Posted on 02/25/26
| News Source: Maryland Matters
Washington, D.C. - Feb. 25, 2026 - President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed the first year of his presidency as a “turnaround for the ages,” touting his policies and assailing Democrats in the longest State of the Union speech by any president.
Trump sought to use the address to project a sense of a strong and growing country, bashing President Joe Biden and saying the country is “bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.”
But in a sign of extraordinary partisan tensions, many Democratic lawmakers, including both of Maryland’s senators and several members of its House delegation, boycotted the speech in protest of Trump’s policies. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th) attended an alternative rally on the National Mall, the “People’s State of the Union.”
“What Donald Trump wants to do is what we know all bullies do, all dictators do,” Van Hollen said Tuesday. “He wants to intimidate all of us. He wants us to sit obediently and quietly while he lies and lies and lies to the American people. In other words, he wants us to shut up and sit down.”
Trump’s address comes amid recent setbacks, including a Supreme Court decision striking down his tariff policies, and a partial government shutdown over Department of Homeland Security funding. A recent CNN poll found that nearly 70% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s policies.
Nevertheless, Trump hailed his immigration policy as a success, saying the U.S. has “the strongest border in American history.” He repeatedly claimed that Democrats and the Biden administration were at fault for rampant illegal immigration.