00:17Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States.
00:27The State of the Union didn't just sound divided.
00:31It looked divided.
00:33Half the chambers sat stone-faced, some seats were empty, and within minutes, a congressman
00:39was being escorted out.
00:41This was President Donald Trump's first State of the Union of his second term, delivered
00:46on February 24, 2026.
00:48And instead of a reset moment, it became a live, televised clash between the White House
00:54and Democrats.
00:56The speech itself was long, combative, packed with policy victories, especially on immigration
01:02and the economy.
01:03But what made headlines wasn't just what Trump said.
01:07It was who reacted, and how he used those reactions.
01:11Let's start before he even began speaking.
01:14Roughly half of House and Senate Democrats didn't show up at all.
01:17Many said they didn't want to be part of the drama.
01:21That absence, it set the tone before Trump even stepped to the podium.
01:25And then, minutes after he entered, the first confrontation.
01:30Representative Al Green of Texas stood up holding a sign reading, Black people aren't apes.
01:36It referenced a recent Trump social media post that included a video depicting the Obamas
01:41as apes, a post that had already ignited controversy.
01:45Tonight, I wanted him to have a person confront him and let him know that Black people are apes.
01:54Green didn't last long.
01:55He was escorted out as Republicans chanted, USA, USA.
02:00Trump paused, smiled, and thanked the chamber as Green was removed.
02:03It was the second straight year Green had been ejected from a Trump address to Congress.
02:08And that moment, it became the first example of what would define the night.
02:12Trump didn't ignore protests.
02:14He weaponized them.
02:17Our country is winning again.
02:20In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it.
02:25People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much.
02:30We can't take it anymore.
02:32We're not used to winning in our country.
02:34Until you came along, we're just always losing, but now we're winning too much.
02:40As the speech moved into immigration, the centerpiece of his second term, the temperature rose.
02:45Trump declared that the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens,
02:50not illegal aliens.
02:52Then he turned to Democrats and challenged them to stand in support.
02:55Silence.
02:57And then shouting.
02:59Representative Ilhan Omar yelled,
03:01You have killed Americans, referencing recent incidents in Minnesota
03:04where ICE agents shot and killed U.S. citizens.
03:07She was joined by Rashida Taib, who echoed the accusation.
03:11You are a murderer, they shouted.
03:13Trump fired back instantly.
03:15You should be ashamed of yourself.
03:17Moments later, they walked out.
03:19Again, instead of moving on, Trump leaned in.
03:22He used the interruption as proof, he argued,
03:25that Democrats were obstructing border enforcement and undermining federal agencies.
03:29And that became the broader theme.
03:31When addressing recent ICE shootings, Trump pivoted quickly.
03:34He accused Democrats of causing what he called a Democrat shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
03:39He said they had blocked funding, cut off all funding for the agency responsible for protecting Americans.
03:45Democrats, meanwhile, had tied that funding fight to demands for accountability after the agent shootings.
03:50As we speak, Democrats in this chamber have cut off all funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
03:59It's all cut off.
04:00It's all cut off.
04:02They have instituted another Democrat shutdown.
04:05The first one costing us two points on GDP.
04:09Two points we lost on GDP, which probably made them quite happy, actually.
04:14But on national television, Trump reframed it.
04:17To him, it wasn't oversight.
04:19It was obstruction.
04:21Then came a rare bipartisan moment.
04:23And Trump turned that, too.
04:36He proposed banning insider stock trading by members of Congress, introducing what he called the Stop Insider Trading Act.
04:42Lawmakers on both sides applauded.
04:44Many Democrats stood.
04:46And that's when Trump singled someone out.
04:48Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
04:50Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she's here?
04:53Doubt it, he said.
04:55They stood up for that, I can't believe.
05:00I can't believe it.
05:03Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she's here?
05:07The jab landed squarely on long-running Republican accusations about Pelosi's stock trades.
05:12Even in a bipartisan moment, Trump used it to mock Democratic leadership.
05:17Throughout the night, he repeated a pattern.
05:19When Democrats didn't clap, he called them out.
05:21When they protested, he labeled them extreme.
05:24These people are crazy, he said, gesturing towards their side of the chamber.
05:28Democrats are destroying our country, but we stopped it in the nick of time.
05:31He pointed to their silence on inflation, on tax cuts, on crime, and framed it as evidence they were out
05:37of touch with voters.
05:39Democratic leaders had urged what they called silent defiance, but the visible protests, the walkouts, the ejections, the shouting became
05:46talking points almost instantly.
05:48In a speech that could have been about policy, the story became the spectacle.
05:53And that spectacle highlighted something bigger.
05:55Not just disagreement, but a Congress where even standing up to applaud protecting American citizens, or sitting down in protest,
06:03becomes political theater.
06:05With midterms approaching, last night wasn't just a speech, it was a preview, of how both sides planned to fight.
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06:27And we'll send you to the report.
06:27All right.
06:38We'll send you to the report.
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