SOTU 2026 live-blogging

(I'm watching PBS News coverage on YouTube and keeping an eye on NPR's real-time fact check. All times Eastern US.)

20:55: Wow. First surprise of the evening: only Chief Justice Roberts (R) and Associate Justices Kagan (D), Kavanaugh (R), and Comey Barrett (R?) showed up.

21:01: All those people reaching out to touch the cabinet secretaries, do they have adequate supplies of hand sanitizer? Just wondering.

21:08: "Mister Speaker, the President of the United States!"

21:11: Speaker Johnson finally introduces the OAFPOTUS while the Republicans start chanting "U-S-A!" Sigh.

21:13: "Bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before!" Well, no, that was 2024. "This is the Golden Age of America!" Republicans stand. Democrats check their phones.

21:14: It's Biden's fault! And I fixed it all! A turnaround for the ages!

21:15: "Like never before" makes its fourth appearance in four minutes. And I've already got three bingo squares!

21:16: "Zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States! But we will always allow people to come in legally...to maintain our country." Technically true, I guess, as "illegals" are not technically admitted.

21:18: Uh oh, he's already off the prompter... "Biden gave us the worst inflation!" Another bingo square!

21:19: Gas is $1.89 a gallon! My god, five bingo squares... And more blaming Biden for the housing crisis, by both protecting house prices and making things more affordable. Um?

21:21: And my 6th bingo square: "More than $18 trillion in investments!" I mean, it's a lie. And we're "the haaaaaaatest country." Excellent.

21:22: "We just stole received 80 million barrels of oil!" And "drill, baby, drill?" That's an old one.

21:22:37: I just can't keep up with the lies, so I'll have to batch them. "100% of jobs in the private sector" will come as a surprise to all the ICE agents he hired.

21:24: "We're winning so much, we don't know what to do about it!" Uh oh, he's forgotten he's not at a rally. So have the Republican members of Congress, chanting "U-S-A" again because they weren't sure what country they represented. Oh, no, my party are also chanting now...

21:26: I believe the USA Women's Hockey team will not be coming to the White House while you're in it, Sir.

21:31: "Los Angeles is going to be safe, just like Washington, D.C."

21:33: "I was there" in Texas when the flood wiped out Camp Mystic, then said that "nobody knew" where the Coastie who rescued the kids came from. I was wondering when his confabulations would really get going, and frankly, I'm proud of him for going 29 minutes without something that...interesting.

21:37: "Largest tax cuts in US history" gets me another bingo square, and the Democrats voted against "these massive tax cuts." Yes, yes they did. Because we have the largest deficit in history now, and the OBBBB cut Medicare. This, by Republicans, is "fiscal responsibility."

21:42: Oh, he didn't say "trillions" from tariffs, so I can't claim that square. But "very unfortunate ruling from the Supreme Court" but "most countries and corporations want to keep the deal" because "it could be far worse for them." John Roberts looks like he ate something that needs to come out soon.

21:44: "Foreign countries pay tariffs so we can eliminate the income tax" and there's "trillions" for two more squares!

21:46: "11,188 Murderers" and "emptied prisions!" Two more squares!

21:48: "Rent is lower today than when I took office" is false. "Numbers that few people can believe" is true.

21:49: Lower healthcare costs? How about devastating Medicaid cuts?

21:50: BINGO!

21:55: "We will always protect Social Security and Medicare!" Sure, by letting private equity play with one and cutting the other so Americans die sooner than anyone else in the world.

21:57: He is talking about corruption? By calling out Minnesota's "Somali pirates" Medicare scams that the US Attorneys were on top of before they resigned because of his invasion? And, wait, JD Vance will be in charge of rooting out corruption? What, by looking for loose change in a sticky couch?

22:01: He wants a law barring any state from issuing a commercial drivers license to any "illegal" alien. He hopes you don't know that the states already don't allow that.

22:03: We're now in the "illegal aliens murder children" part of the speech, without which this would not be a complete nativist rally.

22:04: What the hell does he think the Dept of Homeland Security has to do with ploughing snow?

22:06: See, this moment is why the Democrats should have stayed home.

22:08: Voters already need to show ID to vote in almost every state. And to register to vote. But moreover, most election fraud came from Republicans.

22:11: "I just want to find 11,780 votes" guy is calling Democrats "cheaters." In psychology, we call this projection.

22:16: Oh, Erika Kirk, bless your little heart! You look as sincere as they guy who sold me my last used car.

22:21: "Crime is down nearly 100% in Washington!" No, it's down 17%. And Sarah Beckstrom would still be alive if she hadn't been deployed to Washington to be a target.

22:25: This may be the bloodiest SOTU ever. And in all his yelling about deranged people committing horrific crimes, he seems to have forgotten about the people his paramilitary thugs have killed. But no one else has.

22:27: Counting the wars he's "ended..." Yes! Another square! And another bingo!

22:29: Oh, of course Rubio will "go down as the best Secretary of State ever," which I'm sure John Jay, William Seward, and George C Marshall would question.

22:32: Is it me, or is he falling asleep while he's speaking? Oh, wait, he wants to end the war in Ukraine, which "would never have happened" if he was president. Well, I mean, he's president now, so why can't he end this one? Right, because Vladimir Putin plays him like my dog plays with a stuffed platypus.

22:33: Josh Marshall observes that "the non-clapping and non-standing seems to get to [him]." Has another president acknowledged the opposition like that? Well, no, because we've never had a demented, malignant narcissist in this role before.

22:35: No, I'm not imagining it, he's really fading. He's slurring, going off script more, and just looks bloody exhausted. Maybe the Adderall is wearing off?

22:36: "We will never have to use this power" as two entire carrier groups sit in the Gulf of Oman and the eastern Mediterranean...

22:38: Military recruitment is the best since the middle of the Gulf War, but it's a bit less than in 1942.

22:41: After blaming Mexico's government for not having the cojones to take down the drug cartels, he just took credit for Mexico's government taking down a drug kingpin.

22:42: Cut to the kids in the gallery, and I have questions: what did Eric smoke before the address, and who forced Tiffany to be there?

22:51: You know, I think the stunning success of our military kidnapping Venezuela's dictator was an even more stunning violation of US and international law. And ol' Bone Spurs gushing about the bravery of men and women who are a hundred times the human being he is turns my stomach. And giving the Medal of Honor to someone who participated—bravely, honorably—in an illegal mission is very troubling. More on that later.

22:55: "I've always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor but it's against the law to give it to myself." The narcissistic asshole just shat on the two CMsOH he just awarded. But since he has no concept of what the military actually does, or how its members view the world, he cannot comprehend the insult he just gave them.

22:58: If anyone smiled at me the way Speaker Johnson is smiling into the air between him and...whatever he's looking at, I would back away and call the white coats.

23:00: I had to turn up my volume at the teleprompted end of the speech. It looked like he was about to pass out right at the podium.

23:01: And immediately, the Democrats fled the chamber en masse as the old man hobbles off to sleep. Perchance to dream?

23:05: I, also need to extract myself from this insanity, at least until tomorrow when all the professional reactions come in. I'm especially looking forward to James Fallows, my go-to on presidential speeches, and Adam Kinzinger, my go-to on rational center-right American politicians.

Oh, here's my final bingo card. Did I miss any?