In a record-breaking address spanning nearly two hours, President Trump utilized his 2026 State of the Union to project a vision of “American Dominance.” The speech, delivered on the fourth anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war, served as both a victory lap for his administration’s military maneuvers and a defiant response to domestic legal challenges.
The tariff “plan b”
A central pillar of the address was the President’s response to a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down his use of emergency powers to impose global tariffs. Brushing aside the judicial rebuke, Trump announced a strategic pivot to Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, implementing a 15% global tariff.
“Instead of raising taxes on domestic producers, we’re lowering them and raising tariffs on foreign nations to pay for the damage they caused. We were losing more than $1 trillion every single year, and it was just wasted… I slashed our monthly trade deficit by a staggering 77%, and all of this with no inflation.”
A tense anniversary for Ukraine
As the Russia-Ukraine conflict entered its fifth year, Trump positioned himself as the sole architect capable of ending the “slaughter,” claiming he had already “ended eight wars in nine months.”
“Twenty-five thousand soldiers were killed in the past month alone. I am working very hard to end the killing and the slaughter… This war would have never started if I had been President.”
While he touted “breakthrough” negotiations in Geneva, his rhetoric focused on the human and financial drain, contrasting his “America First” stance with the “endless foreign imports” of past administrations.
Regional “dominance” and global threats
Beyond Europe, Trump struck an aggressive tone toward Iran and the Western Hemisphere. He highlighted Operation Midnight Hammer, a U.S. military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities last summer, as proof of his resolve.
On Iran: “We are in negotiations with them; they want to make a deal. But we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’ If we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.”
On Mexico: “For years, large parts of Mexico have been controlled by murderous drug cartels. That is why I designated these cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and declared illicit Fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.”
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