Sophia Tesfaye, Salon: Trump's SOTU..."only chest-thumping and grievance. Right-wing media lapped it up."

Trump dazzles right-wing media with bigoted State of the Union
MAGA media outlets declare the president's 107-minute address the best in history
By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published February 25, 2026 1:00PM (EST)

https://www.salon.com/2026/02/25/trump-dazzles-right-wing-media-with-bigoted-state-of-the-union/

Tuesday night’s State of the Union address was a MAGA rally in a fancy room. For one hour and forty-seven minutes — the longest State of the Union ever, a record the president apparently considers an achievement — Donald Trump stood before a joint session of Congress to lie and brag his way through a nation he has spent a year methodically destabilizing. There was no recalibration nor hint of strategic retreat, only chest-thumping and grievance. Right-wing media lapped it up.

Trump turned the address into a two-hour variety show, complete with medals awarded, standing ovations and carefully staged anecdotes about “regular Americans.” He bragged about ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and about kicking two million people off food stamps. He applauded a World War II veteran who liberated an internment camp — a genuinely moving moment — while simultaneously cheering new detention facilities for migrants and asylum seekers. He claimed gas is down to $1.85 a gallon in some places, a figure ridiculously divorced from reality. He said he “ended eight wars” and that his administration has secured $18 trillion in investment commitments. (His own White House website puts the figure at under $10 trillion.) Crediting himself with “a turnaround for the ages,” Trump dismissed the cost-of-living crisis as a “dirty, rotten lie” cooked up by Democrats.

This attempted rebranding relied, as always, on scapegoats. In one of the evening’s ugliest moments, the president accused an entire ethnic community of pillaging the country. He launched into an attack on Somali migrants in Minnesota, linking them to what he called a “war on fraud” and claiming Somalis had stolen $19 billion in welfare dollars from the state.

“That’s a lie,” Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota shouted from her seat in the House chamber.