Shane Assadzandi

Everybody heard him say Elon is in charge of DOGE, right?

"Good luck Marco," Trump says, addressing the Secretary of State directly. "We know who to blame if things go wrong."

I don't know how it feels to chew 5 Gum, but I do know how it feels to sit through 90 minutes of a Trump speech.

It's a lot like this.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib is making the same face I've made for the last hour. #StateOfTheUnion

Trump backed GOP into a big corner with his “balanced budget” point.

The ONLY way House GOP could even think about upholding their “no cuts to Medicaid” swing seat promises and their spending cut mandates is deficit spending and bad math.

Now they have to gut Medicaid & hand it to Elon in public.

This list is so long and taking up so much real estate in his speech it’s almost like they want to distract from their massive cuts to Medicaid

Make it make sense.

Trump says November 5th will be "one of the most important dates in the history of the country".

Some Dems jeer. The GOP side, which has been quite raucous, is relatively quiet. Trump waits for louder applause, looks from side to side, and then moves on.

Most honest moment of the night so far.

"The days of rule of unelected bureaucrats are over", says Trump, prompting noticeable laughter from the Dems.

No doubt they're thinking of President Elon Musk, who is also present in the chamber.

This is what counts for optimism in 2025.

As Trump spews lies about DOGE savings one member of Congress called him out. He shouted, "Those are lies!"

I barely noticed it over the constant heckling.

Back in 2009 one member of Congress shouted "You lie!" at Barack Obama and it was a scandal.

We are in a much different world now.

Donald Trump now talking about Elon Musk as the cameras pan to the First Lady's section of the gallery.

Trump is notorious for always wanting to be the center of attention, so it's surprising that he would (albeit briefly) shine a spotlight on the President of the United States.

'Drill, baby, drill" says Trump as he begins talking about energy.

People living in New York, Minnesota, and Michigan will soon pay an extra 25% for electric because those states source most of their energy from Canada.

We're 20 minutes into the State of the Union and we've heard a lot about Trump's election win, Mount Denali, The Gulf of Mexico, and trans athletes. Culture war word salad. Not a word about consumer protections or cheaper prices.

Donald Trump: "I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech"

Me:

Exactly.

"I withdrew us from the anti-American UN Human Rights Council".

Just an absolutely stunning statement right there.

Photo of Marjorie Taylor Greene's MAGA hat. Hats are against the House dress code especially during such a formal event. Mike Johnson, strangely, does not seem concerned about this lack of decorum.

Democrats were actually showing a little bit of spine for a few minutes there. I was impressed. Hard to say if that will persist after Green's removal from the chamber. Several of them are holding protest signs.

We're 5 minutes into Trump's address to Congress and already one Democrat, Representative Al Green, has been removed from the chamber.

"The American Dream is surging bigger than ever before"

Not sure the thousands of fired federal workers would agree with this one.

Do you really need me to answer that one? 😉

Donald Trump hasn't been made it to the podium and already the Republicans are chanting "USA! USA!"

Imagine wrapping your entire personality around one man like this.

It would honestly drive me crazier to not watch it. To me, not knowing is harder than knowing. But I totally get why people are tuning this one out. I expect ratings to either be sky-high or in the toilet. There won't be an in-between.

I am in position and ready to live-Tweet...er, live-Sky?...this speech that is sure to be...a speech. The one thing I'm sure of is that it is going to be a speech.

Also, I did leave BlueSky for a bit. Purposely didn't put the app on my phone but then it turns out I just didn't use it. Trying to be more deliberate now.

I did....and I have no idea what to make of it. That seat really is like the Defense Against The Dark Arts job. It's cursed.

The horrors persist and so do you ✊

Who has 2 thumbs and is going to sit through every word of the #StateOfTheUnion tonight so you don't have to? This guy!

Follow for snarky real-time commentary, and to see how long it takes for this joyous smile to twist into a grimace after the eldritch horrors spew from his spray-tanned mouth.

On January 20th Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office and told reporters that he'd put a 100% tariff on imports from Spain. "They're a BRICS nation, Spain," he said, referring to the growing intergovernmental organization.

There are 2 nations in BRICS that start with S. Spain is not one of them.