Often in ALL CAPS, Trump live posts through the State of the Union
Like last year, Trump chose to live Truth a play-by-play commentary on the State of the Union address. Even though the platform had technical issues throughout the evening, it did not inhibit Trump and his team from responding to his 2024 rival’s speech in real time.
Some of his posts were timely, starting with a note that Biden was running late (“THEY ARE REALLY LATE, VERY DISRESPECTFUL TO OUR COUNTRY!”) and comments about members of Congress as they appeared on screen, like Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. (“Interesting that Romney and Manchin are sitting together, and nobody wants to talk to them. I think they’d make a great No Labels Team!”). When Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., appeared, he posted: "Maxine Waters, very nice woman, even though she’s constantly saying she wants to beat up or kill people on the opposite side of the aisle. lf I ever said that, they would call me an Insurrectionist, and all hell would break out!"
He also reacted to the issues as Biden raised them, including:
Ukraine: "Putin only invaded Ukraine, because he has no respect for Biden. Would have never happened under the Trump Administration, and for four years it didn’t happen!”
NATO: “No, I said NATO has to pay its bills, and if it doesn’t pay its bills, we are not going to protect you. THE MONEY CAME POURING IN! Under other Presidents, NATO was BROKE.”
IVF: "IVF was just approved in Alabama, and the Republicans are totally in support of helping women. We are stronger on IVF than the Democrats!”
Immigration: "His Border Bill is a Disaster, it would let at least 5,000 Migrants in a day, and that is one of the better aspects of it!"
Economy: "INFLATION UNDER BIDEN IS KILLING AMERICA!”
But the policy rebuttals were peppered with personal attacks on Biden, noting his cough ("DON’T SHAKE PEOPLE’S HANDS GOING OUT — HE KEEPS COUGHING INTO HIS RIGHT HAND!") and his appearance, saying Biden looked angry (“He looks so angry when he’s talking, which is a trait of people who know they are ‘losing it.’ The anger and shouting is not helpful to bringing our Country back together!”). He even criticized the camera work by C-SPAN, claiming, “They only show the Democrats clapping! They rarely show the other side of the room — It’s called, THE REPUBLICAN SIDE!” as well as posting random comments like “TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!”
For those of us who frequent Truth Social, it was a fairly standard stream-of-consciousness reaction. MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, and the Trump campaign also sent out timely emails pointing to his record as president and criticizing Biden’s tenure in the White House that complimented the former president’s live commentary.
Biden campaign responds to outage on Trump's Truth Social
The Biden campaign offered a one-word statement on Trump’s Truth Social “rapid response” to the State of the Union after the site briefly went down: “Sad.”
The statement was accompanied by a screenshot apparently showing Trump's Truth Social page buffering.
Trump congratulates Britt on response
Trump congratulated Britt on her response, arguing she was a "great contrast" to an "angry" president.
"She was compassionate and caring, especially concerning Women and Women’s Issues," Trump said on Truth Social. "Her conversation on Migrant Crime was powerful and insightful. Great job Katie!”
Speaker Johnson says Biden's speech was 'overly partisan'
NBC News asked Speaker Johnson what he thought of Biden’s speech as he was leaving his office tonight. “It was overly partisan," he said.
Biden had a lot more exclamations in tonight's speech!
Biden sets record on time taken exiting the chamber
While Biden did not set a record for speech length, he did for walking out of the chamber — taking 33 minutes, far surpassing the 20 minutes he took last year.
Biden's 'finally found his voice' on immigration, border state Dem says
Border state Democrats seem satisfied with Biden’s handling of immigration tonight.
“It was amazing to see Biden turn the border issue on Republicans," a border state Democrat said. "We’re never going to win this issue, but it’s about neutralizing it, and he’s finally found his voice because of Republicans' blocking that bill. Watching Democrats stand and Republicans squirm on the border section is just crazy.”
Britt's response concludes
Britt's response ended shortly after 11:10 p.m. ET.
She concluded by saying Americans' future "starts around kitchen tables, just like this," referring to where she was delivering the speech.