The Headlines are Telling & Democrats are Crazy – February 26th, 2026
Takeaway #1: The headlines are telling
In Wednesday’s aftermath of the best address President Trump has ever delivered it was clear just how effective President Trump was. Something I regularly do to get a temperature check of big news events is to sample GSS News. It never fails to be an instructive exercise. Here were the top headlines from GSS News sources yesterday... Trump’s speech explained and fact checked - CNN - this is evidently how dumb CNN now believes its audience to be. So dumb that they believe they need to explain Trump’s speech to the few remaining consumers of their product. Which for the record, I don’t actually think is anywhere near that dumb which simply reflects the fledgling network’s continued disconnect with just about whoever is left over there (which in my experience is someone who has consumed CNN pretty much since the beginning and somewhere along the way decided they’d just stay with it until the end). In all seriousness I have actually had a 94-year-old man tell me not all that long ago that he isn’t happy with CNN but that “he’s too old to try something different”. Then there’s...this headline: Three takeaways from Trump’s marathon speech – NBC News. Now a couple of quick observations here... The first is that while NBC News continues to pretend to be reinventing itself as something that’s objective...they’re simply never as clever as they think they are. Was Trump’s address the longest State-of-the-Union address? Yes, which in practice is why NBC felt it appropriate to use an adjective such as “marathon” to describe it. But here’s the thing. With what context is the adjective “marathon”? It’s a negative thing – right? But here’s the thing, as we discussed yesterday – it didn’t feel that way. While Tuesday’s address was the longest he’s ever delivered, to me and those I’ve asked around me, it didn’t feel that way at all. There are numerous Trump speeches and addresses I’ve felt have been ponderous and perhaps marathons to wade through. Tuesday’s speech wasn’t one of them because he was focused, he was on message, he was at times funny and because the content of the speech was consistently engaging. This was reflected in CNN’s snap poll of viewers of the speech as well – which by a margin of 64% to 36% viewed the address positively. To put that figure in perspective, supporters of the president always are the most likely to watch the speech. That remained true on Tuesday as there were 13% more Republican viewers of the speech than in society overall. But when you adjusted for partisan splits (assuming that all Republicans for example viewed the speech positively – which wasn’t the case but that only further emphasizes the point), we still see that Trump’s speech carried a net positive 15% rating with viewers at large. It’s evident that while NBC Newsers felt like they waded through a marathon, the average viewer didn’t. Then you have this headline: Fact-checking Trump’s State of the Union address – ABC News. You know Trump had a good night when that’s the best the ABC News can do. Which btw, and all of these GSS Newers do it, do you actually know a person who is ever seeking a fact check for an address. Seriously, who is the person who goes to ABC News for a fact check? Jimmy Kimmel? This you have this from a news outlet that is legitimately trying to reinvent itself...Highlights from Trump’s 2026 State of the Union speech – CBS News. You might notice a decidedly different approach and tone. And btw, that article was objectively presented too. And last but not least...Trump Puts On a Show, Casting Democrats as the Villains – NY Times. Credit for creativity from the NYT.
Takeaway #2: Democrats aren’t the solution
I’m not saying that for my benefit. I’m saying that as a matter of fact for those who are persuadable voters. In today’s Q&A I broke down the potential political implications of Tuesday’s STOU address. Usually btw, the answer is that a SOTU address isn’t a political needle mover. But as I outline in the analysis there have been a handful of examples where the SOTU was a political turning point of sorts for presidents and their parties. This year’s address holds the potential to be one of those examples. And for one very big reason that isn’t necessarily about Trump’s performance. It’s that Democrats aren’t viewed as a better solution for the average American. In addition to CNN’s polling showing that 63% of viewers of the address viewed it positively, Sinclair Media followed up the SOTU with this polling question: Who do you think better represents American interests? With tens of thousands of responses pouring in... Democrats: 28%, Republicans 72%. It certainly stands to reason given that not a single Democrat stood when President Trump asked all to stand who believe it’s the first job of congress to represent the interests of American citizens over those of illegal aliens. And here’s the thing, while that’s one snap poll taken immediately after the address – the Democrat Party’s average favorability rating across heading into the address was only 36%. In other words, it’s not a stretch that perhaps an additional eight percent of Americans view Democrats more negatively after their shameful performance Tuesday night. What appears to be clear is that while President Trump and Republicans generally are underwater too, they're not performing anywhere nearly as poorly conceptionally as Democrats currently are. This could have significant midterm ramifications, and it could also have meaningful short-term implications. There’s an indication that Republicans may have a bit of momentum coming out of the address this week. It may be just what they need to pressure Democrats to finally vote for DHS funding and thus an end to the partial government shutdown. Because what’s clear is that what they’ve been doing isn’t working. The average American may not approve of President Trump’s overall performance, or see the GOP favorability – however the average American currently doesn’t see the Democrat Party as being the solution. They see the average Democrat the least favorably of all. That was true before the speech, it’s likely to be even truer today. As Trump said...
Takeaway #3: These people are crazy
After all, wouldn’t you agree that any politician who supports gender transitioning for children is (which was the topic that comment was in reference too)? I have a saying. Hate doesn’t age well. It also doesn’t win over many voters. And for elected Democrats the hate seems to have grown from President Trump to Republicans generally, to most recently the premise of our country. We live in the greatest country the world has ever known, with a higher quality of life than has ever existed before, and unparrelled opportunity. Harboring hate is never a good thing. And hating this country, that truly is crazy.