President Donald Trump declared Feb. 24 that the United States has achieved “a turnaround for the ages,” making a case during the longest State of the Union address in history that his return to office has reversed economic decline, border chaos, and global instability.
“When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis,” Trump said, citing “a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide-open border,” and “wars and chaos all over the world.”
“But tonight,” he continued, “after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before — and a turnaround for the ages.”
For more than 1 hour and 40 minutes, Trump framed his first year back in office as a dramatic course correction, focusing heavily on border enforcement, falling prices and economic growth, and what he called a restoration of American strength abroad.
Border enforcement and immigration
Trump opened the policy portion of his speech with immigration, declaring, “Today, our border is secure.”
“In the past nine months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States,” he said. “But we will always allow people to come in legally, people that will love our country and will work hard to maintain our country.”
He cited what he called a “record 56%” drop in fentanyl at the border and said, “Last year the murder rate saw its single largest decline in recorded history.”
He then spoke about the safety issues tied to illegal immigration, highlighting families in the gallery whose loved ones were killed or injured in crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Among the victims were Delilah Coleman, Lizbeth Medina, and Iryna Zarutska.
Trump urged lawmakers to “end deadly sanctuary cities,” restore Department of Homeland Security funding, and pass the SAVE Act. “All voters must show voter ID,” he said. “All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote.”
“The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens,” Trump said, challenging lawmakers to stand if they agreed. When some Democrats remained seated, he responded: “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
‘War on fraud’ announcement
Trump announced a new crackdown on fraud in government programs, singling out Minnesota while making a broader claim about corruption tied to immigration and public safety lapses.
“There’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota,” Trump said, saying that “members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer.”
Calling it “the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation,” Trump said, “Tonight … I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President, JD Vance.” If enough fraud is uncovered, Trump said, “we will actually have a balanced budget overnight.”
Economy and cost of living
Trump said the economy is surging under his leadership, contrasting the current state of the economy with “the worst inflation in the history of our country” under his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
“Inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising fast, the roaring economy is roaring like never before,” Trump said.
He said core inflation had fallen “to the lowest level in more than five years” and said gasoline prices were “below $2.30 a gallon in most states.” Mortgage rates, he said, are “the lowest in four years and falling fast.”
“The stock market has set 53 all-time record highs since the election,” he said. “Everybody’s up, way up.”
He touted a sweeping Republican-backed tax package, saying, “With the Great Big, Beautiful Bill, we gave you no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors.”
Trump also promoted Trump Accounts, the new tax-advantaged investment accounts for children, telling parents, “With modest additional contributions, these young people’s accounts could grow to over $100,000 or more by the time they turn 18.”
Healthcare: Trump praises IVF
On health care, Trump reiterated his criticism of Obamacare, saying the law benefited insurers more than patients. “I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own health care,” he said.
He claimed his “Most Favored Nation” drug-pricing policy would mean Americans “will now pay the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs.”
“I took prescription drugs, a very big part of healthcare, from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest,” Trump said, calling it “a big achievement.”
During his remarks on healthcare, Trump praised the controversial practice of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and said he is praying for a woman using IVF to conceive. He cited the case of Catherine Rayner, who “struggled with infertility.”
Rayner and her husband “turned to IVF,” he said. “One drug has been costing Catherine $4,000 to purchase. But a few weeks ago, she logged on to the website and got that same drug that cost costs $4,000, got it for under $500, a reduction of much more actually than $3,500. Catherine, we are all praying for you and you're going to be a great mom.”
“So now I'm calling on Congress to codify my Most Favored Nation program into law,” he concluded.
Pro-life leaders, including CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt, have staunchly opposed Trump’s promotion of IVF, which is condemned by the Catholic Church and routinely leads to the deaths of preborn children.
‘Gender transition’ and parental rights
Trump devoted part of the address to what he called a growing threat to parental authority, recounting the story of a teenager who was “socially transition[ed]” at school without her parents’ knowledge and later placed in an all-boys state facility after a judge refused to return her home.
“Surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” he said. “We must ban it and we must ban it immediately.”
He argued the issue was evidence that “Democrats are destroying our country,” adding: “We’ve stopped it just in the nick of time.”
Religion and Charlie Kirk
Trump claimed a “tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity, and belief in God,” saying it was especially visible among young people and tying it to the legacy of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“So, last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred, really martyred for his beliefs,” Trump said as he recognized Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, in the gallery.
“In Charlie’s memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God, and we must totally reject political violence of any kind,” he said, drawing applause. “We love religion and we love bringing it back — and it’s coming back at levels that nobody actually thought possible.”
Foreign policy and ‘peace through strength’
Trump devoted a substantial portion of the address to global conflicts and military power.
“As president, I will make peace wherever I can,” he said. “But I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must.”
He said that in his first 10 months he had “ended eight wars,” listing conflicts including “Cambodia and Thailand, Pakistan and India … Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Congo and Rwanda and, of course, the war in Gaza, which proceeds at a very low level.”
On the Israel-Hamas conflict, Trump said of a ceasefire and hostage arrangement: “Under the ceasefire, I negotiated every single hostage, both living and dead, has been returned home. Can you believe that? Nobody thought it was possible.”
“Believe it or not, Hamas worked along with Israel, and they dug, and they dug, and they dug,” he said of the effort to retrieve the bodies of Israelis buried in Gaza amid other victims of the conflict. “It’s a tough thing to do, going through bodies all over — sometimes passing up 100 bodies for each one they found. Tough job.”
Turning to Ukraine, Trump said the war “would have never happened” if he were president. “We’re working very hard to end the ninth war, the killing and slaughter between Russia and Ukraine, where 25,000 soldiers are dying each and every month.”
He paired his diplomatic record with forceful language on Iran. Trump described a U.S. strike last year that he said “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program with an attack on Iranian soil, known as Operation Midnight Hammer.”
Afterward, he said, Iran was warned “to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program.” But he argued Iran was again pursuing nuclear ambitions.
“We are in negotiations with them,” Trump said. “They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’”
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,” he added. “But one thing is certain — I will never allow the world’s Number 1 sponsor of terror … to have a nuclear weapon.”
“It’s really called peace through strength,” he said. “No nation should ever doubt America’s resolve. We have the most powerful military on Earth.”
He highlighted a $1 trillion defense budget and said NATO allies had agreed “to pay 5% of GDP for military defense rather than the 2%, which they weren’t paying.”
“Now they’re paying 5,” he said. “We got it really easily with one meeting.”
In the Western Hemisphere, Trump described a U.S. military operation in Venezuela that ended the “reign of outlaw dictator Nicolas Maduro” and opened “a bright new beginning for the people of Venezuela.” He also touted intensified action against drug cartels, pointing out he had designated them “foreign terrorist organizations” and declared fentanyl “a weapon of mass destruction.”
“With our new military campaign, we have stopped record amounts of drugs coming into our country,” Trump said, adding that the effort had “virtually stopped it completely coming in by water or sea.”
A ‘Golden Age’ and America at 250
Threaded throughout the address, Trump framed his presidency as a historic pivot point ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
“Less than five months from now, our country will celebrate an epic milestone in American history, the 250th anniversary of our glorious American independence,” he said. “This July 4th, we will mark two and a half centuries of liberty and triumph, progress and freedom.”
Trump cast the anniversary as both celebration and vindication, saying the country had moved from decline to renewal.
“A short time ago we were a dead country,” he said. “Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
“And you've seen nothing yet. We're going to do better and better and better. This is the Golden Age of America.”
“The state of our Union is strong. Our country is winning again,” he said. “We’re going to win bigger than ever before.”