🎭Showman in Chief
The president delivered the kind of speech Republicans needed.… But is it enough?
LIGHTS, CAMERA… — If you were questioning why I called President DONALD TRUMP the greatest showman in American politics in my SOTU preview Monday, last night served up a fresh reminder to jog your memory.
From the top of the address, when he ushered the USA men’s hockey team — fresh off their Olympic gold — into the chamber, Trump delivered an incredible performance for the masses, as he’s wont to do. He gave out so many medals that I lost track. The Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian honor — for goalie CONNOR HELLEBUYCK. Two Purple Hearts for the National Guard members ambushed and shot while patrolling Washington D.C. — the medal for SARAH BECKSTROM given posthumously to her family. Honors for a veteran and a Coast Guard swimmer who saved an 11-year-old.
There was the element of surprise — like when Trump, speaking to one woman in the audience, suddenly called in her beloved uncle, a Venezuelan opposition leader who’d been freed following the U.S. military operation removing NICOLÁS MADURO. “Alejandra, I’m pleased to inform you that not only has your uncle been released, but he is here tonight,” Trump announced, before ENRIQUE MÁRQUEZ walked into the House chamber where he embraced his niece.
There was honor — Trump for the first time told the story of Chief Warrant Officer ERIC SLOVER, who helped save the January mission in Venezuela despite being shot several times, “even as he was gushing blood, which was flowing back down the aisle” of the Chinook, Trump said. He then gave him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
There was hope — While calling on Congress to ban states from giving commercial driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, Trump told the comeback story of five-year-old Dalilah Coleman, who was hit by an illegal driving an 18-wheeler. Doctors said she’d never be able to walk or talk again. Instead, she sat there with her proud papa, holding up his now first-grader. (“We’re getting them the hell out of here fast,” Trump subsequently vowed of undocumented.)
And through it all, Trump played the showman-in-chief, as my The Huddle co-host SEAN SPICER observed last night. He turned the double doors in the House chamber’s upper gallery into something of a prop, sweeping people in when their moment came, with a quintessential Trumpian flair for the dramatic.
BUT IT WAS ALSO A GOOD NIGHT FOR THE PRESIDENT because of the substance. His team came prepared with tangible examples of the real-life impacts of his policies. A wannabe mother now paying $3,500 less for IVF drugs on the Trump RX website due to his “Most Favored Nations” policy. A family getting $5,000 more in their pocketbook because of the Big Beautiful Bill and “No Tax on Tips.”
And he avoided pitfalls Republicans were worried about: While Trump didn’t hide his disappointment with the Supreme Court — he called the recent tariff ruling “very unfortunate” — the president didn’t attack the justices in personal terms either, a major sigh of relief for Republicans. He even shook their hands when he walked in.
Trump also didn’t hang Republicans out to dry by pushing tons of populist ideas they loathe and will never pass — like credit card swipe and interest fee caps. And there — smartly — was no “mission accomplished” moment on the economy; Trump instead argued that the first year of his second term was “a turnaround for the ages,” but acknowledged there was more to be done by promising, “You’ve seen nothing yet!”
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MOST IMPORTANTLY FOR THE MIDTERMS, the president drew a stark contrast with Democrats, seeking to remind voters why they rejected the party just a year-and-a-half ago during the 2024 elections: There was that incredible, viral moment when Trump baited the party, asking Democrats to please “stand up” if they agree with this sentence: “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
Not a single Dem stood. “You should be ashamed of yourself!” Trump scolded. Republicans cheered.
There was the story of the young girl (sitting in the audience) who a Maryland court apparently refused to return to her parents, all because they didn’t recognize their daughter as a “son” at a confusing time in her life during grade school. “Sage was thrown into an all-boys state home and suffered terribly,” Trump said. “Surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will. Who would believe that we’re even talking about that?” he said.
Looking at the Dems, he deadpanned: “These people are crazy, I’m telling ya!”
THERE WERE TONS OF FIREWORKS — like when Trump, while calling on Congress to put repeat offenders behind bars, chided Democrats for not standing to support the grieving mother of IRYNA ZARUTSKA, the Ukrainian refugee whose brutal stabbing was caught on camera in a Charlotte subway. (“How do you not stand? How do you not stand?” he asked, exasperated.)
Or when he singled out Minnesota’s Somali community for fraud, calling it “the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation.” Democrats heckled him in response.
Indeed, Democrats dished it right back, many flatly ignoring Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES’ warnings to behave — just as I predicted they would. After Rep. AL GREEN (D-Texas) was (yep, once again!) escorted out of the chamber — this time for holding a sign that read “Black People Aren’t Apes.” — Reps. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.) and RASHIDA TLAIB (D-Mich.) became Lead Hecklers Of The Night.
They yelled at him throughout the speech. “You have killed Americans!” Omar barked at one point when the president spoke of Minnesota. “How’s those Epstein files?” Tlaib jeered.
Overall, more than 70 Democrats said they’d boycott the speech, and reporters present noted that there were a few dozen empty seats on their side of the chamber. Meanwhile, a trickle of Democrats stormed out at various points.
That’s not to say there weren’t some bipartisan moments — but they didn’t exactly last long. When he called on Congress to “ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information” — i.e., the Stock Act — Democrats stood in agerement. But then Trump suggested his former arch-nemesis profited off her office: “Did NANCY PELOSI just stand up. Doubt it!” Other Democrats stood and walked out.
Solid performance aside, the real question is whether last night’s little show will make a difference in the midterms. Typically, these sorts of things do not. And right now, the president’s polling is in the gutter, with recent polling finding that 60 percent of Americans disapprove of his performance for the first time since the Jan. 6 riot.
But the president demonstrated last night that he’s still got some tricks up his sleeve. We’ll see if it moves the needle.
Correction: A previous version of this post misidentified Rep. MARCY KAPTUR (D-Ohio) as one of the Democrats who walked out of the chamber. She did not leave the speech.
Meanwhile, on Earth 1….
You’ve mistaken showmanship for leadership.