WASHINGTON — President Trump will use Tuesday’s State of the Union address to share the stories of Americans who have benefited from his policies, mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and lay out his accomplishments from the past year.
He will also announce new policies meant to tackle the affordability crisis, a critical issue for Republicans heading into the November midterm elections and the one voters rank as their top concern, White House officials said.
The speech’s theme will be “America at 250: Strong, Prosperous and Respected.”
Trump has been practicing his remarks since this weekend, taking a break on Sunday morning to congratulate the US men’s hockey team for winning Olympic gold over Canada.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt promised a combination of “tear-jerking” stories and moments of levity during the president’s remarks — which are likely to run at least 90 minutes.
“He’s going to lay out a very ambitious agenda, I think, for the working people of this country to make America more affordable and prosperous and safe and make the American dream more attainable,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
“You’re going to hear a speech that is a celebration of 250 years of our nation and our nation’s independence,” she went on. “You’re going to hear the president share tear-jerking stories of American heroes past and present who really exemplify what it means to be a patriotic American.”
The stakes are high.
Trump will have his largest annual audience — 36.6 million tuned in to last year’s address to Congress — to make the case that he and the Republican Party have the strongest policies to tackle the high cost of living and to blame Democrats under former President Joe Biden for causing the problems.
“We have to tell our story better,” a senior administration official told The Post recently.
In that vein, the president will brag about his “Big Beautiful Bill” — including the just-launched “Trump Accounts” seeded with $1,000 per newborn — plus new tax policies for people who earn tips and overtime, senior citizens and car buyers that are padding refunds this tax season.
Trump will also give a shout-out to Pennsylvania mom and waitress Megan Hemhouser and her husband, a heavy machinery operator, who received a roughly $5,000 income bump from the elimination of federal taxes on tips and overtime earnings, Fox News first reported.
He also will mention efforts to make homebuying more affordable — with mortgage costs already easing since the Biden administration.
Trump will also directly ask Congress to codify his health care plan, which would replace just-expired pandemic-era insurance subsidies for roughly 20 million middle-class Americans with direct-to-consumer subsidies, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
Trump will tout his aggressive push for drug companies to lower costs by threatening them with tariffs if they do not agree to “most favored nations” schemes intended to align US prices with those of other Western nations — a move he frequently says will be a centerpiece of his legacy.
He will illustrate the drug price reforms — which include his new “TrumpRX” site listing discounts — by highlighting speech guest Catherine Rayner from Norfolk, Va., who used the site to lower her fertility medicine costs to $500 from $4,000, Fox News first reported.
The president has teased plans to strongarm health insurers next — prompting a desperate wave of industry advertising in the DC market seeking to pass the blame for high costs on to drugmakers and hospitals.
“Much of what the President has done by executive order needs to be codified,” a senior administration official explained.
Trump is also expected to blast Democrats, blaming them for the lack of funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses Customs and Border Protection, FEMA, and the Secret Service.
The speech will be delivered against the backdrop of world uncertainty, with Tuesday marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the possibility of a US attack on Iran ever-present.
Trump is expected to touch on foreign policy with a discussion of his “peace through strength” agenda.
The success of the president’s delivery could impact the November midterm elections — in which Republicans are defending narrow House and Senate majorities that if lost could sink Trump into two years of investigations and gridlock to close out his term of office.
Allies and detractors alike are uncertain of how Trump will navigate the potentially script-alerting presence of Supreme Court justices in the front row — four days after they struck down his “reciprocal” and fentanyl tariffs, casting major trade deals into doubt — or how he would handle heckling on matters such as the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will give the party’s official response, but her argument risks getting lost among other party members who are giving unofficial remarks throughout Tuesday evening.