OPINION:
“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens,” President Trump challenged Democrats during his State of the Union address this week.
The president took a risk — wagering that defiant Democrats would remain in their seats — and, astonishingly, they did.
“Isn’t that a shame? You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself,” Mr. Trump admonished.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, you just watched live the framing of the 2026 elections,” Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio wrote on X during the speech. “Take note of who stood and who sat on their hands. Thank you @POTUS.”
Mr. Trump’s requests during his speech weren’t onerous or even overtly political.
He asked Democrats to stand for the Olympic gold-winning men’s hockey team, to support showing identification in order to vote in federal elections, to ban illegal immigrants from gaining commercial driver’s licenses to prevent them from crashing 18-wheelers on our nation’s highways, and to have compassion for American families who lost loved ones at the hands of illegal aliens.
The Democrats refused it all.
After Mr. Trump’s speech, Democratic Rep. Janelle Bynum said it was “racist” and “uncomfortable” when the president asked Democrats to stand up for American citizens. The New York Times’ The Athletic ran a piece on the men’s hockey team, noting that “it’s nice to be feted as a winner,” however, “who’s celebrating you — and why they’re doing it — matters more.” Because it was President Trump, the celebration was wrong, they concluded.
The Democrats who boycotted Mr. Trump’s speech and attended a “State of the Swamp” counterrally cheered on men dressed in giraffe costumes, bragging about getting arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and antifa thugs in frog costumes. Rep. Ilhan Omar decided to attend the State of the Union and brought as her guests Minneapolis ICE agitators. One was arrested in the House chamber that evening for disrupting the speech.
Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released a video, entirely in Spanish, promoting free day care for illegal aliens paid for by you, the U.S. taxpayer.
Earlier this year, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union, ended all state cooperation with ICE to round up and deport repeat illegal alien criminal offenders.
She said in her response that ICE officers were nothing more than “unaccountable agents” who “terrorize our communities.” She failed to recognize their efforts earlier this month in arresting a criminal illegal alien from Iran in Norfolk, Virginia, who was charged with raping a woman, a boy and a girl on American soil.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down as Democrats demand that Republicans “rein in” ICE, requiring agents to remove masks during operations and obtain judicial warrants for entering private property, among other stipulations curbing federal immigration enforcement.
It’s important to note that ICE’s operational tactics haven’t changed in decades and are the same under Mr. Trump as they were when President Obama oversaw about 3 million deportations, the highest number of removals of any U.S. president. Alas, Mr. Obama was a Democrat, so there was no outrage or demand for immigration reform then.
This brings me to my last point: Democrats feel pride in America and our democratic systems only when they are in charge.
According to a Gallup poll measuring how proud respondents were to be an American by political party, Democrats’ patriotism dramatically dipped around 2016, when Mr. Trump was elected to his first term, and then only briefly rebounded after Joseph R. Biden’s victory.
In contrast, from 2001 to 2025, Republicans were consistently proud to be American — no matter which party won the White House — holding steady at 90% or above, according to Gallup. In 2001, 87% of Democrats felt the same. Last year, that number plummeted to 36%.
Democrats hate Mr. Trump more than they love America, and their hatred was on full display Tuesday night in dismissing a gold medal Olympic team and parents who lost children to murderous illegal aliens, and by defending illegal aliens’ right to vote in our national elections and drive big rigs around our country.
Mr. Fabrizio was correct: The midterms were defined Tuesday evening between those willing to stand for our country and those who, unfortunately, want to burn it all down if they’re not in charge.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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