U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at an event to honor "Angel Families" who have lost family members to crimes committed by people in the country illegally, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 23, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump gave angel families at the White House on Monday a small preview of Tuesday’s State of the Union address, while delivering a rambling, often off-script speech at an event where he hosted families of victims of foreign criminal organizations.
“It’s going to be a long speech because we have so much to talk about,” the president remarked.
“We have a country that’s now doing well,” he also said. “We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had, we have the most activity we’ve ever had. I’m making a speech tomorrow night, and you’ll be hearing me say that.”
During the approximately one-hour event, Trump mentioned “these crazy shooters” who go after “consequential” presidents, like Lincoln and JFK.
Trump attributed Kennedy’s being consequential to his “glamour.”
“So maybe I want to be a little bit less consequential,” he said. “Can we hold it back a little bit, please?”
“We had the greatest first term of any president in history,” Trump claimed. “Even radical left people have said that.”
He also alleged that “25 million people” came into the U.S. under President Joe Biden. BBC News, which debunked Trump’s 25 million people claim in December, reported that the “number of migrant crossings at the US border did reach record highs under Biden but not to the level Trump – who has never provided a source for these claims – states.”
Claiming that he “won in a landslide,” Trump said that the “one thing that I regret, about the election and the process, ’cause it’s a much bigger, more important, you look at what we’re doing throughout the world. We’re respected like we’ve never been before.”
“But the one thing that I can’t do anything about is that [Biden] allowed 25 million people, many of these murderers, drug lords, criminals, people from mental institutions, they emptied their mental institutions,” Trump claimed in a long statement.
“All over the world?” he continued. “Not just in South America. They emptied their jails. Many of them from all over the world. Why? Why would we do this? And they walk in, nobody even asks for, like, do you have an identification? Do you have an ID? Um… It’s so crazy. You know, the mayor of New York, and he’s a very nice person. I met him, but his ideology’s not too good. But, uh.. We’re having a massive snowstorm right now. And I’ve heard that he’s asked people to come out and help shovel the snow. Okay, so you get a shovel and you start shoveling, right? What the hell you’re not gonna help too much, but you can help. And hello, darling. Are you? No, right behind you. Look, my friend, right? Are you okay? Yes, you. Are you okay? Are you okay? Good. Good. Good. Are your eyes okay? I gave her money to get her eyes fixed. A lot of money to get her eyes fixed. That doctor ripped me off, but that’s okay.”
Addressing his polling numbers, Trump denied he is at forty percent approval (latest polls show even less, with a new CNN poll at 36 percent), saying his numbers were “much higher,” and insisted that he has a great deal of “silent support.”
“I’d love to run against anybody,” he continued. “The real polls say you kill everybody — wouldn’t even be close.”
He also insisted that his second term is “much more powerful” than it would have been had he won in 2020, “because there would be nothing to compare it to. Now they compare it to Biden and that horrible, horrible administration.”
“It just amazes me that there’s not more support out there,” he told the families. “We actually have a silent support, it’s silent — that’s how I won I guess — probably 85 million votes. They say 78 million, 79 million. They cheated at this election too, it was just too big to rig. Too big to rig. But they cheated like hell.”