Democrats Win Three Big Elections During Trump’s State of the Union

While President Trump ranted about tariffs, immigration, and hockey at his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Democrats were celebrating three local election victories in crucial swing states.

Ana Tiburcio of Alleghany County and Jennifer Mazzocco of Lehigh County were elected as Pennsylvania state representatives on Tuesday, securing a Democratic majority in the state legislature—a huge win for Governor Josh Shapiro.

“Congratulations to Representatives-Elect Ana Tiburcio and Jen Mazzocco on winning tonight and joining our House Democratic majority! I’ll see you both at the Capitol as we keep working to get stuff done and protect our freedoms and democracy here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro wrote. “Folks are fired up across our Commonwealth—and ready to win up and down the ballot this November.”

And in Maine, Scott Harriman defeated Republican Janet Beaudoin and further cemented Democrats’ hold on the state House.

“Another Tuesday, another defiant round of wins for state legislative Democrats,” Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams wrote in a press release. “The split screen tonight couldn’t be starker: As President Trump drones on and tries to cover up his agenda that’s left working families behind, Democrats are winning elections.”

The State of the Union address is an opportunity for all branches of government to convene over the most pressing issues of the year. But Republicans treated Donald Trump’s sophomoric performance more like a rowdy sports game than a presidential appearance.

Practically the entire caucus participated in the rah-rah, jeering and chanting “U-S-A.” But the fanboying was especially true for Texas Representative Troy Nehls, who soundly secured the most cringeworthy moment of the night by begging the president to sign his Trump-themed tie.

As Trump exited the lower chamber, he caught a glimpse of Nehls dutifully waiting in line to greet him—but more importantly, he spotted Nehls’s tie, an American flag print with several repeated images of Trump’s face.

“Oh, look at this guy, I like that tie, I want that tie,” Trump said, grabbing Nehl’s tie while addressing someone else. “Give me that tie!”

“Thank you! Initial, just an initial,” responded the 57-year-old lawmaker, hunched over as he offered a pen to the president.

Without speaking to Nehls directly, Trump obliged.

The moment did not play well with the American public, who used the moment to highlight how sycophantic and subservient conservatives in Congress have become to the party’s White House figurehead.

“Even the die hards in North Korea don’t grovel and beg for an autograph,” wrote a self-identified progressive on X.

Other critics derided the interaction as “grotesque” and “pathetic.”

“Definitely not a cult,” remarked another X user.

One account compared Nehls to Oliver Twist, sharing a meme of the impoverished Charles Dickens character trumpeting his famous line: “Please sir, may I have some more?”

“A 57 year old asking for an autograph of his favorite sexual predator?” posted another user. “Good God.”

Their opinions are immaterial for the Texas lawmaker, regardless of whether they live in his district, as Nehls is not seeking reelection at the end of his term. Trump has endorsed Nehls’s twin brother to replace him.

In his State of the Union Tuesday night, Donald Trump claimed that he had secured $18 trillion in foreign investments for the United States. But his own website says that isn’t true.

“I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion, pouring in from all over the globe,” Trump said in the speech, complete with a graphic on the official White House stream to drive home the point. NBC News was quick to point out that this wasn’t true, and produced proof that the White House itself had posted online.

“The commitments and investments the White House touted on its own website total $9.7 trillion,” the news outlet reported, noting that the investments Trump has bragged about are in line with previous announcements, or are only slight increases.

A Bloomberg analysis has found that $2.27 trillion of that can’t be considered actual investments, but only “vague promises to increase trade or bilateral economic relationships, or purchase commitments.” And $3.5 trillion would be from sovereign pledges, with $3.5 trillion being investments from corporations.

Of that $3.5 trillion, $2.9 trillion would go toward data centers, according to Bloomberg. On top of that, more than $250 billion of the pledges Trump is claiming as a big accomplishment were actually announced or planned before he was sworn in as president last year.

All of this was part of many embellishments and half-truths in the longest State of the Union address in presidential history. Trump used the address to claim how great he was doing despite most Americans disagreeing, and Democrats let him know during the speech. One claim by Trump was even too much for Republicans to applaud: his boasting about tariffs, which were struck down by the Supreme Court. That’s because most of them agree with the court’s ruling. Too bad most GOP lawmakers are fine with every other destructive decision from the president.

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.