Live updates: Trump to deliver 2026 State of the Union address

Trump’s State of the Union address is guaranteed to deliver familiar buzzwords, sharp jabs, and headline-making moments.

So why just watch — when you can play along live?

The Washington Examiner has created an interactive State of the Union bingo card designed to turn Tuesday night’s speech into a real-time game. As Trump addresses the 119th Congress at 9 p.m. on Feb. 24, readers can click through the card and track the phrases and moments he’s known to deploy.

Expect plenty of squares to fill.

Click here to read more.

More than 70 members of Congress have announced they intend to skip Trump’s first State of the Union address of his second term.

Nearly all of those lawmakers are Democrats, while one is an independent, according to Fox News. It’s likely more will join their peers in not attending the event.

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), for example, is the highest-ranking House Democrat to ditch the speech.

Some counterprogramming events will be held for those who are boycotting Trump’s speech.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed congressional Democrats are bringing illegal immigrants to the State of the Union in protest of Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.

“Today, some Democrats in Congress are planning to bring illegal aliens as guests to the State of the Union,” DHS posted on X. “Once again, they are putting illegal aliens above the safety of American citizens.”

The department then repeated its process to “find” and “arrest” immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are among the lawmakers who plan to highlight immigration with their invited guests, Axios reported on Tuesday.

For instance, Omar will have four guests from Minnesota who were affected by the Trump administration’s immigration operation there. The congresswoman specified one of the guests is a U.S. citizen, but she did not say the same for the other three.

Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) called himself a “centrist Democrat” in his defense of his decision to not attend Trump’s State of the Union at 9 p.m.

Watch here:

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) has said she will skip Trump’s State of the Union, scheduled to start at 9 p.m.

“Rather than listen to Donald Trump lie to the American people, I will be hearing from the people of my district about their personal experiences with skyrocketing costs, new barriers to health care, dismantled Social Security services, and brutal cuts to medical research,” she wrote in a statement.

Clark is the highest-ranking House Democrat so far to confirm she is skipping the event. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) will be in attendance.

She joins dozens of other lawmakers from her own party who don’t want to listen to Trump.

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) plan to sit next to each other in Congress while listening to Trump’s State of the Union address.

The two House lawmakers led the bipartisan resolution compelling the Justice Department to release the entirety of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Continuing to collaborate on the issue, the pair recently visited the department’s headquarters to view unredacted versions of the documents.

Their show of bipartisanship is rare, considering Republicans and Democrats typically sit on opposite sides of the aisle during the State of the Union.

EXCLUSIVE — Republican lawmakers in a number of states are praising President Donald Trump’s U.S. energy dominance agenda as he prepares to deliver the first State of the Union address of his second term later Tuesday.

While expressing support for Trump, three state legislative leaders in Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Oklahoma are touting their own actions to promote the president’s energy policy. The Trump administration particularly favors fossil fuels and nuclear power over green energy initiatives, which were once spearheaded by the Biden administration.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Kim Ward, the top Republican in the state chamber, led the effort to shift away from the program. Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) ultimately approved the state’s withdrawal.

“As an energy powerhouse producing more natural gas than nearly any other state, the past year has made it clear why Pennsylvania helped deliver President Trump’s victory: His all-of-the-above energy strategy is unleashing our commonwealth and country’s full energy potential,” Ward said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.

Click here to read more.

Trump warmly greeted the U.S. men’s hockey team that he invited to the White House ahead of his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

“I recognize every one of you. I know every one of you,” Trump said, calling the players “big guys.”

The team met the president in the Oval Office and posed for photos on the South Lawn.

The U.S. defeated Canada in men’s hockey at the Winter Olympics on Sunday and took home gold medals, which the players wore around their necks when meeting the president.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will have several notable guests at the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

Here is a list of the president’s invited guests:

• Erika Kirk, wife of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
• Sage Blair, a young woman whose mother sued a Virginia school district alleging it secretly facilitated her child’s gender transition.
• Sierra Burns and Everest Nevraumont, two 10-year-old Alpha School students invited by the first lady.

The United States men’s hockey team, the Olympic gold medalists who bested Canada on Sunday morning.

Click here to read more.

The U.S. Capitol Historical Society announced that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will display former President George Washington’s gavel during Trump’s State of the Union at 9 p.m.

The gavel was first used in 1793, when Washington “laid the cornerstone” of the Capitol, according to the historical society.

The gavel has been in the care of the Masonic Lodge in Washington, D.C., and is on display to mark the 250th anniversary of America.

Trump’s State of the Union could stretch to three hours, according to PBS News.

PBS’s Lisa Desjardins said she has been told by many Republican sources that the speech will be over two hours long, and one source said they were told to expect it to be “2.5 – 3 hours.”

Over 38 Democratic members of Congress are slated to skip Trump’s State of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) said he’d “rather stick needles in my eyeballs” than watch the speech.

Here is a full list of Democrats skipping the address:

• Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR)
• Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA)
• Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
• Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)
• Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN)
• Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
• Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
• Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA)
• Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)
• Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL)
• Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
• Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA)
• Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM)
• Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA)
• Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT)
• Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA)
• Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA)
• Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH)
• Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL)
• Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL)
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
• Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA)
• Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD)
• Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)
• Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA)
• Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR)
• Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA)
• Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM)
• Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)
• Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-MD)
• Rep. John Larson (D-CT)
• Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)
• Rep. Diane DeGette (D-CO)
• Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA)
• Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
• Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ)
• Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM)
• Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)

President Donald Trump is set to deliver the 2026 State of the Union address at 9 p.m. Tuesday, marking a high-profile opportunity to outline his legislative agenda before a joint session of Congress and a national audience.

Trump will deliver the State of the Union in the House chamber at the Capitol, and it will be broadcast on all major television networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, NPR, and PBS.

It will also be streamed on the White House website and YouTube channel, as well as across digital platforms run by networks.

What is the State of the Union address?

The address, required by the Constitution, calls on the president to provide Congress with information on the state of the country and recommend measures he considers necessary.

The modern State of the Union often runs more than an hour, though the length varies by president and political moment.

State of the Union in the Biden era

The longest spoken State of the Union on record was delivered in 2023 by then-President Joe Biden, clocking in at more than 9,200 words.

Biden’s speeches were generally characterized by extended exchanges with lawmakers in the chamber, sometimes leading to ad-libbed responses and prolonged applause lines.

Traditions

TRUMP TO GET DHS SHUTDOWN ‘BULLY PULPIT’ WITH STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

One Cabinet member is designated to remain at a secure location as the “designated survivor,” ensuring the continuity of government in the event of a catastrophe.

The president also invites guests whose personal stories are highlighted to underscore key themes. The tradition was born during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, when he invited Lenny Skutnik, who famously saved plane crash survivors from an icy Potomac River, to sit in the gallery.