Timothy Birdnow

Many were saying this last night and I have to concur; that was probably the best State of the Bunion speech ever.

It was upbeat, positive, and yet full of Trumpian good humor. Very Reaganesque in so many ways. But it still had the Trump edge.

I won't bore everyone with a rehash of it. In fact it wasn't really a SOTU speech at all, more of a celebration of America. Trump gave out TWO Congressional Medal of Honor awards to soldiers - one a young chopper pilot who finished his mission despite being very seriously wounded and an old Vet who fought in WWII and Korea and who was shot down in his fighter jet. Trump also awarded Purple Hearts. And he promised to award to the American Men's Olympic Hockey Team's goal tender the Freedom Medal, which he said the team heartily agreed to his doing.

There were victims of crimes, including the parents of that Ukrainian woman who was stabbed to death on the subway for no good reason by an illegal. There was a young lady who had been pressured into being trans but who walked away and was now a pretty girl, there with her parents who fought so hard to get her out of the clutches of Progressives in her state. There were the parents of a young girl and the girl herself who was hit by a vehicle being driven way too fast by an illegal alien.

And always crickets from the Democrat side of the aisle. So Trump conducted an experiment; he asked everyone to stand who agreed with the proposition that the government's job is to protect citizens over illegal aliens. Not one of the Democrats stood and Trump waved his hand in their direction "see!".

At one point he said they were insane. He was right.

At any rate Rashida Thalib and Ilhan Omar were heckling, making spectacles of themselves. Mike Johnson would say after the speech that he was just about to remove them but then realized Trump had it under control and he figured this was a teachable moment; let them embarrass their party.

Al Green was not so fortunate, being kicked out within three minutes of the beginning of the speech.

In addition to praising Americans Trump of course effusively praised his own accomplishments, and when strung together in that fashion they are indeed impressive.

And he laid off the Supreme Court. Only five of the Justices showed - and of those only Kavanaugh can be said to be in Trump's camp. Roberts and Conehead Barrett were also present and I had hoped/feared Trump would have a few choice words for them (hoped if it was light hearted, feared if it was not). But he only mentioned as an aside the Court ruling overturning his tariffs and promised to impose them in a different way.

One of about four times the Democrats stood was when Trump promised Iran would never, ever get a nuclear weapon. He said he preferred to get there diplomatically but if he had to he would use force.

They really hated it when Trump said America was returning to God.

At any rate it was a triumph of a speech and I feared it was going to be too long but the President knew what he was doing. It was entertaining and heart-warming and made me proud to be an American again.

Meanwhile the response (which the media started allowing to counterbalance Ronald Reagan, you may remember) was given by Virgia's new Prog governor Spamberger and it was what we have come to expect; angry, sullen, self-serving, and gaslighting. She couldn't even damn Trump with faint praise; she just dripped with rage and condescension. I only watched a couple of minutes of it and then flipped on The Big Bang Theory. At least THAT is funny.

Trump may not pick up any new support, but he might too. If the GOP moves forward with his program and doesn't cower in the shadows as they are prone to do they can pick up seats rather than lose them in November. If.

Certainly any independents watching this had to be reassured that Trump isn't the monster they have made him out to be. And he loves America, something that was juxtaposed against the Democrats, who clearly, unequivocally, do not and last night proved that.

BTW I had a fantasy that Mike Johnson and John Thune would call a vote last night and ram DHS funding through just before the speech. With so many Democrats boycotting it they could have passed the funding they want and the Democrats would have howled. I did a little research; technically there is NO reason they couldn't do it as far as I could see. But of course Johnson isn't an outside-the-box thinker nor is Thune and they know that would have been a declaration of war (as if the Democrats weren't already at war with the Republicans). 70 Democrats skipped this joint session of Congress.

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at February 26, 2026 01:04 AM (9IyOR)

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at February 26, 2026 08:26 AM (oflqW)

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