By Joseph Lord
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Jan. 7 formally invited President Donald Trump to deliver a State of the Union address to Congress.
“It is my distinct honor and great privilege to invite President Trump to deliver the State of the Union on February 24, 2026,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.
“Since his return to office, @POTUS has not stopped working for the American people and delivering on his promises. The best is yet to come.”
It will be the first formal State of the Union address of Trump’s second term.
In a letter attached to his post addressed to Trump, Johnson noted that this State of the Union address would come the same year as the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.
“As our nation marks the Semiquincentennial Anniversary of American Independence, the United States stands stronger, freer, and more prosperous under your leadership and bold action,” Johnson said. “Together in 2025, your administration and the 119th Congress delivered one of the most consequential agendas in history, and Americans across this great country will experience the tangible results of commonsense governance.
“We look forward to advancing the important work ahead of us in 2026, serving the American people, defending liberty, and preserving this grand experiment in self-governance. To that end, it is my distinct honor and great privilege to invite you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.”
This will be the second address Trump has given to Congress since taking back the presidency in January 2025. However, under custom, an address is titled a “State of the Union” only after the current administration has been in power for at least one year.
Thus, this will be Trump’s sixth joint address to Congress since his first term began in 2017, but it will be only his fourth State of the Union address.
In March 2025, Trump delivered his most recent joint address to Congress.
That address came less than two months after Trump returned to the White House, as major changes to the federal bureaucracy and organizations were already well underway.
In that speech, Trump said he planned to bring about a “common sense revolution,” to ramp up deportations, and to deliver tax cuts for all Americans in line with his 2024 campaign promises.
At the time, Republicans were still in the early stages of working through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s signature tax and spending bill that was signed into law in July 2025.
Trump has not yet formally replied to the invitation, but he is expected to attend the constitutionally mandated annual address.
In his trip to Capitol Hill this year, Trump will address Congress under very different circumstances.
He’s expected to highlight the successes of his first full year back in office, emphasizing deportations and the reduction of illegal migration at the southern border.
Trump is also expected to discuss foreign policy successes his administration has achieved over the past year, from negotiated peace between India and Pakistan and between the Hamas terrorist group and Israel to his ongoing efforts to secure an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
With midterms on the horizon, Trump may also seek to assuage Americans’ concerns about some of the more controversial aspects of his administration, such as the lapse in funding for Affordable Care Act health care subsidies.
