• Record-long speech:President Donald Trump has delivered his2026 State of the Union, beating his own record for thelongest annual address. He touted the economy, touched on Iran, Venezuela and other global affairs, and took jabs at Democrats. CNN’s experts analyzed the speech as it unfolded —read their analysis here.
• Fact check:Trump is no stranger to false claims, and his speech was unsurprisingly replete with them. You canread CNN’s fact check of his speech here.
• Democrats respond:Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanbergerdelivered the Democratic response, hitting Trump on affordability and immigration.
In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump lamented themurderof a refugee from Ukraine, Iryna Zarutska, who was killed on public transit in Charlotte.
But Trump added a false claim that the alleged killer had migrated to the US, saying Zarutska “had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America – came in through open borders.”
In reality, the man charged with first-degree murder over the killing was, according to all available evidence, from the US. The Charlotte Observer has reported that the man’s Facebook page said he was born in Charlotte and attended high school there, and the newspaper has interviewed his American mother.
The Observer published its own fact check on Tuesday night noting Trump’s claim was not true.
Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans condemned some House Democrats’ actions on the floor during the State of the Union.
Democrats were advised by leadership to silently protest during Trump’s speech or not show up at all, aiming not to give Trump any kind of reaction. However, there were a few outbursts as the speech went on.
Rep. Al Green wasescorted out of the chambershortly after Trump’s speech began for holding a sign that read, “Black people aren’t apes!”
Source: Drudge Report
