The One Time Republicans Didn’t Cheer in Trump’s State of the Union

The only time Republicans weren’t clapping like seals during President Trump’s State of the Union address was when he spoke positively about his 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. Everything was working well, countries that were ripping us off for decades are now paying us hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump said. “And yet these countries are happy, and so are we … and the big story was how Donald Trump called the economy correctly, and 22 Nobel Prize winners in economics didn’t. They got it totally wrong, they got it really wrong. And then just four days ago an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court, it just came down.” 

The room was deathly quiet for much of this awkward rant, a stark contrast given just how frequently the GOP did a standing ovation for something Trump said during his address. This is likely because many prominent Republicans actually agreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling, which stopped Trump from  further enacting his global, illegal “Liberation Day” tariffs. 

“Today, the Supreme Court reaffirmed authority that has rested with Congress for centuries. The American people already know that tariffs make building and buying here at home more expensive,” Senator Mitch McConnell said after the ruling on Friday. “And Kentuckians understand this painful reality better than most. But the use of IEEPA to circumvent Congress in the imposition of tariffs, already without precedent, isn’t just bad policy—it’s also illegal.”

President Donald Trump kept his bruised right hand out of view Tuesday night during his lengthy State of the Union address.

As Trump delivered his address, he grasped the podium with both hands, but kept his right hand out of sight.

Since July, the president has been repeatedly spotted with a large bruise on the back of his right hand—except for a few instances when it inexplicably switched to his left hand.

Trump has gotten good at hiding it from the public—either with makeup or careful hand placement—but the 79-year-old president can’t hide everything, and cameras don’t lie.

The White House has claimed that his seemingly permanent injuries were the result of too much handshaking and taking aspirin. But doctors have theorized that the president’s discolored hands could be a sign of something much worse.

Several Democratic representatives shouted at President Trump from their seats as he lied about protecting American citizens during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

“The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens,” Trump said.

The Republican side erupted while Democrats heckled the president.

“You’re killing Americans,” Representative Rashida Tlaib yelled multiple times. “You have killed Americans,” Representative Ilhan Omar joined in.

Representative Gwen Moore called Trump a “tyrant” repeatedly. Representative Gil Cisneros yelled about how Trump is violating the Constitution.

Trump continued, smiling smugly. “You should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up. You should be ashamed.”

“You should be ashamed!” Omar responded, pointing at Trump. They were then drowned out by chants of “USA” by the Republican side of the aisle.

“These people are crazy, I tell you, they’re crazy,” Trump later said, referring to the Democrats as they continued to heckle him.

The Democrats’ response was necessary given the ease with which Trump was lying about protecting Americans, as his federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti—two “protected” American citizens—dead in the street in Minneapolis.

Texas Representative Al Green was once again escorted out of President Trump’s State of the Union—this time for holding up a sign that read “Black People Aren’t Apes.”

Green’s sign was a reference to Trump’s racist post on Truth Social earlier this month depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes—summoning harsh condemnations from Democrats and Republicans alike. The president later deleted the post, claiming that it had been published by a staffer.

Green attempted to hold his sign up in front of Trump as the president entered the chamber, but was blocked by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

When Trump boarded the stage, the 78-year-old Houston-area congressman stood in the fourth row and held up his sign again.

As Trump began his address, Republican Representative Troy Nehls, also from Texas, reportedly approached Green about the sign. He was held back by Representative Pat Fallon as the sergeant of arms escorted Green out. Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin also tried to pull the sign away from Green.

As Green was escorted out, the audience started shouting “USA!”

Last year, Green was removed from the chamber after he reportedly kept yelling at Trump, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!” The Texas Democrat waved his cane in the direction of the president and was warned to stop several times.

FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal reliance on the bureau’s jet fleet isn’t just costing taxpayers money—it’s also significantly interfering with the agency’s work.

A whistleblower revealed Tuesday that the FBI’s investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination was waylaid by at least a day because of a plane and pilot shortage caused by the director’s unofficial escapades, reported CBS News.

Patel’s poor management of resources continued for months, interfering with another FBI investigation on December 13, when the FBI’s shooting reconstruction team was unable to immediately respond to a shooting at Brown University due to a lack of available bureau planes at an airport in Richmond, Virginia, according to Senator Dick Durbin.

It’s a hypocritical development for Patel, a conspiracy podcaster turned government official who used to regularly chastise politicians for needless spending before he joined the ranks of the Trump administration. Patel relentlessly hounded the financial behavior of the man who previously filled his role—former FBI Director Chris Wray—even arguing in 2023 that the FBI should “ground” Wray’s private jet “that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country.”

But these are far from the only examples in which Patel has used the bureau’s equipment as his personal play toys.

In December, top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee opened an investigation into Patel after it became clear that he took multiple flights on a $60 million government jet in order to see his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins. The jet owner’s listed address, according to its FAA registration, was the FBI’s national headquarters in Washington. Days later, Patel reportedly took another FBI plane to Texas to visit some friends.

Patel has been riding on the country’s dime since he was sworn in as the face of America’s largest national law enforcement agency. Weeks after a Republican-controlled Senate gave Patel the green light to run the FBI, he took several jaunts to different areas of the country, including Las Vegas and Nashville, a lifestyle he hasn’t been shy to advertise amongst the rank and file of the federal bureau.

“If you have golf, hockey, fishing, or hunting and beautiful sights, you’re going to see a lot of me,” Patel once said, according to an internal source that shared the comments with Durbin.

Patel’s flight history became a subject of intense criticism again on Sunday, when a video was leaked of the FBI director celebrating the U.S. men’s hockey Olympic gold medal win. In the video, Patel is seen chugging beers inside the boy’s locker room in Milan, causing some Americans to question if Patel had spent more of their money to trek across the Atlantic for a wildly unnecessary excursion.