What Does Trump’s Speech to Congress Say About the Midterms? Three Strategists Weigh in

President Donald Trump’s boastful – and at times rowdy – speech to Congress on Tuesday night touched on everything from the war in Ukraine to concerns over the economic fallout from recently implemented tariffs.

The address, which ran for more than 90 minutes, was a deeply partisan affair. Republicans applauded and cheered Trump as he railed against diversity programs, bragged about how his presidency had driven down the number of illegal border crossings and declared that the United States “will be woke no longer.”

Democrats, meanwhile, heckled Trump throughout his speech. One member, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was ejected from the House chamber after he stood up during Trump’s address and shouted at the president while shaking his cane. 

But peppered throughout the evening were omens and lessons for both Democrats and Republicans, as they look ahead to the 2026 midterm elections. C&E asked three strategists what they took away from Trump’s address.

Alex Conant, Founding Partner at Firehouse Strategies:

“Obviously, it was not a good night for Democrats. I don’t think anybody who is on the fence about Trump was convinced by them. When you’re in the opposition you don’t want to become the story. You want to prosecute the case against the president without becoming his foil. I think last night, the Democrats just did nothing to win over Trump’s backers.”

“The midterms are almost two years away. I think very little of what they do now will be remembered by voters next November. What’s going to be really important is the economy. If inflation is an issue, if the economy is weak, that’s going to be brutal for the party in power. If I was a House Republican right now, I’d be a lot more worried about the stock market than anything else Trump is saying or doing.”

Mike Nellis, Founder and CEO of Authentic:

“I think we tend to over estimate the importance of moments like this, because it used to be something that mattered a great deal. But Trump is such a prevalent figure in politics and society that seeing him give a prime time address just doesn’t register like it used to.

“We have a better sense of how [Republicans] are going to play the midterms. Their economic argument is gone. It’s fallen apart. The fact that he spent most of the speech last night playing to the culture wars and not to the reason he got elected, which was economics, tells you that they’re in trouble. Everything he says about culture wars, at this point, is a distraction to get Americans to focus on that and not on the state of the economy.

“I think the most lasting photo from last night will be of Al Green shaking his cane at Donald Trump. We’re living in the WWE era of politics. [The Republicans] brought this carnival barker attitude to politics, and I think Democrats are going to have to figure that piece of it out if they’re going to engage correctly.”

Joseph Geevarghese, Executive Director of Our Revolution:

“It’s clear to me the Democrats continue to be in disarray. They don’t have a unified message and strategy to really counter what’s coming at us from the Trump administration. To me, the biggest and most glaring problem is that it doesn’t seem like Democrats are moving a strong economic critique of Trumpism. Donald Trump ran as a worker champion. He promised more jobs and better wages. He was a populist…I just don’t think the Democrats are there.”

“At the end of the day, I think the economy is going to be [Republicans’] Achilles’ heel. Even Trump said there’s going to be more pain before there’s gain, in terms of the economy. I think there’s a vulnerability that Democrats could seize on and make it an issue. It’s quite telling that he’s not talking about more jobs and better wages; the issues he ran on. He’s focusing on the cultural issues and some of the things that are a little more inflammatory, rather than the bread-and-butter issues that people want to see.”