President Donald Trump delivered the first official State of the Union address of his second term on Tuesday night, touting his second administration’s achievements, especially regarding border security and public safety, addressing concerns over economic hardship and affordability, and casting Democrats as incompetents and traitors. The president framed the actions of his second administration as a return to common sense and a restoration of the American spirit.

“Our country is winning again. In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it. People are asking me, ‘Please, please, please, Mr. President, we’re winning too much. We can’t take it anymore. We’re not used to winning in our country,’” Trump said. “‘Until you came along, we were just always losing, but now we’re winning too much.’ And I say, ‘No, no, no, you’re going to win again. You’re going to win big, you’re going to win bigger than ever.”

In order to “prove that point,” the president welcomed the U.S. men’s hockey team that just won the Olympic gold medal. The young men, American flags emblazoned across their chests, marched into the House of Representatives chamber to chants of “USA,” but they were only a few of the many guests that the president had invited to sit in the gallery for the auspicious occasion. Over the course of the nearly-two-hour speech, the president lauded his invited guests as exemplars of American virtue or shared their suffering with the nation, vowing to ensure that Americans are not hurt in the same way.

One of the Trump administration’s signature issues, since Trump first took office in 2017, has been border security and immigration. The president boasted of his success on the issue Tuesday night, drawing a sharp contrast between his decisive action to secure the U.S. border and initiate a promised deportation program against the inaction of former President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress, allowing millions of illegal immigrants to flood the U.S.

“Today, our border is secure,” the president announced, prompting more “USA” chants. “After four years in which millions and millions of illegal aliens poured across our borders totally unvetted and unchecked, we now have the strongest and most secure border in American history by far. In the past nine months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States,” Trump boasted. He added that the U.S. will gladly welcome immigrants “legally, people that will love our country and will work hard to maintain our country.”

The president pointed to the impact of stringent immigration enforcement, noting a nearly-60% decrease in the flow of fentanyl and the lowest murder rate recorded in over a century. He decried the “corruption” and “plundering” enacted by illegal immigrants, highlighting the rampant fraud committed by “Somali pirates” in Minnesota, defrauding nearly $20 billion from taxpayers. “California, Massachusetts, Maine, and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn’t believe,” the president intoned, sharing that Vice President J.D. Vance will be leading the administration’s anti-fraud task force. “He’ll get it done and, if we’re able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight. It’ll go very quickly. That’s the kind of money you’re talking about. We’ll balance our budget.”

The rampant fraud committed by Somali immigrants is a reminder “that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception,” Trump reflected. “Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA. And it is the American people who pay the price in higher medical bills, car insurance rates, rent, taxes and perhaps most importantly crime.” He pointed to the case of Lizbeth Medina, a 16-year-old girl who was stabbed 25 times by an illegal immigrant and was found by her mother, Jacqueline, bleeding to death. “Her heartbroken mother is in the gallery to remind everyone in this chamber exactly why we are deporting illegal alien criminals from our country at record numbers and we’re getting them the hell out of here fast. We don’t want them.”

“We can never forget that many in this room not only allowed the border invasion to happen before I got involved, but indeed they would do it all over again if they ever had the chance,” Trump charged, referring to Democrats. He warned that if Democrats were ever to retake power, they “would open up those borders to some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world.” To illustrate, the president asked, “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Nearly every single Democrat remained seated. “Isn’t that a shame?” Trump asked. “You should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Another example of the danger posed to Americans by mass immigration was that of Delilah Coleman, who was five years old when her family’s car was struck in 2024 by a freight truck driven by an illegal immigrant, allowed into the country under Biden and equipped with a commercial driver’s license (CDL) issued by Democrat-run California. Doctors warned at the time that Coleman would likely never walk again and may never again be able to eat. The president pointed to the young girl in the gallery and urged Congress to pass the Delilah Law, which would bar state governments from issuing CDLs to illegal immigrants.

Trump then called on Congress to take action against “sanctuary” cities, which he said “protect the criminals and … block the removal of criminal aliens, in many cases, drug lords, murderers, all over our country. They’re blocking the removal of these people out of our country and you should be ashamed of yourself.” He also pressed the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and photo ID when voting. “That cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant. It’s very simple, all voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote. And no more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel — none,” he said. “This should be an easy one.”

The president also welcomed “a woman who’s been through hell,” Anya Zarutska, whose daughter Iryna was murdered last year on a subway car in Charlotte, South Carolina. In 2022, the Zarutskas fled war-torn Ukraine and took refuge with family members in South Carolina. “Last summer, 23-year-old Iryna was riding home on the train when a deranged monster, who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no-cash bail, stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body,” the president recounted. “No one will ever forget … the expression of terror on Iryna’s face as she looked up at her attacker in the last seconds of her life. She died instantly. She had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America,” who Trump alleged “came in through open borders.” He demanded that Congress pass “tough legislation” to ensure that repeat violent offenders are sentenced to prison and not permitted to roam the streets. “Mrs. Zarutska, tonight, I promise you we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter Iryna.”

Trump also turned his attention to a key policy embraced by the Democratic Party: transgenderism. “Here is one more opportunity to show common sense in government,” he said, pointing to Sage Blair and her mother, Michelle, in the gallery. Blair was 14 years old, he said, when school officials in Virginia facilitated her “social” gender transition, “treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Before long, a confused Sage ran away from home.” Blair was reportedly kidnapped and trafficked across state lines into Maryland, where “a left-wing judge refused to return Sage to her parents because they did not immediately state that their daughter was their son. Sage was thrown into an all-boys state home and suffered terribly for a long time,” the president related. “But today, all of that is behind them because Sage is a proud and wonderful young woman with a full ride scholarship to Liberty University.”

The president urged Congress to take action to protect children and families from harmful gender ideology and legal reasoning based on that ideology. “Surely, we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents will. Who would believe that we’ve been talking about that. We must ban it and we must ban it immediately,” he said. While Republicans stood and cheered, Democrats again remained seated. “Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I’m telling you, they’re crazy,” Trump commented. “Boy, oh boy, we’re lucky we have a country with people like this,” he added, referring to Republican legislators. “Democrats are destroying our country, but we’ve stopped it just in the nick of time, didn’t we?”

Trump also touted a “renewal” in faith across the U.S., which he credited largely to the influence of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September. “I’m very proud to say that during my time in office, both the first four years and in particular this last year, there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity, and belief in God, tremendous renewal. This is especially true among young people, and a big part of that has — had to do with my great friend Charlie Kirk, a great guy, great man,” he observed. “In Charlie’s memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God, and we must totally reject political violence of any kind. We love religion and we love bringing it back and it’s coming back at levels that nobody actually thought possible. It’s really a beautiful thing to see.”

Perhaps the toughest task the president faced Tuesday night was allaying voters’ concerns over affordability, particularly with midterm elections on the horizon. “The Biden administration and its allies in Congress gave us the worst inflation in the history of our country, but in 12 months, my administration has driven core inflation down to the lowest level in more than five years,” Trump boasted. He touted falling prices, particularly the prices of groceries and energy bills, but acknowledged that driving down runaway inflation does take time. “Soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible to achieve just a short time ago,” he said. However, he was also quick to blame Democrats for enabling the inflation crisis. “You caused that problem; you caused that problem. They knew their statements were a lie, they knew it,” he charged. “Their policies created the high prices — our policies are rapidly ending them. We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting downward.”

The president also addressed the housing crisis, pointing to an executive order he issued barring investment firms from purchasing single-family homes. “Another pillar of the American dream that has been under attack is homeownership. With us tonight is Rachel Wiggins, a mom of two from Houston,” he shared. Wiggins placed bids on 20 different houses and lost every single bid to “gigantic investment firms that bypassed inspection, paid all cash, and turned those houses into rentals, stealing away her American dream.” He called on Congress to codify his executive order to ensure that investment firms do not deprive American families of a chance at home ownership. “That’s what we want. We want homes for people, not for corporations,” he said.

However, the president also boasted that mortgage rates are “the lowest in four years and falling fast,” noting that the annual cost of a typical new mortgage is down almost $5,000 since early in 2025. “Low interest rates will solve the Biden-created housing problem, while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives,” he argued. “We want to protect those values; we want to keep those values up. We’re going to do both. And we are going to keep it that way.”

While Trump acknowledged the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling barring his implementation of tariffs as “unfortunate,” he continued to highlight his efforts to secure major investments in U.S. production, manufacturing, and infrastructure, resulting in the reshoring of American jobs and a boom in the U.S. job market, with all growth over the past year going to American citizens in the private sector. “More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country,” he stated. “… And 100% of all jobs created under my administration have been in the private sector.”

The president was also keen to honor the nation’s 250th birthday. “This July 4, we will mark two and a half centuries of liberty and triumph, progress and freedom, in the most incredible and exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth. And you’ve seen nothing yet,” he said. “We’re going to do better and better and better. This is the golden age of America. When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide-open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home and wars and chaos all over the world,” he recounted. “But tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before and a turnaround for the ages.”

Trump pointed to Buddy Taggart in the gallery, who volunteered to fight in World War II at the age of 17 and served in the Pacific theatre, earning a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He also welcomed Scott Ruskin, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who saved Millie Kate McClelland, also present, and 164 others from a flood in Texas last year. “Even in times of challenge, setback and immense heartache, the spirit of 1776 has always shown through very brightly,” the president intoned. “From 1776 to today, every generation of Americans has stepped forward to defend life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and they’re really doing it for the next generation, but now it’s our turn.”

“Together, we’re building a nation where every child has the chance to reach higher and go further, where government answers to the people, not the powerful and where the interests of hardworking American citizens are always our first and ultimate concern. That is the debt we owe to the heroes who came before us and that is the promise we must keep to America for our 250th year,” Trump declared. He noted that while 250 years may be a long time, that span is “a mere moment in the eye of history.” He noted that two of his guests in the gallery were born nearly 100 years ago, and that Thomas Jefferson drew his last breath just 100 years before that, on July 4, 1826. “Just a single long human lifespan separates the giants who declared and won our independence from the heroes who stand among us tonight.”

“Everything our nation has done, everything we have achieved has been the work of those few great lifetimes. In those brief chapters, Americans built this nation from 13 humble colonies into the pinnacle of human civilization and human freedom, the strongest, wealthiest, most powerful, most successful nation in all of history,” the president chronicled. “Americans ventured out across the daunting and dangerous continent, we carved paths through an unforgiving wilderness, settled a boundless frontier and tamed the beautiful but very, very dangerous Wild West. From empty marshes and wide-open plains, we raised up the world’s greatest cities. Together, we mastered the world’s mightiest industries, shattered history’s monstrous tyrannies, and we liberated millions from the chains of fascism, communism, oppression, and terror.”

Trump boasted of American ingenuity and innovation, inventing the airplane, reaching the moon, and making enormous strides in the world of technology. “All of this and so much more is the enduring legacy, unmatched glory of the hardworking patriots who built and defended this country and who still carry the hopes and freedoms on all of humanity’s backs,” he said. “For years, they were forgotten, betrayed, and cast aside, but that great betrayal is over and they will never be forgotten again because when the world needs courage, daring vision and inspiration, it is still turning to America,” Trump averred.

“And when God needs a nation to work his miracles, He knows exactly who to ask. There is no challenge Americans cannot overcome, no frontier too vast for us to conquer, no dream too bold for us to chase, no horizon too distant for us to claim. For our destiny is written by the hand of Providence and these first 250 years were just the beginning,” he stated. “The Golden Age of America is upon us. The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended; it still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot. And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before.”