A short time ago, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world, the hottest.
Full of hubris and bravado. The State of the Union address was classic Trump, the showman who knows how to work a crowd.
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, miss the president. We're winning too much. We can't take it anymore.
It's an awful long speech. This now set a record as the longest State of the Union address in history. He likes to set records, and he did tonight. I think people turned off after about thirty minutes.
Our nation is back, bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before.
I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven AM today. US journalist Steve Clemens, Editor at Large of The National Interest, on the speech and the spectacle. How did Trump's State of the Union go down? And what's it all mean for the midterms. It's Thursday, February twenty six, Steve. This was Trump's chance to lay out his achievements and his policy agenda for the rest of his term. It was long, It covered everything from the economy to migration.
Today, our border is secure, the roaring economy is roaring like never before.
But what do you think Trump's real message was here to the American people, and was there even one?
No, his real message is he's the boss, He's in charge, and America is better off for that. So, whether it's about the economy, whether it's about safety, migration, the wars were in or pointing into the galleries of the Congress at heroes, everything in America is better under his stewardship.
That's the message he's getting across. And so while it seemed like a sprawl and not very specific, in a lot of ways, he's like a security blanket for the nation in a lot of ways, which is gauzy and all over the place.
Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the nick of time. And then.
You know, it had moments of his disdain for those who don't like him. That was very Trumpian when he pointed to the Democrats and he basically mocked them and poked them. I think the other thing you know that was about it was a kind of narcissism. You know, his little side comments that if the rules could be changed so that he could get the CongressI Medal of Honor or give it to himself, he would be there with those great heroes that received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I've always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor, but I was informed I'm not allowed to give it to myself, and I wouldn't know why I'd be taken it. But they ever opened up that law, I will be there with you someday.
He did surprise me in a way that he didn't amp up the temperature over Iran. He didn't beat his chest a little bit on Venezuela. That was sort of a missing element that Bravado wasn't in the speech. So that's how it was a little different.
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 has build himself as the law and order president. And a big part of this State of the Union was about migration and the deportations, and there was one point things got a little bit fiery, blocking.
The removal of these people out of our country, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Then why is it that he's so focused on this? And don't most Americans think by now that ICE has actually gone too far? So this could end up hurting Trump come the midterms.
You know, he didn't mention ICE in this speech. If you go back to many other speeches, ice was a central feature. You know, I was surprised at Christy Noom, the Secretary of Homeland Security, was in there because they've been trying to send a different signal of this as a warmer and fuzzier way of dealing with America's migration crisis. He did have that line in there, which was one of the longest applause lines, as do you support this statement.
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 areas.
And Democrats didn't stand up, and he mocked them for that in that.
SHA be a shamed of yourself not standing up. He should be a shamed of you as health.
But I think the real issue here is that when it comes to the safety issue of law and safety, Americans care most about the economy, about inflation. But you can't deny the fact that before he came in there was a concern about security in the US. There was a concern even in democratic cities about over immigration and the failure of the Biden administration to do much on that. And Donald Trump milked that very successfully because it was a bipartisan issue. And I think that the safety and
law and order issue. Even though many people have huge problems with the deployment of National Guard the way they're doing it and the death of US citizens at the hands of these ice agents and others, Americans have a lot of contradictions that they carry. They want safety. Donald Trump may not be delivering it, and we know from polls they're very dissatisfied with the way Donald Trump is
deploying those forces around the country. But it doesn't change the fact that the rhetoric about lawn safety can still work.
Last year, the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program with an attack on a radian soil known as Operation Midnight Hammer.
Steve, we didn't get a lot of detail from Trump on foreign policy, even though the US has assembled its largest naval a Martyr in the Gulf since the two thousand and three Iraq war. Everyone's asking what will Trump do? Will he attack? Is he going to find a way to back down?
My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain. I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen.
Do you think that he hasn't made up his mind or could he be having second thoughts about striking i Ran?
I think Trump is unpredictable in some ways. But we also know that Donald Trump is on record with his base, the Maga bass as not wanting to commit the same kind of wars that previous administrations did. That he said that wasn't going to be him. He wasn't going to engage in regime change and do all of this stuff. And to be honest, the wars that if you want to call them, the twelve day conflict with Iran was
a polite war. It was in and out. He stopped Israel from doing more bombing what we did in Venezuela, saying how how could Donald Trump go into Venezuela, whom he called America's great friend in the speech? But yet he basically did a grab and go with the president and left the entire power structure of Venezuela in place, So he's not really committing regime change. So my sense is Donald Trump gets a lot of muscle and then
does something small. It would be uncharacteristic of everything we know of Donald Trump thus far, with all of the military power there, to do something that's gargantuan. But he may still do something dramatic, and he may do something that's surgical, which could you'll have tremendous ramifications for the regent. But we don't know what he's going to do. So you know, if I were iron, I would probably be looking at Donald Trump as a serious threat, particularly for
their leadership, and try to negotiate something. So Donald Trump's strategy here, if it is muscle trying to move the irridiance, is not stupid.
Coming up? Is the economy really roaring back? Steve? There's also Trump's favorite tool, tariffs. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that most of Trump's tariffs last year were unlawful, and the New York Federal Reserve they found that the tariffs are pushing consumer prices up and that the cost of them is being paid for of course inside the US.
So what is it that Americans think about these tariffs and how they're hitting their back pocket and why is it that Trump just seems to keep doubling down on them.
Look, Trump is a true believer in tariffs. Tariffs are taxes on Americans, and that is what essentially the Supreme Court ruled, and that the emergency powers that Trump was referring to and applying these massive tariffs, you know, in very erratic ways around the world, you know, were was
not legal. That he could not do that. And he looked at the Supreme Court justices and says that was a very unfortunate ruling, an unfortunate ruling, you know, and and where you could sort of feel the seething nature of it.
And as time goes by, I believe the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replaced the modern day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love.
Now, my view is Donald Trump doesn't understand tariffs very well. Because Donald Trump throws tariffs around like you know, you know, a wet rag. You know, he won to use them for everything, not just for the economy. He wants to punish nations that are doing business with Iran, or punish India for doing deals with Russia and energy that have nothing to do with the US economy. So Donald Trump loves tariffs. He's going to be at tariffs. Are going
to find a way to do it. But at the same time, I think it was very important to hear how he essentially had an affordability streak through that entire speech.
We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting down.
With about the price of eggs.
The price of eggs is down sixty percent, Madam Secretary.
Thank you of various things that Americans wanted to buy, about the price of gas being down, and asserting that prices were plummeting now, which is not true, but trying to basically convince Americans that tariffs are nothing. The stock market is high, kitchen table economics have never been better, and Americans just don't feel.
That was there actually any substance in what he had to say about the economy. You know, he said it was roaring back. Is that fair any of it?
No, Because we know that the economy slowed dramatically, much slower than people expected. In the last quarter, so it was like a point and a half percent or something,
which was much slower than people thought. We're also seeing something that he didn't discuss, and I think most economic projections are going to see robust economic growth for the United States in twenty twenty six, but an almost jobless growth, so economic growth without jobs growing, and that is something that's going to haunt Trump a bit.
Steve. All of this is gearing up for one big event, as we know, the November mid terms. Now, the last time Trump was president, the Republicans narrowly won the House, but there was that big backlash on issues like abortion. What are the issues you think we should be looking at this time round? What is it the Republicans will be trying to drive home where they think they can struct a win.
Look, I think the Republicans are going to try to drive home the same messages that we heard in the speech tonight. The Donald Trump is the savior of the American worker by getting immigrants out of the country and deporting so many people that the nation is allegedly more safe, even though we've seen the kidnapping at least of Savannah Guthrie's mother in Tucson, Arizona. People are talking about, oh, are we rarely that safe? You know, with what's going on.
You're going to have the Republicans trying to say that the economy is still roaring back, and these are very positive signals. But I think that they're going to have trouble because what we see in polling right now is frustration about ongoing you know, impressions of inflation, that the cost of just surviving in America is going up, that jobs are disappearing, that AI is coming on and displacing lots of people, and they're not sure where that's going.
They see a government in WAYU. Washington obsessed with building ballrooms and trophies that Donald Trump is putting his name on. And then you see the Ice story, and the Ice story has probably been the one that's most riveting. And those videos of alex Pretty, a nurse essentially being murdered
by ICE agents, which led to the massive reaction. But remember we not only had the murder, we had the Secretary of Homeland Security and others looking at the video and trying to gaslight Americans and say, oh, that's not what happened. This was a radical waving a gun, et cetera, et cetera.
This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts.
Those videos, in those statements are going to haunt every Republican in every race. The question is it's easy for Democrats to run against Trump right now and against those kinds of policies. It's not clear what Democrats stand for, and I think that is going to be one of the interesting questions. Is just being against those kind of things enough? Is the way that he's scared the Hispanic community from showing up places? Is that going to be enough?
And I think that right now it's not looking good for Republicans for the House and maybe even the Senate. But I would say the Senate's tough for Democrats to win, but there is a path. But at the same time, you look at Senate leadership and what they stand for, and it's very hard to define what their message is.
Steve, Thanks for chatting with us, my pleasure. Also in the news, the evacuation of the Prime Minister from the Lodge on Tuesday has been linked to the intimidation of a classical Chinese dance group banned in China. The Shenyang Group, which is due to tour Australia this month, was sent a threatening email. It falsely claimed that explosives had been placed around the PM's residence and would be detonated if
the shows went ahead. And New South Wales police are set to patrol places of worship, protests and public buildings after a unit created following the Bondai terror attack was made permanent. About two hundred and fifty officers will make up the dedicated hate crime unit, equipped with long armed firearms and rapid response vehicles, but the greens worn it could place protesters at risk of greater harm or violence. I'm Nicole Johnston. This is seven AM. Thanks for listening