Longest SOTU Ever

Today’s notice: 1 hour, 47ish minutes. What did we learn? Portland’s protest frogs take D.C. by storm. Some Republicans are softening on immigration — not Derrick Van Orden. Plus: A MAHA star takes the spotlight.

THE LATEST

What was new in the president’s speech: In a nearly two-hour State of the Union address to Congress — beating the record he set last year — Donald Trump rolled out a handful of new proposals and policy positions.

• Tariffs: The president said he believed revenue from his tariffs would supplant income tax, as he declared that he would not need Congress to keep his tariff agenda in place. He made the claim just feet away from several Supreme Court justices who recently ruled that his tariff power was not absolute.
  
• Affordability: Trump announced a new “rate payer protection pledge” that would place the burden on major tech companies to pay for their own power at AI data centers. An unnamed list of top tech companies have signed on, the president claimed.
  
• Insider trading: The president blessed the Stop Insider Trading Act, officially weighing in on the fight in Congress over whether members should be trading stocks.
  
• Striking shifts from past rhetoric: There were no threats of federal deployments to blue cities in the speech, and little focus on the kind of immigration enforcement surges that characterized Trump’s first year in office.

What was not new: Increasing distance from what SOTU night has traditionally been about.

• Protests on the floor: One Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Al Green, was removed from the chamber after he held up a sign that read “Black people aren’t apes,” a reference to Trump’s recent social media snafu. You may remember that Green was also removed from last year’s SOTU.
  
• Arguing with the crowd: There was a back-and-forth with Rep. Ilhan Omar over Trump’s rhetoric about Somalis in Minnesota. Rep. Rashida Tlaib also heckled the president, at one point yelling, “You’re shooting them,” while pointing a finger gun at Trump. “You’re killing Americans,” she added.
  
• “These people are crazy!” Trump yelled into the mic at one point, looking over at Democrats who didn’t join a standing ovation over the administration’s push against trans rights.

Open tabs: Hegseth Revives Effort to Demote Mark Kelly for ‘Illegal Orders’ Video (NOTUS); Trump administration considers requiring banks to collect citizenship information (WaPo); Pentagon Gives A.I. Company an Ultimatum (NYT); It Was Paradise for American Retirees—Until It Became the Center of a Drug War (WSJ)

From the opposition

“Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?” Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia asked as part of the official Democratic response to Trump’s address, delivered in front of a small and very well choreographed crowd in Williamsburg, Virginia. (“We all know the answer is no,” she said, in response to her own question.)

Spanberger is one of the party’s rock stars from the 2025 cycle, which earned her the response job last night — a gig known to really take the shine off a rock star now and again. Spanberger did not suffer that fate, delivering Democrats’ 2026 talking points without doing anything meme-able.

The real action was among the SOTU boycotters, who skipped the speech and gathered at different events around town. Sens. Ruben Gallego and Chris Murphy, both potential 2028ers, attended an event sponsored by MoveOn on the National Mall.

An anecdote that summarizes this scene: Emily attended the “State of the Swamp” address, a different anti-Trump event at the National Press Club in Washington. Boycotters in attendance included Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Maxine Dexter. But the major draw was the brigade of “protest frogs” that showed up after several viral appearances in Portland, Oregon, last year.

Among the attendees was Jennifer Hill, a member of her county’s Democratic committee in upstate New York. She pointed to a speaker who was yelling on stage and said she wished her senator, Chuck Schumer, would do that. “Do more political theater, honestly,” was Hill’s advice.

From the majority

“I think the president hit a home run,” Rep. Byron Donalds, a Republican running for governor of Florida, told reporters after the speech. Donalds was referring specifically to Trump’s affordability plays, which included reiterating his effort to bar corporate buyers from snapping up single-family homes.

“Bottom line is, I wish it was more unifying,” Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, said. He’s a regular critic of Trump and is retiring at the end of this term. Criticism aside, Bacon said of the SOTU: “He should talk this way every day. This was a good speech on affordability.”

“I’m so glad it was a positive message tonight,” Rep. Mike Haridopolos, another Republican from Florida (this one not running for governor), said.

NEW ON NOTUS

Standout immigration hard-liner: Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin is defending a seat in a purple district that includes the Minneapolis exurbs. He thinks the way to do it is with steadfast support for Trump’s immigration enforcement operations. NOTUS’ Jade Lozada talked to him about it.

Surgeon general confirmation: “She’s going to be the nation’s doctor, if you will. So I want to make sure that what she says is grounded in that,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told NOTUS’ Margaret Manto ahead of today’s confirmation hearing for MAHA star Casey Means.

More: Gang of Eight Tries to Gauge How Close Trump Is to Military Action Against Iran, by Hamed Ahmadi

NOTUS PERSPECTIVES

Describe Trump’s State of the Union speech in one word.

A NOTUS forum featuring Anne-Marie Slaughter of New America, Brittany Martinez of Principles First, Corey A. DeAngelis of Heritage, former Biden speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum and former Obama speechwriter David Litt.

NOT US

• Trump’s Latest Deportation Tactic: Targeting Immigrants With Minor Family Court Cases, by Eli Hager for ProPublica
  
• He’s a Leading Wellness Influencer Who Wants to Detoxify America. And He Has the Ear of RFK Jr. By Jack Crosbie for Men’s Health
  
• ‘I Genuinely Am Upset That Your Kids Are Vaccinated’: Del Bigtree, a longtime ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., isn’t just anti-vaccine. He’s pro-infection. By Tom Bartlett for The Atlantic

BE SOCIAL

Relatable.

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