Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Trump Declares 'America is Back' Despite Americans' Skepticism. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired February 25, 2026 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:10]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, President Trump delivers the longest State of the Union address in history. Did he say what Americans need to hear?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It is, indeed, a turnaround for the ages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The president wanted to frame up the midterm vote. We're going to talk to a Republican and a Democrat in Congress about what he accomplished.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY PELOSI, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: He knows this is a vulnerability. The fact that he didn't mention it shows his vulnerability, his exposure in -- in all of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Not one mention of the Epstein files during the speech. An Epstein survivor is going to join us live.
And signs of resistance during the address. What one Democrat did to get kicked out in a matter of minutes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud. The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And a rare bipartisan moment. Republicans and Democrats agree gold medals are good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me. Please, please, please, Mr. President. We're winning too much. We can't take it anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: President Trump looks to sell his first term accomplishments to the American people. Are voters going to buy it?
Well, good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish.
President Trump broke his own record last night with his long State of the Union address. It ran an hour and 48 minutes. Now his message just nine months from the midterms. America is in what he calls a golden age.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before, and a turnaround for the ages. It is indeed a turnaround for the ages, and we will never go back to where we were just a very short time ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Virginia's new governor, Abigail Spanberger, delivered the Democratic response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D), VIRGINIA: Here's the truth. Over the last year, through DOGE, mass firings, and the appointment of deeply unserious people to our nation's most serious positions, our president has endangered the long and storied history of the United States of America being a force for good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, joining me now in the group chat, Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN senior reporter; Bryan Lanza, senior adviser to the Trump 2024 campaign; and V. Spehar, digital journalist and creator of Under the Desk News.
So, we had a kind of flash poll as people were watching the speech, and one of the questions we asked them, does Trump have the right priorities? And you saw that number: over 50 percent, 54 percent.
So, can you talk about -- I want to talk about two things: what he focused on and what he didn't. Were there things he focused on to you that revealed where they know they're vulnerable?
BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISOR, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Well, obviously, the economy. You know, the administration feels that the public is not caught up with the progress that he's made, the president has made.
But also, they understand that the burden they put on themselves. You know, President Trump made the commitment to turn around the economy super-fast, very fast. We clearly haven't felt it. There are some factors that show that we're moving in the right direction.
You're now going to get the first year after the Big, Beautiful Bill was passed. You're going to have all this additional money there. But I think the economy can very much see that that's the weakness.
CORNISH: Yes. He had the fact checkers working overtime on --
LANZA: Yes. What a fact check.
CORNISH: -- inflation, on -- are we not believing in fact checkers? I have a few data points. You're going to be frustrated.
And similarly with the price index, things that, like, people are disappointed. But you have a situation where -- and we've seen this before -- a president is telling them, No, things are really good. We've made a lot of progress.
V., for you, what did you see people talking about that stood out to them?
V. SPEHAR, JOURNALIST AND CREATOR OF UNDER THE DESK NEWS: So, a lot of folks were concerned with the guests that he brought. We thought that -- that Melania brought great guests. She had young people who were focused on A.I. and what it's like to grow up in foster care and succeed. And it presented that future vision that you want to see at a State of the Union, where Trump's guests seemed to be victims of major crimes that occurred during his administration. And he seemed to --
CORNISH: He would argue that he helped them in some way.
SPEHAR: Well, it's not necessarily that he helped them. I mean, he seemed to revel in the details of, like, the killing of Iryna while her mother was standing there, or -- or violence against Charlie Kirk, but doesn't mention Melissa Hortman.
So, I think there was a little bit of a disconnect as to how he was presenting, like, a positive future versus how he was making it a little bit scary for folks.
[06:05:09]
CORNISH: Yes. He was talking about that killing last summer of this -- this refugee from Ukraine, Iryna Zarutska, also falsely claiming that the killer had migrated to the U.S., which is not the case.
LANZA: But it is accurate to say that this was relate -- Democratic policies of catch and release allowed him to be in the streets, which ultimately resulted in the murder.
He was charged with first-degree murder.
I think the other thing I want to talk about that he didn't mention was Epstein. You heard Pelosi bringing that up. Relevant because I believe there were survivors in the audience.
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER: Yes, there were. A number of Democrats who attended the speech, brought survivors of Epstein -- the Epstein situation with them.
And of course, it's a big issue. It's been on a lot of minds. We're still waiting for the rest of the release of these files that was mandated by the law that the president signed back in December.
But, look, I think that the question here for the Republicans in the audience is what the president gave them to run on this year, in this midterm year.
CORNISH: Yes.
DOVERE: It was a speech that was very much about him and his accomplishments and what he's done.
And when you have Democrats who are both attacking what he's done and trying to say that the Republicans in Congress are just a rubber stamp on him, they are still looking for what that agenda would be to say, this is what we're going to keep doing or what we're going to do now, rather than what we're going to keep doing.
CORNISH: Yes. And whether this other stuff will overshadow it. I mean, I want to play this exchange where President Trump was interrupted by Democrats. In this case, it was Ilhan Omar, as he was talking about sanctuary cities. Here's how that went down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties --
REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): You have killed Americans!
TRUMP: -- for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens.
OMAR: You have killed Americans!
TRUMP: In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country. They are blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: We're past the point of being handwringing about people yelling during a speech. That horse has left the barn, as we say in New England, many years ago.
But I did think it was interesting that he did not address ICE, did not address DHS, did not address these things that are actually, like lots of people like, hey, give me an answer on this. Like, where do you stand on this conceptually?
Do you think it's something that is going to -- again, Republicans on the trail are going to have to answer for? LANZA: Listen, I think it ultimately just depends on the framing. But
at the end of the day, the thing that Republicans are going to have to answer for, more than anything else, is the economy.
CORNISH: But that's why I'm asking what's the framing?
LANZA: I think the --
CORNISH: The framing so far is we've done a lot to help with the border, and they've done nothing. But he's not talking about what happened on the way to accomplishing that.
LANZA: Well, I don't think he has to.
CORNISH: OK.
LANZA: I mean, at the end of the day, the voters are going to look at the end result. Voters -- see, what we've learned in politics, at least over my 20 years, is voters don't care about process. They care about results.
And so, the process that you're seeing take place is great for TV clicks and great for -- for newspaper articles. But voters ultimately decide was he -- was he successful?
DOVERE: At least so far, that's not what we're seeing from the reactions and the polls and other things over the last couple of months, where people are saying that -- a majority of them saying that they agree that there is a problem with immigration, the border. They -- they are -- still support for President Trump doing things about it.
But they have consistently said what happened in Minneapolis, not like this, essentially. Right?
And the president didn't give -- like Audie was saying. There was no --
CORNISH: Acknowledgment.
DOVERE: There was no acknowledgment. There was nothing to address that, to say, OK, this is how that happened, and this is what's going to happen differently going forward.
LANZA: But I think at the end of the day, it's going to be the actions that differently. As long as you don't have any more --
CORNISH: What will it be in the end?
LANZA: -- of these violence takes place, the actions are going to be what matters more.
SPEHAR: The action is affecting the working class every single day. I mean, we're not seeing the worst of the worst get picked up through his immigration policies. We're seeing the killing of American citizens, the deportation of American citizens. Aside from that, we're seeing our friends and neighbors who we work
with, who are at their immigration hearings, trying to do things the right way get picked up by ICE. We're seeing abuela pulled out of the house. We're seeing nursery -- nursery schools have their teachers pulled out. Hospital and hotel workers being deported, farm workers being deported, people being scared.
So, to say that the American people doesn't care about the process of how immigration is being executed, I don't think is fair. Because we're watching our friends and the folks that we work with get carted off.
CORNISH: Yes.
LANZA: I'd say the response is we're also watching blue state governors and blue city mayors, you know, defending criminals in the process. They're saying, no, you can't enter our jails to deport the illegal aliens --
SPEHAR: That is absolutely not true.
CORNISH: Well, let me pause. Because I think --
LANZA: -- who have done these wrong things.
(CROSSTALK)
CORNISH: -- the governor say, summing up the messaging. You're saying it's a process thing; that people will forget. You're listing all the things under the umbrella of process that people are starting to have questions about.
We're going to have lawmakers here to give us the lowdown on how they plan on explaining it to the average voter.
[06:10:04]
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, as we said, we're going to talk to people from both sides of the aisle. We're going to hear how the president's address landed with their parties.
And then, of course, the Supreme Court issues a critical ruling that could impact how you get your mail.
And an emotional plea and a new reward on the search for Nancy Guthrie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, CO-HOST, ABC'S "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": We need to know where she is. We need her to come home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:15:07]
CORNISH: It's 15 minutes past the hour. Here are five things to know to get your day going.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUTHRIE: We still believe. We still believe in a miracle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: This is another video where Savannah Guthrie is saying her family is now offering up to $1 million for information, leading to the recovery of her mother, Nancy Guthrie.
Officials say at least 750 credible tips for investigators have poured in shortly after.
And the Supreme Court ruling 5 to 4 that the U.S. Postal Service cannot be sued for intentionally failing to deliver the mail. It's a defeat for a black Texan landlord who claimed her carriers racially discriminated against her.
And more than a dozen states suing the Trump administration over its rollback of childhood vaccine recommendations. They called the move an illegal threat to public health.
The CDC announced last month that it will stop recommending children to get immunized for the flu, Hepatitis and Hepatitis B.
And defense secretary Pete Hegseth sets a Friday deadline for Anthropic to roll back safeguards on its A.I. model, or risk losing a Pentagon contract.
Hegseth is also threatening to blacklist the A.I. company. Sources say the Pentagon wants the company to lift restrictions on its A.I. model and allow the military to access it for, quote, "lawful use."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And a standing ovation for the gold medal-winning U.S. Men's Hockey Team at last night's State of the Union, President Trump thanked the team and announced their goalie, Connor Hellebuyck will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump spent months calling affordability a Democratic hoax. He had plenty to say last night about prices. Plus, we're going to talk about the moment the president stood before
the Supreme Court justices and talked about how he does not need Supreme Court justices.
And good morning, St. Louis, where it's a cool 36 degrees right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:21:30]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Well, you caused that problem. You caused that problem.
They knew their statements were a lie. They knew it. They knew their statements were a dirty, rotten lie. Their policies created the high prices. Our policies are rapidly ending them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: President Trump on the offensive, blaming Democrats for the affordability crisis Americans are facing. He's doubling down on the cornerstone of his economic agenda, tariffs, arguing that they are -- that they were effective and that he wants them to continue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I used these tariffs, took in hundreds of billions of dollars to make great deals for our country, both economically and on a national security basis.
Four days ago, an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court. It just came down, it came down. Very unfortunate ruling.
But the good news is that almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK. Group chat is back. I wanted to talk about how he talks about the economy. Because when we actually had polled people ahead of this and they talked about what they wanted him to talk about, it was that.
And so, now he's got to convince them.
I also want to talk about how -- what the Democrats' message is. Could you say it in a sentence?
V., talk about how you heard him approach the vibe of the speech to like, create these applause moments and to kind of make the energy feel like the crowd is with him.
SPEHAR: So generally, the kids describe this as status maxing, jester maxing, and aura mogging.
CORNISH: OK.
SPEHAR: So let me break that down for you. So, jester maxing is, like --
DOVERE: We need subtitles here on --
SPEHAR: -- playing to the crowd and being -- trying to get people, you know, like a jester would.
CORNISH: Yes. Which he's very good at.
SPEHAR: Status maxing is aligning himself with people like the men's hockey team and like his success, and trying to status max. These things are seen as very uncool by the kids, by the way.
And then aura mogging is when you take the shine of someone who's actually quite successful or good: maybe some of his guests, maybe the World War Two veterans he honored. Maybe again, the men's hockey team. And you are aura mogging. You are stealing their shine for -- for yourself, because you do not inhibit yourself the aura alone.
So, that -- that's -- that was the vibes of how the kids were talking about it last night.
CORNISH: Here's why the vibes are important, because like all vibe sessions, people feel differently.
SPEHAR: Yes.
CORNISH: So, let me walk through gas prices. He's saying prices are below $2.30 in most states. That's not really where it is right now. National average: 2.95. I don't know about you, but when I'm at the pump, every penny counts.
Similarly, with economic growth, right? He's saying like he inherited this stagnant economy. And when you look at the inflation numbers, the shift is not that big.
However, under Biden in 2022, inflation was really high, and people remember that. And they could not have been convinced otherwise.
DOVERE: Yes. And Donald Trump ran in 2024, saying he was going to do something serious about prices. And the problem -- excuse me -- that he is running into, it seems, is that people know how much they are paying at the grocery store.
CORNISH: They do.
DOVERE: They know -- know what the electricity bills look like.
CORNISH: Yes. More than politicians who don't go to the grocery store.
DOVERE: And -- and you can't tell people it's better when all of us who have gone to the grocery store know that prices remain high.
You can debate whether that's the president's fault or not. CORNISH: Yes.
DOVERE: But to voters, what we see over and over in election after election, and the election since 2024 and on the local and state level, is that people are saying they want the government to do something about the affordability crisis. You call it just prices, groceries.
CORNISH: Yes.
DOVERE: Whatever it is. They want something.
CORNISH: And they're not -- I don't know he's convinced people that tariffs are it, that tariffs have solved this. You're saying no, because that's a centerpiece to what he was saying.
LANZA: I don't -- I don't think he has.
CORNISH: And right now, the reporting from the Tax Foundation: it costs households in America, not somewhere else, $1,000 last year.
LANZA: Yes. Listen I don't know that he -- that that he has done a good job of explaining how tariffs solve everyday Americans' problems, especially when everyday Americans go and see what the expenses are.
CORNISH: Yes. Like, they solve his problem for negotiating things.
LANZA: Correct.
CORNISH: They don't solve any of our problems.
[06:25:00]
LANZA: Well, they solve his problem for negotiating. They solve his problem for bringing massive investments into the country at levels we've never seen.
But at the end of the day, when somebody does go to the gas station, prices are a little bit lower. But they're not low enough, and they're not fast enough.
I think the problem that the president has, or the criticism he's receiving is, you know, we remember what -- how great your economy was during Trump one. Why is it taking so long to get there? It's only his -- his economic policies really haven't been instituted by Congress yet. It's going to happen this year.
CORNISH: So, wait, let me play Spanberger, because you've got to have a counter message to this, right? So, here's what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPANBERGER: And even though the Supreme Court struck these tariffs down four days ago, the damage to us, the American people, has already been done.
So, I'll ask again: is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? We all know the answer is no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: That goes right back to the "Are you better off than you were?" Like, that is one of the most tested kind of messages in politics.
LANZA: Sure. I mean, the problem that Democrats have is we've known historically they never care about affordability, even Spanberger as the new -- as the new governor of Virginia.
You know, she's talking about tax increases on boxes being shipped to your house, on groceries, on people who -- who walk dogs, you know.
So, the whole point of, you know, Trump saying, you know, affordability is a scam to the Democratic Party, throughout history, you've never seen them focus on price reductions. Youve always seen them focus on expanding government.
(CROSSTALK)
CORNISH: Let me let V. jump in here.
SPEHAR: I don't think Donald Trump can speak to the average American person, because he no longer surrounds himself with the average American person.
The only people who get close to him, who he hears any feedback from, are the folks at Mar-a-Lago he spends the weekend with; are the folks that are included in his Rose Garden Club.
These are people who maybe did benefit from the tariffs, maybe are benefiting from these deregulations of A.I. The tech guys that he talks to.
LANZA: Steel workers are benefiting from the tariffs. American steelworkers are 100 percent benefiting from the tariffs.
CORNISH: But don't you think the last couple of months, what you saw --
SPEHAR: Then why not have a union rep there last night?
CORNISH: -- at the White House inauguration, all this, are a lot of billionaires, like, on trips with him, right?
LANZA: Sure.
CORNISH: Like, I don't -- I don't think that's like the craziest idea to say --
LANZA: No, but --
CORNISH: -- they don't look -- the public looks at him and sees --
LANZA: Who's the chief of staff? The chief of staff is not a billionaire. His deputy chiefs of staff, none of them are multi- millionaires.
So, I sort of get the talking point for television. But when you look at the key groups that are advising him, they're not billionaires. They're not even multi-millionaires.
SPEHAR: I don't have a talking point for television. I'm saying, as a normie American who doesn't come from money or any other place of, like, eliteness, when I hear him talk, I hear him talk to tech bros and donors and rich folks. I don't feel like he speaks to us. I wish he would.
DOVERE: And the question is, and this is what you see, again, some of the election results that we have had since 2024, tapping into, is this feeling that seems to be pervasive across the parties and across America. That is, we're getting screwed. We're -- our grocery prices are going up. Rich people seem to be doing just fine and getting better.
And the question is how much Donald Trump feeds into that and how much he can see a way for Republicans to not seem like they are on the side of the rich people who are doing better and better.
CORNISH: Yes.
DOVERE: Now, when he surrounds himself with billionaires, when he gives all of the tax cuts that seem to be benefiting people who are wealthier, when the tariffs are benefiting companies, it feeds into this idea.
It also is a question of how much he himself is profiting from the presidency, which also seems to feed into that idea for a lot of people.
LANZA: Let me ask you a question.
CORNISH: Well, no, just to put it -- because there is a K-shaped economy. So, I do want to establish some facts here. So, facts: there are some people doing better --
LANZA: A hundred percent.
CORNISH: -- than the working class in this country. That has not changed.
I don't know how I feel about saying people just don't care about a topic or not. Like I don't say that about either party. It's are you putting forth policies that address that concern?
And can you keep telling Americans -- ask Biden. Can you keep telling Americans that something is being dealt with if they don't feel it is?
LANZA: The voters need to feel it. I mean they -- they want --
CORNISH: But you're saying, like, Democrats, they never, never. But like, he has to convince people right now. LANZA: Sure. Sure. And if you look at Trump one, when did the economy
take off? I mean, he still lost the midterms, but his economy and his policies of -- of deregulation, of tax -- of tax cuts took off in the third year. They didn't take off before the midterms.
CORNISH: Yes.
LANZA: So, that's just the consequence of being the president. Most times your policies don't actually impact the midterms.
CORNISH: That sounds familiar.
LANZA: Yes. They just don't.
CORNISH: Like Democrat White House familiar.
LANZA: I mean, that's -- I would say this.
CORNISH: That sounds like The Inflation Reduction Act and saying, like, this is a bill that would have helped people. Why didn't you -- you can't see it. It's going to kick in, in a few years.
[06:30:00]
