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Trump Leans into Midterm Messaging, the Economy is Roaring; Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) Says, Trump Lied, Scapegoated, Distracted; Trump Makes Numerous False or Misleading Claims in State of the Union Address. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 25, 2026 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with breaking news.

President Trump delivers a record-long State of the Union address blasting Democrats and celebrating what he called the accomplishments of the first year of his second term,

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And just nine months ahead of the all important midterms, he declares a, quote, golden age of America. The president says the economy is, quote, roaring like never before. That's despite millions of skeptical Americans feeling the pinch of inflation, housing, childcare, and other economic concerns.

BLITZER: We're covering all the angles of last night's important speech. Over the next two hours, we're going to hear from an all-star cast of CNN correspondents, analysts, and experts. We'll also hear directly -- we'll also get some highlights from the president's record-long speech and get the reaction on this morning after.

Let's begin by listening to at least some of the key moments from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: So, tonight, I'm inviting every legislature to join with my administration and reaffirming a fundamental principle. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

After four years in which millions and millions of illegal aliens poured across our borders, totally unvetted and unchecked, we now have the strongest and most secure border in American history by far.

That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens, in many cases, drug lords, murderers, all over our country.

Mortgage rates are the lowest in four years and falling fast, and the annual cost of a typical new mortgage is down almost $5,000 just since I took office, one year.

And low interest rates will solve the Biden-created housing problem while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives. We want to protect those values. We want to keep those values up. We're going to do both.

The Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption, and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception. Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA, and it is the American people who pay the price in higher medical bills, car insurance rates, rent, taxes, and perhaps most importantly, crime. We will take care of this problem.

One of the primary reasons for our country's stunning economic turnaround, the biggest in history where the Dow Jones broke 50,000 four years ahead of schedule and the S&P hit 7,000 where it wasn't supposed to do it for many years were tariffs. 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.

And then just four days ago, an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court, it just came down, it came down, very unfortunate ruling.

As time goes by, I believe the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love.

For years, large swath of territory in our region, including large parts of Mexico, really large parts of Mexico, have been controlled by murderous drug cartels.

[10:05:07]

That's why I designated these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and I declared illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

With our new military campaign, we have stopped record amounts of drugs coming into our country and virtually stopped it completely coming in by water or sea. You probably noticed that.

We very seriously damaged their fishing industry also. Nobody wants to go fishing anymore.

America's armed forces overwhelmed all defenses are not only defeated an enemy, good fighters, to end the reign of outlawed dictator Nicolas Maduro and bring him to face American justice.

We are in negotiations with him. They want to make a deal, but we haven't heard those secret words, we will never have a nuclear weapon.

My preference -- my preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon.

Under this ceasefire, I negotiated every single hostage, both living and dead, has been returned home. Can you believe that?

In my first ten months, I ended eight wars, including Cambodia. Isn't it funny? You're sick people.

And we're working very hard to end the ninth war, the killing and slaughter between Russia and Ukraine, where 25,000 soldiers are dying each and every month.

And the reason they don't want to do it, why would anybody not want voter I.D., one reason because they want to cheat. There's only one reason. They make up all excuses. They say it's racist. They come up with things. You almost say what imagination they have. They want to cheat, they have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat, and we're going to stop it.

Starting last summer, I deployed our National Guard and federal law enforcement to restore law and order to our most dangerous cities, including Memphis, Tennessee, big success, New Orleans, Louisiana, big success, and our nation's capital itself, Washington, D.C., where we have almost no crime anymore in Washington, D.C. How did that happen?

TRUMP: I took prescription drugs, a very big part of healthcare, from the highest price in the entire world to the lowest. That's a big achievement.

Many Americans are also concerned that energy demand from A.I. data centers could unfairly drive up their electric utility bills. Tonight, I'm pleased to announce that I have negotiated the new rate payer protection pledge. You know what that is? We're telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs.

Surely, we can all agree, no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents' arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents' will. Who would believe that we've been talking about it? We must ban it and we must ban it immediately.

Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I'm telling you. They're crazy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All right. So, those were some of the highlights from the president's State of the Union address last night. A couple notes, we have Daniel Dale coming on later for a fact-check, and we have Congresswoman Ilhan Omar later in the show to discuss the address and some of the words exchanged with the president. Wolf?

BLITZER: He called the Democrats crazy at the very end here.

BROWN: Right, and she had some choice words as well. So, we're going to talk to her later in the show.

I want to begin with our deep dive. CNN Political Director and Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian is here with us in The Situation Room. David, what do we know right now about how viewers graded the president on last night's State of the Union address?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, we conducted an instant poll of speech watchers, which, by the way, is a universe of people that does not look like the overall population, because people who are fans of a president tend to turn out in greater numbers to watch that president give an address. So, it's about a 13-point more Republican universe than the overall universe.

But look at these results. 38 percent of speech watchers had a very positive reaction to Donald Trump's speech last night. 25 percent, somewhat positive, 36 percent, negative. So, what you see, Pam, is two thirds of speech watchers have a somewhat or very positive reaction.

But that very positive number, when you compare it to Donald Trump's other addresses, it's actually a low point. I mean, just last year in his speech, that instant poll result was at 44 percent, very positive. And that was even -- and we had a more Republican sample last night than last year.

I think that tells the story of what Donald Trump is up against, irrespective of the speech, which is that where he was he year ago and where he is now are two totally different political universes. And his party is -- you know, those members he was talking to who are on the ballot this year, they are in a very, very tough political environment.

I'm not sure it was a realistic expectation for anyone to think that Donald Trump would somehow, with one speech, be able to change the political environment. Even as you went through that whole highlight, he gave Republicans something to sort of walk out and talk about and tout some accomplishments. He didn't, I think, get in their way, but he didn't change the political environment, which is a really, really tough one for them.

BLITZER: So, what I hear you saying is that a lot of Democrats and many independents simply didn't want to listen to Trump last night, they didn't want to spend two hours listening to his speech?

CHALIAN: Yes. I think in our speech watcher sample, Wolf, it was about 41 percent Republican, 41 percent independent, and only like 18 percent Democratic. So, yes, I don't think Democrats, in large part, tuned in.

And I would also note though, even among independent speech watchers, we saw a big drop in very positive response from his speech compared to last year. BLITZER: Republicans certainly will face a very tough fight to keep control of the House and the Senate in the November midterm elections that are coming up. Was the speech by Trump forward-looking enough to help articulate and sell the Republican vision in November?

CHALIAN: It's a good question. You know, when you speak for an hour and 48 minutes, you get to give three different speeches, which is basically what he did, right? I mean, he gave a speech on the economy and touted his accomplishments, even if he -- you know, I don't think he's really capable of that I feel your pain thing, which would some Republicans would've liked to have heard, but then he had the partisan brawler piece of the speech, which could enliven his base a little bit, and he had those great, theatrical moments that he executed on the unifying moments of the hockey team and the like.

But, Wolf, you ask a key question, what are the results from our poll is Trump's policies, will they move the U.S. in the right direction? He did make some progress with speech watchers. Prior to the speech, 54 percent said his policies would move in the right direction. At the conclusion of the speech, speech watchers said 64 percent of them said his policies would move in the right direction.

So, with the folks who were watching the speech, he did make some progress, to your point, about some path forward, or they believed that his -- the way he articulated his policies would be positive. Your question was, is it enough? Again, I don't think with one speech you can undo the real political challenge that this president and his party faced.

BROWN: All right. David Chalian, thanks so much.

BLITZER: He's always good, David Chalian.

I want to get some more now on the President's state of the Union address, and a Democratic response. I want to bring in CNN's Chief Political Analyst David Axelrod. He previously served as a senior adviser to President Obama. David, thanks so much for coming in.

Based on everything you heard last night, what stood out to you the most from that speech?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I agree with you David Chalian's always good, and he was good here. I don't think that -- I think that Republicans were relieved because he didn't get in his own way, he stuck to the script. If you were his strategist, you were relieved because he largely stuck to the script. But the problem is that the far and away, the biggest concern people have is the economy. And he told a story of the economy that did not match people's experience. And you cannot jawbone people into feeling what they're not experiencing, so that's a problem for them.

The most interesting thing to me from a strategic standpoint was I think you do see the blueprint of how they hope to attack these midterm elections, hard for any incumbent to gain seats in the midterm election. But, you know, they want to talk about tax cuts as their answer to the economy. They want to talk about fraud in the states of federal money, as they found in Minnesota, as a way of saying, this is where your money's going. Forget about the tax cuts for the rich. This is where your money is going.

They want to talk about immigrants and they want to regain the edge on the immigration issue, which was squandered because of ICE's overreaction. And then, finally, they want to define the Democrats and create a kind of straw man to run against. So, that line, these people are crazy, it seemed like an ad-lib. It was written into his text. That is the picture they want to paint that your guest, Ilhan Omar, they want her to be the face of the Democratic Party. They want Mamdani to be the face of the Democratic Party that they can sort of organize against.

Whether this will work, I think, is a very big question, but at least you saw what they're thinking about strategically moving forward to November.

BLITZER: Representative Ilhan Omar is going to be joining us here in The Situation Room.

[10:15:00]

That's coming up.

What about what was not in Trump's speech last night, like any mention, for example, of the Epstein files or the killings of U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, as we all remember? What about the subjects that he really didn't talk about?

AXELROD: Well, I think the things he didn't talk about give you a sense of the things that they're concerned about. One of the concerns I think that going into the speech was the chamber was filled with victims of Epstein, who were invited by Democrats and filled the galleries. And I think one of the things that would have been a real problem for them is if Trump had become reactive to that and engaged on that issue. He didn't. But this is a huge and continuing problem for them that just seems to be growing. It's consuming the globe incredibly. So, I think this is going to continue to be a problem.

And, obviously, they know that the ICE -- what ICE has done in Minneapolis, in Chicago and around the country has become a vulnerability for them. The immigration issue, which was an unambiguous plus for him in the last election, is now something of a liability because of all of the -- all of the things that ICE has done. And they're trying to mute that and recast the immigration issue in terms they think are more favorable to them. So, they've got a huge task ahead of them.

But at least last night, although he probably kept the fact checkers up all night, going through a list of things that simply weren't true, I think the president probably fulfilled the mission that his strategist hoped he would fulfill.

BLITZER: Yes. Daniel Dale, our fact checker, is going to be joining us soon to go through --

AXELROD: Yes, he'll, be teary-eyed (ph), I'm sure.

BLITZER: Yes, he's been working really hard.

AXELROD: Yes.

BLITZER: I want to turn to the Democratic response from Virginia's new governor, Abigail Spanberger.

AXELROD: Yes.

BLITZER: Here's some of what she said last night. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D-VA): He is enriching himself, his family, his friends. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented. There's the cover-up of the Epstein files, the crypto scams, cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms, putting his name and face on buildings all over our nation's capital. This is not what our founders envisioned, not by a long shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, David, was that an effective message, in your view?

AXELROD: Well, the corruption message I think is part -- cost, corruption and chaos are what Democrats are going to run on, cost being the first one. She emphasized that in her speech.

I think she did a good job. It's an impossible task. I mean, it's a terrible assignment. You know, when you get that call, it's like, is it good news or bad news that I have to give this response? I think she did the best she could do with it.

BLITZER: She's impressive, an impressive lady indeed.

All right, David Axelrod, thank you very, very much.

AXELROD: See you guys.

BROWN: All right. Still ahead here in The Situation Room, our State of the Union coverage continues. We're taking a closer look at what President Trump said about crime, immigration, and foreign affairs with our CNN fact checker.

BLITZER: And the state of the U.S. economy, does strong data translate to affordability?

Lots going on right here in The Situation Room.

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[10:20:00]

BLITZER: President Trump making numerous false or misleading claims during his State of the Union address last night. Many of them were long debunked falsehoods on topics, including the U.S. economy, elections, and foreign affairs.

BROWN: Let's go live now to CNN Senior Reporter Daniel Dale here to help us fact check the president's speech last night.

Daniel, I want to start with foreign affairs and what the president said on Iran. Of course, there's been a lot of attention on Iran. There has been speculation that this country could go to war with Iran. Tell us what your takeaway was there.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. So, one of the things the president said was that in negotiations with Iran, they have not heard Iran say the, he said, secret words, we will not have a nuclear weapon. But, in fact, Iranian's government -- Iran's government has said that, at least publicly, we don't know what they said behind closed doors.

Yesterday, the very day of the speech, the Iranian foreign minister posted on social media platform, X, and said our fundamental convictions are crystal clear, Iran will, under no circumstances, ever develop a nuclear weapon. And in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September, Iran's president said, I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb.

So, again, I don't know what's going on behind closed doors, but those so-called secret words have been said by Iran in public forums.

BLITZER: The president also made a number of misleading claims about crime and immigration in the United States. I want you to listen to this, Daniel, then we'll discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have made incredible strides, yet dangerous repeat offenders continue to be released by pro-crime Democrat politicians again and again.

Last summer, 23-year-old Iryna was riding home on the train when a deranged monster who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail, stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body. She had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America, came in through open borders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Daniel, the president is clearly blaming that high-profile Charlotte killing on open borders. What are the facts here?

DALE: All the evidence we have is that the man charged with first- degree murder in this absolutely awful case is an American who was born in the U.S. The Charlotte Observer reported last night that this claim that he came in through open borders is not true, that this man's Facebook page says he was born in Charlotte. The paper has interviewed his American mother. So, again, absolutely terrible tragedy, but blaming it on President Biden's immigration policies appears completely baseless.

BLITZER: The president also blasted former President Biden's border policies, claiming migrants, in his words, in Trump's words, quote, poured in by the millions and millions from prisons, from mental institutions, and in an especially startling claim, he said, President Biden allowed 11,888 murderers into the country. Any truth to these claims?

DALE: A lot of nonsense there, Wolf. So, President Trump has never corroborated his frequent claims that many migrants under Biden came in from prisons or mental institutions, or that foreign countries emptied these facilities to send people to the U.S. with migrants, no shred of proof, whatsoever.

And then this 11,888 claim is a wild distortion of federal data. That data is about people who enter the country over the course of decades, not just under Biden, including during the first Trump administration, people who were convicted of homicide at some point, usually in the U.S. after their arrival, and then were placed on what ICE calls the non-detained docket, usually because their home countries wouldn't accept them back.

[10:25:11]

Many of them are actually in prison or jail right now. They're not roaming free. So, the idea that, you know, 11,888 murderers were let in by Biden, President Trump often says, roaming the streets today, just completely inaccurate.

BLITZER: Our fact checker, Daniel Dale, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Let's continue this conversation about fact- checking and the economy. With us now is CNN Senior Reporter David Goldman. Hi, good morning to you, David.

So, let's talk about the economy, what the president said there. You say the president isn't wrong when he says America's economy is strong, but Americans don't necessarily feel that. Why?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. Well, it's because the economy is not about numbers, it's about affordability to so many people. That's the thing that drives voters to the polls, right? So, if you have a really strong economy, and we do, I mean, growth is pretty robust, jobs are rebounding a little bit, inflation's under control. So, all of those things are true, but it's very, very hard for people to afford this economy. There are many prices that you can't avoid paying for that are outpacing overall inflation.

So, if you take a look, overall inflation is 2.4 percent right now. That's pretty good. But if you look at things, like housing, if you look at electricity, natural gas, those are all outpacing overall inflation. And the problem is that you can't avoid paying for any of them. That's causing this economy to feel pretty unaffordable to so many people. BROWN: Yes, those basic necessities. And right now, David, wealthier Americans, it seems as though they are benefiting and lower income households are struggling. Help us better understand that dynamic.

GOLDMAN: Yes, we call it the K-shaped economy. Because if you're at the top of the K, you're pretty wealthy, you probably have a home and you probably refinanced that home, say, around the pandemic when rates were between 2 and 3 percent, you're doing pretty good right now. But if you don't have really high income, you might not have a home that you own, and you're really struggling right now to find anywhere that you can live affordably.

And so what that's caused is this kind of K-shaped divergence, which is not a new trend, let's be clear, but it is getting worse. And it's getting worse largely because of the housing market, but also because of the elimination of some social services, other things like that are making it a little bit harder for people to survive.

And if you look, overall inflation is at 2.4 percent right now, but wage growth is at 3.7 percent, so you would think, well, our paychecks are going further. But Bank of America has some really, really interesting data that came out just a couple weeks ago that shows that if you're Middle America -- if you're sort of middle income, rather, you are only getting a paycheck growth annually of 1.6 percent. And if you're lower income, that's only 0.9 percent. So, what that means is that your paycheck isn't keeping up with inflation, and that is causing a lot of the affordability concerns that we're seeing as well.

BROWN: Just one quick follow-up. The president unveiled the proposals last night that he said would help with affordability. He talked about a retirement plan for Americans without access to 401(k). He talked about policies already enacted, including tax cuts, Trump accounts for babies and efforts to lower prescription drug prices, and he pointed out one of the guests and the audience there who was getting IVF fertility treatments at much lower rate now. Are those policies paying off?

GOLDMAN: Well, some of them are. So, the mortgage bond buyback, it was about $200 billion, that almost immediately had an effect on mortgage rates. It knocked them down a little bit. And that's really good news for people that are trying to afford a home. Prescription drug prices, like you mentioned, that's having an effect too.

But there are some others, like, you know, the Trump accounts that haven't really gone into effect yet. They're not having a big impact right now. We'll have to see. Tax cuts are another thing. A lot of people are waiting for their tax rebate. That could have an effect.

But the big thing, the key economic policy that Trump keeps doubling down on is tariffs. And that is raising prices. That's making America less affordable than it was before. The conservative-leaning Tax Foundation says that an average American household paid a thousand dollars more last year in tax payments. So, that's not exactly a great policy, and that's one that Trump is doubling down on. It's not great for affordability.

BROWN: All right, David Goldman, thank you, great to have you on the show.

GOLDMAN: Great to be here.

BROWN: Wolf?

[10:30:00]

BLITZER: He's very good too.

Also coming up, happening now, Dr. Casey Means is facing questions from U.S. lawmakers up on Capitol Hill.