United States of America President Donald J. Trump took the stage on Tuesday night for the annual State of the Union address.
Trump covered a variety of subjects during the 107-minute State of the Union address, where he introduced multiple pertinent groups including Team USA hockey, who walked out to the House chamber while Congress members chanted “USA!”
“After just one year, we have achieved a turnaround for the ages,” Trump said.
Andy Luu, a fifth-year San José student, said that he disagreed with Trump and his policies and called the speech threatening to our democracy.
“Trump’s rhetoric about election cheating is significant because it’s really threatening to our democracy,” Luu said. “Baseless claims about the most fundamental element of democracy delegitimizes everything.”
Trump started by talking about the inflation rate in the United States.
“The Biden administration and its allies in Congress gave us the worst inflation in the history of our country,” Trump said. “But in 12 months, my administration has driven inflation down to the lowest level in more than five years. In the last three months of 2025, it was down to 1.7%.”
January 2026 inflation was at 2.4% and the last three months of 2025 was around 2.7%, according to the US Inflation Calculator.
Trump said there was the largest decline in history for the murder last year.
This statement is considered true, as a study by the Council on Criminal Justice found a strong possibility that the 2025 homicide rate will drop to its lowest record of data dating back to 1900.
The murder and non-negligent manslaughter trend has been declining since 2022, according to an Oct. 16, 2023 FBI report.
Trump continued his address to discuss illegal immigration.
“In the past nine months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States,” Trump said.
Trump is likely referring to the number of migrants released by the Border Patrol, as the administration has reported zero releases of migrants along the southern border, according to a CBS News analysis.
This claim by Trump does not mean that every migrant who has entered the United States illegally has been deported, as Border Patrol’s numbers do not include migrants who enter the U.S. undetected, according to a CBS News analysis.
Trump also had many false or misleading statements such as a claim that gas is “now below $2.30 a gallon in most states,” according to a CBS News analysis.
The average gas price in the US is around $2.95, according to the American Automobile Association website.
Another misleading comment from Trump was claiming that tariffs are paid for by foreign countries.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York published an analysis that found that over 90% of Trump’s 2025 tariffs were passed onto U.S. consumers, resulting in higher costs.
Trump said that he is trying to keep the tariffs in place despite the ruling by the United States Supreme Court on Friday.
The United States Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariff plan after they ruled that he exceeded his authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs on major trading partners, according to the New York Times.
“(Tariffs) will remain in place under tested legal conditions, congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump said.
Trump criticized the Democratic Party multiple times throughout his speech, saying that sanctuary cities should face penalties and “these people should feel ashamed of themselves.”
He continued to criticize Democratic Party Congress members who oppose his national guard deployments.
“Democrats are destroying our country, but we stopped them in the nick of time,” Trump said. “We deployed the National Guard to our most dangerous cities, Memphis, New Orleans and Washington D.C.”
Trump said that his deployments into these cities were all “big successes” and resulted in “no crime.”
Voter identification to combat voting fraud was discussed later on.
“(Democrats) want to cheat,” Trump said. “They have cheated.”
You can register to vote and be assigned a unique identifier to validate your registration if you do not show identification at the polls and if you cast a vote without an ID, it will be a provisional ballot until your eligibility is confirmed, according to a California Government website.
Luu said that Trump danced around topics and didn’t include important details that would definitely land him in hot water.
“There were some notes of populist rhetoric that have bipartisan support like banning stock trading for Congress members,” Luu said. “The rest of the speech was his usual touts and attacks.”
Luu said that he disagreed with Trump, citing that his policies seem to benefit the wealthy more than the common American.
Trump’s speech comes as the midterm elections are around the corner, which will dictate how the rest of Trump’s presidency will fare.
