Trump says countries are 'happy' with tariffs as he attacks old foes in longest State of the Union

Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union. Picture: AP

Donald Trump proclaimed his first year in office a success at the State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, even as his presidency is dogged by low public approval ratings before November’s midterm elections in which voters could hand control of Congress back to his Democratic opponents.

The annual address to a joint session of Congress came after months of turmoil for the Republican president, including a crackdown on immigrant communities in Minneapolis that resulted in the deaths of two US citizens, and faltering progress on his campaign promise of lowering the cost of living.

Despite Democrats walking out, holding signs, and verbally clashing in the chamber, Mr Trump maintained a triumphant tone in his speech, arguing that he had rebuilt a country ruined by Joe Biden. Speaking for just under two hours, his speech was the longest State of the Union ever delivered, and saw Mr Trump repeatedly bring out surprise guests to serve as living embodiments of what he saw as the country’s greatness.

“Tonight, after just one year, we can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before, and a turnaround for the ages,” Mr Trump said.

“We will never go back to where we were just a very short time ago. We’re not going back.” 

Recent surveys have shown that many voters disagree. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released this week found a mere 39% of voters view his presidency positively, and others have found him underwater on key issues such as the economy and immigration.

But Mr Trump gave no acknowledgement to the bad vibes, instead running through his administration’s accomplishments in a speech that was interspersed with falsehoods and exaggerations but light on new policy proposals. He announced that his vice-president, JD Vance, would lead a “war on fraud”, and that he had negotiated a “ratepayer protection pledge” to offset the impact of new data centers on households electricity costs.

He alleged that a Ukrainian refugee was murdered in North Carolina by an immigrant, when the suspect is in fact a US citizen, while claiming that his administration “will always protect” Medicaid even though the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the main domestic legislation he has signed in his second term, mandates cuts that are expected to cost millions of people their healthcare.

Tariff threat 

Four supreme court justices were in attendance, three of whom — John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan — had last week signed on to an opinion saying he could not use executive power to impose tariffs on US trading partners. As the three sat in the front row together with Brett Kavanaugh, who had not signed on to their opinion, Mr Trump issued a relatively measured criticism of their decision, calling it “unfortunate” and “disappointing”.

Mr Trump said he will continue imposing tariffs on other countries despite the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the import tax policy.

“Almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made," Mr Trump said.

“Knowing that the legal power that I, as president, have to make a new deal could be far worse for them, therefore, they’ll continue to work alongside the same successful path that we had negotiated before the court’s unfortunate involvement.

“Countries that were ripping us off for decades are now paying us hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet these countries are now happy and so are we. We made deals. The deals are all done. And they’re happy.” 

Mr Trump said “many of the wars I settled” were because of the “threat of tariffs”.

He was less restrained when it came to Democratic lawmakers, who he wrote off as “crazy”, or Somali immigrants, who he described as “pirates who ransacked Minnesota”, the site of a long-running and contentious immigration operations. And though he has ordered a major military buildup around Iran, he revealed little about what his intentions were for the longtime US adversary.

“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” Mr Trump said.

Much of the rest of his speech was dedicated to honouring a parade of US citizens who appeared in the galleries overlooking the floor of the House of Representatives, where the speech took place. These included the men’s hockey team that just won gold medals at the Winter Olympics, and a national guard soldier who survived a fatal shooting in downtown Washington DC. 

Mr Trump also awarded the Medal of Honour, the highest military decoration, to a Korean war veteran and a helicopter pilot wounded during the January raid to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

“Our country is winning again. In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it,” Mr Trump said.

Democrats who attended staged what one party leader called “silent defiance”, refraining from applause during much of the speech and staying in their seats. Only occasionally did the rise to clap when Trump brought up subjects with bipartisan approval, such as the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and a proposal to ban lawmakers from trading stocks.

Several Democrats opted to skip the event, with some instead taking part in counter-programming held elsewhere, including a “People’s State of the Union” organised by liberal groups.

At the start of the speech, Al Green, the Democratic representative from Texas who was ejected from the House chamber a year ago for heckling the president and later censured, held up a sign reading “Black people aren’t apes!”, in reference to Mr Trump sharing a racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama. After confrontations with Republicans, Mr Green appeared to be escorted out of the chamber.

'You have killed Americans'

At key moments, lawmakers also shouted back to Mr Trump’s onslaught of claims, with Ilhan Omar, the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, saying “you have killed Americans” in reference to the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in her state.

Other Democrats stayed through parts of the speech but left early. “Walked out of the State of the Union because I couldn’t sit through hours of Trump’s lies,” said Virginia senator Mark Warner.

Reviews from those who remained throughout were equally negative. 

“For nearly two hours tonight, Donald Trump spewed lies, propaganda and hatred,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat in a statement. 

“Instead of presenting the nation with a positive vision for our future and the economy, the president blamed others for his failures.” 

The speech was nonetheless a key moment ahead of the November midterm elections, in which Mr Trump’s Republican allies are defending their slim control of the Senate and House. After failing to stop Mr Trump’s return to the White House in 2024, Democrats have taken heart from successes in recent off-year and special elections that may indicate voters are ready to deliver them victories in key races that could decide control of Congress.

The official response to Mr Trump’s speech was delivered by Abigail Spanberger, the Virginia governor who won a decisive victory last year in an election that put Democrats firmly in control of the southern state.

“Is the president working for you?” Spanberger asked in a 13-minute speech that criticised much of Mr Trump’s policies, from his tariffs to his widespread deployments of federal agents to round up suspected undocumented immigrants. “We all know the answer is no.”

• The Guardian