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At the risk of showing my age, I confess that, as a political talking head, I’ve watched and commented on every State of the Union address since 1980. Donald Trump’s sick imitation of a State of the Union was, by far, the worst.

For any president, a State of the Union is a unique opportunity to make his case to the Congress and the country in a prime-time speech that networks are forced to cover.

For Donald Trump the timing of this year’s SOTU was especially important because it came at a time when, after a hard-charging first year, his administration was losing its focus, his tariffs had been shot down by the Supreme Court, his aggressive anti-immigration raids had been blocked by lower courts, his polls were hitting rock bottom, and many Republicans were openly complaining that he was hurting, not helping, their prospects in the midterms.

This was his chance to reset the agenda, rally the troops and unite the country moving forward. Instead, Trump did just the opposite. He didn’t seize the moment, he blew it – with a boring, blowhard, aimless, hate-filled display of self-puffery that resembled the cheesy TV "Gong Show," where you never knew what surprise guest might pop out from behind the curtains next, be handed a prize and summarily dismissed.

Donald Trump’s State of the Union was an insult to the American people and a disgrace on the office of president.

For starters, it was too long. Studies show that the average adult audience attention span is 8 to 10 minutes. Donald Trump clocked out at 1 hour and 47 minutes, the longest State of the Union ever. He’s channeling Fidel Castro. Nobody wants to sit through a speech that long, certainly not from a politician, and especially not from a politician who’s a proven, pathological liar.

As is true of any Trump speech, this one was packed, from beginning to end, with what CNN described as a “cascade of falsehoods.” He bragged about ending eight wars. In fact, he hasn’t ended one – certainly not the war in Ukraine, which he promised to end on “Day One.” He repeated, with no evidence, his claim of “massive fraud” in the 2020 election, which has been investigated and proven false many times. Out of 49.5 million voter registrations checked by Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security, only 10,000 cases – roughly 0.02%– were referred for additional investigation.

Every time his lips moved, another lie. He claimed to have attracted $18 trillion in new investments. But the White House website cites only $9.7 trillion, most of which are “promised” investments that may never be delivered. He bragged about “more people working today than ever before in the history of our country.” Which is true, but only because there are more Americans today than ever before. President Joe Biden could make the same claim for every year he was president.

It was on the economy, where polls show Trump’s in most trouble, that he told the most lies. He simply dismissed the question of “affordability.” It’s no problem anymore, he insisted, because he’s fixed it with lower prices for everything from eggs to prescription drugs. False! Try telling that to people trying to buy their first home or simply trying to feed their family. Overall, according to Trump’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for all groceries are 2.9% higher than in February 2025, and they’re still going up.

Trump even asserted that the partial government shutdown prevented cities from responding to last week’s blizzard, when the Department of Homeland Security has nothing to do with plowing streets.

And, of course, he wallowed in his old signature issue, stirring up fears of “illegal aliens” and bragging about mass deportation of murderers, rapists, drug dealers and violent criminals. False! A New York Times report found that only 7% of immigrants arrested last year had any record of violence. Thirty-seven percent were guilty of nothing more than a traffic violation. Trump’s the same outright racist he was when he came down the golden elevator in June 2015.

Here's the best take on this year’s State of the Union. As some enterprising reporter at CQ Roll Call figured out, it was almost exactly the same length as Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror film “Psycho.” The same length and, in a sense, the same movie: the freaky story of confronting an out-of-control nut case.

Donald Trump’s State of the Union was “Psycho” without the shower scene.

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(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

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