The State of the Union Address 2026 Was a Lie

➡ Every year, the U.S. President claims the State of the Union is strong, but many Americans feel this isn’t true due to struggles with high living costs, low wages, and increasing debt. The average rent is $2,000 a month, food prices have risen by 30% since 2020, and many people are earning less than they did a year ago. Meanwhile, the government is spending billions on military technology while many Americans can’t afford basic living expenses. The article also mentions a case of injustice involving Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting that the government’s priorities are misplaced.
➡ The text criticizes the current state of the United States, highlighting issues such as the Epstein scandal, economic inequality, and the manipulation of the public by those in power. It argues that the system is designed to benefit the wealthy and powerful, while ordinary citizens struggle with rising costs and declining wages. The text also suggests that the government is more interested in protecting its own interests than in serving the people. It ends by encouraging the reader to recognize these issues and take action.

Every year, the President of the United States stands behind a podium, looks into the camera, and tells you the State of the Union is strong. Every year, it doesn’t matter who it is, it doesn’t matter what party, it doesn’t matter if the country is bleeding out on the floor, the State of the Union is always strong. You’ve watched it, you’ve sat through the applause lines, the standing ovations, the handshakes, the rehearsed emotions, all of it. And somewhere in the back of your mind, if you’re like me anyway, maybe when you’re checking your bank account when you’re doing the math at the gas pump, or staring at a medical bill that you can’t pay.

You’ve thought the same thing, that millions of Americans have thought. None of this is true, the State of the Union is not strong, everything they said was a lie, and it feels like every day gets worse and worse for me. So, picture this. The President walks up to the podium, and for once, just one time, says what every working person in this country already knows, it would go something like this. My fellow Americans, the State of the Union is a lie. It’s not struggling, it’s not facing challenges, it’s not navigating headwinds, it’s a lie, and every single person sitting in this chamber tonight knows it.

The donors writing the checks know it, the lobbyists who are drafting legislations know it, the defense contractors, the pharmaceutical executives, the hedge fund managers who are watching from their penthouses they bought with your retirement money. They’ve always known it. The only people who don’t seem to know it are the ones who are paying for it. You. So, let me do something no President has ever done before, on this podium. Let me tell you the truth about the State of our Union. The average rent in this country is now $2,000 a month.

That’s $24,000 a year just to keep a roof over your head. The medium wage? Well, it’s about $25 an hour. And that’s actually very generous, because in a lot of states, $25 an hour seems like a pipe dream, okay? Consider the minimum wage and how many states is still $7.25 an hour. Is that a living wage? Not even close. Do the math. After taxes, after health insurance, which we’ll get to by the way, after the deductions, each your check. Before you even see any money, half of your income goes to your landlord.

Not to your mortgage, not to equity, not to building anything long term. No, rent. Somebody else’s investment property. Nine million Americans who wanted to buy a house got priced out of the market since 2022. Nine million families who did everything they were told. They saved money. They worked hard and they waited. And guess what? The door was shut in their face anyway. First time home buyers fell 26%. That’s the lowest rate in over a decade. The American dream isn’t dying. It’s dead. And it’s being sold to private equity and rented back to you at a markup.

And groceries? Well, let’s talk about that. Because food prices have increased nearly 30% since 2020. Let that sink in. 30%. Your paycheck didn’t go up 30%. For most of you, either it barely went up at all or it’s gone down because everywhere, all over the country, jobs are being cut. Hours are being cut. How are you supposed to pay your bills when you’re only getting 15, 20 hours a week? Get another job. So you work two jobs working $20 each. And guess what? Maybe that’s enough to pay your bills and maybe it’s not.

And if it’s not, what do you do? Look for a third job? For low-wage workers, all across the country, the people who are stocking shelves, the people who are cooking your food, the people serving your food, the people working at the stores, the people pumping your gas, the people driving the trucks that bring you all your goods every day, the people who clean those buildings. Well, they saw their actual wages, their living wages decline last year. Most people around the country right now are making less than they did a year ago. And when you factor in all of the increases in prices of everything, things are starting to look grim.

Beef is up over 16% in just a year. People can’t even afford to buy burgers and steaks anymore. Orange juice is up 30%. Coffee, nearly up 12%. But that’s okay, guys, right? Because the Dow Jones Industrial Average is at record highs. The S&P 500 also broke records. Corporate profits are at historic levels. So the economy is doing great, right? That’s what they’re going to tell you. The economy is doing fantastic. Look at the AI companies. Look at how many trillions of dollars in video’s worth. Well, yeah, it’s doing great for them. For the people in this room, that’s doing great for the people who work in the government, it’s doing great for all the people with the inside information, like Nancy Pelosi.

For all the people who own stocks, for all the people who sit on boards, who write the tax code, and then walk through loopholes like they’re built into it. These people don’t pay taxes like you and I pay. These people spend their whole career trying to find loopholes so they don’t pay taxes. They’re laughing all the way to the bank. But for you and me, this economy is a slow motion eviction notice. Young workers all across the country right now are experiencing the sharpest income slowdown in the history of our country.

They can’t find jobs. They can’t switch jobs because there’s a hiring freeze. All across the country, the biggest companies are now not hiring anymore. Why? Well, it’s because they’re implementing AI and they’re trying to replace people like us. Normal people can’t buy homes because the prices are insane. They can’t invest because they’re using credit cards to buy groceries. And the people on the financial news networks sit there straight faced and talk about consumer confidence. There is no consumer confidence. This country is flushing down the toilet as you watch this, okay? Consumer confidence is a joke.

That’s what they talk about. 53% of Americans say that grocery prices alone are a significant source of stress. Not an inconvenience. Stress. The kind that follows you to bed. The kind that makes you do math in the cereal aisle. The kind that makes a parent choose between fresh vegetables and keeping the lights on. In the richest country in the history of civilization, people have to worry about how they’re going to feed their families. Your money. You should know where it goes. The Pentagon just asked for $962 billion. A trillion dollar military budget.

$13.4 billion for autonomous weapon systems. Drones. AI kill chains. Unmanned submarines and orbital weapon platforms. $6 billion on military IT. This is the first year in American history where the Department of Defense has its own dedicated AI budget line. Meanwhile, three out of every four American workers say they can’t even afford anything beyond basic living expenses. According to the numbers, nearly 30% of Americans have taken on debt just to cover their daily costs. Okay, what happens when you put your bills on the credit card? Well, the credit card, the interest rates are going to kill you.

Okay, how do you expect to pay the interest rates and pay off your credit card when you can barely even afford to pay your electric bill? It’s not going to happen. This is a ticking time bomb. 28% of Americans had to move because they couldn’t afford rent. They had to relocate to cheaper housing, alright? And we’re spending $13 billion on robots that kill people? That’s not defense. That’s a priority statement. And you are not the priority. It’s them. It’s the AI systems. It’s the people who are in the Epstein files. They are the priority.

They are the ones running the shots. And you? You’re just an afterthought. You’re just a means to an end. In January 2026, the Department of Justice released over 3 million pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. 3.5 million. 2,000 videos. 180,000 images. Flight logs, contact books, emails that are spending over a decade. There are FBI interview transcripts with underage girls describing what he has done to them. One girl was 14 years old. The FBI knew about Epstein since 1996. An agent received a direct complaint from a survivor that nothing ever happened because of it.

Nothing ever happened. Nothing happened for over a decade and when they finally did build a case, when prosecutors drafted an indictment against Jeffrey Epstein, guess what happened? Well, the U.S. attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, signed off on a deal that let Epstein plead to a state charge for running a child trafficking operation. Think about that. And what happened to this man? Acosta? Well, he went on to become the United States Secretary of Labor under Donald Trump. The Secretary of Labor. The man who gave a child trafficker a sweetheart deal got a cabinet position in the United States government.

And when Congress finally passed the Epstein Transparency Act and the files started coming out, what did we get? We got hundreds of redacted pages blacked out entirely. Entire grand jury transcripts that were totally redacted. The attorney general publicly stated that there was no client list, contradicting her own words. And what happened when the FBI’s deputy director pushed back on how this Epstein files were handled? Guess what happened? He was demoted. Nobody went to jail. Nobody in power was held accountable. The file showed names, photographs, connection to royalty, politicians, billionaires, you name it.

And the official response from the president of the United States of America was this. And this is a direct quote. Epstein was somebody that nobody cares about. Nobody cares about. Give me a break. We all care about it. And we all care about how they prioritize covering up the Epstein files over us, over the American people, over the people who are struggling to survive. Children were trafficked. Girls younger than 14 years old were recruited. Children were trafficked to people who are still in power now. And nobody cares. The entire industrial operation was built to supply under age victims to the most powerful people on the planet.

And the system, this system, is the very same system that not only protected Epstein, but profited from him and utilized his services. These are the very same people who are sitting in this room right now. And they protected it for decades. And then, when forced to acknowledge it, classified, redacted, buried, and moved on. This is your government. This is the system. Not a flaw in it. Not a bug. Not a feature. Epstein didn’t happen despite the system. It happened because of the system. Because when you have enough money, you have enough leverage and power, and you have enough photographs of the right people doing the wrong things, well, guess what? You’re untouchable.

And when you finally get caught, the machine itself steps up to make sure no damage happens to you. You’re contained. The whole thing is contained. The deal gets cut. The files get sealed. The witnesses get discredited. Or they die mysteriously. And the public is told to move on. Every year, children worldwide, millions of children are trafficked. In the most visible case in modern history, the one with the flight logs, the one with the photographs in the mansion and the billionaires, it ends with a redacted shrug. Who knows what happened? Ask yourself this question.

Because you already know the answer to it. If a regular person in a regular town ran an operation like that, would they walk free? Would the prosecutor get a cabinet appointment? Would the president say nobody cares? Absolutely not. There’s a gap in this country that nobody on the stage will mention. Not the wealth gap. Well, there is a wealth gap, but that’s not obscene enough. The gap between what you’re told is happening and what is actually going on. They call it an affordability crisis. They talk about it like it’s the weather, like inflation just blew and nobody could have stopped it.

We don’t know what’s happening. Ah, no, it’s not the weather. It’s theft. And since 1979, productivity in this country has skyrocketed, believe it or not. American workers produce more an hour than at any time before in human history. And the wages for the people doing that work? Flat or declining? For decades, the median wage has kept pace with productivity since 1979. You’d be making over $36 an hour right now if this was true. Instead, you make $25 an hour if you’re lucky, and that’s $11 an hour stolen from you. Not lost, not gone, stolen, redacted.

It went somewhere. It went to the people in this room, the people who paid for them to be here. They broke the unions. They shipped the jobs overseas. They flooded the labor markets. They eliminated all pensions. They turned health care into a profit center. They turned housing into a speculative asset class. They turned food into a commodity traded on future markets by people who have never set foot in a grocery store. Think about that. The man running this country right now probably hasn’t bought groceries at a grocery store his whole life. And then they looked at you and said, learn to code.

And what happened then? Look what happened to all the coders who are being eliminated from jobs due to AI proliferation. Hospital services went up nearly 10% in the past year alone. Not because hospitals are getting better, not because the nurses are getting raises, but because the system is designed to extract the most revenue from the people who are most vulnerable. You’re not a patient. You’re a revenue stream. Insurance rates? Well, obviously, they’re through the roof. And coverage is even getting worse. Okay? Utility costs are up. Electricity has climbed nearly 10%. Year over year, gas is up nearly 10%.

The basic infrastructure for survival? Shelter, food, heat, health, all of it is being squeezed for profit by entities that answer to shareholders, not people, not citizens, not individuals who are struggling to survive, but the shareholders. And in return, what do you get? You get politics as entertainment. You get the left-right paradigm. You get this false paradigm. You get red team, blue team, an endless exhausting culture war that is designed to keep you distracted and fighting each other so that you never look around and see who is actually pulling the strings and taking the money directly out of your pocket.

They want you arguing about pronouns while they steal your pension. They want you screaming about the border while your school funding gets gutted. They want you tribal. They want you angry and they want you tired because tired, angry tribal people don’t organize. They don’t demand. They don’t threaten. They just vote for whoever yells the loudest and then go back to work. Meanwhile, there’s crime rates that are through the roof. It’s not even safe to walk outside anymore. You have an utter collapse of society itself and the morals in this society. People don’t care anymore.

They don’t care about each other. Road rage is at epidemic levels. It’s dangerous just leaving your house now because you don’t know how other people are going to react. The American dream is dead. This country is collapsing right under our very noses and leadership is nowhere to be found during any of this. They’re playing pretend, completely insulated from the consequences of every decision that they make. The current administration campaigned to lower prices. They campaigned on transparency, on draining the swamp, on releasing the Epstein files. Then when the files came out, most of them were redacted and the other ones showed that there was a satanic pedophile fault of cannibals who operate with impunity in the federal government.

Prices went up, not down. The swamp? It didn’t get drained. It got a renovation with a new coat of paint. The tariffs? Tariffs jacked up the cost of imported goods. Orange juices, coffees, electronics, auto parts. All the regular things that Americans buy on a daily basis got more expensive. The stock market fluctuated, which means nothing to 60% of Americans who don’t own a single share. And even if they did, it wouldn’t be enough to make a difference. A trillion dollars for quote-unquote defense? 13 billion dollars for AI weapons that are designed to kill you autonomously? And yet your kid’s school can’t even afford a librarian or a music class? That’s the state of the union folks.

It’s not strong. It’s not resilient. It’s not the greatest economy in the history of the world. It’s a country where working people like you and I are one medical emergency away from permanent bankruptcy. Where young people have given up on ever owning a home. Where the most powerful people on earth trafficked children and walked away clean. Where your government spends more money on machines that kill you than keeping you alive. Our union is collapsing and we must do something about it. The people in this chamber, they’re gonna applaud when I’m done. They’re gonna shake hands.

They’re gonna pose for the camera and tomorrow they’re gonna go back to fundraising calls, back to the lobbyists, back to the system that made them rich and made you desperate. And they’ve forgotten something. They’ve forgotten something very important. That they need you more than you need them. Every single structure that they’ve built in this country, every wall street firm, every defense contractor, every tax loophole, every redacted page on the Epstein files, runs on your labor, on your hard work, your taxes, your compliance, and your willingness to keep showing up to a rigged game even though you know that there’s no way out of it.

Because there’s no other option. There is another option however and it starts with looking the lie in the face and calling it what it is. The state of the union is broken. It’s corrupt and it’s maintained by people who benefit from your exhaustion. That’s the truth and you deserve to hear it a long time ago. The only question is this. What do you do now that you know the truth? Thank you and good night. God bless America. [tr:trw].