Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address painted a portrait of a floundering politician, a sorry excuse for a leader, and a classic bully — beating his chest and making threats to cover up his huge weaknesses that the whole world can now see. It was a long, rambling speech, made longer by the bootlicking Republican politicians in Congress who gave constant standing ovations.
None of us are fooled by Trump’s bravado. Last night was a speech delivered by a man who knows that his popularity is plummeting. A man who knows that he has no plans to fulfill his false promises to make life better for people in our country. A man who is desperately trying to convince us to believe his words over our own experiences.
Trump’s speech was a self-congratulatory rant that attempted to rewrite the facts of his first year back in office. His main point? The United States economy is roaring like never before, and the country is reaching new levels of success. But what is the actual state of the union?
Two-thirds of workers in our country live paycheck to paycheck. More than half of Americans do not have enough money saved up to cover a $1,000 emergency. Healthcare bills are our most common cause of bankruptcy. Total household debt has reached nearly $19 trillion, an all-time high. Our families are struggling to stay afloat, because the economy is rigged for the ultra-rich. The wealthiest 1% holds more wealth than the poorest 90% combined.
Trump’s first year in office has only exacerbated that inequality. His so-called Big Beautiful Bill gave the wealthy and their corporations over a trillion dollars in tax cuts. Four of the biggest tech companies alone – Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla – received $51 billion in tax breaks from that bill.
Trump’s trade wars didn’t do anything to bring back good jobs like he promised – the total number of manufacturing jobs has gone down since Trump’s tariffs started. But things have been getting better for the billionaires – there’s over 900 of them in our country, and they got over $1 trillion richer last year.
This is why, in his speech, Trump attempted to construct a fantasy world. On the issue of healthcare, he painted himself as a champion defending the people against Big Pharma and the health insurance companies. He touted TrumpRx as the solution to prescription drug gouging, but only people who have no health insurance are eligible for that program, and Trump has no program to insure the uninsured. And don’t forget, Trump and the Republicans offset the money the government lost from the billionaire tax cuts by slashing billions of dollars from Medicaid and SNAP: taking food off of families’ tables and closing the doctor’s office door to millions.
To make matters worse, Trump has increased the military budget to over $1 trillion. One trillion dollars for death and destruction. Just this year we have seen the US military bomb Venezuela and kidnap its President. We have seen Trump tighten a deadly blockade on the people of Cuba that has resulted in a man-made energy crisis on the island. We have seen renewed possibilities of another disastrous war in the Middle East with Trump’s threats against Iran. All actions that exemplify Trump’s ‘might makes right’ view towards the rest of the world, and all actions that are, much like his domestic policy, incredibly unpopular.
Because he has no solutions for our country, Trump lies. He demonizes our immigrant communities, using the most vile, racist language to describe them. He slanders transgender people and scapegoates DEI. But he knows his narrative is collapsing.
To compensate, Trump and the Republicans are laying the groundwork to eviscerate voting rights for millions of Americans. George W. Bush stole the presidential election in 2000 because the Republicans purged thousands of citizens from the voter rolls in Florida. The SAVE Act, which Trump advocated for during his speech last night, could do the same thing to millions of American citizens across the country. If you changed your name as an adult because, for example, you got married, and your legal name no longer matches your birth certificate, the SAVE Act could strip you of your right to vote. That is the case for 70 million people in this country, mostly women, whose rights Trump is attacking. Twenty-one million citizens in this country do not have government-issued voter ID, and they are disproportionately Black, Latino, or living in poverty. That’s over 10% of voting age people in this country, who Trump is blatantly trying to disenfranchise.
Why is he doing this? Because Trump knows that his program is deeply unpopular. Conspicuously absent from Trump’s speech was any mention of the biggest defeat of his administration so far: the end of ICE’s campaign of terror in Minnesota. That defeat did not come at the hands of the Democratic Party, which has proven time and time again to be an ineffective opposition. In fact, the Democrats share many of Trump’s goals – especially when it comes to bullying the rest of the world. That’s why Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are working to block a vote on a war powers resolution that would prevent a new war on Iran.
Trump was defeated in Minnesota because the people of Minnesota, and then the people of the entire entire country, took action to shut down business as usual after Trump’s immigration agents murdered Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. We must keep building a movement to oppose Trump’s war against immigrants and against the entire working class.
250 years in, our country is at a crossroads. Trump seeks to take us permanently down the path of a system that prioritizes the pockets of the billionaires over our needs, and uses violence at home and abroad to maintain itself. The PSL is fighting for a different path — a socialist path. Trump’s State of the Union address showed just how urgent that fight is. We invite you to join us in the struggle.
