{"id":2573367,"date":"2026-02-25T07:17:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-of-the-union-heres-what-trump-didnt-say\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T07:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T12:19:19","slug":"state-of-the-union-heres-what-trump-didnt-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-of-the-union-heres-what-trump-didnt-say\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the Union: Here&#8217;s what Trump didn&#8217;t say"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstate-of-the-union-heres-what-trump-didnt-say%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2573367&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Washington Examiner\u2019s summary of Trump\u2019s 2026 State of the Union portrays the address as a buoyant,campaign\u2011style pep rally that emphasizes a supposed economic turnaround and renewed patriotism,with little discussion of hardship or policy tradeoffs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Tone and focus: Trump proclaims \u201cthe state of our union is strong,\u201d framing the country as winning again and delivering a celebratory mood with moments like recognizing Olympic athletes and promising a Presidential Medal of Freedom for Connor Hellebuyck.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Policy messages: He blames Democrats for inflation and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysis-with-u-s-labor-tight-union-workers-make-bolder-contract-demands\/\" title=\"With labor scarcity in the U.S., ... workers are making more assertive contr... demands.\">high healthcare costs<\/a>, denounces Obamacare as \u201cthe Unaffordable Care Act,\u201d defends the tax cuts, and argues Democrats would raise taxes. The piece notes the speech avoided a detailed roadmap or painful concessions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Economic context: While Trump touts gains and a \u201cturnaround for the ages,\u201d public polling shows weak economic approval (around 41%) and an overall job approval just above 42%, with voters remaining dour about the economy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Foreign and domestic claims: He asserts progress on national security\u2014boasting that he ended several conflicts \u201ceight wars\u201d and portraying Venezuela as a recent ally after Maduro\u2019s departure\u2014while signaling diplomacy with Iran but a readiness to act if needed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Political environment: The article emphasizes Republicans\u2019 fragile 2026 majorities and suggests the speech was more of a rallying cry than a policy plan,with his attacks on Democrats serving as the main deviation from a positive tone.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">State of the Union: Here&rsquo;s what Trump didn&rsquo;t say<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2515340\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump<\/a> made the case that happy days are here again in the first <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/state-of-the-union\/\">State of the Union<\/a> of his second term, but there was little talk of transition or pain.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The state of our union is strong,&rdquo; he declared. &ldquo;Our country is winning again. We&rsquo;re winning so much we really don&rsquo;t know what to do with it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4471057\/house-democrats-ignore-hakeem-jeffries-state-union-taunts\/\">House Democrats ignore Hakeem Jeffries&#8217; plea to sit silent at State of the Union<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4471014\/trump-uncompromising-populist-vision-state-of-the-union\/\">Trump offers uncompromising populist vision of America&#8217;s future during State of the Union<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/4470980\/white-house-democrats-failed-trump-state-of-the-union-test\/\">White House unloads on Democrats who &#8216;failed&#8217; Trump&#8217;s State of the Union &#8216;test&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Thus, Trump dusted off his trademark &ldquo;Tired of winning&rdquo; catchphrase that dates back to his <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/2016-elections\/\">first presidential campaign <\/a>a decade ago, this time with an extra flourish.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;People are asking me, &lsquo;Please, please, Mr. President, we are winning too much, we can&rsquo;t take it anymore, we are not used to winning,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I say, &lsquo;No, no, no, you are going to win again, you are going to win big.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While it is understandable that Trump would play up the positives, especially in a Democrat-depleted chamber with many opposition lawmakers boycotting, it is a risky strategy with the public still so dour about the state of the economy.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/disaster-joe-bidens-economic-ratings-are-worse-than-jimmy-carters-cnn-poll-finds\/\" title=\"DISASTER: Joe Biden\u2019s Economic Ratings Are Worse Than Jimmy Carter\u2019s, CNN Poll Finds\">economic approval rating<\/a>, according to the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolling.com\/polls\/approval\/donald-trump\/issues\/economy\"><em>RealClearPolitics <\/em>polling average<\/a>, stands at just 40.8% while 55.6% disapprove. This has dragged down his overall job approval rating, which sits at 42.2% in the same average and is underwater by 14 points.<\/p>\n<p>Polls have also suggested that many voters don&rsquo;t think Trump is focused enough on the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/economy\/\">economy<\/a> compared to other issues.<\/p>\n<p>But the Trump State of the Union was a pep rally, with celebrations of Olympic athletes and repeated chants of &ldquo;USA! USA!&rdquo; He announced he would soon present Connor Hellebuyck, goalie from the gold medal-winning men&rsquo;s Olympic hockey team, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.<\/p>\n<p>The closest Trump came to conceding that all isn&rsquo;t well was when he pointed out the dire conditions he inherited from his predecessor. Former President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\/\">Joe Biden<\/a> also tried to defend his stewardship of the economy, with a much more supportive media than Trump is ever likely to enjoy, but was unable to shift public opinion on the issue. The economy ended up being one of the top reasons Trump defeated Biden&rsquo;s successor at the top of the 2024 Democratic ticket, then-Vice President <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/kamala-harris\/\">Kamala Harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Trump zinged the Democrats&rsquo; focus on &ldquo;affordability,&rdquo; blaming their policies for the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/inflation\/\">inflation<\/a> he inherited when he came into office. &ldquo;You caused that,&rdquo; he exclaimed. He later denounced Obamacare as &ldquo;the Unaffordable Care Act,&rdquo; blaming Democrats for high healthcare costs.<\/p>\n<p>Trump described the past year as &ldquo;a turnaround for the ages,&rdquo; but added, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ve seen nothing yet.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Trump did not just point to his success in securing a once-chaotic border, crime reductions in major cities, and an economy he described as &ldquo;roaring,&rdquo; but also hailed what he called a renewal of American patriotism in the country&rsquo;s 250th year.<\/p>\n<p>The president also defended the tax cuts in his so-called &ldquo;big, beautiful&rdquo; legislation, condemning the Democrats for voting against them. &ldquo;They wanted large-scale tax increases to hurt the people instead,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The branding of the Republican megabill has been a problem, as many voters still dislike the measure or don&rsquo;t know what is in it.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans are going to be defending their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-shutdown-party-how-democrats-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-fight-against-trump\/\" title=\"The shutdown party: How ... learned to stop worrying and love the fight against Trump\">fragile congressional majorities<\/a> in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/2026-elections\/\">this year&rsquo;s midterm elections<\/a>. Their success may be decided by whether the public sees the turnaround Trump described in his speech and is likely to continue to tout on the campaign trail in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&rsquo;s hits on the Democrats were the only times he deviated from his generally positive tone. He called New York Mayor <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/zohran-mamdani\/\">Zohran Mamdani <\/a>both a &ldquo;communist&rdquo; and a &ldquo;nice guy.&rdquo; Even his reference to a &ldquo;very disappointing&rdquo; <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supreme-court\/\">Supreme Court <\/a>decision striking down his tariffs was restrained compared to his comments the day the ruling was handed down. Trump spoke as if his trade policy would be unaffected by the 6-3 decision.<\/p>\n<p>Trump also did little to prepare the country for war with <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iran\/\">Iran<\/a>, if one is coming. The closest was when he said they had yet to agree to his terms for a nuclear deal and were instead pursuing new weapons. &ldquo;My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I will never allow the world&rsquo;s No. 1 sponsor of terror &hellip; to have a nuclear weapon.&rdquo; He added that no nation should doubt American resolve.<\/p>\n<p>He nevertheless emphasized his peacemaking efforts in various hot spots around the globe, saying he had ended &ldquo;eight wars.&rdquo; One of them was the war between Israel and Iran. Trump also did not speak as if the U.S. was at war in <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/venezuela\/\">Venezuela<\/a>, describing Caracas as our &ldquo;new friend and partner&rdquo; now that ousted dictator Nicolas Maduro was gone. Enrique Marquez, freed from a Venezuelan torture center, was a surprise guest.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/live-blog\/trump-state-of-the-union-2026-live-updates\/\"><strong>LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP DELIVERS 2026 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If Trump thought Republican control of Congress was in danger, he did not give that impression &mdash;&nbsp;other than by overtly campaigning against the Democrats throughout the speech and repeatedly challenging them to stand and applaud various points he made.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Every single vulnerable House Democrat should get comfortable re-watching the moment they revealed they&rsquo;re nothing more than America-hating scums who stayed glued to their seats while President Trump called on protecting American citizens over criminal illegal immigrants,&rdquo; the spokesman for the House GOP campaign said in a statement released before the address was even over. &ldquo;The ads write themselves.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump: union strong; we&#8217;re winning, no talk of pain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2659,"featured_media":2573368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP26056101912475.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651,538],"tags":[70344,13420,74533,70303,73673],"class_list":["post-2573367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","category-washington-examiner","tag-donald-trump-2","tag-fact-check","tag-missing-statements","tag-political-analysis-2","tag-state-of-the-union-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP26056101912475.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2573367"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2573371,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2573367\/revisions\/2573371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2573368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2573367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2573367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2573367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}