I got a problem, can you relate, I got a woman closin' tabs late ...
I’m going to tell you a story.
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) February 25, 2026
You can dismiss it if you want.
Do so at your own peril.
Last night, during the State of the Union, a friend of mine — a black man in his 50s — was texting me throughout the speech.
He began the night with low expectations.
What he anticipated… https://t.co/dXXbCRLpTh
When Democrats were asked whether the government’s duty is to put American citizens first, and they refused to stand, the texts became sharper.
More frustrated.
More personal.
He told me he was “embarrassed” by his own party.
Ed: Click through to read it all. The key question here is how many persuadables even bothered to watch the speech ... and how many may be checking it out now after these clips have circulated.
===
Eli Lake at The Free Press: Watching President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech Tuesday, you wouldn’t know that his approval ratings had plummeted and his party was facing the prospect of a walloping in the midterm elections. The Trump that addressed Congress Tuesday night was the happy warrior who won the 2024 election by exploiting the unpopular positions of his Democratic opponents with a mix of scowls and smiles.
That old Trump came through when he went back to one of his classic lines from his 2016 campaign. “Our country is winning,” he said. “In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it.” He went into an extended shtick about all that winning before introducing the Olympic men’s hockey team, who dramatically entered the chamber wearing blue USA Olympic sweaters. He then awarded the team’s goalie, Connor Hellebuyck, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. ...
Trump, at the end of the day, was selling himself. The country is doing better than ever because of his policies, he said. So he focused on issues where he thinks that he and his party have a natural advantage: gender ideology, border security, crime, and blue-collar jobs. If he can stick to those issues and avoid more ICE overreach, the scandals of the Jeffrey Epstein files, or tirades against the Supreme Court, he may have a chance of staving off disaster in November.
Ed: This is an excellent analysis from Eli, but I have one quibble. Trump was not just selling himself; he was selling America as a nation of heroes and winners. It's a sharp contrast from the vision of America that Democrats sell, that of a nation of racists and thieves, a nation that owes everyone an apology rather than a nation owed gratitude for its defense of liberty and Western civilization. No less than Reagan, Trump wants Americans to love their nation and take pride in their American identity.
===
Josh Marshall very upset Trump honored families who've been shattered by crimes committed by people in the country illegally. pic.twitter.com/DCghk8iorK
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) February 25, 2026
Ed: The four years of open-borders policies by the Biden Regency led directly to a number of serious consequences, including crime and violence. It's very telling that the same people who cheered those policies get very unhappy when the consequences are discussed. How dare we notice the damage done by the progressives!
===
Christopher Tremoglie at WashEx: The Democratic senator, who has spent the better part of the last year trying to portray himself as the ultimate soldier of morality, showed that he really doesn’t care about American citizens, instead displaying a cult-like devotion and allegiance to his radical illegal immigration ideology for the entire country to witness. When Trump asked Congress to stand if they agreed with the statement, “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens,” Kelly remained seated. And in doing so, he showed his devotion to illegal immigration.
Kelly will stand for illegal immigrants, but sit for citizens. It was a truly symbolic moment that showed Kelly’s true priorities. It was an inverse of the symbolic patriotism with which Kelly seeks to align himself. Yet, in this ultimate test, in front of the country, in a defining moment requiring one simple act to demonstrate an allegiance to the people, people who elected him, people whom Kelly serves, he could not do it.
Ed: The campaign ads almost cut themselves, especially for Kelly. The camera operator zoomed in on Kelly during this sequence, much to Kelly's chagrin. That moment will redound to every Democrat's demerit, but especially Kelly's.
===
Tried to summarize it for TikTok format pic.twitter.com/yw7Vp1odFm
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) February 25, 2026
Ed: More here at the link. Should make for fascinating reporting ... if we had a media industry rather than a narrative amplification service for progressives.
===
David Harsanyi: Anyone with a functioning moral compass is horrified by the thought of the government seizing confused children from parents and allowing strangers to mutilate their bodies via “gender-affirming care,” a perverse euphemism for plying children with puberty blockers or hormones, or worse.
During the State of the Union, President Donald Trump proposed that “no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will. Who can believe that we’re even talking about it?” Republicans then stood and clapped when the president introduced Sage Blair, a teenager who the state of Virginia allowed to “transition” while hiding it from her parents. Democrats sat, as they would for most of the president’s speech. “Look, nobody stands up,” Trump said, pointing to the minority party. “These people are crazy.”
Yes, they are.
Ed: This was Donald Trump's third big trap of the night, and perhaps the second planned trap. The first big one and the most obviously planned was the immigration trap, and the Iryna Zarutska crime argument became another that may have truly caught Trump by surprise.
===
SOTU
— Mark Penn (@Mark_Penn) February 25, 2026
How times have changed.
Trump gave an artful and moving speech illustrating his policies with a parade of hero Americans from all walks of life. Probably his best speech framing his domestic and foreign policies.
In contrast the Democrats were reduced to cat calls and…
In contrast the Democrats were reduced to cat calls and slogans with curse words inappropriate for kids. They looked silly and small while Trump hit big, lofty goals and evoked emotion though the stories of real people.
Ed: Penn is Hillary Clinton's former pollster. Times have changed in that sense, too.
===
Axios: "I thought the Democratic response was appropriately restrained and forceful at the same period of time," Jeffries said during a press conference at the House Democratic retreat on Wednesday.
"That was obvious to anybody who was watching," the Democratic leader insisted.
Jeffries had repeatedly urged members in the run-up to the speech to either skip it or attend in "defiant silence," instructing them not to hold up signs or make any other "unforced errors."
What happened: While the disruptions Tuesday night were nowhere near the scale of last year's widespread heckling, there were still several notable moments in which Democrats broke traditional decorum.
Ed: Well ... what else was he going to say the next day? Trump knew Jeffries couldn't impose any discipline on his caucus, and calculated his traps with that in mind. Instead, his members shouted at Trump without microphones while he dominated them from the dais and made them look small and juvenile.
===
My most conservative opinion is that grown adults in professional settings should not wear buttons with F*ck anything on them, or yell profanity at the leader of the free world https://t.co/j2PcHhLqtZ
— Ann Bauer (@annbauerwriter) February 25, 2026
Ed: Poop throwers like poop. To everyone else, though, they stink.
===
CBS's Major Garrett admits President Trump successfully drew a clear contrast with Democrats tonight:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 25, 2026
"They can’t even applaud basic commonsense things." pic.twitter.com/iaM3WhfG5v
===
John Hinderaker at Power Line: In this regard, the high point came when Trump asked all those present who agree that the government’s duty is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens, to stand up. The Republicans all stood and cheered, while Democrats remained sitting. The ovation went on for around a minute, while Trump repeatedly gestured toward the seated Democrats. The point was made: the Democrats do, in fact, prioritize illegal aliens over Americans. It is remarkable that they don’t even try to pretend the opposite.
To me, the main takeaway from last night is that Trump is not going to take the midterms lying down. Again and again, he went straight after the Democrats, calling them out on one issue after another. I don’t think we have seen anything like Trump’s combativeness in a SOTU before. Like most observers, I think the Democrats will take the House in November. But Trump put them on notice that they won’t take it without a fight, and further, that they won’t take it if the voters are paying attention to what has been accomplished in the first year of his second term.
Ed: Trump put them on notice that he fights back, and he fights back better than they do.
===
I’m calling for a total and complete shutdown of online crashouts until we can figure out what is going on https://t.co/douzo8uprM
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 25, 2026
Ed: And yet, Trump won the election in 2024 in both the popular vote and in the Electoral College. Until Democrats come to grips with reality, all they can offer is crashouts.
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