Tangle - Trump's State of the Union address.

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term (Trump addressed a joint session of Congress last year, but it was not an official State of the Union). During the speech, Trump focused predominantly on domestic issues, but said that he would “never” allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. His speech lasted approximately one hour and 48 minutes, surpassing last year’s speech as the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history. Ad-free podcasts are here!To listen to this podcast ad-free, and to enjoy our subscriber only premium content, go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Take the survey: What do you think of Trump’s address? Let us know.Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast was written by: Isaac Sauland audio edited and mixed by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking predictably about the state of the union address that President Donald Trump delivered last night. I'm going to share some views from the left and the right, and then, of course, my take. Joining me on the podcast today's Associate Editor Audrey Moorhead, who's going to break down today's main story, and I'll be back for my take. Thanks, Isaac. This is Associate Editor Audrey Moorhead. And today's topic is Trump's State of the Union

address. But before we get into that, here are some quick hits. Number one, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe briefed top congressional leaders on U.S. relations with Iran, as President Donald Trump reportedly weighs military action against the country. Number two. The Pentagon said that the U.S. military seized a ship in the Indian Ocean, allegedly linked to illicit oil shipments out of Venezuela. It was the third such ship seizure carried out under sanctions imposed by President Trump. Number three, in a five to four decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Postal Service cannot be sued over mail that was intentionally misdelivered. The case centered on a dispute between a landlord and postal workers in Texas.

Number four, the Trump administration is reportedly considering executive action to require banks to collect citizenship information from customers. Number five, the House failed to pass a bill that would require aircraft operators to equip aircraft with a safety system that broadcast the craft's precise location, altitude, and speed. The bill, which the Senate passed unanimously in December, was introduced in the wake of the January 2025 air accident in Washington, D.C. that killed 67 people. The Pentagon reportedly raised last-minute objections to some of its provisions. Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. 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 with you. 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 group of winners who just made the entire nation proud. The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team.

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump delivered the first state of the union address of his second term. Trump addressed a joint session of Congress last year, but that was not an official state of the union speech. During the speech, Trump focused predominantly on domestic issues, but said that he would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. His speech lasted approximately one hour and 48 minutes, surpassing last year's speech as the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history. Trump awarded civilian and military honors throughout the speech. Early on, the president recognized members of the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team, which defeated Canada to win the gold medal on Sunday,

and announced that he will award goaltender Connor Hellebock with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Later in the speech, Trump recognized Andrew Wolfe and the late Sarah Bexstrom, the two National Guard members shot in Washington, D.C. last November, and awarded both Purple Hearts. He also awarded medals of honor to Army Chief War and Officer 5, Eric Slover, who was injured during the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro,

and to E. Royce Williams, a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The president advocated for several policies during the address. He called on Congress to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act, which would prohibit members of Congress and certain family members from purchasing individual publicly traded stocks. Later, Trump called on the Senate to approve the Save America Act, which would require people to provide certain government,

government issued identification when registering to vote, saying that Democrats only oppose the bill because, quote, they want to cheat in elections. Trump also touted several of his accomplishments as president, including the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the approval of a $1,776 warrior dividend to members of the armed forces, and his role in negotiating peace treaties. He also announced that Vice President J.D. Vance would lead a war on fraud, specifically referenced fraud allegations against members of the Somali community in Minnesota. Congressional Democrats clashed with Trump at multiple points during the speech. As Trump entered the chamber, Representative Al Green of Texas held up a sign reading,

quote, Black people aren't apes. Green was later ejected from the chamber. Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Slabe of Michigan shouted condemnations at Trump before leaving the chamber. After the speech, Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger delivered the official Democratic response to Trump's address, criticizing the president's handling of the economy and immigration, and touting Democrats' performance in elections since Trump took office. On the other side of the aisle, Republicans broadly praised Trump's address. Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina called the speech compelling,

saying it was, quote, a breathtaking summary of the most successful first year of any president in modern history. Now, we'll get into what the right and left are saying about Trump's state of the Union. address. Then, executive editor Isaac Saul will give his take. We'll be right back after this quick break. First, what the right is saying. The right mostly praises Trump's speech, with many saying he focused on a winning message. Some criticized Democrats' response to the portions on immigration. Others say Trump reminded the country of why he was elected. In the free press,

Eli Lake said Trump tried to reset his presidency by return. turning to a winning formula. Watching President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech Tuesday, you wouldn't know that his approval ratings had plummeted and his party was facing the prospect of a walloping in the midterm elections. The Trump that addressed Congress Tuesday night was the happy warrior who won the 2024 election by exploiting the unpopular positions of his Democratic opponents with a mix of scowls and smiles. Trump, the salesman, was selling the first year of his second presidency. He said, quote, Our nation is back, bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before. Trump was seeking to expose the extreme views of his opposition in his section on immigration.

In this regard, his state of the union speech may be a political reset. Trump was trying to remind Americans why a majority of them voted for him in 2024. Trump at the end of the day was selling himself. The country is doing better than ever because of his policies, he said. he focused on issues where he thinks that he and his party have a natural advantage, gender ideology, border security, crime and blue-collar jobs. In PJ Media, Matt Margolis described the moment that lost Democrats the midterms. Trump said, quote, The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

Republicans exploded. They stood, clapped, and whistled for a solid two minutes. It was the kind of raw, spontaneous, reaction you can't manufacture. Democrats didn't move. Illegal immigration was one of the defining issues of the 2024 election. And yet, on national television with the whole country tuned in, Democratic lawmakers couldn't bring themselves to affirm that the government's first job is to protect its own constituents over illegal immigrants. This wasn't a political miscalculation on their part, it was a confession. Republicans have been accusing Democrats of prioritizing illegals over

American citizens for years, and Trump handed them an opportunity to prove them wrong and they didn't take it. They couldn't do it, so they handed Republicans a huge gift for the upcoming midterm elections. Trump baited them and they took the bait. He knew they wouldn't stand, and now the whole country knows that the only people Democrats stand for are illegal immigrants. In the Daily Signal, Jared Stutman praised Trump's message of common sense. Despite the decade-long attempt to portray him as a arranged an illegitimate shock to the system. It's Trump who is bringing back normalcy as Democrats descend into madness. On point after point, Trump delivered factual assessments about where the country is compared to a few years ago. He noted that crime and inflation are down, American savings

accounts are up, and our enemies are on their back heels as opposed to being on the march. At every turn, as Trump pointed out, Democrats have punted in their responsibilities to protect and represent the American people. Trump also made it clear that if his opponents on the left retake federal power, they will immediately return to the ruinous open borders and many other terrible policies that Americans voted against in 2024. Whatever one can say about the state of the union, Trump's leadership, America's place in the world,

it's hard to imagine how much worse things would be under the renewed tyranny of Democrat theater kids. That's it for what the right is saying. Now what the left is saying. The left is critical of the address. calling out Trump's distortions about the state of the country. Some say the president's scapegoated immigrants to dodge blame for his failures. Others suggest Trump's attempted optimism fell flat.

In MS Now, Hayes Brown described the dark tension at the heart of Trump's state of the union. The shell of the speech that Trump delivered was almost anodyne compared to some of the more meandering and sharp-edged addresses he's delivered over the years. while he injected plenty of his own asides into the already lengthy text, the core theme, in brief, that America is doing greater than ever, shone through, despite a lack of facts to back him up. There were only a handful of new policy announcements. Instead, a massive stretch of Trump's speech was focused on feel-good moments.

In Trump's telling, the economy is booming, Americans are safer than ever, the world is bending toward peace, and it's all thanks to him. But even when speaking of unbridled prosperity, Trump couldn't help but highlight the supposed dangers still lurking around every corner. In anecdote after anecdote, the president chose to highlight tragic deaths and murders in his bid to paint immigrants as violent and Democrats as complicit. It's a tension that undercuts his positive message while drawing more focus on the abuses of Americans' rights that Trump has authorized. As much as Trump wants to present America as a utopia under his benevolent rule, rule. There is no need for a dictator without a healthy dose of fear among the populace.

In The Guardian, Moira Donakin wrote, Trump has lost the ability to entertain. Sadly, he hasn't lost the ability to offend. Throughout the speech, Trump seemed tired. He had difficulty reading from his teleprompter. He gripped the podium with a tightness bordering on desperation. And toward the end of the broadcast, his voice became audibly raspy. The address touched on Trump's typical themes, the supposed criminality and inferiority of immigrants, the mendaciousness of his opponents, his personal virtues and resentments. But the president offered very few new policy ideas, contradicted himself on crucial issues, misrepresented pertinent facts, and substantively addressed few of what polls reveal to be the nation's most pressing concerns.

He has not, of course, lost the ability to offend. Trump spent a large swath of his speech a immigrants, who he smeared in terms that evoked the algorithm-driven social media where he spends so much of his time. Perhaps most galling of all, he blamed immigrants, in particular the Somali American population in Minnesota, for importing corruption to the United States. However, it is Trump, not any Somali immigrant who has repeatedly concocted thin pretexts to accept large sums of money from rich people and companies with business before his administration. In the Daily Beas, David Gardner argued, Trump's game show speech can't get him out of jeopardy. With his permatan and showman smirk, Donald Trump tried every trick in the book to win over the country.

Come on in, come on down, you get a purple heart. You get this, you get that. Stand up if you believe in America, and shame on you if you sit on your hands. With his popularity plummeting and his signature tariff policy in ruins, the president needed a ratings triumph. No TV man likes a drop in the polls, but he came off a little too desperate. Even his attacks on the Democrats were tamer than in the firebrand first few months. His attempt to taunt Democrats by urging lawmakers to stand if they believed the first duty of government was to protect Americans over undocumented immigrants came off as cheesy. He kept shaking his head and looking mock disgusted while the Republicans in the audience

tried to work out when they could stop clapping. Perhaps he thought that if he stayed in the game, long enough, he would win the prize. But Trump should have known that the first law of show business is to leave when you're on top. That's it for what the right and left are saying. Now we'll head over to executive editor Isaac Saul for his take. All right, that is it for the left and the righter saying, which brings us to my take. Typically, I don't give much credence to the importance of a state of the union address, and I don't suspect these addresses move the electorate much. Over time, these nights have become pure theater, with each side trying to plant memorable lines or use symbolic optics

to make the other party look bad. There's jeering, cheering, cheering, booing, clapping, and special guests meant to evoke or provoke. There are exaggerations, gratuitous lies, and misleading statistics to frame the party's successes as the greatest ever, especially with our current president. Last night was no different. In discussing economic indicators' wars ended, prescription drug prices, tariffs, and illegal voting, Trump told all manner of self-aggrandi lies and exaggerations. Yet, even with all those reasons to discount the moment, the state of the Union felt like it mattered more than most. Despite a governing trifecta, Trump's back is against the wall. His approval ratings are underwater. He's in the midst of a homeland security

funding fight in which the public appears to be siding with Democrats. He just spent time in Georgia, in a deep red county of a typically red state, pitching voters on how he's addressing affordability. Democrats have had a series of mind-boggling over-performances in recent special elections, including last night in Pennsylvania. And this speech provided him with one of his last chances to address voters nationally before next year's midterms. And so, last night, Trump once again ascended the congressional dais, needing to reset the narrative and get back in the driver's seat.

I suspected he would emphasize his economic successes, the declining murder rate, the border being shut down, the wars he's working to end, and tie in an aspirational and uplifting vision of America with the 250th anniversary on the horizon. All of that would have been reasonable and based in fact. Many, many good things are happening in our country that Trump could have spent his entire speech focused on. Last year, Trump's address to a joint session of Congress

was all about ending the war in Ukraine, bringing Israeli hostages home, making America affordable again, planting an American flag on Mars, shutting down the border, all manner of tax cuts, and the renewal of the American. American dream. This year, I was genuinely surprised by how morbid so much of the speech was. I've watched every state of the union address for the last 15 years, start to finish,

and hundreds of Trump speeches, including his address in Georgia last week. I've never seen him so repeatedly and thoroughly focused on violence, death, blood, guts, and gore. There were the murderous drug cartels, murderers coming here illegally from mental institutions, the terrorists and murderers DHS is protecting us from, and Charlie Kirk being violently murdered by an assassin. There were the murderous Iranian proxies and the Iranian regime, which has spread nothing but terrorism and death and hate and killed and maim thousands of Americans. There were the Iranian protesters shot and hung in the streets. Trump described Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe being violently shot in the head, laying helplessly

in bed, blood all over. There was Chief Warren Officer 5, Eric Slover, gushing blood. which was flowing back down the helicopter aisle after being shot during an operation in Venezuela. His leg shredded into numerous pieces. There was the 16-year-old cheerleader, Lisbeth Medina, who was violently and viciously killed, brutally extinguished by a killer and illegal alien.

Her mother found her lying dead in a bathtub, bleeding profusely after being stabbed 25 times, Trump said. Describing Arina Zarutka, the Ukrainian refugee killed on a bus in Charlotte last year, Trump said, viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body. As the camera pans to Zerutska's weeping mother in the audience, Trump added that no one will ever forget the expression of terror on Arina's face

as she looked up at her attacker in the last seconds of her life. She died instantly. It went on and on like this for the entire night, and it struck me as deeply uncomfortable and awful to watch. This emphasis did not make me feel good, nor did it make me feel angry or motivated in a way that felt productive, which I might have if Trump attached a message about how he might overcome all this horror. When I ran the transcript of Trump's speech through chat GPT,

it said roughly 40 to 50% of the speech was about violence, crime, or war. When I asked it to break down the speech by section, it set up to 70% of Trump's topics included violent rhetoric. To take just one example, Trump used the word murder, murderers, or murderous nine times. Just two of the nine references were him describing the historic drop in murder. over the last year. From a simple messaging standpoint, this felt like an odd and counterproductive choice.

Trump is supposed to be the president ending eight wars, this claim is still not true, and bringing peace to the streets. Yet the free world he describes himself as overseeing has terror and death lurking on every corner and every continent. The tone, even for Trump, felt especially morbid and wildly a field of how a president might convince the nation that things aren't as bad as they think.

That's not to say this speech was totally bereft of effective moments. The final minutes of his speech were a genuinely moving recounting of the beauty of the American project, the relatively brief and delicate span of our nation's history, and the limitless potential of American citizens, so much so that I message my team on Slack and asked, where's this been all night? He honored several heroes throughout the evening and at times referenced the falling rates of violence, fentanyl use, and even Americans on food stamps under his administration.

administration. Perhaps most notably, and in the moment that will surely show up in political ads later this year, Trump asked all in the chamber who believed the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens, to stand. Nearly every Democrat I could see remain seated. Of course, I suspect most of them believe the sentiment but just want to resist Trump's games, yet the optics here are terrible for the party. This kind of open combat in the chamber is where Trump excels and where he seems to be most comfortable. And when he wasn't describing murderous scenes of violence, he seemed most comfortable provoking his opponents. He dragged Rashida Thlebe and Alana Omar into the fight with a long section on the quote-unquote

Somali pirates in Minnesota. Both Thlebe and Omar left the speech after heckling and screaming that the president killed American citizens. Republicans started a USA chant in response to Representative Al Green, who was holding up a sign that red black people aren't apes. Trump repeatedly pointed to the seated Democrats who refused to stand and clap for all manner of positive updates about the country, calling them crazy and sick. Obviously, the tenor of these exchanges reflects just how divided and broken our politics are, and our president appears continuously thrilled at the prospect of further driving the wedge between red and blue. This is all unfortunate, given how much opportunity Trump had to

go in a different direction. Some important economic indicators are strong. The border is secure. Genuine peacemaking efforts are proliferating across the globe, and on the heels of the Olympics, American pride is bursting, even on the verge of unity with the ice hockey gold medals and the unifying force of Alyssa Liu. Even in crude political terms, Trump had opportunities. Just take the juxtaposition of him bringing the men's hockey team and war heroes to the chamber as his guest, while Democrats invited an alleged Jeffrey Epstein survivor, who, also allegedly helped Epstein traffic women. It's not as if Trump doesn't know how to foster bipartisan unity. He received a standing ovation from both sides of the aisle when he explicitly

rejected political violence in all its forms, citing the murder of Charlie Kirk. He also got an enthusiastic ovation, including from Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren, when he called for a ban on congressional stock trading. I could be a cynic and point to Trump's own corruption and self-dealing or the dig he took at Nancy Pelosi immediately after. But the point is that he knows how to foster this kind of unity. He just chooses not to. So when I think about this speech, those moments won't stay in my mind,

nor will Democrats refusing to stand when prompted to pledge their allegiance to the American citizens. Instead, I'll remember the tension, the gore, and the combat. If this was a speech meant to focus Americans on how much better their lives have gotten in the last year and why we should punch the ballot for Republicans this fall to continue to empower this president, it struck me as inexplicably counterproductive. I still don't think this address will move the electoral needle,

but my guess is that if it does, it won't be in the president's favor. All right, that's it for my take today. I'm sending it back to Audrey for the rest of the pod, and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace. Thanks, Isaac. This is Audrey Moorhead, back with a staff dissent. I think Isaac undersells the parts of the speech that Trump got right. Isaac mentions that he expected Trump to focus more on his administration's successes, but that was the sole focus of the first portion of the speech,

even if it was overshadowed by some violent imagery later. I also thought the speech was largely upbeat, and I was heartened by how much of it was dedicated to recognizing American citizens and military heroes. Isaac is also too quick to dismiss the moments of unity that Trump inspired. And I felt that Trump's appeals to the American spirit, ahead of the 250th anniversary, eclipsed much of the partisan mudslinging that had come before. As Isaac said at the outset of his take,

the State of the Union has become a piece of partisan political theater. But that's exactly why the rare moments of bipartisan transcendence should be more celebrated. We'll be right back after this quick break. In lieu of our reader question section today, we want to offer some more analysis on the key issues Trump mentioned in his address last night. We don't have the time to go into full detail on these topics or fact-check all of the president's claims. So instead, in the show notes,

you can find links to our in-depth coverage of these issues from the past year. Now for our Under the Radar section. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseff reportedly told the CEO of Artificial Intelligence Company Anthropic that he has until Friday to give the U.S. military full access to its AI product or face significant penalties. Anthropics Clod is the only AI model used in classified military systems, and Hegeseth has requested that the military receive unrestricted access. Anthropic has said it will work to tailor Claude to the military's needs, but the company maintained that it won't allow the model to be used for mass surveillance in the United States or the development of autonomous weapons. If the company does not meet the Friday deadline,

Hexeth reportedly said the Defense Department will end its military contract or invoke the Defense Production Act to force its compliance. Axios has the story and you can find the link in the show notes. And finally, our Have a Nice Day story. In 2020, Jennifer Durham became a professor at the Rutgers School of Psychology. The achievement was another chapter in the Durham family's historic relationship with the school. Durham and her mother, Inez Phillips Durham, became the first mother-daughter duo

to earn PhDs from the School of Psychology when Jennifer earned her degree in 1992. Inez earned her own doctorate in 1984, all while working as a single mother supporting her daughter, who was often seen working on her homework in the science library while her mother did her research. Inez said, quote, I prayed every day for the determination to get that degree.

It wasn't easy, but we managed. I say we because Jennifer had to be more independent. And Jennifer says, quote, One of our main things is service. Always, always, always give back. That was core to who she is, and she passed that on to me. People has the story, and you can find it in the show notes below. All right, everybody, that's it for today's episode.

As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to reetangle.com, where you can send up for a newsletter membership, podcast membership, or a bundled membership that gets you a discount on both. We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day, y'all. Peace. Our executive editor and founder is me, Isaac Saul, and our executive producer is John Wall.

Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by managing editor Ari Weitzman with senior editor Will Kayback and associate editors Audrey Moorhead, Lindsay Canuth, and Bailey Saul. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website at retangle.com.