State of the Union live updates: President Trump to address the nation at key moment
President Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., as a majority of Americans disapprove of how the president is handling inflation, tariffs, relations with other countries, immigration and the economy, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.
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For Trump, the high-profile speech is a chance to make the case directly to millions of Americans ahead of November's midterm elections where control of Congress is at stake.
Dozens of Democrats, meanwhile, are set to skip the speech in protest.
ABC News will have special coverage of the State of the Union and the Democratic response Tuesday night. Watch starting at 9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST on ABC and streaming on Disney+, Hulu, and ABC News Live.
As attendees begin to gather in the U.S. Capitol, here are some more notable guests.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is bringing Hanan Lischinsky, the brother of slain Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky, to attend the speech.
House Republicans have also invited NASA's Artemis II crew: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
House Democrats have invited several Jeffrey Epstein survivors, including Haley Robson, Annie Farmer and Marina Lacerda. Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, will also be in the House chamber.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has also invited the family of late Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died last week.GOP conference chair on high stakes of Trump's speech
ABC News Live "Prime" anchor Linsey Davis spoke with House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain of Michigan about President Trump's highly-anticipated address.
McClain previewed what she expects the president to emphasize -- economic progress, tax cuts and affordability -- and weighed in on the political stakes ahead of the midterm elections.
"I think any time this president speaks, it is very, very crucial, right? As the conference messenger, I take my cues from the White House and from our Republican colleagues as to what message we're going to send forward. And the message that we're really trying to send is forward is commonsense, affordability, bringing costs down and bringing wages up, and we do that through less regulation and lower taxes," McClain said.
Senate Democrats vote to block DHS funding ahead of Trump's address
The president will be entering a Capitol where lawmakers are at an impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security as Democrats demand changes to how federal immigration agents conduct raids.
Legislation to fund the department failed to advance in the Senate yet again Tuesday evening as every Democrat present except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted against it. There has been little sign of movement toward an agreement to reopen DHS since it shut down 10 days ago.
Trump says his State of the Union will be long - and that's his normalThe president says to expect a long address. He's already been the most loquacious president from LBJ forward, as measured by the University of California Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project.
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Trump's joint addresses and State of the Union speeches in his first presidency averaged 80 minutes and 20 seconds. Last year, his joint address topped 99 minutes - longer than any recorded State of the Union.
Only Bill Clinton, at almost 75 minutes, regularly approached Trump's duration.
