U.S. President Donald Trump reacts at the end of the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 24, 2026. REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE
MS NOW's Rachel Maddow did her best to wrap her head around President Donald Trump's record-shattering State of the Union Address on Tuesday night — and try to counter all of the lies he told just on the economy alone.
"You have just experienced the longest State of the Union ever in State of the Union history," said Maddow. "It wasn't just the feeling you had, it was the math. Over an hour and 47 minutes, the president blowing out of the water. The previous record for the longest State of the Union speech ever, a record he himself set last year in terms of the length of the speech."
"The bottom line, up front, that people take away from this speech was just how achingly long it was," Maddow continued. "Part of that was because of the pace the president proceeded through this speech with two remarkably different speeds. At the very beginning, he was speaking very quickly and very excitedly, and he ran through a number of striking lies on economic matters."
"The very beginning of the speech, he talked about having inherited the worst inflation in the history of the country, completely ignoring the worst inflation in the history of the country was in the 1980s and the 1920s," said Maddow. "He then talked about gas prices and misstated them dramatically. Gas prices, on average, are like $2.90 a gallon. He was talking about $1.85 a gallon gas. He then talked about his miraculous and best ever in the history of the country job creation. Just for context, 2023, under Joe Biden, the economy created over 2 million jobs. 2024, under Joe Biden, the economy created over 2 million jobs; in 2025, under Donald Trump, job creation was less than 200,000 jobs. So just a wild misstatement by the president."
"Also, in general, talking about the health of the economy, talked about having inherited the worst economy in the history of the country and turned it into the best economic growth," she continued. "GDP growth in 2023 was 2.9 percent under Joe Biden, 2024 was 2.8 percent under Joe Biden. Last year, under Donald Trump, it was 2.2 percent."
"So again, just sort of rushing through these statements, he was bragging about grocery prices, food prices, inflation," Maddow added. "There is actually up 2.9 percent over general inflation at 2.5 percent. Grocery inflation is up this year compared to last year. The president didn't seem very invested in the lies that he was telling about the economy, but he did list a whole bunch of them right off the bat. But as I say, some of the takeaway there, I think is mostly going to be his pace and his freneticism."