U.S. President Donald Trump put the economy and immigration front and center in his State of the Union address on Tuesday (February 24), but the speech offered little in the way of new policy direction, a political expert said.

Trump touted his economic record during the longest State of the Union address in history, boasting that he had ushered in a "golden age" as he sought to project an aura of success at a fraught moment for his presidency.

"The president had a pretty tall task. He has to convince people that his approach is the right approach. And it's a challenge in an election year when he's got his approval numbers dropping, the economy is not in a recession, but certainly not growing and he's got a pretty uphill battle convincing people that the inflation animal is being tamed," said Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston.

Trump repeated the same rhetoric on immigration that animated his 2024 campaign, claiming undocumented migrants were responsible for a wave of violent crime despite studies showing that is not the case.

Trump chastised Democrats for refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless measures are taken to curb the aggressive tactics of immigration agents under his administration.

"He took a lot of time in the speech to talk about immigration, especially undocumented immigration, and that was definitely a sellable and winnable argument for Republicans," Rottinghaus said. "That's an issue on which the president can win. And it's obvious that's going to be where they try to make a stand going forward."

Opinion polls show a majority of Americans believe Trump's immigration crackdown has gone too far, after two U.S. citizens were shot dead by masked federal agents in Minneapolis.

Posted by: AAngeles/NET25 News