Feb. 25, 2026, 9:19 a.m. ET
On the Wednesday, February 25, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: After a tumultuous start to his second term, President Donald Trump is looking to reset the reigning narrative about his leadership with Americans. USA TODAY Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page joins The Excerpt to share her analysis.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Dana Taylor:
After a tumultuous start to a second term, president Donald Trump is looking to reset the rainy narrative about his leadership with Americans. In his first State of the Union address of his second term, the president tried to sell the country on his economic agenda, working to counter increasingly dim views of his economic stewardship. Did he succeed? Hello and welcome to USA TODAY’s The Excerpt. I’m Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, February 25th, 2026. Here to help me break down Trump’s message to the American people, I’m now joined by USA TODAY, Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page. Susan, thank you so much for joining me.
Susan Page:
It’s great to be with you, Dana.
Dana Taylor:
Susan, the bulk of Tuesday night’s speech was really all about the economy. Well, Trump has been boasting about how he’s transformed the economy. Americans really aren’t feeling it. What did the president say to try to shift the narrative here?
Susan Page:
Dana, what an interesting speech this was. I mean, put aside the fact that’s the longest State of the Union in recorded history. He broke his own record from last year’s speech to a joint session of Congress, but he also did something he almost never does. He stuck to his script. There were a few asides. He made fun of Nancy Pelosi at one point, for instance, but generally he was reading from the teleprompter, something he almost never does, and he did that with a very carefully crafted economic message. And his message was, the economy is great. I inherited a mess and I’ve turned it around. And he cited some positive economic statistics to make his case.
Now, there wasn’t a sort of I feel your pain kind of moment that would have maybe made Americans who feel uncertain about the economy feel better, and he kind of dismissed the idea of affordability as a word that Democrats had concocted. But he did make sort of his best case. Now, will it be good enough? The history of presidents trying to convince Americans the economy is better than they think it is, that is not a promising one. You can just ask Joe Biden. But I did think it was a more disciplined speech than we’ve seen President Trump give before, and that I think was a little bit of a surprise to congressional Democrats in the audience.
Dana Taylor:
The President also brought up tariffs, the sore spot for him given the high court’s rare rebuke of his exercise of power just last week. Let’s give a listen to what he said.
Donald Trump:
I believe the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will like in the past substantially replace the modern day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love.
Dana Taylor:
Americans broadly don’t like the tariffs, and there’s still a lot of uncertainty on whether these will also be struck down, which businesses don’t like. Does this statement about tariffs potentially replacing income tax hold water?
Susan Page:
Well, I mean, time will tell, but that would be a surprise. And of course, tariffs are essentially a tax and a regressive tax, unlike income taxes that are less regressive. So it seems unlikely that anytime in the foreseeable future we’re going to see income taxes replaced by tariffs. But the president’s devotion to tariffs, his belief in tariffs as the right economic sword for him to use is clearly unshaken. It hasn’t been shaken by Americans in polls saying that tariffs are doing more to hurt the economy than help it and not shaken by the Supreme Court. We were sort of waiting to see what the President would say to the justices of the Supreme Court who were seated in the front row of the hall. Four of them attended the speech. Three of them had voted with the majority in that decision and against Trump. But his words to them were pretty temperate. He said it was disappointing, but then he said it wouldn’t make much difference because he could impose tariffs using other legal mechanisms. So clearly Americans may not be sold on tariffs, but it is clear that Donald Trump still is.
Dana Taylor:
Susan Trump also brought up healthcare, an issue he and Republicans repeatedly vowed to fix following the introduction of Obamacare, which made healthcare affordable for millions or tens of millions of Americans. The Republicans’ alternative, on the other hand, was never fully conceived, and so it went nowhere. What did the President say on this, and did he make a strong case? Will Americans ever see a Republican proposal to replace Obamacare?
Susan Page:
Well, he referred to the Republican proposal, which would be to instead of Obamacare, to contribute to American’s health savings account so they could buy their own insurance. This is not a proposal that has been fleshed out. It’s not one in which we understand how it would work. Many healthcare experts believe it could not possibly work, and in any case, the Affordable Care Act has after kind of a rough start become very well established in the United States. So this seemed to me something that the President was trying to be able to say. He had talked about healthcare without really talking in a serious way about replacing the Affordable Care Act. I can tell you, I think Obamacare is here to stay.
Dana Taylor:
As the US to build up its presence in the Middle East, the threat of a war with Iran looms large. Did he give any indication of an impending strike?
Susan Page:
We were listening closely to this section on Iran because we have now deployed two aircraft carriers to the region. It’s the biggest buildup we’ve seen in the Middle East in more than 20 years since before the Iraq war when we were preparing for that invasion. So a lot of curiosity about whether the United States actually plans a military strike of some sort against Iran. What the President said was he prefers diplomacy, we have talks going on, but that he will not allow Iran, who he described as the world’s number one sponsor of terror, there’s some evidence of that, to have a nuclear weapon. And he said that they hadn’t said the secret word, we won’t build a nuclear weapon. I think he actually meant the magic word. And of course, Iran has repeatedly insisted that they don’t plan to build a nuclear bomb. Not everybody believes him. So we got no guidance from the President on whether a strike on Iran is ahead, but he certainly held it out as a possibility if diplomacy fails.
Dana Taylor:
As he has on almost every big speaking occasion. Trump also brought up his 2020 election loss and his false accusation that illegal votes were the cause. Let’s give a listen.
Donald Trump:
The cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant. It’s very simple. All voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote, and no more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military, or travel. None.
Dana Taylor:
In this clip he’s pushing for new voter ID requirements, which if adopted would have a huge impact on the midterms. Isn’t it too late for states to pass these? There are a lot of legal questions around this, aren’t there?
Susan Page:
Well, there are legal questions and there’s also the argument by Democrats that it’s going to throw up hurdles to voting. It will make it harder for Americans to register to vote and to vote. So there is democratic opposition to it, although as the President said, it has broad public support, the idea that you have to show a photo ID to vote, or that you have to prove your citizenship to register to vote. So this is a big issue and it’s very much entangled with Republican concerns that they’re going to have a very bad midterm election and they want to do everything they can to maximize their prospects.
Dana Taylor:
This speech was really the last big opportunity for Trump to sell the Republican Party to voters ahead of the midterms, at stake Trump’s legislative agenda for the next two years. Susan, do you think he was strong on that front?
Susan Page:
I guess we’ll find out. The fact is the President is in an embattled position here. His approval rating has sunk below 40% in most credible national polls, and he’s not on the ballot in November, of course, but we know that midterm elections tend to be referendum on the President, so that’s one reason that congressional Republicans I think were pleased by the fact that the focus of the speech was the economy. That’s the big issue. What do Americans care about? It’s the economy, stupid. I think this was probably helpful, but the real issue, how do Americans feel? Will Americans be persuaded that the economy is roaring as the President said, or will they continue to have these deep concerns about the cost of healthcare and food and rent? That’ll be the question in November.
Dana Taylor:
Dozens of Democrats boycotted the address as a statement to reflect how they’re feeling about this administration, and Trump was very combative toward them in his speech, calling them “crazy” and saying they’re destroying the country. What did you take away from this?
Susan Page:
I thought the Democrats were in kind of a tough spot there because Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat who leads house Democrats had basically tried to enforce a silent defiance approach where they would go to the speech, but they would sit there silently, and that’s awkward for two hours to sit there silently. At one point, Trump basically dared them to stand up when he said, “The fundamental job of government is to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants.” Well, the Democrats stayed seated for that, and Trump looked at them with what I thought a combination of contempt and satisfaction as though he had forced them into a response that we may see in TV ads, political ads this year.
There was also a few incidents of some shouted objections. Ilhan Omar, the Congresswoman from Minnesota at one point accused Trump of being a murderer. There was a little by play with Trump on that. We also heard from Al Green, the Texas Democrat, who last year was escorted out of Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress because he kept tackling him. This time, he brought a cardboard sign and held it up saying, “Black people are not apes.” That’s a reference to a racist video that Trump had reposted. He got escorted out again because handmade signs violate house rules.
Dana Taylor:
And Susan, finally, what’s your biggest overall takeaway from the speech? What was the most noteworthy to you?
Susan Page:
Dana, I’ll tell you what my favorite moment was. It was when the president introduced the hockey players, the men’s hockey players from the US team just back with gold medals. It was great to see them in the gallery wearing those medals and being applauded by everybody in the hall.
Dana Taylor:
Susan Page is USA TODAY’s Washington Bureau chief. Thank you so much for joining me, Susan.
Susan Page:
Thank you.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks to our senior producer Kaely Monahan for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I’m Dana Taylor. I’ll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY’s The Excerpt.
