The 2026 State of the Union had viral moments, applause lines, and outrage.
But three moments reveal what actually mattered.

Last night, President Trump gave his Constitutionally-mandated annual State of the Union to a joint session of the House of Representatives and Senate. Clocking in at nearly two hours long, it was the longest State of the Union in American history, and as expected it was chock-full of Trump's usual blustering, distortions, and outright fabrications.

I didn’t watch the full two-hour speech live. Instead, I read the full transcript afterwards so I could focus on substance rather than spectacle. Here are three key takeaways I took from the event.

1. Trump Touts an Economic "Golden Age."

During the speech, Trump claimed that the US economy was "doing great" and that we were in a "golden age." Now, I'm not here to dissect or fact check his economic talking points. That's not my area of forte anyway. But rather, I wanted to take a look at this specific talking point, that the US economy is historically great.

Well, I guess the Dow Jones DID go over 50,000, so there's that. But let's be bluntly honest here ... everyday Americans are not seeing the fruits of this so-called "great economy." Americans' wallets are struggling. Grocery prices have skyrocketed. The cost of electricity, housing, and transportation has increased rapidly. Food stamp benefits and welfare is being cut. Health insurance premiums are spiking. We're suffering, so the idea that the economy is doing "great" is ludicrous.

Honestly, this reminds me of when the Biden administration continually told us that the economy was "strong" despite runaway inflation, gas prices hiking, and massive supply chain issues. This messaging fell flat, and was a major reason why Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election to Trump in the first place. The Democrats were trying to blow smoke up our behinds, and it didn't matter what it said on paper, voters simply looked around, saw the reality they were in, and responded by renouncing Democrats all over the country.

Now I see the Trump administration repeating this same mistake, and I'm pretty much like George Takei going "Oh my!" Especially with the 2026 midterms coming up, which is looking increasing like a massive blue tsunami based on off-year election results. But you know what they say. Never interrupt your enemy when they're making mistakes.

2. Standing Up for American Citizens

At one point during the speech, Trump issued a challenge to the audience members. Stand up if you believed the government's first duty was to support American citizens instead of illegal immigrants. He obviously thought he was being oh-so-clever, setting up a trap that the Democrats foolishly fell into. Not surprisingly, Republicans stood up while Democrats remained seated ... thus showing how "anti-American" Democrats supposedly were being.

The problem with that is, the whole choice was a false dilemma. False dilemmas presents two extreme options as the only possible choices. By offering that "choice," Trump immediately revealed himself to be hypocritical, since it was his own ICE goons who shot and murdered two American citizens in Minneapolis this past January. So much for "supporting American citizens."

Also, a Congressperson's first and primary duty is to follow and uphold the US Constitution, which applies its protection to every person living in American, not only a select group. Trump was attempting to set up an "us vs. them" scenario by pitting American citizens against "illegal" immigrants, and the Democrats saw through that false dilemma.

3. Al Green Kicked Out of Audience

The other "viral" moment was when Al Green, a Representative from Texas, was escorted out of the State of the Union audience for holding up a sign that read, "Black People Aren't Apes." This is the second straight year he was kicked out of the SotU speech, so I guess that's his schtick now.

Honestly, while I agree with Al Green's message, I found the whole thing to be merely performative outrage. He was only there to get his viral moment. But talk is cheap. Where is the action? He's been in Congress for this long, and what does he have to show for it? Nothing. The Democrats have offered token resistance while allowing Trump, MAGA, the Heritage Foundation, and Republicans to rum amok all over American democracy. Less posturing, more action, please.

Overall, I thought this event was relatively tame compared to previous years. Trump stood there for two hours and said a whole lot of nothing that we didn't already know. This left me feeling wholly unimpressed.

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