House Speaker Mike Johnson has invited President Donald Trump to deliver the first State of the Union address of Trump’s second term on February 24, 2026, according to a letter released Wednesday.
President Donald Trump has been invited to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, in what would be the first formal State of the Union address of his second term.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, in a letter dated January 7, 2026, framed the invitation around the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary of independence and praised what he described as legislative accomplishments over the past year.
In the letter, Johnson wrote: “As our nation marks the Semiquincentennial Anniversary of American Independence, the United States stands stronger, freer, and more prosperous under your leadership and bold action. Together in 2025, your administration and the 119th Congress delivered one of the most consequential agendas in history, and Americans across this great country will experience the tangible results of commonsense governance.”
Johnson added: “We look forward to advancing the important work ahead of us in 2026, serving the American people, defending liberty, and preserving this grand experiment in self-governance. To that end, it is my distinct honor and great privilege to invite you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.”
The State of the Union would give Trump a high-profile platform to outline policy priorities and shape his party’s message heading into the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress will again be on the ballot.
Trump has already addressed Congress once during his second term. On March 4, 2025, he delivered a prime-time speech to a joint session that followed many State of the Union conventions but was not formally designated as the annual address.
That 2025 joint-session speech ran about 1 hour and 40 minutes, and the Associated Press—citing tracking by the American Presidency Project—reported it was the longest presidential address to a joint session in recent history, surpassing the previous modern-era record.
