Welcome to meet the press now. I'm Kristen Welker in Washington, and we are just hours away from President Trump's State of the Union address, the first of his second term.

At the White House this afternoon,

President Trump told me and a group of anchors gathered for the traditional pre-state of the

union lunch that he will argue the country is about to have the best three years economically

in the nation's history and that it's already started. Even as polling shows voters have grown increasingly frustrated with his agenda and the direction of the country.

A senior administration official telling NBC News, the president tonight will also unveil new measures to improve affordability.

Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.

The president will lay out the case for why he and Republicans are better suited to

tackle, continue tackling the affordability crisis that was created by the Biden administration

in Democrats on Capitol Hill. And over the past year, there has been tremendous progress

to move the ball forward toward attaining the level of economic prosperity we had under President Trump's first term.

The president's address tonight coming as his approval rating is underwater by double digits.

And as more voters say the economy has gotten worse since he took office last year, adding to the urgency tonight,

the threat that his party could

lose control of Congress in the upcoming midterms with primary voting already underway in key

contests. Today, Republicans urging the president to maintain focus on an upbeat message that they

can run on. I expect it will be a positive affirmation statement about all the things that we have

accomplished together and all the plans we have going forward.

I'll tell about all the good news. The last year has been a great year for President Trump.

This leadership around the world is leadership economically, the big beautiful bill,

the tax cuts for working class families, no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime.

I want to hear an optimistic forward-working vision for the country.

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