President Donald Trump's post-State of the Union sales job begins now
[February 26, 2026]
By SEUNG MIN KIM
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has delivered the State of the
Union. Now the challenge for him is to make that message stick.
His address Tuesday was a declaration of pride in the achievements of
his still-young second term, as he boasted of an economic renaissance at
home while he's imposed a new world order abroad. Trump is getting his
first opportunity to test drive that midterm year message later this
week, when he travels to Texas, where the Latino voters whose shift
toward Trump in his successful 2024 reelection campaign highlighted how
he had reshaped the Republican coalition.
The White House aims to promote that message to a broader electorate
that's largely disenchanted with Trump’s job performance, while a
looming conflict in the Middle East threatens to shift focus from his
domestic priorities. Trump also has a proclivity to go off-script during
political rallies, such as during a speech last week in Rome, Georgia,
asserting he’s “solved” affordability when high prices remain a chief
concern for voters.
Still, the themes of economic prosperity and a more secure America that
Trump emphasized in his 108-minute speech Tuesday will underpin the
broader narrative he and his fellow Republicans will seek to sell to
voters this November. A slew of Cabinet officials — including Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins —
blanketed the airwaves Wednesday, promoting the highlights from Trump's
address.
“This is going to be setting the tone for the following year,” Sen.
Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who has close ties with Trump, told The
Associated Press.
Trump is known for being a master of the ‘big moments’
Presidents often travel immediately after delivering the State of the
Union to amplify their agenda. President Joe Biden, for instance, went
to swing states such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania the day after his
speech in the last two years of his term.
Vice President JD Vance will be first to hit the road with a Thursday
visit to a Wisconsin factory. Trump won’t leave the Washington area
until Friday, when he heads to Texas, to talk about the economy and
energy policies just days ahead of the state’s March 3 congressional
primaries. On the day after the State of the Union, the president will
spend much of his time participating in meetings at the White House,
including policy sessions and a sit-down with Transportation Secretary
Sean Duffy.
But Trump — who wove a series of made-for-social media surprises into
his address — is known for being able to command attention in a
fractured news environment, and he's likely to find other ways to break
through aside from the usual post-State of the Union blitz.
“Donald Trump is a master at the big moments, so he obviously cares a
lot about how the speech goes, but what he cares a lot about are the
clips that get replayed over and over again from the State of the
Union,” said Austin Cantrell, who served as an assistant White House
press secretary in Trump’s first term.
Cantrell, who's now with the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based firm Bridge
Public Affairs, said: “I don’t expect this to be some Aaron Sorkin-esque,
perfectly choreographed post-State of the Union media fan-out.”
Six years ago, it was Trump’s move to award conservative radio host Rush
Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest
civilian honor, that surprised the audience. Tuesday's address —
record-breaking in its length — included similar attention-grabbing
moments. He said he'd give the same honor to Connor Hellebuyck,
goaltender for the U.S. men's hockey team, fresh off winning a gold
medal at the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy. Trump called
Hellebuyck and his teammates into the House chamber, where they were
greeted with applause.
White House says Trump will get out on the trail for his party
Trump also used his speech to roll out new proposals to address
affordability concerns, while castigating Democrats for opposing
policies he said have led to a more prosperous, safer America. Virginia
Gov. Abigail Spanberger, in Democrats' response, argued costs remain
high for many Americans and families are still struggling under Trump’s
policies.
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a
joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol
in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Trump called on both parties to “protect American citizens, not
illegal aliens,” and pushed for measures to limit mail-in ballots
and tighten voter identification rules, while warning about the
dangers of unchecked, illegal migration.
“I do think a lot of the success outlined in the State of the Union
will be a part of the Republican message in the fall,” Sen. Eric
Schmitt, R-Mo., another close Trump ally, told the AP, pointing to
the GOP's achievements on tax policy and border security. “As far as
the president is concerned, I think he'll be anxious to get on the
road and talk about the success.”
Senior White House officials have promised that Trump will travel
the country regularly until the midterms. He so far has hit critical
battleground states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and North
Carolina on his economy tour, but he also traveled to reliably
conservative Iowa and the congressional district of former Georgia
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. He has boosted candidates — in Rocky
Mount, North Carolina, he bantered with Republican Michael Whatley
and promoted his Senate run — while sometimes veering far away from
the economic points the trips are meant to emphasize.
Just the optics of leaving Washington can help telegraph to voters
that a president cares about connecting with them. Edward Frantz, a
historian at the University of Indianapolis, said Herbert Hoover —
an engineer, self-made millionaire and technocrat — believed he
could solve the nation's ills by working with his team in isolation
and rarely leaving Washington. That led to a perception among voters
that Hoover simply didn't care, because they didn't see him
connecting with Americans.
“If you think about a call and response ... the call is the State of
the Union, and if you really do care about being in touch with
others, then what's the response?" Frantz said. “The best way to be
able to see that is by hitting the road.”
How Americans feel about Trump has remained relatively stable
throughout his second term, making it unlikely that one speech will
meaningfully shift the way he’s perceived. His approval rating has
changed very little during his second term, Associated Press-NORC
Center for Public Affairs Research polling has found, falling only
slightly from 42% in March 2025 to 36% in early February.
Nevertheless, the annual address offers Trump the chance to reframe
his message, just as it has for presidents who came before him.
Presidential historian Timothy Naftali pointed out that in 1996,
Bill Clinton used his State of the Union to set the themes of his
Democratic reelection campaign. After George W. Bush’s midterm
drubbing in November 2006, the Republican struck a noticeably more
conciliatory tone toward the new Democratic leadership that had just
taken charge on Capitol Hill.
“The State of the Union, they’re less important than they once were
because with a president like Trump, he’s always available,” said
Naftali, a senior research scholar at the School of International
and Public Affairs at Columbia University. “But the State of the
Union is an opportunity to reset the president’s agenda or to
reaffirm it, and resetting an agenda in the social media era is
different from resetting it in previous times.”
___
Associated Press polling editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux contributed
to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
