A year after reclaiming the White House, President Donald Trump is set to deliver a State of the Union address at a moment of unusual political fragility, confronting sagging approval ratings, a partial government shutdown, and rare public rebukes from both the courts and members of his own party.
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The address on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET, coming midway between his inauguration and November’s midterm elections, is intended to showcase a President who has moved swiftly and unapologetically to reshape the federal government and America’s role in the world. But it will unfold against a backdrop that underscores how much his standing has eroded since he returned to power last year.
When Trump last addressed Congress in March 2025, his approval rating was near a career high. Now, it’s near record lows, putting Trump on the defensive more acutely than any of his previous State of the Union appearances.
Yet Trump is unlikely to strike a chastened tone. He is expected to frame the address as both a defense of his first year and a campaign-style rallying cry for the midterms, touting the tax cuts he ushered and efforts to reshore manufacturing and reduce energy costs. He may once again blame his predecessor, President Joe Biden, for lingering economic pain while claiming credit for recent stock market gains.
“It’s going to be a long speech because we have a lot to talk about,” Trump said on Monday.
Read more: How to Watch Trump’s State of the Union
His remarks to members of Congress will be the first time a president has delivered the annual joint address amid a funding lapse. The partial shutdown that began over a week ago only affects the Department of Homeland Security, which remains unfunded as Democrats demand guardrails on the Trump Administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown following the killings of two American citizens by federal agents during protests in January.
The backlash has eroded what was once a core political advantage for Trump. Approval of his handling of immigration stands at just 38%, according to a recent AP-NORC poll. His standing on the economy—another historical strength for Trump—has also fallen. Roughly two-thirds of Americans say the nation’s economy under Trump is “poor,” which is broadly in line with views throughout the Biden Administration, even as he insisted last week that he has “won” on affordability. Grocery, housing, and utility costs remain stubbornly high, and the latest data shows 2025 was the slowest year for job growth and economic growth since 2020.
The Supreme Court added on to Trump’s political troubles last week with a ruling that struck down many of his sweeping global tariffs, a central plank of his economic and foreign policy agenda. Writing for the majority, the Trump-nominated Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch warned against the “permanent accretion of power in the hands of one man,” a pointed rebuke of Trump’s expansive interpretation of executive authority. Trump has vowed to pursue alternative legal mechanisms to keep import taxes in place, promising a fresh round of legal and political battles.
Trump will also be addressing a Republican-led Congress that he has frequently sidelined. Other than securing passage last summer of his signature tax legislation—the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which combined sweeping tax cuts, new savings accounts for children and hundreds of billions of dollars for immigration enforcement with deep reductions to Medicaid and food assistance—he has largely advanced his agenda through hundreds of executive orders. Lawmakers in his own party have often stood aside as he tested the boundaries of presidential power, even when courts signaled discomfort. Democratic leaders have accused Congress of abdicating its constitutional role, and some members plan to boycott the address or attend in silent protest.
The sense that Trump is governing from a position of strength—a hallmark of his earlier addresses—has been replaced by something more precarious. Americans under 45 have sharply turned against him, with particularly steep drops in approval among Latino voters. Younger Republicans are significantly less enthusiastic than their older counterparts, and nearly three in 10 Republicans say he has not focused enough on the country’s most important problems.
Trump is likely to use his address in part to tout his foreign policy even as it has become a growing source of unease among some of the voters who once cheered his muscular approach. Trump styled himself the “America First” president, promising to pull back from costly interventions and focus on domestic priorities. But over the past year his administration has dramatically expanded U.S. military involvement abroad, from seizing Venezuela’s president and bolstering forces around Iran to a campaign of lethal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling vessels that have killed scores of men.
The State of the Union has long been an exercise in political theater, and the reaction inside the chamber may rival the speech itself. In recent years, interruptions and dramatic gestures have overshadowed presidential messages. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has urged colleagues to show “a strong, determined and dignified presence,” though some plan to boycott the speech and attend separate rallies. Republicans, for their part, are under pressure to display unity at a moment when even scattered dissent could be amplified.
For a President who has built his brand on dominance and disruption, Tuesday’s speech represents a different kind of test: whether he can persuade a skeptical public that his priorities align with their own—and that his second act in the White House remains on course rather than adrift.
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