Seventy or so Democrats in Congress chose to 'boycott' Donald Trump's State of the Union speech last night. By the time it finished, the rest of them probably regretted setting themselves up as Trump's prop, exposing their radical nature.
Technically, last night's event qualified as a SOTU address. Much of it even followed the traditional SOTU form. Trump spent 22 minutes in the middle hammering on his economic pitch for the midterms, before moving briskly into immigration and crime. And that's where it all fell apart for Democrats, because Trump used that transition to shift from SOTU mode and turned the speech into a rally – and made Democrats the target of his populist scorn.
Democrats facilitated this by failing to recognize the moment. They also brought it on themselves. Hakeem Jeffries had tried to keep his House Democrat caucus from feeding into Trump's attacks by encouraging those who planned disruptions to 'boycott' instead and hold competing events. That failed almost immediately, as Rep. Al Green (D-TX) got ejected as Trump made his way to the dais for his disruption. Other Democrats tried interrupting shortly after that, and Trump had a clear lane to turn his speech into an excruciating lesson about power dynamics in an environment where one man has the microphone, the cameras, and the support of the large majority of attendees.
As all presidents since Ronald Reagan have done, Trump chose his guests and their personal stories carefully, especially when it came to immigration and crime. He knew Democrats would try to show him up personally by refusing to react, and set them up for two massive fails. First, Trump talked about his wins on securing the borders and deporting criminal illegal aliens, and then set the trap by declaring that the "first duty" of the federal government is "to protect American citizens and not illegal aliens," asking everyone in the room to stand if they agreed. When Democrats refused to stand, Trump sprung the trap on them:
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just CHECKMATED Democrats in the House chamber
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 25, 2026
He asked members of Congress to STAND UP if they believe it's the duty of the US government to protect American citizens over illegals...
AND PRACTICALLY ALL DEMOCRATS STAYED SITTING
"You should be… pic.twitter.com/KyrPqFMRqj
News flash: This is an 80/20 question among the American electorate. The nuances of the policies used to enforce it may not have that kind of buy-in, but the principle certainly does. Trump asked the question knowing he'd catch Democrats sitting for the cameras, and they walked right into that trap. Democrats then made it worse by yelling at Trump to defend that electorally indefensible position. Any pretense that Democrats only want different tactics to achieve the same purpose of securing the borders and enforcing immigration laws evaporated in that moment.
(As an aside, Abigail Spanberger made it worse in the Democrats' official SOTU response when she complained that immigration agents had arrested Americans and "people who aspire to be Americans" – the same propaganda that the Biden Regency used to promote their open-borders policies for four years.)
It got even worse on crime, another 80/20 issue that Democrats have been slow to recognize. Trump told the horrifying story of Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian refugee who took a train home from her job at a pizzeria and never left it alive. A deranged psychopath murdered her not long after he'd been let out of prison and jail for the umpteenth time by a court system that treated DeCarlos Brown as the true victim, time after time. Trump invited Iryna's mother to be his guest, had her seated next to Erika Kirk, and promised that he would find justice for Iryna and her mother.
Guess who didn't stand for that sentiment either? That led Trump to his signature line of the night:
The Democrats' policies are directly responsible for this, and they can't even stand to honor a young woman that was brutally murdered.
— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) February 25, 2026
"How do you not stand?" pic.twitter.com/BbSzr5XwT0
No, really – how do you not stand for justice in this case? Literally, how does one not stand for the promise of justice for Iryna Zarutska?
As a State of the Union speech, last night's event more or less met expectations. Trump remained disciplined on his economic message, which probably won't mean much in the midterms by itself. Trump will have to stay disciplined between now and November to really sell it. He didn't spend much time on Iran, interestingly enough, perhaps only two minutes and probably less than that.
As theater, though, last night's SOTU may have scored higher than any other edition since the 2002 speech by George W. Bush a few months after 9/11. Trump didn't just turn the SOTU into a rally, he turned it into a grudge match, and then wiped the floor with Democrats. He has two ad-ready moments to use for the next eight months for voters' consideration, and Democrats got nothing but a forgettable rehash of their losing 2024 argument against Trump from a stiff and cold Spanberger. Democrats got caught playing checkers at a wrestling match.
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