President Donald Trump is set to deliver his prime-time State of the Union address on Tuesday night as polls indicate voters are souring on his economy, after he made promises to lower prices for working-class voters.
Trump will speak at a critical moment. The midterm elections, looming less than nine months away, threaten to rip away the near-complete control of Washington he has enjoyed in his second term. And public polling indicates Trump is sinking on what were once his key issues: the economy and immigration.
The economy is expected to feature heavily in Trump’s address, especially after the Supreme Court last week overturned his authority to issue a wide swath of his tariffs — a key plank of his economic platform.
“You’re going to hear a lot about the importance of bringing jobs back to our country,” Vice President JD Vance said in a Fox News interview on Saturday. “I think he’s going to talk about regulatory change, the importance of lowering energy prices for American citizens.”
High prices for everyday goods are one of the biggest problems facing Trump in his second term. Democrats are hounding the president and other Republicans on affordability, an issue that resonates with voters.
In a CNN/SSRS poll released Monday, a whopping 57% of respondents said what they most wanted Trump to speak about in his State of the Union was the economy. Immigration was a distant second, with only 13% of those polled saying they would most like the president to speak on it.
Democrats have opened up a 4.8-point lead in the generic congressional ballot leading up to the 2026 midterms, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages. Trump is underwater 13 points in that same average. Meanwhile, 57% of voters disapproving of his handling of the economy in a recent Washington Post/Reuters/Ipsos poll.
President Donald Trump speaks during an address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2025.
Mandel Ngan | Via Reuters
“It’s the economy predominantly,” said David Paleologos, a pollster and the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, when asked about the top issue Trump needs to address during his speech. “I’m not saying Trump has to have an ‘I feel your pain’ moment like [former President] Bill Clinton, but he has to kind of liken himself to fellow Americans who have been hurt and knocked down.”
In recent speeches on the economy, Trump has touted his moves to lower prescription drug prices, including striking deals with manufacturers and the launch of his online drug site, TrumpRx.
“It’s the biggest price reduction of prescription drugs in history,” Trump said during a January speech in Des Moines, Iowa. “Going to have a huge impact on your health care, too.”
Trump has also recently tried to shift blame for affordability onto Democrats, arguing in Iowa that Democrats “just say affordability, but they never do anything.”
“I was fixing the country from the horror show that we inherited. Grocery prices, airfares, hotels, car payments and rent prices have all come down. And they’ve come down very fast,” Trump said.
The president and Republicans in Congress have also touted tax cuts they pushed through in the party-line law they dubbed the “one big beautiful bill.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are going to respond to the president’s State of the Union in several ways.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia will deliver the official rebuttal for Democrats after romping to victory in 2025 on an affordability-focused agenda.
Abigail Spanberger is sworn in as the 75th governor of Virginia on Jan. 17, 2026, in Richmond. She is the first woman to serve as Virginia’s governor.
Marvin Joseph | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Spanberger’s speech is expected to focus heavily on costs, along with issues like whether the president has overreached in his efforts to deport migrants. The Trump administration has come under fire for its immigration enforcement after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
“We are at a defining moment in our nation’s history. Virginians and Americans across the country are contending with rising costs, chaos in their communities, and a real fear of what each day might bring,” Spanberger said in a statement when she was announced as the official rebuttal speaker.
“Abigail Spanberger, I think, will stay on message,” Paleologos said. “The average voter, and certainly the average swing voter, is measured and reasonable. And the person who flies off the handle potentially will be the loser.”
A group of Democrats plan to attend an alternative event dubbed the “People’s State of the Union,” being put on by the progressive advocacy group MoveOn and the left-wing media company MeidasTouch.
Among the big names eschewing Trump’s speech for the alternative event are Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., along with Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“These aren’t normal times and showing up for this speech puts a veneer of legitimacy on the corruption and lawlessness that has defined his second term,” Murphy said in a statement on the boycott.
Other Democrats will attend the speech. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has urged his members to avoid splashy protests if they attend.
“The two options that are in front of us, in our house, is to either attend with silent defiance or to not attend and send a message to Donald Trump in that fashion,” Jeffries said.
