An embattled President Trump will deliver his State of the Union on Tuesday night, telling Americans a story of a successful presidency, even as many have grown skeptical of his agenda.
The speech comes as the president faces negative approval ratings, including on immigration, the topic that twice helped propel him to the White House. It also comes just days after the Supreme Court delivered a blow to his tariff policy and weeks after federal agents the administration sent into Minneapolis shot and killed two U.S. citizens.
Amid those challenges, Trump will be celebrating his achievements, paying particular attention to the economy.
Watch the address live starting at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT:
"The president is, of course, going to tout his administration's record-setting accomplishments over the past year while laying out an ambitious agenda to continue making the American dream more attainable and affordable for working-class people across the country," press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Tuesday morning.
She added that Trump will be "making a few new policy announcements as well," aimed at the topic of affordability. The White House has told reporters, including NPR, that one proposal will be "ratepayer protection pledges." These would require tech companies building data centers, which use massive amounts of energy, to pay more for electricity to mitigate price spikes for the communities where those centers are built.
The president, for his part, has promised the speech will be lengthy.
"It's going to be a long speech because we have so much to talk about," he said at a Monday White House event honoring families of those killed by people in the country without legal status.
As Tuesday night's speech approaches, more than half the country — 55% — thinks Trump is changing the nation "for the worse," according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. That's a marked increase from around this point in his first presidency, when 42% of Americans believed the same.
Recent polls also show the president has a deeply negative approval rating, including negative numbers on immigration and the economy. Those numbers are highly partisan — Republicans still overwhelmingly approve of the president, while Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove. Multiple polls show that a majority of independents disapprove of the job Trump is doing.
On economic issues, Trump has been making the case to Americans for months — especially since Democratic wins in November's elections — that he is working to ease the cost of living.
However, at the same time, he has remained committed to his tariff policy, saying he will impose new ones after the Supreme Court last week declared many of his tariffs unlawful. Tariffs have increased prices for businesses and consumers, and a majority of Americans disapprove of his tariff increases, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.
Leavitt said Trump has chosen guests to emphasize his economic programs, including a couple who has benefited from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year, which allows workers to deduct income from tips and overtime from their annual incomes.
Trump will also be leaning into the administration's ongoing message that former President Joe Biden is to blame for any current cost-of-living problems — Leavitt told Fox that Trump's new policies will address "the affordability crisis that Joe Biden created." However, more than one year into Trump's second term, this raises the question of how long the administration can blame economic problems on Biden.
In addition to everyday Americans, Trump has invited the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, which just days ago won the gold medal in the Winter Olympics.
Meanwhile, Democratic members of Congress are approaching the speech in different ways. Some will not be attending, in protest against the president, while others are bringing survivors of abuse at the hands of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. An NPR investigation has found that in its release of Epstein investigation materials, the administration has removed documents related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor.
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