A group of liberal U.S. lawmakers will abandon President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday for an outdoor rally to protest his policies, marking a rare coordinated boycott as partisan tensions around the annual address intensify. Constituents of theirs who have been affected by Trump policies will also speak at the rally, according to a statement by MeidasTouch, which calls itself a pro-democracy, independent news network. Other House progressives plan to attend Trump's speech, or at least part of it, but will demonstrate their discontent in other ways. In 2020, Trump climbed to the podium for the final State of the Union address of his first term and refused to shake then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hand. At the end of the speech, Pelosi stood and demonstrably tore the speech transcript in half.

Source: The Telegraph February 18, 2026 20:35 UTC