Voters from across the country respond to President Trump’s State of the Union speech.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We asked Americans across the country to share their reactions after last night’s State of the Union.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Greg Hardy (ph) of Florida told us that he has no party affiliation. He also did not vote for Trump in 2024.
GREG HARDY: The thing that stuck out most to me was just his complete refusal to kind of address the affordability crisis, that on top of, you know, his attack on our immigrant population, the teetering towards war it seems that we’re doing with Iran, talking around that. Yeah, definitely doesn’t inspire hope in the way the country’s going, currently.
FADEL: John Edwards (ph), a Republican in Maryland, did vote for Trump.
JOHN EDWARDS: He addressed many concerns that Americans have about the economy and, you know, cutting taxes for Americans and bringing us together and stopping wars, which is an amazing thing for any president to do.
FADEL: He said the president’s State of the Union was upbeat.
EDWARDS: He’s done a remarkable job in his position so far in his second term. And I think there’s three more years of fantastic things that will come of his presidency. And I really pray that we all can get behind him. He’s a great man.
MARTÍNEZ: We heard from Rena Schulte (ph) on this program yesterday. She’s a Democrat in Iowa who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 who also worked with law enforcement for more than 17 years as an attorney. After the speech, she called in to say that the rosy image Trump painted, in her view, is not real.
RENA SCHULTE: These are the darkest times I have witnessed in my lifetime. There’s a lack of basic due process that never in my lifetime I thought I would ever witness, regardless of political affiliation.
MARTÍNEZ: She says she’s horrified by images of ICE agents taking people off the streets.
SCHULTE: The address was like a bizarre pep rally rather than a serious reflection on the state of our nation. Instead of acknowledging the real pain division and fear that many families are experiencing, Donald Trump’s speech focused on exaggerating and distorting visions of our country’s past that don’t really match the reality or the truth of what has happened or what is currently happening.
FADEL: That was Rena Schulte in Iowa, John Edwards in Maryland and Greg Hardy in Florida.
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