State Of The Union 2026: This Man Be Lying Edition

Hello everyone, my name is Stephen A. Crockett Jr., and I’ve been covering politics for the better part of the 20th century. I like long walks and kittens (not full-grown cats), and I see myself as a modern-day—

Managing Editor Monique Judge–Stephen, this isn’t your Tinder profile. Please keep the intro related to the State of the Union. 

Stephen–Yes, the State of the Union, or as I like to call it Republican PornHub. Seriously, the amount of adulation and T.O.-esque “That’s my quarterback..” that is about to go on, should have this State of the Union labeled NC-17. 

This is about to be a full-on white man No Limit Records reunion in which President Trump is expected to speak on his failed tariffs, possible war with Iran, the possibility of a shutdown to the Department of Homeland Security, and the destitute economy, which has reached “do something strange for a piece of change” levels.

Monique–  Stephen, even if that was a real measurement of the economy, I still wouldn’t let you say that. 

Stephen–Fine. You should probably formally introduce yourself and make sure you mention the “Trump Dump Detector.” It’s been trending online, and it’s probably nothing…

Monique–I’m not talking about that!

Hello, everyone. My name is Monique Judge, and I am the Managing Editor of NewsOne. Tonight, I will be providing live updates during Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, along with my colleague, Stephen A. Crockett Jr. I will try to keep Stephen in line, but I can’t promise anything.

And while I can’t predict exactly what Trump is going to say, I’m going to go ahead and predict he is going to do a whole lot of self-congratulatory backpatting, opine on how much he has done for marginalized groups, most especially the Blacks, and he will likely, as he did last year, largely embellish facts and data to suit whatever narrative he runs with tonight.

Last year, during Trump’s speech before the joint session of Congress, he did just that. As I wrote then:

Donald Trump stood in front of a joint session of Congress Tuesday night and delivered what wasn’t so much a State of the Union address as it was a political stump speech full of the same lies and contradictions he told on the campaign trail and has continued to spout in his first 43 days in office. 

And:

For his part, Trump made sure to attack what he calls “woke” culture and DEI initiatives — attacks that have been popular with and parroted by his base.

“Our country will be woke no longer,” Trump said. 

He went on to say people “should be hired based on skill and talent, not race and gender.”

“We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military,” Trump said. 

He said, “We will restore true democracy again,” at a time when many feel he is doing everything in his power to dismantle the democracy that currently exists. 

This is a man who doesn’t stray too far from his regular script, so I’m going to spitball here and say we can likely expect more of the same.

In any case, bookmark this post and refresh the page frequently for live updates of the State of the Union 2026.

All updates will be below.

11:09 p.m. ET: It’s finally over

After 1 hour and 48 minutes of watching an old white man yell at his farts, State of the Union 2026 is over. We didn’t really hear anything new. As Stephen said in our group chat, “America is being run by an old white LL Cool J, and we just spent two hours watching him lick his lips and flex his pecs.”

“This was Narcissus staring into a mirror being held by Jerome, going, ‘Don’t I look pretty?'” he added.

Anoa, who was over it at about the 1 hour and 25 minute mark, said, “Midterm season is underway. Don’t be fooled by this mess.”

And that’s really where it is, folks. We can’t trust anything that comes out of his mouth or from the desks of anyone in his administration. They are all suspect at this point.

Good luck, everybody.

10:53 p.m. ET: Fact Check!

Trump’s well past the 90-minute mark from last year. He’s definitely off script at this point. And he just lies so fast. We need AI to help us calculate the lies per minute. 

Trump once again can’t seem to find the truth. He continues to repeat false statements as facts. On the subject of drug seizures and strikes on alleged drug vessels, Trump said that drugs entering the U.S. are down. Politifact evaluated the claim and rated it false. 

It’s a misstatement of data from Customs and Border Protection that shows drug seizures dropped by 98%, not that the amount of drugs entering the country dropped. CBP’s data primarily referred to cannabis. 

And yet the Coast Guard showed that there was a 200% INCREASE in cocaine seizures in 2025. So the drugs are still getting in 

Trump is playing fast and loose with facts, just like his pardon power. Why else would a president who claims to care about a “war on drugs” release a drug kingpin like former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez? He had been sentenced to 45-years in prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. 

10:51 p.m. ET: This man is definitely off-script and rambling at this point

I’m not even sure what Trump is talking about at this point. I’m trying to keep up, but he seems to not be following the script and is instead boring all of us.

10:36 p.m. ET: Trump is trying to beat his own record (Anoa)

He’s about to pass his 90-minute mark from last year. He just lies so fast. We need AI to help us calculate the lies per minute. 

10:25 p.m. ET: In response to Trump’s claims of voter fraud and “cheating” in elections (Anoa)

Pssst. There’s no evidence that cheating is rampant in elections. But seriously, the voter ID requirements in the SAVE America Act are not just a simple voter ID. 

 It’s estimated that up to 34 million otherwise eligible people could be blocked from voting. Every state already has some mechanism for identifying voters, with little to no evidence of virtually non-existent fraud. And the only fraud recently uncovered has been committed by Trump’s former bestie, Elon Musk. 

A similar law passed in Kansas prevented an estimated 30,000 people from voting, an estimated 12% of first-time voters. Trump is pushing policies he knows will remove voters and weaken chances of shifting the balance of power in Congress. 

Also, non-citizens are not voting in large numbers. The Center for Election Innovation & Research released an updated report debunking claims of widespread non-citizen voting. According to the report, “allegations about noncitizen registrations or voting appear to arise from misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about complex voter data.” 

It’s not about saving the country or securing elections. Legal Defense Fund President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson urged the Senate to uphold “their sworn responsibility to uphold the fundamental right of every eligible citizen to participate fully and equally in our democratic process.” 

“The civil rights community stands together in our vigorous opposition to any piece of legislation that aims to return our elections to those of the Jim Crow era,” Nelson said. “The SAVE America Act and the MEGA Act both attempt to place overwhelmingly burdensome requirements on voters at a time when our freedom to vote faces attacks on all sides. The U.S. Senate must see reason and focus its efforts on advancing proposals that put the freedoms of voters, and not the authoritarian whims of an administration, first.”

10:18 p.m. ET: “These people are crazy!” (Monique)

Every accusation is an admission.

After going on a lengthy, transphobic rant full of lies, he pointed out that Democrats in attendance didn’t cheer for him.

“These people are crazy!” he exclaimed as he pointed at them, and all I could do was sit here and laugh at the old man shaking his fist at the wind because the call is coming from inside the house, homeboy.

10:09 p.m. ET: We have officially reached the fear-mongering portion of the program (Monique)

As I type this, Trump is doing his best to paint a picture of big, scary immigrants and “Somali pirates” to scare the people listening into believing that so-called “illegal aliens” (we will have the discussion about language and the way it strips people of their humanity at another time, but you cannot legislate someone’s humanity) are a credible dangerous threat that is making “America” unsafe. To paraphrase what a friend said to me in a text in that very moment, when do we start deporting the English-speaking white boys that shoot up schools and churches and grocery stores and and and…?

10:03 p.m. ET: Anoa Changa-Peck has entered the chat

And Trump’s still at it with his nonsense on healthcare. Fact checks on Trump’s health care claims show that his proposals from his first term would’ve left millions without insurance. Republicans continue to trash the Affordable Care Act but have failed to provide a comprehensive alternative. 

Surprise suprise, Trump’s also misleading on his prescription drug prices. His claims have not panned out. Research from FactCheck.org indicates that 1) most people have insruance don’t pay the list price Trump claims he’s reducing, and 2) the price after your insurance copay is likely lower. 

For example, a person with health insurance who pays a flat copay for medications is unlikely to get a better price by going to TrumpRx, two economists from the University of Washington explained in an opinion piece published in STAT. In fact, the TrumpRx website says: “If you have insurance, check your co-pay first—it may be even lower.”

9:55 p.m. ET: Rep. Al Green (Stephen)

Well, what do you know? Looks like Texas Rep. Al Green didn’t leave in protest; he was ejected from the House chamber during the SOTU presidential address.  

Here’s what happened:

During the joint session of Congress, Rep. Green held up a sign reading “Black people aren’t apes!” early in the speech. 

After being asked to stop, he refused and was escorted out of the chamber by the House Sergeant at Arms at the direction of House leadership. 

This marked the second consecutive year Green was removed from a State of the Union/Joint Session of Congress for disruptive protest — in 2025 he was escorted out after loudly heckling Trump’s speech and refusing to stop. 

9:49 p.m. ET: Trump is giving out medals for people who bend the knee (Stephen)

Trump announced that the American hockey team not only won gold in the 2026 Winter Olympics, but also defeated Canada, which didn’t invent hockey but surely modernized it. Because apparently, you can’t be Canadian and not know and love hockey. But the shocking part is that after the introduction of the US Hockey team, Trump announced he would award the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. Even Hellebuyck seemed shocked. Other athletes who have received the honor include: Michael Jordan, Jerry West, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. 

9:41 p.m. ET: “We ended DEI” (Monique)

Trump bragged about ending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across the country, and what he actually means is he used executive orders and threats to pull funding to get people to fall in line with what is arguably a white nationalist agenda comng directly from the highest office in the country.

9:33 p.m. ET: We got oil now?! (Stephen)

Lawd, Trump just pointed out that he’s received millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela. He neglected to mention that under his direction, the former president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, was kidnapped and millions of barrels of oil were stolen and sold. The money from the sale of the stolen Venezuelan oil currently sits in a Qatar account that the president has access to.

But that’s probably totally legal and above board.

9:27 p.m. ET: The Food Stamps Claim – (Monique)

Trump boldly claimed, “In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans — a record — off of food stamps,” and what he really meant to say was that the U.S goverment cut food stamp funding dramatically, and now many Americans are suffering.

9:23 p.m. ET: Rep. Al Green and other members of Congress walk out (Stephen)

Rep. Al Green and several members of Congress walked out of the SOTU shortly after the president began speaking. At one point, the Texas Democrat stopped to show his sign, which read, “Black people aren’t apes,” to others in the crowd. One man appeared to grab Green’s sign, and a brief encounter ensued, prompting the crowd to chant “USA!” “USA!” It was all very anticlimactic. 

I kind of wanted Green to hit the man. Not because I enjoy violence, I don’t. But it would have been the first actual sign that the Democrats are willing to get into the mud and fight rather than trying to shame a morally bankrupt Republican party.

9:20 p.m. ET: We’re going to be up all night trying to fact-check this man (Monique)

I have the feeling I’m going to be up all night trying to fact-check everything he’s saying, but he’s already started with the bragging.

“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,” he said with an annoyingly pompous look on his face.

9:15 p.m. ET: Here’s what happens at a State of the Union address (Stephen)

In case you’ve never seen a SOTU, it goes like this: Some goofy walks out and introduces the president, and then everyone acts like they really love him. It’s almost like a boxer walking to the ring, except the boxer in this case is a lying president who runs the White House much like a petulant child who inherited the throne. 

Some members turned their backs, and the president made his way to the lectern, and Texas Rep. Al Green held up a sign that read, “Black people are not apes,” a shot at the president who shared a controversial and racist video to his authorized social media account that depicted former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. 

And then once the applause died down, the president began reciting the words being spoken to him through a device because I’m pretty sure he has trouble reading.

9:10 p.m. ET: Trump enters the chamber, and Al Green is READY! (Monique)

Trump walks into the chamber to loud applause and whistles. He stops to shake many hands as he makes his way to the front. ABC notes on air that there are far fewer Democrats present than in past years. As he reaches the front, the camera captures Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) holding a sign that reads “Black People Aren’t Apes.”

I know that’s right, Al Green.