The Week: A Supersized State of the Union

• The last time the U.S. men’s hockey team won Olympic gold by defeating a big, cold, socialist country, the media could at least agree it was a good thing.

• President Donald Trump spoke for nearly two hours at the 2026 State of the Union address. He made his case that we are, as he likes to say, the hottest country in the world, in a mostly upbeat presentation. Trump has things to boast about. He closed the southern border. He hit the Iranian nuclear program. He has struck blows against DEI and contributed to the rollback of trans insanity. He signed a tax bill that, while including some unfortunate and costly gimmicks, makes permanent the tax cuts from his first term. Military recruitment is up and fentanyl-trafficking down. But Americans are still discontented over the cost of living. Trump argued that things are headed in the right direction, and real wages have indeed been increasing. The problem is that elected officials cannot talk people out of how they’re feeling about the economy, and the inflation rate, while down significantly, is still too high. Moreover, the new initiatives the president advanced in his speech to address the cost of living are either insignificant or not going to pass Congress. The Democrats inadvertently came to Trump’s rescue on a few occasions, such as when they refused to stand to endorse the proposition that the government should prioritize citizens over illegal immigrants. That said, these speeches matter much less than they used to. For all the sound and occasional fury, nothing from the address is likely to alter the trajectory of the midterms.

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• The last time the U.S. men’s hockey team won Olympic gold by defeating a big, cold, socialist country, the media could at least agree it was a good thing.

• President Donald Trump spoke for nearly two hours at the 2026 State of the Union address. He made his case that we are, as he likes to say, the hottest country in the world, in a mostly upbeat presentation. Trump has things to boast about. He closed the southern border. He hit the Iranian nuclear program. He has struck blows against DEI and contributed to the rollback of trans insanity. He signed a tax bill that, while including some unfortunate and costly gimmicks, makes permanent the tax cuts from his first term. Military recruitment is up and fentanyl-trafficking down. But Americans are still discontented over the cost of living. Trump argued that things are headed in the right direction, and real wages have indeed been increasing. The problem is that elected officials cannot talk people out of how they’re feeling about the economy, and the inflation rate, while down significantly, is still too high. Moreover, the new initiatives the president advanced in his speech to address the cost of living are either insignificant or not going to pass Congress. The Democrats inadvertently came to Trump’s rescue on a few occasions, such as when they refused to stand to endorse the proposition that the government should prioritize citizens over illegal immigrants. That said, these speeches matter much less than they used to. For all the sound and occasional fury, nothing from the address is likely to alter the trajectory of the midterms.