The rebuttal to Donald Trump’s State of the Union was delivered Tuesday by a stalwart of the Democrats’ moderate wing — seen as a model for the centrism some bet is key to winning November’s midterm elections.Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger criticized the US president for his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein affair as well as alleged corruption, but mostly focused on cost-of-living issues centrists believe will have cross-party appeal.”Costs are too high in housing, health care, energy and child care,” Spanberger said in a staid, measured speech.”Americans deserve to know that their leaders are focused on addressing the problems that keep them up at night.”Spanberger, a former CIA officer and three-term Congresswoman, successfully won back the Virginia governor’s mansion from Republicans last year with an affordability-focused platform.Her selection to deliver the party’s formal rebuttal to Trump’s address to Congress was clearly aimed at putting forward an example for the rest of the party to follow.The Democratic Party remains split over turning out centrist and even moderate Republican voters or firing up the base on progressive promises of sweeping reform.While left-wing stalwarts like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have also run campaigns on affordability, Spanberger also emphasized more traditional centrist ideals like bipartisanship, patriotism and her law enforcement bonafides.Spanberger also hit Trump on issues like the immigration crackdown, saying federal agents have “ripped nursing mothers away from their babies,” while saying the immigration system was “broken.”The primaries ahead of the midterms are likely to see some combative races between moderate and Democratic progressives.With Spanberger, the Democratic leadership was signaling a preference for persuasion and disciplined messaging over ideological confrontation.Party leaders view her as a communicator capable of reaching beyond the Democratic base at a time when cost‑of‑living pressures dominate public debate.”Those who are stepping up now to run will win in November, because Americans — you at home — know you can demand more,” she said.Spanberger first gained national prominence in 2018 when she captured a Republican-held suburban district in Virginia, part of a Democratic wave driven by moderate candidates and disaffected swing voters.She later secured reelection in the competitive seat before securing the governorship last year, solidifying her reputation as an election winner focused on economic and national security concerns.Her campaigns have consistently emphasized healthcare, economic stability and bipartisan problem‑solving — priorities Democrats hope will resonate with suburban and independent voters this November.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed Iran is seeking to develop missiles that can strike the United States and accused Tehran of working to rebuild a nuclear program that was targeted by American strikes last year.The United States and Iran are engaged in high-stakes negotiations over Iran’s atomic program and other issues including missiles, with Trump saying he prefers diplomacy but is willing to use force if talks fail.”They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” Trump said during his State of the Union address.In 2025, the US Defense Intelligence Agency said Iran could potentially develop a militarily viable intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability,” but did not say if it had made such a decision.Tehran currently possesses short- and medium-range ballistic missiles with ranges that top out at about 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers), according to the US Congressional Research Service.The continental United States is more than 6,000 miles from Iran’s western tip.Washington and Tehran have concluded two rounds of talks aimed at reaching a deal on Iran’s nuclear program to replace the agreement that Trump tore up during his first term in office.- ‘Preference’ is diplomacy -The United States has repeatedly called for zero uranium enrichment by Iran but has also sought to address its ballistic missile program and support for armed groups in the region — demands Iran has rejected.Iran has also repeatedly rejected that it is pursuing nuclear weapons.Trump ordered strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites last year, claiming afterward that Tehran’s atomic program was obliterated.On Tuesday, he said Iran wants “to start all over again,” and that it is “at this moment again pursuing their sinister nuclear ambitions.”Trump has sent a massive US military force to the Middle East, deploying two aircraft carriers as well as more than a dozen other ships, a large number of warplanes and other assets to the region.He has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if negotiations fail to reach a new agreement. Talks with Tehran are currently set to continue on Thursday.”My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy but one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.The US president’s speech primarily focused on domestic issues, making no mention at all of China — Washington’s primary military and economic rival — and only briefly referring to Russia.Trump said he was working to end the bloody conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and repeated his inaccurate claim that he had brought eight other wars to an end since returning to office in January 2025.He also hailed NATO’s decision to spend five percent of gross domestic product on defense — a move made under heavy pressure from Trump and his administration.

If Donald Trump was worried about a hostile reception over his breakneck remaking of presidential norms, he did not show it — striding in six minutes late, with the unhurried confidence of a man who knew the evening belonged to him.Republicans rose in successive waves, while many Democrats remained seated with fixed expressions.Only later, when the US men’s Olympic ice hockey team was introduced, would the entire chamber rise together.On nights like these, the US House of Representatives is less a legislature than a stage. The choreography is simple — one side applauds, the other scowls, and the republic survives another evening.The Supreme Court justices occupied their usual front-row spot — their black robes lending the scene the air of a quietly disapproving jury. This year, however, the proximity was unusually charged as merely days earlier, three of the justices present had struck down the global tariffs that Trump had made his signature economic policy.Attendance was thinner than usual, with dozens of Democrats boycotting, though the empty seats gave the spectacle the breathing room lost in the chaos of Trump’s protest‑hit 2025 appearance.- Hope, loss, fear -The president began as he nearly always does: with victory. The economy was thriving, America was respected and the nation had, under his guidance, become richer and more formidable.Polls suggest most Americans disagree, but the State of the Union is an exercise in imagination, not measurement.Trump lingered on inflation, which he said was falling, and jobs, which he said were rising. He praised the stock market with proprietary warmth. When he turned to tariffs, however, the chamber stiffened. The Supreme Court ruling, he said, was mistaken.The guests supplied the emotional punctuation — watching the address with expressions that carried stories into the room: pride, passion, hope, loss, fear, accusation. They included survivors of notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the hockey players, fresh from victory and somewhat bewildered by the grandeur. For a moment, when the Olympians were recognized, the chamber roared “USA! USA!” and the country remembered that it liked itself.- Crescendo -Democrats had been told by their leaders to be on their best behavior: protest, but elegantly. Several wore white in homage to the Suffragettes, or pins demanding more accountability over Epstein.Democratic Congressman Al Green, expelled over disruptions last year, held up a sign berating Trump for sharing a racist video of the Obamas — “Black people aren’t apes,” it read — and was swiftly ejected again.     There were heckles and a smattering of jeers from the wings as Trump hit the hour mark — earning a slapdown from the Republican leader — but the main protest was the weaponized silence of half the chamber withholding applause. Outside, rival versions of the republic unfolded. Activists staged their own “People’s State of the Union,” while lawmakers issued rebuttals before the speech had even finished — an innovation reflecting the modern preference for simultaneity over suspense.The address built, as they tend to, towards a crescendo of certainty: America had never been stronger. Republicans rose, Democrats remained seated, and the justices, bound by institutional restraint, tried their best to do neither.