What to know about Trump's State of the Union - The Baylor Lariat

By Tolga Sahin | Intern

President Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address in modern history Tuesday night, speaking for longer than 1 hour and 40 minutes in a speech including comments about a Supreme Court’s ruling, new policy proposals and an attack on congressional Democrats.

The address surpassed former President Bill Clinton’s 2000 record and came days after the Supreme Court ruled against Trump’s tariffs and amid a partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security. Roughly 50% of Democratic lawmakers boycotted, and Rep. Al Green of Texas’s 9th District was escorted out.

The tariff ruling was the headline of the week for Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts and three other justices who ruled against Trump were seated in the chamber as he addressed the decision, arguing existing trade agreements would hold under separate legal authority and increase.

“Congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump said. “As time goes by, I believe that the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax.”

Dr. Patrick Flavin, chair of the political science department, said the court’s ruling could mark a broader check on executive power at a time when this administration has pushed presidential authority further than any in recent memory.

“It marks a pushback, not necessarily from Congress itself, but from the courts, trying to draw lines between where the president’s power is and where Congress’s begins,” Flavin said.

Dr. Mark Kelly, clinical associate professor of economics, said tariffs function as a tax on imported goods, and studies from Yale and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis tie the policy to rising prices on manufactured goods.

“Effectively, it’s a tax on your own people when they buy imports,” Kelly said. “The concern is you end up with a shortage of that good, which is going to drive up prices and make people worse off.”

Trump briefly referenced the length of his presidency during a section on healthcare policy. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limits presidents to two terms. Trump served a first term from 2017 to 2021 and returned to office in January 2025.

“In my first year of the second term — it should be my third term,” Trump said.

In a policy announcement that had not been previously reported, Trump outlined a plan to address the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence. He said he negotiated agreements with major technology companies requiring them to build their own power generation facilities rather than draw from the existing electrical grid.

“This is a unique strategy, never used in this country before,” Trump said. “No one’s prices will go up, and in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community.”

The president said he had signed an executive order barring large Wall Street investment firms from purchasing single-family homes and converting them into rentals. He asked Congress to make the ban permanent.

“We want homes for people, not for corporations,” Trump said. “Corporations are doing just fine.”

Trump called on Congress to pass legislation banning members of Congress from trading on insider information. The proposal drew one of the evening’s bipartisan standing ovations, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle rising to applaud.

Trump announced a “war on fraud” led by Vice President JD Vance, citing an estimated $19 billion stolen from taxpayers in what he described as a fraud scheme within Minnesota’s Somali community. He said California, Massachusetts, Maine and other states faced similar or larger problems and claimed the effort could eliminate the federal deficit entirely. He directly linked the issue to immigration policy.

“There are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception,” Trump said. “Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings the problems right here to the USA.”

The president pushed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require voter identification and proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. He called for eliminating mail-in voting completely and requiring two forms of identification, along with a Social Security card. Election security experts broadly dispute claims of widespread voter fraud.

“Cheating is rampant in our elections,” Trump said. “No more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel … They want to cheat. They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat.”

Flavin said claims of widespread fraud lack an evidentiary basis and that the Constitution gives states, not the president, authority over the conduct of federal elections.

“I don’t think there’s much evidence at all to support the claims that he makes about elections being stolen or about non-citizens voting en masse,” Flavin said. “The evidence just isn’t there.”

Trump also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration, its policies and Congressional Democrats’ stances on major issues.

“These people are crazy,” Trump said. “I’m telling you, they’re crazy … Democrats are destroying our country, but we’ve stopped it just in the nick of time.”

Trump declared it “the golden age of America” and called his first year “a turnaround for the ages.” He claimed gasoline had fallen to below $2.30 nationally, mortgage costs were down almost $5,000 and the stock market had hit 53 record highs.

Immigration dominated a large share of the speech, with Trump claiming “zero illegal aliens” had been admitted in nine months. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota shouted, “You have killed Americans,” from her seat.

Trump referenced “Operation Midnight Hammer,” the June 2025 strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, touted the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and said NATO allies had agreed to pay 5% of GDP for defense, adding that the U.S. paid that money before.

He promoted TrumpRX.gov for discounted prescriptions, pledged to protect Social Security and Medicare and promoted “Trump Accounts,” tax-free children’s investment accounts.

Trump awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor to Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover and retired Navy Capt. Royce Williams, a 100-year-old Korean War veteran. He presented Purple Hearts to the family of Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe. He praised the late Charlie Kirk and said Christianity was surging among young Americans.

Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger delivered the Democratic rebuttal to Trump’s State of the Union, emphasizing the cost of living and accountability regarding ICE. Spanberger called Trump’s trading policy “reckless” and said Americans suffered from the tariffs.