Trump’s defiant message: US is ‘hottest country anywhere in the world’
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
After a tumultuous start to his second term, President Donald Trump is looking to reset the reigning narrative about his leadership with Americans. In his first State of the Union address of his second term, the president tried to sell the country on his economic agenda, working to counter increasingly dim views of his economic stewardship. Did he succeed? And critically, will he able to convince Americans to keep Republicans’ control of Congress in the midterms? USA TODAY Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page joins The Excerpt to share her analysis.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | After a tumultuous start to his second term, President Donald Trump is looking to reset the rainy narrative about his leadership with Americans. |
| 0:14.8 | In his first state of the union address of his second term, the president tried to sell the country on his economic agenda, working to |
| 0:22.8 | counter increasingly dim views of his economic stewardship. Did he succeed? |
| 0:32.9 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, February 25, |
| 0:38.3 | 26. Here to help me break down Trump's message to the American people, I'm now joined by USA Today, |
| 0:45.8 | Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page. Susan, thank you so much for joining me. |
| 0:50.6 | It's great to be with you, Dana. Susan, the bulk of Tuesday night's speech was really all about the economy. |
| 0:58.0 | While Trump has been boasting about how he's transformed the economy, Americans really aren't |
| 1:04.0 | feeling it. |
| 1:05.0 | What did the president say to try to shift the narrative here? |
| 1:09.0 | Dana, what an interesting speech this was. I mean, put aside the fact it's the longest state of the union in recorded history. |
| 1:16.6 | You know, he broke his own record from last year's speech to a joint session of Congress. |
| 1:21.6 | But he also did something he almost never does. |
| 1:24.6 | He stuck to his script. |
| 1:26.6 | There were a few asides. He made fun of Nancy Pelosi at one point, for instance, but generally he was reading from the teleprompter, something he almost never does. And he did that with a very carefully crafted economic message. And his message was, the economy is great. I inherited a mess and I've turned it around. |
| 1:46.0 | And he cited some positive economic statistics to make his case. |
| 1:51.9 | Now, there wasn't a sort of, I feel your pain kind of moment that would have maybe made |
| 1:58.3 | Americans who feel uncertain about the economy feel better. |
| 2:01.6 | And he kind of dismissed the idea of affordability as a word that Democrats had concocted. |
| 2:08.6 | But he did make sort of his best case. |
| 2:11.6 | Now, will it be good enough, you know, the history of presidents trying to convince Americans, the economy is better |
| 2:19.0 | than they think it is. That is not a promising one. You can just ask Joe Biden. But I did think |
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