Well, that was long.
President Donald Trump set a new record for the longest State of the Union address, with a speech that lasted nearly two hours. There was a time when the State of the Union was just a letter. This could have been an email, or, ahem, a newsletter. Can we get the president on Substack? They don't have editors there.
Trump did his usual showman shtick. He called out the U.S. hockey team, which just won Olympic gold (and produced an AI-generated meme in which the president was battling on the ice with the team). He said, "Space Force is my baby." (How does Trump's son, Barron, feel about that?) He referred to Democrats as "pro-crime." He claimed to have ended eight wars in 10 months, producing a memorably pained look on Secretary of State Marco Rubio's face. (He nearly did the meme.) And he got Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren to stand and clap for a line about congressional insider trading, making for a little bit of real-life horseshoe theory.
But hey, at least we didn't bomb Iran. Yet.
Despite the length, Trump's speech was fundamentally designed to deliver two messages.
First, we're winning, and by we he means he.
And second, they're losing, and by they he means Democrats and haters. Minutes after the speech ended, the White House press secretary posted a list of things Democrats "refused to stand for." That's the takeaway, the big idea the White House wants people to focus on.
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