Trump plans to take his State of the Union message on the road — eventually

President Donald Trump has a midterm year message to sell

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump has delivered the State of the Union. Now the challenge for him is to make that message stick.

His address on Tuesday was a declaration of pride in the achievements of his still-young second term, as he boasted of an economic renaissance at home while he's imposed a new world order abroad. Trump is getting his first opportunity to test drive that midterm year message later this week, when he travels to Texas, where the Latino voters whose shift toward Trump in his successful 2024 reelection campaign highlighted how he had reshaped the Republican coalition.

The White House is aiming to promote that message to a broader electorate that is largely disenchanted with Trump’s job performance, while a looming conflict in the Middle East threatens to shift focus away from his domestic priorities. Trump also has a proclivity to go off-script during political rallies, such as during a speech last week in Rome, Georgia, asserting that he’s “solved” affordability when high prices remain a chief concern for voters.

Still, the themes of economic prosperity and a more secure America that Trump emphasized in his 108-minute speech Tuesday night will underpin the broader narrative that he and his fellow Republicans will seek to sell to voters this November.

“This is going to be setting the tone for the following year,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who has close ties with Trump, told The Associated Press.