U.S. President Donald Trump stood before Congress Tuesday and declared “our nation is back” as he delivered the annual state of the union address.
“We have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before,” Trump said.
Trump is making the speech at a critical moment as his trade and immigration agendas have stumbled lately in the face of legal setbacks and grim polling.
Trump’s approval rating is being dragged down by his controversial immigration crackdown — and on Friday the U.S. Supreme Court took away his favourite tariff tool.
It marks Trump’s sixth speech before Congress since he was first elected president.
Aaron Kall, director of debate for the University of Michigan, said Trump’s speeches have offered “a mixed bag in terms of the tone” — sombre and unifying at one moment, aggressive and insulting the next.
Kall pointed out that this year’s state of the union speech lands when the Republican party is on shaky ground with voters — and with midterm elections less than nine months away.
Recent polling has shown Trump’s approval rating plummeting among the independent voters who played a key role in handing him the White House in 2024. The president is underwater on domestic issues like immigration, the economy and jobs — previously areas of strength for Trump, Kall said.
Some Congressional Republicans have suggested the president has not been able to communicate effectively with Americans on the key issue of affordability. Trump has repeatedly called the issue a Democrat “hoax” and has insisted that prices are coming down — whether or not voters themselves feel it.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who won election last year on an affordability platform, will deliver the official Democratic response to Trump’s speech.
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Trump’s inaugural speech as president in 2017, which painted a bleak picture of what he called “American carnage,” was immediately overshadowed in the news cycle by his unsupported claims about the size of the crowd that turned out to hear him speak.
In his 2025 inaugural address, Trump vowed that the United States would “flourish and be respected again all over the world.”
In the whirlwind year that followed, Trump’s aggressive and rapidly changing agenda shattered alliances, upended global trade patterns and challenged America’s foundational system of checks and balances.
The president’s tariffs and repeated threats of annexation have damaged the long-standing relationship between Canada and the United States. Canada could come up during Tuesday’s speech — Trump invited the United States Olympic men’s hockey team to watch the address following their Sunday win over the Canadian team.
The latest focus of Trump’s rage — the Supreme Court justices who took away his preferred tariff tool — were in the House chamber for Tuesday’s address.
In a 6-3 decision Friday, America’s top court concluded it was not legal for Trump to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, better known as IEEPA, for his “Liberation Day” tariffs and fentanyl-related duties on Canada, Mexico and China.
Trump signed an executive order hours later to enact a 10 per cent worldwide tariff using Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act. The next day, Trump said he would be increasing the duty to 15 per cent — although no amendment to the executive order has been signed to put that into force.
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Under Section 122, the tariff cannot go higher than 15 per cent and it will expire after 150 days unless Congress votes to extend it.
It’s not unheard of for Supreme Court justices to clash with presidents during state of the union speeches. Justice Samuel Alito famously frowned and shook his head as then-president Barack Obama criticized the court during an address to Congress in 2010.
Trump might put himself in a difficult position if he goes after the justices during his speech because his tariff policies are also very unpopular with voters, Kall said.
Attempting to justify the tariffs “will make a really tough speech even that more difficult,” he said.
Also hanging over the Congressional address is the U.S. military buildup near Iran. While Trump ran on a promise to end U.S. military interventions abroad, his second term has seen an expansion of such operations with attacks on Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia and Venezuela, along with the controversial campaign of bombing alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
Trump is likely to boast about what he sees as his foreign policy accomplishments — but that also might be a difficult topic to navigate. The president has received pushback from all sides — including Republican supporters — over his interventionism and focus on foreign policy over domestic issues like the cost of living.
While a State of the Union address is supposed to lay out a president’s vision, Kall said he thinks this one will be like a typical Trump rally speech that lacks a unifying thread.
Kall said he also expects it to be long.
“Millions of people will watch,” he said. “You basically get one shot a year. This will be the final shot before the midterm elections. No other kind of speech or event’s going to get this kind of attention. So the stakes are really high.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press
Canadians are more interested in what is happening in the USA than what is happening in Canada. Americans vote for their president Canadians don’t get a voice just like Canadians vote for our government and Americans don’t get a voice. Trump couldn’t buy all media attention he gets and he thrives on it.
James can’t see Donnie is sick of what liberals have done to his country. But James Will understand the day sharia law comes to his door. By then it’s too late for the clown. James is too stupid to see the take over happening before his very eyes. Liberalism is a disease!
Hey James badildo. You say you wrote to global because everyone picking on poor wittle Jamie. Boo hoo. Obviously the comment section has had enough of your liberalism. Get the picture stooge?
Watching Trump’s Throne Speech was highly entertaining. If he is the best they’ve got to be President their Country is in dire straits.
The orange perv and his pervetts are hilarious lol
“Krauthammer [a psychiatrist] … later defined Trump Derangement Syndrome as a Trump-induced “general hysteria” that produced an “inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology” in the president’s behavior.¹
Journalist Fareed Zakaria, moreover, defined TDS as “hatred of President Trump so intense that it impairs people’s judgment.”²”
— SOURCE: Psychology Today article.
Jimmy & Lynda and others here are OBVIOUSLY afflicted — i can hear them sobbing, whining and crying from here 😂😂😂 it’s great entertainment knowing they are only 1/4 of the way & there’s 3 more years of this crybaby entertainment to go 🎉😁
Files from AP which is rated as having far left bias on the Media Bias Chart by Allsides.
What poll? Who paid for it? How many people were queried & what were the Demographics of the polled people?
A poll also once stated Trump had a 17% chance of winning against Hillary…
“PM Carney we have your back like you have ours” — CEO of Canada’s Media Producers Association to the crowd… No Canadian media left bias there 😂😂😂 /sarcasm
Bought & paid for by The Liberal Party of Canada with everyones tax dollars…
Hmmm Looks like Trump doesn’t watch the news and hasn’t seen all the protests against him. He is hated world wide but thinks everyone loves him. Dementia and an ego, plus lack of any type of social grace dominated his speech. Such a shame the young generation have him as an example. Hatred is his theme and yet he speaks of religion. So very many lies spewed it’s hard to fact check all of them.
Democrats and liberals prefer to side with criminals and corruption. Lose their minds when the good guys are doing the right thing.
Midterm poll numbers
Bush 44%
Obama 42%
Oh BillyBob, the truth is what you are seeing. Sorry your dear leader is such a corrupt putz and you folks just cant see it through all the lies and garbage he spews. Hes got you right where he wants you. Frigging hillbillies.
Wow, what a performance by the King. The outright lies and bragging. The outright garbage numbers that anyone can see through. Him and all his acolytes just spewing the brown stuff.
It is so time for that regime to be stomped out.
Watching a braggart and an egomaniac whose morals and integrity are so low was too much for most. The background the butt-kissing cabinet whose credentials are questionable and whose theories are bizarre added to the tediousness and triteness of the moment.
More pure propaganda from Canada’s finest deceptive news outlet. Bought and paid for.