre-crime. Yeah. Yeah, it was mostly long and forgettable. It was kind of my takeaway. Like, he tried to heighten the drama. He did something innovative. Instead of recognizing people, the audience, just having them stand up. He had them enter the chamber.

I actually thought that was kind of that. That's a great way to get the record if you're trying to have the longest speech ever. Yeah, that's true. It's not a bad touch. I was genuinely surprised he didn't go harder at the Supreme Court justices. Yeah.

Should a little discipline there. Yeah. I figured they would, I figured Susie Wiles would keep him on. Yeah. Keep a shot call around on that one. It went so long that we, we were on Jimmy Kimmel,

and we, uh, they had to just do the show while the speech was still going. So we didn't even see the end. And we're better. And we're better for it. Honestly, we didn't miss anything. Honestly, if we had gone 40 minutes before it end, we probably wouldn't have missed anything. I don't really get what he was trying to do here, other than set the record for the longest speech.

Well, so the first 30, 40 minutes was, like, basically Trump hosting his own award show. There was a combo of that. So he's, you know, he's given out awards to everyone. He's also honoring himself, of course, by just, like, bragging about the country and the economy and everything like that. Let's listen to how the beginning went. People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country until you came along.

We're just always losing, but now we're winning too much. And I say, no, no, no, you're going to win again. You're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever. And to prove that point, to prove that point, here with us tonight is a good. group of winners who just made the entire nation proud. The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team. Come on in.

Get him a better microphone. You know, he's complained so many times about his mics at different events. And this was the worst one he's ever had. Anyway, that was a nice moment for the men's hockey team, I think. It was a nice way out of his rambling. We're winning too much thing that he's been doing since 2017, basically. He's brought it back recently. Yeah.

Because we're winning again? Yeah, do you think that was, do you think the winning message is, I mean, that was a sample of it. That was the most ridiculous part before he brought up the hockey team. But that first 15 minutes was just straight, like, everything is amazing. Yeah, the, like, warmed over old lines, like we're winning so much. People are upset how much we're winning and watching Mike Johnson and J.D. Vance cackle behind. Chortling. So funny.

This charming, charming, man. I can't stop myself from being so entertained was was a bit much because it is still, you know, we're a decade into this. And it's still an embarrassment to have Donald Trump up there, you know, shouting and cavorting with these people and using his usual lines to great effect among Republicans who can't get enough, watching them applaud things that a few years ago that if a Democrat had proposed, they would say it was an attack on the very foundations of the country, et cetera. I mean, the speech is fucking insane. Yeah. It'd be just any person who knows anything about politics would have said. Here's what you're supposed to do. The American people are unhappy.

60% of them think the country was better off when Joe Biden was president. Three-quarters of them think the economy sucks. 50% of them think your policies have made their economic situation worse. 50% of them think their prices have gone up under you. 60% of them hate your tariffs. And so what you go in. They don't like your immigration policy. We haven't even gotten to that.

that yet, right? So this is just the beginning is any speech has to do with the reality on the ground. And you have to acknowledge that reality in pivot. In no speech, even the state of the union, changes the trajectory of any presidency. But this is the easiest moment a president has in their presidency, not for the speechwriters. But from a pure communications perspective, it is a fucking layup. You get a guaranteed applause. You get guaranteed coverage. The press covers it straight, no matter how insane the speech is. And it's where presidents have, demonstrated the political paper they have to make after when their approval rating is in the high 30s, like Trump says, right? It is when Bill Clinton said the Arab big government's over.

It's what when Obama sort of pivoted towards like more ardent populism in 2012, sort of in response to Occupy Wall Street and prepared to run against Romney. And he did none of those things. He doubled and tripled down on the exact things that have made him this unpopular. Like, it really is a speech he gave for himself written by people only trying to please him and trying to do nothing to actually help Republicans on the ballot. I think I would have been surprised on me if he hadn't done that because like I couldn't imagine a speech where he was actually like I'm going to acknowledge people's pain well no I mean you got to do it in the most Trumpian way possible but you could at least dial the rhetoric back you

can't say it's a historic turnaround you can't spend 90 seconds touting all the prices saying all these prices have gone down when they have not yeah right like there is a like there's the way a smart person would do the speech and there's a way Trump would do it and even in that by in Trumpian terms he did it worse than I even possibly imagined. Yeah, I mean, he thinks he can shape reality and kind of like bend it to his will. And I just, you know, when you're president, I don't think you can do that. People are pissed about prices. They're pissed about the economy. They're pissed about inflation. If you just scream that we're winning, like the navigator research did dial test where people, you know, they dial the turn to dial one way if they're happy with what you're saying. Another way if they're unhappy with they're saying, the dials went way down when he started screaming that we're winning. Now, then the hockey team comes out. So I think he saved him, forget that moment. There was like some controversy today about the men's hockey. team being there. I think we should talk about it for a second because like we were pretty hot out of the gate criticizing FBI director Cash Patel for like burning money to fly over to the Olympics. And then when Trump called the players when they're in the locker room after the game and

Cash Patel like patched them in, he made some shitty comment about the women's team being like, well, I'll find you guys to the White House. I have to invite them to, which is like weird, you know, sexist old man humor that's like lame and condescending. And also once again shows that he doesn't know shit about sports because the women's hockey team is way better. They have historically have won a lot more titles. But I've seen a lot of people criticizing the players. And I just, I think it's unfair because they're representing the United States.

Like it's inherently a political job they're having this moment. Like politicians will try to use you for political purposes. Um, I don't know their political views. I don't really care. I hope I never know them. But like, I think it's unfair to ask them to not take his call or to reject an invitation to the

White House. Like go if you want to go, don't if you don't. But it's like, they're not the bad guys here. It's that douchebag Cash Patel for like crashing their party. Well, I mean, they did. It is their choice to go.

I understand going, being invited, and they are in a difficult situation. Anybody representing America right now is in a difficult situation because the country is representing by an embarrassing, cruel maniac. But when you choose to go in the way that they went, it is unavoidable that they were part of a show that Donald Trump put on. They were the punchline to him saying the country was winning. They were used by Donald Trump. And they can be okay with that. They can be uncomfortable with that and not be willing or interested. in being involved in politics the next day.

But as of right now, those men were all used by Donald Trump for political purposes. If they're okay with that, they don't have to say anything. They're free to do whatever they want, but they also could say, it sucks, of course. They don't pick the president, right? Like, they make the team,

they work their whole lives to make the Olympics. They go to this game, they win the gold medal. They should be celebrated by our country, by our government. Like, I get what you're saying. I hear you, but I just think like, it sucks at the fucking onus is on them to be decent human beings. Yeah, I think that we,

it's sometimes hard to realize that not, Everyone are as political junkies like we are and also like feel the urgency of how bad that Donald Trump presidency is, even though like most of the country isn't happy with Donald Trump. They don't necessarily, they aren't necessarily unhappy with him the way we are unhappy with them or anyone who is listening to this is unhappy with them. And I think our job is to make sure the people understand the emergency. But like if they don't, because they're hockey players and they've been focusing on hockey for the last couple years and they're just kids at this point. Like, okay, they went to the way. Right. Credit to the women seem.

And also it's awesome. They won. No, they didn't go. So, like, that's definitely different tech. Right. Well, like, there, yeah. I mean, I guess it's sort of what is the responsibilities individuals have. I agree it's unfair that they're in that position. But it would be good to hear what people think, having been used as a tool by Donald Trump, are they happy with that? Are they okay with that? All of us have an obligation, even if it's unfair. I really do feel that way about it. The women's team seem to know that they would rather not go and rather spend the time with flavor flavor. Yeah. Well, I guess, and I guess a couple of them, a couple of men didn't go. I'm very much on that.

Like, if you don't go, don't go. If you don't want to go, don't go. And don't get criticized. The Olympics are in the United States in 2028. Every single Olympian is going to have this problem. Or are they all going to boycott? Like, I just don't think they should boycott. But I also fine with intending.

I just wonder, like, are you going to say how you feel now that you've been used? That's all. What do you feel about this? Tell us. I do think it raises, though, sort of a larger issue about the speech, which is it felt like. Create segue. Well, I wasn't even going to segue into what we're supposed to segue into. But I was just just been thinking about this.

It does feel. like it like took place in a different reality. Like these speeches and his speeches now are still covered like a normal speech. It's like we're clapping, the people on the panel are like, did he do his job and all this kind of stuff? And you're like, okay, he is giving this speech at a time when he is about to launch an illegal war after launching a previous illegal military action, paid for in part with legal taxes, the tariffs at the Supreme Court have now invalidated, that are also helping pay for, I don't know, at least, I don't know if it's illegal, but at least a lawless paramilitary force that is rampaging through the streets, has killed two Americans, didn't hear anything about

that, and has, like, locked up hundreds of people in basically internment camps. Like, this is, and meanwhile, the president's, like, getting rich the whole time and tried to arrest several of the people sitting in that chamber. Right. Just for, for, you know, and it's, it is a weird thing to cover this, to talk about this, to analyze this, just as a speech. Yeah, it pulls you towards a normalcy that should be very uncomfortable in this moment. Yeah.

Like we were watching on CNN and they're doing this, they were covering the exact same way they covered Obama speeches, Biden's speeches, or Bush's speeches where it's like, who's high five of the president? Who's getting a selfie with the president? Look at this person who's in a tough election talking to the president. And it's just like I understand. Like I don't know what else you do. We're doing a little bit right now. I mean, this is goes back to the, this is why I thought about with the hockey team too because it's like you're just, you make a decision in the moment you go.

And like, we cover it. and we do it, and people talk about it on the panel. And it's like, we'll live in the reality that we're living in. Yeah. By the same token, the conservatives were critical of Americans who were abroad in the part of the Olympics saying that they felt shame or embarrassment while being proud to be American. And of course, why are the Republicans saying that? They're saying that because they want everyone to treat this like normal. Of course.

They don't want to feel the shame and guilt that on their hearts they know they should feel for being part of this, right? Like, this is the watching this all unfold. I think part of what you're getting at is Republicans right now are like, you're. uniquely unsuited to like speak to the actual harm that he's doing, the actual pain that people are feeling, A, because Donald Trump simply cannot admit fault. And B, you feel a bunch of people that are all in a bubble of information, right? Trump is in a bubble. These Republicans are in a bubble. They're all applauding each other, celebrating each other. These are people that have inoculated themselves against reality, in part because it is necessary in order to support someone like Donald

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if you want to call it a political task, was to tell the American people that he does know the economy isn't improving quickly enough to lay out exactly how he plans to bring down costs. Here's what that sounded like. The roaring economy is roaring like never before. Now, the same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly used the word, affordability, a word. They just used it. Somebody gave it to them. They knew their statements were a lie. They knew it. They knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie. Their policies created, the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them. We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting downward. We want homes for people, not for corporations. Corporations are doing just fine.

Ray Sal, thank you very much. Good luck with your home. You'll get one soon. Good luck with your home. You'll get one soon. So I noted that the, that he talked about, you know, economic accomplishments, made up a bunch of statistics, lies about the economy, all that kind of stuff. The first time he mentioned any kind of economic policy proposal, any action he was going to take or policy he wanted, you know, turned into a law was at nine 50 p.m. What do you think? Did he move the needle there on the econ stuff, Dan? No, I mean, but he moved it backwards, right? It just, it is, it just, I hate to harp on it, but this is the perspective I look at is that he's a president with a party controlling both

House of Congress in a midterm and where the economy is the number one issue and he did the exact opposite thing. Anyone on the ballot would want. You just cannot, like we saw this when we work for Obama, if you go up there and you tell people the economy is great when they know it's not, you are sticking a thumb in their eye. It is why his approval rating sucks right now. Yeah, I will say like he does then, the speech is just a kind of a matter of craftsmanship, just terrible. Meander is incredibly long for its own sake. It takes to the minute 50 to get to these proposals. But if you do like, I do think like, I imagine when you look at the dials, you will see that the, like the populist economic policies is actually put forward, not letting corporations by

houses so that people can buy them. The kind of, what are the Trump accounts? Like, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. Like, those are all things that I think a more disciplined administration, administration that really did try to do the actual economic populism that we were afraid Trump would do from the beginning, that didn't do the big, beautiful

bill that cut taxes for the wealthy and sort of gave everybody else mostly nothing. Like, that is the worrying version of Trump to me. But I just think the fact that he can't get there till minute 50 and will not now, and the next two weeks hammering it will go do various events in which he talks about the random things on his mind while posting true socials about Adam Schiff is why it ultimately doesn't matter. I think in this case they made the same classic mistake that bad political approves make with polling

information long time is they tested these policies, these policies all tested to the roof. I guarantee it. Democrats, Republicans. People want something to do on, and we should just go through something on housing that you mentioned. He wants people want him to do something on prescription drugs. He's made up a bunch of shit that he's done on prescription drugs that isn't really true. and then he isn't going to do. He also talked about he got agreements from AI companies to maybe defray some of the

costs of the data centers. The energy source of electricity. Like, yeah, good luck. Good luck waiting for your electricity bill to go down on that one. But so, yeah, I'm sure those are the things that I'll pull well. But this is, but you, policies don't happen in a vacuum. Policies are connected to the person who proposes the policies. And the person who proposes the policy tells you that this is the greatest economy in

history. And all your prices have come down when you know, know those things are true, you're not going to believe he's going to do those things. Yeah. Tommy, our friends at Politico, you know what the big headline is? No. The line across the top of the page. Don't trigger me right now. It's late. It's, uh, Trump sticks to the script. Republicans needed the president to sell their message to kick off the midterms. They're breathing a sigh of relief. Get the fuck out of here. That can't be real. That cannot be real.

Trump. And then the headline underneath it, Trump allies relieved he's sticking to the script, but do see warning signs. One Republican strategist, they got on background, said, I wish we had more detailed steps to take. Yes, because there are no steps to take. Also, sticking to a shitty script is not something of your product. That is what it is. He stuck to the script, guys. Who are the authors of that piece?

You know what? No one put their name on it. Well, the political lie of no one put their name on, but the actual piece, it's a Dasher Burns. It's a Dasher Burns joint. Okay. I just think we're at the point where it's a good night for Republicans when the president doesn't call for the public execution

of members of the Supreme Court who are in his presence. Like, that's where the bar is terrific. Honestly, I had the same reaction watching. I was like, oh, he was surprisingly disciplined in that he didn't, like, try to kill Amy Coney Barrett or whatever. It's like... Didn't throw his feces of John Roberts. If you walk up there and you read the script to, like, battlefield Earth or something,

like, I don't think it's a win. It's a win. It's also a script where he says the only way Democrats can win elections if they cheat, where he points it... By the way, off script, he points it like, these people are crazy. They ruin the country. They're destroying the country. Yeah, we'll get to that.

So, on the Econ stuff, he's suddenly on board with the stock trading ban and called out Nancy Pelosi and what I thought, I assume they all thought was a really clever move. We do remember when Donald Trump was against the stock trading ban

when Josh Holly was on board with it and was going to vote with the Democrats and then Trump posted that Holly was just being a pawn for the Democrats and he was being used by them

and he came out against it and now he's... Is that on the sack trading ban? Yeah. Yeah, it was. Wow. And you know what? Trump was smart.

He got Holly to not do it. Then Trump becomes most corrupt president. history makes more money they could ever imagine now he's gonna fuck all these congress people over who're trying to get their beaks wet and he'll get the credit yeah great move by him actually they should ban stock trading they should ban buying and selling crypto or owning crypto companies they should ban kalshi as a service or like or betting on kalshi if you work in the u.s government in any capacity like great do it like we've been talking about this for decades now

also trump has control the house in the senate right do what are we waiting for yeah none of nancy policy's fault i'm sure all these yeah i'm sure all these like testable but like nothing's going to happen? And then what's going to happen when the midterms roll around and none of the stuff that Trump talked about tonight actually goes into law or actually happens or makes anyone lives and make anyone's lives better? And they forget about this tomorrow. On the tariffs, because, you know, he did, he mentioned that. He said it was a disappointing decision. He said disappointing a couple times. You could tell he was, you tell he was close to maybe losing it, but he did, he held it together. It is interesting, I think, on the tariffs that he just, you know, he's going full steam

on a tax increase. It's insane. I think they, it's insane. And in the midter, as, you know, as, you know, As we always know, when you're running in a midterm year and people are upset about the economy and they think the costs are too high, you run on a large tax increase. Yeah, I think the fact that they landed on the word unfortunate, which he like hammered. It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. I feel like that was a victory inside of a room where people were trying to get him to be as mild as possible. I wonder part of this, too, is he's also convinced himself in the interim that they actually couldn't stop him and he's using tariffs like he did before. And it's not like he feels like he was able to put the tariffs back on anyway. the the the the the the again like republicans being willing to cheer this stuff although they

cheered tariffs less when he's just saying how we're going to make these other countries pay when i think people feel like it is affecting they people it's incredibly unpopular because people know the cost are uh going to them we now have evidence from these tariffs that 96% of the cost go to americans that is all information people have so uh yeah he's he's not uh he's going down with the tariff ship for sure i also think there's he had a choice to make because he was initially acting like the Supreme Court decision is going to destroy the country and the world and it was the worst thing that ever happened, but that also he still has all the authority to do all the exact same tariffs and they're going to be even better than before. Yeah, now they're in stronger legal fight. So you can't,

you can't really do both of those things. So he decided to pick the strength over the weakness, right? Because he realized it was fun to bitch about the Supreme Court, but like that wasn't, that's not where he wanted to land. I did enjoy the side-by-side shot with Amy Coney-Barrant, kind of looking kind of that sort of frozen face and Trump continuing to go on about how much stronger legal authority will be. Yeah, I'm sure she practiced that. Trump did spend a lot of tonight talking about immigration, which he still thinks is a winning issue for him. There was a lot of secure border talk, a lot of detailed, gruesome accounts of Americans who've been killed by immigrants, and then it got even darker. We'll balance our budget. The Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota

remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption, and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception. these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders, brings those problems right here to the USA. And it is the American people who pay the price in higher medical bills, car insurance rates, rent, taxes, and perhaps most importantly, crime. We will take care of this problem. We're going to take care of this problem. We are not playing games. So, Tommy, it's obviously gross and dishonest, but do you think that even works for him? Yeah, I mean, like, it has become standard issue that there is always a section

where he narrates a series of grisly crimes and then they cut to some poor person whose life was just decimated by these actions and I guess I have TDS but it's grotesque to me. I also found like the unbelievably racist attacks in the Somali community to be grotesque and dehumanizing and like just like

you were saying to like not meeting the moment of the things people are worried about like he starts the immigration section by saying not a single undocumented person has gotten into the country So why are you still focused on it? Right? We're all not about the economy, not this.

Yeah, also, pirates operate on the water. Well, a little throwback, you know. Right, but sort of they can't be, not really a pirate ground by hand. I do think, Dan, that he, the way they constructed this speech was they knew that to the extent that anyone outside of Trump fans and Trump supporters were watching the speech, they're watching the beginning. The first 30 minutes, maybe the first hour. And so the first 30 minutes is like the award show where it's hard to at least disagree with him. He's not going to say anything too partisan. He's going to tell a lot of lies, but he's not going to say anything too partisan.

Then as it got into like later in the speech, that's when he started the dark immigration stuff, the Democrats. This is like juice in the base, you know, who's the people who are still hanging on at our. Yeah, I think that presupposes a little more strategy than they brought to the table here. But you are correct in how it was structured. And everyone always starts to the economy. Like that is the standard way of doing it. Normally you get to it like a minute five, not a minute 55, but, you know, to each their own. I think from a, like one thing from a political perspective is Trump is living in a 2024 reality, not a 2026 reality.

He's talking about the border. He's talking about it as if people trust him on immigration and are deathly worried about immigration and crime. Now those things are true anymore. His immigration approval is now as bad as his approval on the economy, which is quite bad. People think ICE is a threat to American citizens and legal residents. People think ICE has gone too far. And so once again, I know Trump is chemically and psychological and capable of this, but there is a way to do this that is pretty simple to acknowledge that you don't even have to admit any fault,

but that we are, like, you could have mentioned the body camps thing, which was their proposal that they did. Did you guys hear him mention ICE at all? I don't see how. I think he said the word. I don't think he said the word. Yeah, I don't think so either. Which is wild because, I mean, it's certainly an acknowledgement. of how unpopular they are, but like, you'd think that the way the Trump administration is,

with everything else, it would have been like the men and women of ice or, you know, trying to keep us, protect us, and they've faced all kinds of assaults and stuff like that. Did he hit it at all when he was talking about the funding fight and wanting to make sure? No. No. It doesn't be the Homeland Security. Yeah. Just Homeland Security wider.

He focused on, like, you know, rescue stories and like brave people who are no longer funded because of Dems and DHS. Pod Save America is brought to you by Quince. A well-built wardrobe is about clothes that work together and hold up over time. That's what Quince does best. Premium materials, thoughtful design and everyday staples that feel easy to wear and easy to rely on. Even as the weather shifts, Quince has everyday essentials.

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quince.com slash crooked. This podcast is sponsored by strawberry.meat. Let me ask you something. You think LeBron, Patrick Mahomes, or Serena got to the goat status by guessing? No, they had coaching. Every pro athlete has a specialized coach watching their form,

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Democrats in the room who mostly sat quietly and refused to clap for him. Take a listen. These people are crazy, I'm telling you. They're crazy. Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the nick of time, didn't we have? 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 aliens. You should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself. They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

They are Republicans, MAGA, so excited about that moment. It was clearly planned. It was a setup. They are very proud of themselves. You know, Scott Jennings called it a moment of the night. Stephen Miller tweeted, Democrats declared to the world their searing disdain for and profound disloyalty to the actual citizens of the United States.

They refused. It was a moment that chills to the bone, which will live for a thousand years. Live for a thousand years. It's so funny. A thousand years from now? That was like the second one, too. He did another one that was like long and involved.

It was crazy. They really think that's like the big, they really got them. They think they set a trap. An incredible trap. So clever. A master class. Who's ever done that?

Delivered a line that you only assume that one side will stand for, even though you know that, like, most people, come on. Preemptively saying, everyone will stand for this unless they're insane. I mean, this is, once again, like a little bit of the, like,

bizarre, surreal normalcy of it, which is back when we would do this, you try to find moments and then you would try to use whatever platform you had to make that be the moment. You just tell the report, this is the moment, this is the moment, this is the moment of the speech,

it's the moment you should show. So they tried to do that here. Also, this is an idea that it was not originally my idea, but that I pitched Obama on two separate state of the unions was to do this for raising taxes on the wealthy. Not about the immigrants. No, but to make the Republicans not stand up. We didn't do that? I don't think we ever, I think, I don't think we did it. George, U. Bush's move during this, but his move was always to say something kind of partisan and then end with something everybody would have to applaud for.

So we'd say, like, we're going to deregulate, we're going to let you cut down some of the trees that we don't need anymore. We're going to get rid of some of this onerous taxation because America's going to have the strongest economy in the world that everybody like, ah, fuck. Stephen Miller also said, this was the most shocking image in the history of the U.S. Congress. He's such a fucking loser. I mean, if you watch the speech or even if you watch clips, it's just so obvious that Trump is trying to goad Democrats into this dumb childish fight. He was not subtle on it. Yeah. And also, like, it's just no longer interesting.

Like, the shock value of, like, them screaming back and forth is gone. I don't think anyone really benefits from clips of the president. screaming back and over. Like, I bet Ilhan Omar will benefit in her community. The people she represents will probably like that she's fighting on their behalf, given like what he's done in Minnesota. But most voters will watch that and think like, this is what I don't like about Washington. Yeah, we're saying that she was shouting that as he's making this sort of attack on Democrats for not keeping citizens safe, that her district, two people were killed by ICE. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Also, like everyone's watching those speech. They know that the Democrats

haven't been replying to anything else. Like, they don't think it's a fucking theater. So in the alternate universe where our politics never got this stupid, the state of the Union would have largely been about, or at least significantly, about Iran, and explaining to the American people what exactly we plan to do with the gigantic fighting force. We have amassed in the Middle East.

Trump did get to it quite late, pretty briefly. Here's what he said. They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles. that will soon reach the United States of America. We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal,

but we haven't heard those secret words. We will never have a nuclear weapon. Tommy, what was new there? Anything? I mean, that line that they're working on missiles that will soon reach the United States of America jumped out of me. It sounded like bullshit.

I got checked it with some experts who have had intel access much more recently than I have. And they said it was wildly implausible, though obviously we don't. know what we don't know, but I think it's just him trying to create a pretext for going to war. Like Iran does it. They have a large diverse array of ballistic and cruise missiles. They can hit a lot of bases in the region. They can hit Europe. They can hit Israel, for example. And that's why an attack

could lead to a scary response. But the idea that they're going to hit the continental U.S. is like, is nonsense. The other thing you said that was a lie, though, was this claim that, what is it, the secret word? The secret word. The secret word. No nukes. The preamble of the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal that Obama negotiated with Iran and the Trump pulled out of says, quote, Iran reaffirms that under no circumstance will Iran ever seek, develop, or acquire any nuclear weapons. That was in the JCPOA that both sides agreed to. Obviously, we don't trust them. That's why there was all this verification that went along with that deal. But Trump just pretends that didn't happen and he's, you know, the source of all this problem. The really remarkable thing to me is like we're on the cusp of war.

He made no case for it. I realize that's because it's wildly unpopular, but that problem doesn't go away if you just start the war without making the case. I mean, I guess it does. I guess. It doesn't change the popularity. We're sleepwalking towards a conflict that nobody wants. Yeah, it solves his problem that people don't want the war that he's about to launch. All right. So after the speech, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger gave the Democratic response because we were in the studio with Kimmel while it was happening. We heard good things, which is rare for one of these things. We haven't had the chance to listen yet, so we thought we just react to it here for the first time. Do you guys have the clip? The president is planning for

new tariffs, another massive tax hike on you and your family. They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies. They have sent children, a little boy in a blue bunny hat, children, too far off detention centers, and they have killed American citizens in our streets. Our broken immigration system is something to be fixed, not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities. He's enriching himself, his family, his friends, the scale of the corruption is unprecedented. There's the cover-up of the Epstein files, the crypto scams, cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms. So I'll ask again, is the president working for you? we all know the answer is no.

That was great. I was depressed. It was good to hear something. It was good to hear a return to reality. This is what's happening in the country. Yeah. And just also just some good old fashioned speech writing. You know, just sort of some cogent sentences, that kind of thing.

Like the old days. What did you think, Tommy? I mean, you know, hearing, my initial reaction was hearing like a moderate, like Abigail Spanberger, go that hard at ICE funding, really tells you how far the politics have shifted on the issue generally. It was like the kind of thing you would imagine she'd be advised not to touch, and now she's just laying into it there. Yeah. I like that she did it in front of a crowd.

Yeah. That's good. Yeah. I think, I think responses should only be in front of crowds. Yeah, I think that's right. He's got the crowd. I mean, he's a great crowd because half the crowd didn't stand up.

The other half of a bunch of people just didn't show up at the speech either. But it is nice to have a little energy behind you than to have the, like, straight direct-to-camera kind of. Also, they didn't complicate the simple. She just gave a speech at a podium with flags behind her instead of like trying to put her like in a weird room or like a factory floor or all the other dumb things we've done over the earth. That is true. No better it is in a brink song. Who was it to walk down the steps?

Bobby Jindal. And it was like a weird... Remember Rubio reaching across for the water? That was incredible. Now he's Secretary of State could be the next president. Looks like he got the last laugh, huh? President of Venezuela. He's still time for laughing.

He's got like three jobs in with the archivist for a while. He's not awesome. I get fired from that. All right, before we go, any kind of closing thoughts? We got an insta poll from CNN. Uh-huh. Apparently the percentage who said it was a very pot who felt very positive about the speech was like the lowest in the last 10 years

I guess so that's something of course those insta polls they're always um more republican or more i mean there they're people watch the speech tend to be people who are already supportive of the president so if it's like a democratic president this poll's more democratic if the republican president i think it was a cbs poll that came out today said that only 18% of democrats were planning on watching the speech yeah it was wild but i think that's all i think there are a lot of them all that's the time Democrat's light of the pollsters. I think I heard the CNN poll was like 13 or 14 points more Republican than a typical poll, which is like fine. But still, 38%. And the question is, is any of this matter anymore? No, probably not. I don't think it does at all.

I think that by the time you finish listening to this podcast, you'll never think of the speech again. Stealth bombers can be headed to Tehran right now. Yep. The great shame of our nation, a historical atrocity that he is in office as a proverb will continue to hover at 38%. Yeah, but I do not, but unlike what someone told Politico, I, I, I do not think that he, that's sticking to the script, gives the Republicans what they need for the midterms. I don't think they get what they needed. That was, that's an insane stupid.

They need a genie and a lamp that they can rub an S3 wishes till at this point. Yeah, I don't think. And that's it. That's his biggest audience until the midterms. It's just so crazy we have president. The bar is so low. It's like, he read the words, everybody. They were bad words.

They made no sense. They didn't, they really didn't make anything better, but he read them. Look, mostly. Great work. Look, look. They've changed the headline now. What Trump avoided in the State of the Union could haunt him in November. But then it was what?

I know. But then the subhead is the president's state of the union was notable for something his second term has largely lacked restraint. Oh, my, come on. When you started screaming, the Democrats are crazy, I guess that's the first step back. I would love to just like show this speech to a mid, like kind of a typical Republican in 1996. They'd be like, what happened? Was the president injured? Like, what's going on?

There were mistakes he avoided making. Trump did not attack the Supreme Court. He did not blitz members of his own party who have criticized him. He avoided rambling, angry digressions from the script. But then he avoided no new ideas on housing or health care, two defining issues in the midterm campaign. Yeah. Me and no mention of the Jeffrey Epstein scandals. I mean, in fairness, yeah, I don't think he was going to go on a stem winder on Epstein.

Yeah, good thing to skip over. Some of these files in my pocket, let me unredact them on live TV. Now that's what a showman would do. Take out the files, take off the black tape. He didn't blitz members of his own party? Is he the free safety, like tackling Speaker Johnson? You know what he did not talk? It was for better or worse.

See, someone else wrote this one. Oh, there's a two-be-shore paragraph. This is, Eli Stokel's wrote this one. They changed it. They changed the whole thing. But it was, it's unlikely to change the political trajectory of Trump's second term. in some ways it was nearly indistinguishable from Trump's daily pattern in the Oval Office. That's correct.

That's right. Good job, Politico. It is also an accurate description of what happened tonight. Bam, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, anyway, it's 10.30 at night. We've got to go to bed. We'll see you guys soon. All right.

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