Second lady Usha Vance announces she is pregnant with 4th child

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, in which he touted his administration’s achievements so far and sparred with Democrats opposed to his agenda.

“Our nation is back,” Trump said as he kicked off what would be the longest State of the Union speech in history.

The moment marked one of Trump’s most high-profile chances to speak directly to Americans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and counter his low approval ratings.

More than 70 Democrats boycotted the address, and about a dozen more walked out of the House chamber throughout his 108-minute speech. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivered the Democratic response.

Here are the key takeaways:

Trump touted economy, immigration policies

Trump tried to make his case on the economy and immigration, as polls show most Americans are displeased with how he’s handled those two issues.

He painted a rosy picture of the economy, touting lower gas prices and a booming stock market. He blamed Democrats for inflation, which he said was now “plummeting,” and he vowed to make health care more affordable, calling on Congress to codify his drug pricing initiatives and make his plan to pay Americans so they can buy insurance directly a reality.

“The roaring economy is roaring like never before,” Trump said.

But a recent ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos found only about one-third of Americans approve of his handling of inflation, and more than half (57%) disapprove of his handling of the economy.

On immigration, Trump boasted of low border crossings and defended his administration’s deportation on “illegal alien criminals.” He shared several graphic stories of American families affected by illegal immigration, and some were in the audience for the address, including a young girl injured after being hit by an undocumented immigrant driving an 18-wheeler.

Trump again pushed Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, legislation that would require voters to show ID and proof of citizenship. Democrats in the Senate say the bill is a nonstarter.

The ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found immigration to be Trump’s best and worst issue.

Trump had a tense exchange with Democrats, including Ilhan Omar

The most heated moment of the night came when Trump and several Democrats exchanged words.

Trump asked lawmakers to stand if they agreed that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Trump said those who did not stand should “be ashamed of themselves.”

“You have killed Americans,” Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar shouted back, referencing the fatal shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis.

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan also jumped into the fray, shouting, “You’re the most corrupt president!”

At one point, Trump took a jab at former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as he called for a ban on members of Congress trading stocks — a proposal met with a standing ovation, including from some Democrats.

“Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she’s here? Doubt it,” Trump said. Pelosi has faced allegations of trading on insider information during her time in Congress but has denied any impropriety.

Special guests in the spotlight

One of the biggest bipartisan moments of the night was when Trump feted the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team. Democrats and Republicans were on their feet as the athletes entered the gallery wearing their gold medals.

Trump specifically shouted out goaltender Connor Hellebuyck for his performance, saying he will award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the nation’s highest civilian honor. 

Trump also congratulated the U.S. women’s hockey team, who also won gold in Milan. The women’s team declined an invitation to attend his speech, but Trump said they will visit the White House.

Another notable moment occurred when Trump addressed Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. She wiped away tears as Trump spoke and Vice President JD Vance, a close friend of Charlie Kirk’s who has already earned Turning Point USA’s presidential endorsement for 2028, was among the first to clap. Pelosi, whose husband was attacked in 2022, stood up and clapped when Trump condemned political violence.

Petty Officer Scott Ruskan, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer credited with saving 165 people during last year’s deadly July 4 flooding in the Texas Hill Country, was awarded the Legion of Merit. Trump also awarded two congressional Medals of Honor, one to Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover for the actions he took during the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the other to 100-year-old retired Navy Capt. Royce Williams, who shot down four Soviet MiG fighters in a Korean War encounter that was kept secret for almost 40 years.

Trump criticized the Supreme Court as justices looked on

With four Supreme Court justices seated in the front row, Trump continued to criticize last week’s ruling striking down most of his global tariffs.

The justices remained stone-faced as Trump spoke. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who Trump nominated to the high court and who ruled against his tariffs, was among the justices in attendance.

Trump called the decision “unfortunate” and “disappointing” but said he’ll move the policy forward under different legal authorities. The president also notably said he’ll move forward with tariffs without action from Congress, despite Republican majorities in both chambers.  

Democrats in the chambers applauded as Trump spoke about the Supreme Court rebuke.

Trump had a warning for Iran

Trump delivered a message to Iran as tensions continue to build in the region, vowing Tehran would not obtain a nuclear weapon.

“They were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue, starting it all over,” Trump said. “We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again and are, at this moment, again pursuing their sinister ambitions.”

“We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,'” Trump said.

The president said his preference would be diplomacy, but said no country should test America’s resolve.

“One thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. 

ABC News’ Ivan Pereira and Meredith Delisio contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Conservatives from across the country will descend on Texas this week for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the largest gatherings for Republicans in the year.

But the yearly gathering comes during a fraught time for the party as the ongoing war with Iran has split some of President Donald Trump’s MAGA followers.

And for the first time in nearly a decade, Trump will not attend the event. A White House official told ABC News that Trump could not attend due to his schedule and the ongoing conflict in Iran.

Vice President JD Vance, who spoke at the gathering last year, is also not listed as a speaker.

Since the war began in February, notable Trump allies have publicly broken from him over the conflict. Most recently, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned over his opposition to the war, making him the highest-profile administration official to step down over the issue.

Other MAGA allies, such as Tucker Carlson and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, have spoken out against the war.

Bannon, who will speak at CPAC, said on his “War Room” podcast this month that if the war becomes “a hard slog,” it could cost the GOP voters before November’s midterm elections.

“We’re going to bleed support,” Bannon said at the time.

In an interview with Piers Morgan earlier this month, Carlson said the Iran war was a “betrayal” to Trump’s supporters.

“Breaking faith with those people, those voters, the ones who actually got Trump elected and whose coalition promised a new day in American politics, that’s a big deal. It’s a betrayal on the level that I don’t think people who aren’t in those groups can understand, like, this is heartbreak. This is heartbreaking,” Carlson said.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate and has been supportive of the war, is also scheduled to speak at the gathering.

A Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday found that a little more than half — 54% — of voters oppose the U.S. military action in Iran, while 39% support it.

But 86% of Republicans overall support Trump’s military action while 92% of Democrats and 64% of independents oppose it, according to the Quinnipiac poll.

CPAC occurs this year as the midterm primaries are underway and comes ahead of the bitter Texas Senate Republican primary runoff between Sen. John Cornyn, who has held his seat since 2002, and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, which Trump hasn’t yet made an endorsement in.

Paxton is slated to address Friday’s Ronald Reagan Dinner, while Cornyn is not scheduled to speak.

Other notable GOP candidates attending the event include former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, who’s running for retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis’ seat in North Carolina, and businessman Nate Morris, who is running for retiring Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s seat in Kentucky.

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(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump looked on during an unprecedented visit to the Supreme Court, a majority of justices appeared skeptical of his administration’s bid to end birthright citizenship during arguments in the landmark case Wednesday.

Most of the court’s conservatives and all three liberal members raised doubts about the constitutionality of Trump’s Day 1 executive order that would limit American citizenship at birth only to those born to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

It would also impose sweeping changes for all new parents and current American citizens going forward, requiring a new system to verify a person’s citizenship beyond a simple birth certificate.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, says all “persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are citizens. Congress later codified the same language in federal citizenship law in 1940 and again in 1952.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction” applies only to children whose parents have “allegiance” to the U.S., which he said is determined by being “domiciled” in the country.

The meaning of ‘domiciled’

The 1898 landmark Supreme Court decision in U.S. v Wong Kim Ark, widely considered to be the precedent affirming birthright citizenship, concluded, “The [14th] Amendment, in clear words and in manifest intent, includes the children born, within the territory of the United States, of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States.”

Sauer said “domiciled” means living in the U.S. lawfully with “intent to stay.”

But many of the court’s conservatives questioned how that definition was derived and whether it aligned with the views of the framers of the 14th Amendment and members of Congress who codified the citizenship clause.

Trump — the first sitting president to attend the high court’s arguments — was seated in the front row of the public gallery alongside White House Counsel David Warrington, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.  

As Sauer parried with the justices, Trump sat attentive and expressionless. His presence in the chamber was not publicly announced or acknowledged by any of the justices on the bench. While Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Brett Kavanaugh, and Elena Kagan were most immediately in his line of sight, it was not clear whether any justice on the bench made eye contact with him. Trump also did not engage with anyone seated beside him or in the chamber.

Trump departed the chamber as ACLU Legal Director Cecilia Wang was in the middle of delivering her opening statement, in which she argued that the principle of birthright citizenship was enshrined in the Constitution to prevent government officials from stripping citizenship away.

“Ask any American what our citizenship rule is, and they’ll tell you, everyone born here is a citizen alike,” Wang said. “That rule was enshrined in the 14th Amendment to put it out of the reach of any government official to destroy.”

“If you credit the government’s theory, the citizenship of millions of Americans past, present and future could be called into question,” Wang said.

‘Very quirky arguments’

Sauer got a somewhat frosty reception from at least two key Supreme Court Justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch — during his arguments, in which he contended that the longstanding understanding of the 14th Amendment is incorrect.

“The citizenship clause was adopted just after the Civil War to grant citizenship to the newly freed slaves and their children whose allegiance to the United States had been established by generations of domicile. Here, it did not grant citizenship to the children of temporary visitors or illegal aliens who have no such allegiance,” Sauer said.

Roberts noted that the Trump administration is relying on “very quirky” arguments, saying they are using “narrow exceptions” to claim that a much broader class of people should be ineligible for birthright citizenship.

“You know, children of ambassadors, children of enemies during a hostile invasion, children on warships, and then you expand it to the whole class of illegal aliens here in the country — I’m not quite sure how you can get to that big group from such tiny and sort of idiosyncratic examples,” said Roberts.

Gorsuch also remarked that the Trump administration seems to be relying on outdated “Roman law sources” and court precedents that do not work in their favor.

“I’m not sure how much you want to rely on Wong Kim Ark,” Gorsuch remarked about the landmark 1898 case that enshrined birthright citizenship.

Justice Elena Kagan similarly voiced concerns about the sources cited by the Trump administration.

“You’re using some pretty obscure sources to get to this concept,” she said.

‘Illegal immigration’

Justice Samuel Alito initiated a discussion on “illegal immigration” by noting that it was “something that was basically unknown” at the time when the 14th amendment was adopted in the 1860s.

“What we’re dealing with here is something that was basically unknown at the time when the 14th Amendment was adopted, which is illegal immigration,” Alito said. “So how do we deal with that situation when we have a general rule?”

Sauer responded by agreeing with Alito, saying that “illegal immigration did not exist [then],” and “the problem of temporary visitors didn’t exist.”

Sauer pointed to “commentators” from 1881 to 1922 who, he claimed, were “uniformly saying the children of temporary visitors are not included.” He argued that this logic “naturally extends” to those who enter the country illegally.

Justice Kagan challenged Sauer’s argument on immigration, saying his arguments in his brief did not focus on “illegal immigration.”

“Most of your brief is about people who are just temporarily in the country where there was quite clearly an experience of an understanding that there were going to be temporary inhabitants,” Kagan said. “And your whole theory of the case is built on that group.”

“You don’t get to talking about undocumented persons until quite later, and at much lesser … I think it’s like 10 pages to three pages or something like that,” she said.

When asked about how the Trump administration would apply their birthright citizenship executive order, pointed to a guidance document from the Social Security Administration issued last year.

“How does this work? Are you suggesting that when a baby is born, people have to have documents present in the delivery room?” Justice Jackson asked.

“I think that’s directly addressing the SSA guidance that cited in our brief, what SSA says,” Sauer responded.

Justice Jackson appeared skeptical of that response, pressing Sauer about the steps of the process and whether a parent could challenge a final decision.

“We’ll give you a social security number, provided that there’s the system [that] automatically checks the immigration status of the parents — which there are robust databases for — and then it appears no different to the vast majority of birthing parents,” Sauer said.

Birth tourism

In his opening statements, Sauer laid out one of the Trump administration’s key arguments about why birthright citizenship should not be extended to the children of undocumented immigrants, claiming that if it remains “unrestricted” it will continue to be a “pull factor for illegal immigration” and would “reward” immigrants who violate immigration laws.

“It has spawned a sprawling industry of birth tourism as uncounted thousands of foreigners from potentially hostile nations have flocked to give birth in the United States in recent decades, creating a whole generation of American citizens abroad with no meaningful ties to the United States,” Sauer said.

The Trump administration has often claimed that birth tourism — the idea that foreign nationals travel to the U.S. with the sole purpose of having a child here — poses a national security risk and undermines birthright citizenship.

Justice Roberts pressed Sauer to explain how common the problem is, but Sauer was unable to give a clear answer.

“No one knows for sure. There’s a March 9 letter from a number of members of Congress to DHS saying, ‘Do we have any information about this?’ The media reports indicate estimates could be over one million, or 1.5 million from the People’s Republic of China alone. The congressional report that we cite in our brief talks about certain hotspots, like Russian elites coming to Miami through these birth tourism companies,” Sauer said.

Sauer went on to claim that media reports indicate there are 500 “birth tourism companies” in China, prompting Justice Roberts to interject to ask if Sauer agreed that had “no impact on the legal analysis before us.”

“We’re in a new world now as Justice Alito pointed out, to where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who is a U.S. citizen,” Sauer added later.

In a statement Wednesday morning, ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero addressed Trump’s attendance at the proceedings, saying Trump would “watch the ACLU school him in the meaning of the Constitution and birthright citizenship.”

“Any effort to distract from the gravity and importance of this case will not succeed. The Supreme Court is up to the task of interpreting and defending the Constitution even under the glare of a sitting president a couple dozen feet away from them,” he said.

Wednesday’s arguments concluded after about two hours. A ruling in the case isn’t expected until the end of June.

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