Gideon Resnick

Good morning.

President Trump delivers the longest State of the Union address in history, breaking his own record.

NBC News gives us the main takeaways.

It's Wednesday, February 25th.

I'm Gideon Resnick.

This is Apple News Today.

That address to Congress comes at a challenging moment for the president and his party as he faces headwinds before this year's midterm elections.

And as recent polls suggest that Trump's approval ratings have steadily declined.

For much of the nearly two-hour speech, Trump stuck largely to the script, defending his economic record and pointing to policies targeted at middle-class Americans, like Social Security tax cuts and lower mortgage rates.

Sahil Kapoor is a political reporter for NBC News.

He was in the press gallery and gave us his takeaways.

On the economy, Trump returned to the issue of tariffs, which dominated the administration's first year, but were struck down last week in a historic Supreme Court ruling.

Trump said that he and Treasury Secretary Scott Besant would not change course, pledging additional economic sanctions and holding nations to the agreements they've made under threat.

Indeed, a new global tariff rate of 10% went into effect after midnight.

Trump also devoted a lot of time to immigration.

Public support for the administration on this issue, one that in part propelled him back into office, has dropped significantly since the fatal shootings of Rene Good and Alex Preddy in Minneapolis during protests against immigration enforcement.

While Trump spoke of deporting criminals and securing the border, he did not mention the immigration operations in that city that sparked so much backlash.

Then almost 90 minutes in, Trump addressed what could be the most consequential foreign policy decision of his second term, whether to strike Iran.

Right now, there is a massive military presence gathered in the region, and many were listening for a sense of Trump's thinking.

That was one of the few moments that brought some Democrats to their feet.