With midterm elections looming, an unpopular Trump seeks a State of the Union reset

Reuters:

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 – U.S. President Donald Trump declared that “this is the Golden Age of America” at the start of his State of the Union address on Tuesday, seeking to project an aura of success at a fraught moment for his presidency and his Republican Party.

“Our nation is back — bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before,” he said after taking the stage to cheers of “USA, USA” from his party’s members of Congress, while Democrats stood in stony silence.

Democratic U.S. Representative Al Green was removed from the House chamber for the second consecutive year after waving a sign at Trump that read: “Black people aren’t apes.” The message was a reference to a social media video Trump posted this month that included a clip depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

The White House eventually took down the video, and Trump said a staffer posted the video. The 78-year-old Green, who is Black, was also ejected last year after shouting at Trump during his address to Congress.

The annual speech carried enormous stakes for the president, with his approval ratings slumping, anxieties rising over Iran and Americans struggling with the cost of living as the campaign for November’s midterm elections for Congress gets under way.

The televised prime-time speech to Congress, his second in the 13 months since returning to the White House, offered Trump a chance to persuade voters to keep his fellow Republicans in power.

Trump began his speech by touting the economy, declaring that inflation is “plummeting” even though prices for groceries, housing, insurance and utilities remain significantly higher than they were a few years ago. White House aides and Republican campaign advisers had urged Trump to focus on Americans’ economic worries.

Trump’s victory in the 2024 election was based in large part on his promises to ease the cost of living, but voters are largely unconvinced by his efforts so far. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found only 36% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy.

Befitting a former reality television star with a penchant for the dramatic, Trump bragged about all the “winning” the country was experiencing before introducing some other “winners”: the U.S. men’s ice hockey team, which won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics on Sunday.