Donald Trump’s State of the Union address proves that he lives in Mar-a-La La Land, not the US

Who wouldn’t want to live in Donald Trump’s America? In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, the president presented a rose-tinted vision of a heroic nation awash with cheap gas, abundant jobs, affordable healthcare and a bounty of cut-price eggs. 

Any Republicans worried that Trump might go wildly off script and alienate swathes of middle America with a rage-filled rant breathed a sigh of relief. He largely stayed on topic with an exuberant showman’s speech peppered with words such as “winning”, “champions” and “heroes”, telling voters that they were living in a new “golden age of America”. “The roaring economy is roaring like never before!” he declared to a chamber packed with braying Republicans and stoney-faced Democrats. 

The problem is that many Americans won’t recognise the country that their leader described. From the unicorn-like $1.99 gallon of gasoline to energy-price reductions that he claimed “nobody can believe”, the discrepancy between his proclamations of abundance and the bills and receipts stacking up in people’s wallets was jarring. 

There is some good economic news in the US: the stock market is up, inflation is easing and job growth is solid. Some people will benefit from tax cuts in his Big Beautiful Bill, though economists claim that it will mostly be the rich. However, while some prices are down – including eggs, which have become the unofficial barometer for food inflation – others are rising, particularly utilities, housing costs and certain foods and consumer goods. Millions of people also face soaring healthcare insurance after Trump allowed Obama-era tax credits to lapse. 

The president’s advisors had clearly urged him to accentuate the positives but by refusing to acknowledge any of the hardships facing ordinary Americans, Trump risks seeming out of touch, and on occasion, living in Mar-a-La La Land. Take, for instance, when he claimed to have saved 35 million lives by preventing nuclear war between India and Pakistan or that his tariffs – deemed unconstitutional last week by the Supreme Court – will eventually raise enough revenue to repeal income tax. 

Democrats have recently had successes in off-calendar elections by speaking about the affordability crisis but Trump simply dismissed those concerns as a “dirty, rotten lie”. While he extolled the greatness of himself and the country, there were few new policies. For the president, the problem will come nine months down the line, when the US votes in midterm elections for Senate, House and gubernatorial seats. If Trump’s rainbow-filled future isn’t closer to reality, voters will punish Republican candidates and hand Democrats control of Congress. 

And polling suggests that Trump is lagging on the issues where he should be winning. According to a recent poll by The Washington Post, his approval rating on the economy has dropped 4 points in a year down to 41 per cent.

On immigration, a Reuters/Ipsos survey last week found that just 38 per cent of respondents thought he was doing a good job, down from 50 per cent about a year ago. While many voters wanted their borders secured and criminals deported, they didn’t want to see law-abiding Joy, who waitresses at their local diner, or Fred, who cheerily manicures their lawns each week, taken away from their families. They certainly didn’t want to see small children being detained and US citizens shot dead by heavily armed ICE agents. 

In his speech, Trump didn’t mention Renée Good or Alex Pretti, the two Americans recently killed in Minneapolis by federal agents. Instead, he zoned in on his familiar line detailing horrendous attacks perpetrated by undocumented migrants, even though most of the people being detained by immigration officers have no criminal record. 

But among all the bluster Trump did keep one promise: before Tuesday night, he vowed that his address was “gonna be a long speech” – and indeed it was, coming in at a history-beating one hour and 48 minutes. Just don’t expect him to live up to all the other promises that he made any time soon.