Some Democrats boycott State of the Union; Guthrie family offers $1 Million | NTD Newsroom (Feb. 24)

Welcome to NTD Newsroom. I'm Don Ma. Our stories today. President Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address since returning to office, outlining his agenda on the economy, immigration, and national security. Plus, supporters share how they say his policies are already impacting their communities. And as a new 10% global tariff kicks off today, nations are responding to the Supreme Court's ruling, and Democrats are pushing for refunds. Arlene Richards has the latest. The judge in the Charlie Kirk murder case refuses to disqualify prosecutors. What he says about the request from defendant Tyler Robinson. Savannah Guthrie says her family is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of her missing 84-year-old mother in Arizona. The Justice Department sues New Jersey and Governor Mike Jarrell for interfering with federal immigration enforcement. The lawsuit marks the latest challenge to so-called sanctuary city policies. Today marks exactly four years since the start of the Russian-Ukraine war. How civilians and officials from across Europe are commemorating the grim milestone. This is NTD Newsroom, live from our global headquarters in New York City. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. Starting off with a new development in the court case of Charlie Kirk's assassination. The judge has denied defendant Tyler Robinson's motion to disqualify the entire prosecuting team. Because defendant has not established a factual basis for a finding of conflict of interest or an objective appearance of impropriety rising to a constitutional concern. His motion is respectfully denied. Robinson's team had alleged that his prosecutors have a conflict of interest. He claimed this is because a child of one of the prosecutors was present at the Utah Valley University event where Kirk was murdered on September 10th. He argued that because no efforts were made to screen him, the entire team should be disqualified. The court held two hearings on this matter. An unnamed prosecutor testified and maintained that there is no conflict of interest. Utah District Court Judge Tony Graff is expected to also release a written President Trump tonight will deliver his first State of the Union address since reclaiming the White House last year. The speech comes as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of America's founding. We now go live to NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley on Capitol Hill. So Jack, what can we expect from the president's address tonight? Well, we can certainly expect a lengthy address. President Trump, when he says something like that, we should take him for his word as he tends to go off script and give long speeches. Now, the State of the Union is the president's opportunity to report on the condition of the nation and lay out legislative priorities before Congress. The president's expected to focus heavily on what the White House is describing as major accomplishments in the economy and immigration. Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt offering a preview earlier today. I know the president's really looking forward to his address tonight. You're going to hear a speech that is a celebration of 250 years of our nation and our nation's independence. You're going to hear the president share the stories of everyday Americans who have benefited from his policies. You're going to hear the president share tear jerking stories of American heroes, past and present, who really exemplify what it means to be a patriotic American. Now, lawmakers from both the House and Senate traditionally attend the State of the Union. However, several Democrats have indicated that they plan to boycott the address by attending alternative programming and not showing up. Or those that do show up will stage a silent protest by withholding applause altogether during the president's remarks. Take a look. Plan on attending. No, I'm not going to sit there and listen to Donald Trump lie and try and say the economy is doing well when everyone I know in San Diego can barely get by. It's my expectation that members who choose to attend will be there in silent defiance, of course, skeptical of the remarks that the president is going to try to deliver in terms of his spin. It's shameful that they would boycott an address. We don't do that. Republicans don't do that. It doesn't matter if there's a president from the opposing party. We don't skip out. Our constituents want and need us to be here. Every member of this House represents over 750,000 people. They're disenfranchised if you're not sitting in the seat to be a part of the role and the responsibility of Congress. I think it's shameful. Now, the president could also address the recent Supreme Court decision that struck down his tariff authority under an emergency order and outline alternative tools to keep those tariffs in place. Trump has used tariffs to bring back domestic manufacturing, stop international wars, and to bring down what he calls unfair tariffs and other trade barriers that countries have had on the U.S. for decades. Congressman Ralph Norman today saying that the administration isn't the only one saying that the Supreme Court's ruling won't impact the rollout of tariffs. Take a look. President Trump's going to get around it anyway. I mean, when the money that's been brought in and the level playing field that's been established, he'll continue to do that, and he's right in doing it. Now, another issue to watch for here tonight is if Trump mentions anything new on Iran. The U.S. has deployed its largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, to the region, the Mediterranean Sea, as negotiations continue. Now, the administration is calling on Iran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program, with President Trump warning that failure to reach a deal would have some serious consequences. The president may also renew his push for the SAVE Act, which is legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. And President Trump is also inviting Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, to be his guest at the State of the Union. Others expected to attend as guests, as are the men's Olympic hockey team, who just won gold this year, the first in nearly half a century, as well as Clara Lai, the daughter of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy advocate jailed in under the Chinese Communist Party's draconian national security law. Certainly a lot to keep an eye on, Don. Now, Jack, several members of the public spoke before the Republican Study Committee this morning, saying President Trump's policies have benefited them. What did they say exactly? That's right. Business owners and locally elected sheriffs were among those addressing lawmakers this morning, saying they've seen direct benefits from the president's big, beautiful bill, now law, including the provisions eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay, and others pointing out sharp declines in crime and drug overdose deaths since President Trump returned to office. Take a look. Part of the tax bill that's really helped my employees is no tax on overtime. We do encourage our people to come. These are hardworking, family-oriented people, and to reward them with less taxes on their overtime and their hard work is very beneficial. Joe Biden's first term, we experienced 74 drug overdoses. In 2025, after President Trump took office, we had 14. So in our county, that was historically low. We're off to one, possibly two this year, so it's continuing to decrease. Since the Trump administration, it's been a lot easier to be in law enforcement. My narcotics guys, they're not getting as easy busts as they used to, so that means it's working. We have an all-female staff, lots of single moms, single females just starting out, and I'm hearing amazing stories, as a lot of them have already filed their taxes and are not paying in this year, are getting a great return. And while all this is going on, the government remains in a partial shutdown amid a congressional standoff over funding for Homeland Security, particularly over ICE operations. Now, Homeland Security also oversees the TSA and FEMA, among other agencies, so we'll stay tuned to see how the President Trump addresses this tonight. Back to you, Don. All right, Jack, thank you for keeping us updated. All right, joining us to discuss President Trump's first State of the Union address of his second term tonight is Mike Leon, lead anchor at The Legal Podcast Network and host of Can We Please Talk podcast, and we have Grace Riley, political analyst at Restoration for America and host of Restoring America podcast. So first of all, good afternoon to you both. Thank you for joining us today. Grace, I'd like to start with you. What do you expect the tone will be for tonight's message, and what will the messaging come from President Trump look like? Yeah, well, first of all, I'd like to say that for success, the President needs to focus on patriotism and the economy. And I expect that he'll spend a lot of time doing that because, of course, this will be a speech that's filled with celebrations of patriotism. We obviously see that the United States hockey team will be in attendance. That's just one example, but also of American excellence and success. And as far as the economy goes, that's something that Americans as a whole are going to be watching for, especially my generation, Gen Z. And that being said, Trump will likely spend considerable amounts of time talking about housing affordability via the interest rates and incentives, what he's done to bring inflation down, his saving plans, the Trump accounts for young Americans, and so much more. So I think that that will definitely be central. But of course, he will spend a lot of time talking about his immigration efforts and securing the border efforts. And he will also spend a lot of time talking about what he's done on the world stage. But ultimately, he has an opportunity to reach Americans with a message of hope, 30 million projected to watch, of why his policies are going to continue to create better lives for them and why everything he's doing is going to continue to work towards helping them and improving their lives. Mike, do you want to see a message of hope from President Trump tonight? What are you expecting? Hey, Don, good to see you and Grace as well on this Tuesday afternoon. I mean, Don, we've talked about this before. Grace laid out a pie-in-the-sky vision of what a normal presidential State of the Union address would look like, for sure. That's not what we're going to get tonight from President Trump. I know it's not. I can recite that speech word for word. I know there's going to be talk about the 2020 election cycle and things that are from the past of yesteryears that have already been adjudicated, but he'll bring those things up. And then when we're talking about with respect to this current administration, I don't necessarily totally agree with everything Chuck Schumer said there and Amy Klobuchar, but I do agree that the President's got to address that he has a very high disapproval rating, 56%, 57% now, according to RealClearPolitics and others, Rasmussen, CNN. The economy right now with respect to tariffs, that Federal Bank Reserve study that was done, that 90% of tariffs are paid by American consumers and only 10% of whether it be foreign government or businesses are actually eating those tariffs. So 90 is way bigger than 10%, right? That means that the American household on average, maybe 1,000 to 1,200, maybe even 1,500 bucks or more are paying for those high costly goods that are tariffed now from these different countries. I know just as somebody who has a coffee sponsor, as an example, can't grow coffee in the United States, Don, right? You have to outsource it from other countries. So that type of industry is being hit really hard. So will he give solves for that? No, he won't give any solves for that. There'll be some performance element as there is with every State of the Union address. And hopefully he does, to Grace's point, drill into the future things because he did say affordability was a democratic hoax, and at least them talking about affordability and what they've been doing about it, but he has been talking about it and not really giving the plans of what he plans to do about it. And his recent comments about give the economy another year, that's not going to sit well with anybody, especially in the 2026 midterm cycle, where in 2018, Trump lost 40 to 41 seats in the midterm cycle. So that's something that I wish he would outline a little bit more of, but I know he's not. Okay. So Grace, according to Mike, President Trump should address his approval rating. I mean, in your view, what should Trump focus his speech on? What should he avoid? Well, I think that as he said, what we can take from that is that President Trump actually does have a lot of accomplishments in this area. And I'm sure he will bring up the Biden administration and all that they did to destroy the economy and put us in this position now. And the Trump administration has a lot of good things to report on for the American people when it comes to this, and a lot of progress made in a very short amount of time on things like the economy, also the border, national security, energy, health, and more, all historic things that benefit the American people and should warrant bipartisan celebration. And I want to add in here too, obviously we have a lot of Democrats that have decided to skip the event. And I think politically that is because they know that President Trump is going to list a lot of accomplishments that are going to be hard politically to be seen sitting and not clapping for. Now that happens at every State of the Union. Obviously it tends to be the biggest political theater event of the year in a lot of ways, just with the Republicans and Democrats, both in the room at play here as all of the political issues are brought up. But I think that one of the things that we should all focus on as well is the fact that the American people get to decide for themselves tonight. So obviously you painted a different vision for what you think the State of the Union is going to be. I disagree. I think that it will be a message of hope. And I think he has a lot of really significant accomplishments to focus on and the American people get to watch tonight and decide for themselves what they think of it. And that's significant because the Media Research Center reports that Trump gets 92% negative coverage. So it's no wonder that there are so many Americans that still need to hear some of the amazing accomplishments that he has. And I'm sure tonight that that's going to be a focus. And I'm sure, as you said, he's probably going to talk a bit about the past administration. That would not surprise me at all. And I would suggest that he sticks more with the things that he's been successful on. But overall, it's going to be very interesting for everyone to watch at home and make up their own minds about. So, Mike, your response. And from what I can tell, gas prices are down. President Trump is tackling health care, drug prices favor nation pricing. I mean, just your overall response to what Grace said. Well, I agree with the end of what she said there that everybody can judge for themselves. I mean, again, if we talk about the Biden administration, I mean, if you just look at the jobs reports and how it's come out from fiscal of 25, the last six months to now, job growth is down in this country. You know, the one thing that Republican strategists always echo to me about what Trump shouldn't have been doing, and I quote Karl Rove, who I used to work with once upon a time at Fox News, and he said, you know, Americans feel something. But if you tell them the opposite and they're feeling the opposite, they're not going to listen to you. Right. He said that on Fox News. And he said that to me once upon a time in a green room when I was making him up to go on air. So I think there's a difference there, right, to to what Grace was mentioning at the beginning about the economy. If jobs are down and certain sectors are feeling that and Americans are paying more for certain goods because of tariffs, which tariffs are not only a tax, but they're a negotiating toy to try to get the price down ultimately. Right. They're going to understand that they're not going to listen to anything that he says. Now, will the president coherently give me the through line of how he plans to tackle all these things? I just know this man. I'm basing it off of speeches. I'm basing it off of, you know, when he got asked on the campaign trail about 44 million Americans that are in credit card debt, he got asked by a reporter, how do you tackle that? And he gave a two minute answer that ended with just vote for me and I'll take care of it. That's not outlining how you're going to tackle and how you're going to, you know, the interest rates and the APRs from these companies. So, you know, the State of the Union is performance based, right, in terms of like what you want to tell accomplishment wise, how many, you know, interruptions you get from claps, who's in the audience, which we just heard Jack mentioned before, Erica Kirk's going to be there, the US hockey team's going to be there. So there's going to be some applause breaks and there's going to be some of that ceremonial aspect of it. I never expect anybody to drill specifically into the policy and the through line and the call to actions. I wish they would, but it would bore half of America. But that's the problem. Half of America doesn't understand what is happening right now. And the president has to deal with some of these real issues because 2026 is here. And this is going to affect the House and the Senate with these races that are going to be happening. And it could change the makeup of what the last two years of his administration looks like. So if we truly, if he truly wants to be this unifying voice that Grace is hoping for, that I know he won't be, if he wants to do that, he needs to really explain some of these things and where the through line is towards the end of 26, that will get more people to vote Republicans because they see that the president is trending in the right direction. I just know based on his history of talking that he's not going to do that, unfortunately. OK, Grace, I do have a number of topics to get through. You can give your quick response, but also give us your view on how the Supreme Court's ruling is going to factor into tonight's speech. Yeah, I'll quickly hit on your question. I think that the Supreme Court ruling is definitely going to come up. Of course, it's very significant that President Trump is going to be right in front of those justices. Right. So I'm sure that the ruling on tariffs will come up. I'm sure that he will reference that and that'll be something to watch for at home. But also just to hit on what was said, I would say that we it's not about looking at Trump's past speeches. We can look at his record and his record of economic success in his last term. That was probably one of his biggest strengths. And I say one of because he had a lot of strengths. But in this term already, we've seen positive improvements. So inflation at two point four percent compared to Biden's nine percent. And he obviously is advocating for how that is going to continue to get better. The Dow hitting 50K for the first time ever on February 6th. Gas prices the lowest in nearly five years, as you mentioned, making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. So these are all things that we're going to hear tonight. And I think the important thing to recognize, too, that a lot of what Trump has done on the economy so far in this term is geared towards long term solutions that people are starting to feel now. So for the past year, we've kind of been hoping for that, that we would start to feel some more of the economic improvements. And that is starting to happen now. And of course, that's going to have to keep happening, especially with the midterms coming up. This is a very consequential state of the union because of that, with the midterms on the horizon. And as we've talked about in this entire segment, there's no question that that is the issue that Americans are going to particular view to particularly be watching for tonight. So, Mike, earlier we played House Speaker Mike Johnson saying that everyone in the House have constituents. Jeffrey says we're not going to Donald Trump's house. He's coming to our house. Why are Democrats not attending? Yeah, well, real quick, Biden inherited nine. He didn't end at nine percent in terms of inflation. That's one. Number two, on what you're saying, we were talking about this last week, Don, damned if you do, damned if you don't in terms of Democrats, whether they go to this or if they don't go to this. I don't agree with what Mike Johnson said about attending and representing constituents. It's a state of the union address. If this is the way they want to, for lack of a better term, peacefully protest and not attend and make the speech have less people in the room for the acoustic value and what it looks like on television. I'm OK with that. But why aren't Democrats unified in terms of what they're going to do here with respect to this? I mean, that's that's Democrats as well, right, in terms of whether or not they're going to be unified behind all doing this or if they're going to actually congregate outside, which I know that there are some representatives that are going to be walking out in protest near the National Mall and things like that and talking to constituents or giving a speech. And there's going to be other speeches that are running concurrent or parallel or even after all of this is done. It doesn't surprise me what what Democrats tend to do when you have Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. This is where Grace and I will probably agree that the leadership of Democrats are just in shambles. And it's why you've seen fracturing within the party that they can't even get on the same accord here in terms of how they actually respond to some of the things that President Trump has done. It's been like that from his first administration with, you know, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. And now it's with respect to this, this current administration and the leadership that I've heard from other Dems that have been on my program in terms of, you know, are these the right two men to kind of lead them into battle with respect to what they want to counter the Trump administration on messaging wise. So it doesn't shock me that they're a little fracturing on this. But like we talked about last week, Don, I don't think there was a right way to go at this, whether you attend it fully. I don't agree with what Mike Johnson said. It doesn't matter if they show up or not. But whether or not you go there or not, you know, how does that play? It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation with everybody. So, Grace, I'm curious as to what you think. Do you think Democratic leadership is in shambles? I mean, there appears to be multiple Democratic responses, seems to be disagreement as well, how to respond to Trump's address tonight. Yeah, I would agree with Mike on some of it. Absolutely. And I would say where I disagree is the fact that historically the State of the Union is for the president to be able to address Congress. And I think that that's important. And obviously, with the very divisive political situation that we're in now, modern day, things have changed a lot. But I think things like the State of the Union are important for Congress to at least attend and be there. And then they can go and disagree all they want afterwards. They can act, obviously, if they want to sit and not clap, they're entitled to do that during the State of Union. But as elected officials, I think that that's an important part of representing their constituents. And obviously, the State of the Union is mandated by the Constitution. It happens for a reason. And I think having that dialogue and that time for the president to speak to Congress and give updates is very important and also warrants respect. But I would also say as far as the Democrats go, yeah, there's obviously a lot of disagreement there. There's a lot of radicalism in the Democrat Party that's divided them even further, some going even further to the left, where others have gone maybe more slightly to the left. So there's disagreement as far as that goes that's changed the party. And just to be fair, I'd also offer up that Republicans haven't necessarily been unified across the board either. And obviously, that's something that as Americans, we want to see from the parties that represent us and from the people in Congress. So I think it's in Americans' best interest for everyone in Congress to attend this tonight. And obviously, the Democrats have made a different decision. And I think that that actually will backfire on them, because I think that the speech tonight will come off as patriotic and something talking about American excellence. So we'll have to see. OK, Mike, I'll give you one final response, and then we'll leave the conversation. Well, I want to echo what Grace said, right? Everybody can watch and kind of judge on their own. I will come back to this clip to take a minor victory lap, when I know Trump will wander on some tangents tomorrow. But again, I hope to what Grace said, I do hope that the president of the United States, the CEO of America, for lack of a better term, does actually outline steps to get us on one accord and do certain things that promote bipartisanship. But I know that President Donald John Trump is not like that, because he has said so in speeches. And my hope is that he does do that. But you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and I don't see that happening tonight. So I think we're going to get a lot of the same in a speech that's going to run a little bit long, and we're going to be overanalyzing it tomorrow. Well, all right, Mike, we'll definitely come back to this clip and see if you're right or wrong. So we'll just have to wait and see. Thank you both for joining us today. Grace, Mike. Thanks so much. And tonight, join NTD's Tiffany Meyer, Steve Lance, and Mari Otsu at 7 p.m. Eastern, as we track the president ahead of his speech, hear reactions from lawmakers, and speak with panels on what it all means for you. So don't miss it. FedEx is suing the U.S. seeking a refund on President Trump's emergency tariff. It's one of the highest-profile moves to recover funds since the Supreme Court last week deemed the tariffs illegal. Savannah Guthrie says her family is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of her missing 84-year-old mother in Arizona. More news after this break. Don't go away. Today marks exactly four years since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukrainians are mourning their fallen loved ones, while Western partners pledged continued support. NTD's International Correspondent Yarim Hazdar has the story. Residents in Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv, holding a minute of silence on Tuesday, they're commemorating the four-year anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war, honoring the people who have died in the fighting so far. People chanted, glory to the heroes, death to the enemies, Ukraine above everything, before falling quiet again. Some Ukrainians say they never expected the war to last this long and hit the four-year mark. I thought it would all end in the autumn of 2022, after our counteroffensive. But then, it became clear that it would take a long time. Leaders from the European Union are in Kyiv on Tuesday, joining Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife to honor fallen soldiers. Zelensky told the European officials that he hopes they can soon join trilateral talks with the US and Russia. We do what we can to involve Europeans as much as possible, and we count on your leadership in all this. He added that the next round of talks, led by the US, might take place in the coming days. We gather this morning to mark yet another terrible anniversary. And in Brussels, NATO Chief Mark Rutte speaking at the NATO headquarters to mark the anniversary of the Ukraine war. According to Rutte, the alliance has supported Ukraine since the fighting began and will continue to do so. The flame of freedom is alive in Ukraine, and that flame continues to burn and glow. Meanwhile in Russia, President Vladimir Putin says the war has evolved into a much wider confrontation with the West. Moscow warns that this could lead to a confrontation between nuclear powers. Arian Pasdar, NTD News. The Justice Department is suing the state of New Jersey and Governor Mikey Sherrill, accusing them of interfering with federal immigration enforcement. The lawsuit marks the latest challenge to so-called sanctuary city policies. Earlier this month, Sherrill issued an executive order barring federal immigration agents from making arrests inside non-public areas of state property. Those locations include state courthouses and correctional facilities. The DOJ says the governor's order and similar sanctuary policies are illegal under federal law. The U.S. Constitution grants the federal government exclusive authority to regulate immigration. The Supreme Court affirmed that authority in 2012, ruling that states are prohibited from undermining federal immigration law. The Justice Department has taken similar legal action against other states and cities with sanctuary policies, including Colorado, Minnesota, New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. FedEx is suing the U.S., seeking a refund on President Trump's emergency tariffs. It's one of the highest-profile moves to recover funds since the Supreme Court last week deemed the tariffs illegal. FedEx is seeking to recover all duties paid as a result of the tariffs, as well as any interest accrued plus lawyer's fees. The Memphis-based company did not say how much exactly it is seeking. In its lawsuit, FedEx names Customs and Border Protection, the agency's commissioner Rodney Scott, and the United States of America as defendants. The CBP and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. And the economy will likely be a big topic in President Trump's State of the Union address tonight. Joining us to discuss this is Michael Bussler, economist, public policy analyst, and professor of finance at Stockton University. Michael, always great to have you here. Talk to us. How has President Trump's policies impacted the economy? He's going to be touting that in his speech. Remember, this is America's 250th birthday, and there's a huge celebration planned for July and sometime around that. He's going to emphasize that he made America strong, prosperous, and respected. The number one issue that voters are most interested in, as you point out, is the economy. And look at what he's done with the economy. He's brought the inflation rate down. It was 2.9% when he entered office. It's now down to 2.4%. He brought the unemployment rate down to 4.3%. And for the second and third quarter last year, we had 4% growth. Now, the fourth quarter, growth slowed a little less than half of that, mostly because of the government shutdown, which cut out most government spending during that time period. And a lot of workers weren't paid. Now, they did eventually get paid. But that had an effect on the economy. So he's going to tout that, look, he's brought prices down. He's increased through his tariff and trade agreements. He's opened up foreign markets to U.S. manufacturers, which will increase the economy. And for the whole year that he's been in office, wage increases have been greater than inflation. So that means you get a real increase in wages. You're able to buy more goods and services. And he'll say that better times ahead, the best is yet to come. So, Michael, I want to point your attention to a recent Pew Research poll that said around 72% of Americans say the economy is fair or poor. More than half Americans are saying President Trump's policies have made economic conditions worse in the country. You cited some of the positive impacts overall of the economy. What does President Trump need to do to convince the public that the economy is doing well? He just needs to keep doing what he's doing. So consumer confidence and consumers' perception of the economy is a lagging indicator. In other words, when the economy starts to do poorly, consumers don't really feel it for six, 10 months, and then they start to see it. As the economy has been turning around, it'll take some time for consumers to feel that. But consumer confidence, the last two months has started to inch up, not much last month, but it is starting to inch up. I would just say to President Trump, stay the course, keep doing what you're doing, work on energy prices. Now, we're going to have a little bit of an increase in energy prices when we get the CPI, the Consumer Price Index for February, mostly because of the Venezuela situation and in Iran, there's uncertainty about whether there'll be oil supplies that's driven oil prices up and gasoline prices up. But once he gets all that resolved, the U.S. is producing more oil than we ever have. And that increase in supply, along with the other countries, will help to bring prices down. And again, I forecast by the end of this year, inflation will be under the 2% target that the Federal Reserve has set. And I think economic growth will be well into the 4% range and perhaps even higher. As that filters through the economy, people will start to feel good about the economy. Again, I think some of those negative numbers Trump is saying will change. So Michael, do you think there is any topic or topics that President Trump must avoid in your view? So he'd like to talk about immigration, because when he came into office, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of people are coming into the U.S. every month. He closed the border and nobody has gotten into the border illegally, I think, for the last eight or nine months. He also wants to bring the crime rate down, which he has done. And part of the reason that's happened is that he's taken illegal immigrants who have a criminal record and he's taken them and deported them. The problem is a lot of people have somewhat of a problem with that, because a lot of these illegal immigrants are now, have been here for a few years. They're members of the community and they get very offended when ICE comes after them. So he's probably better off to keep any of the ICE arguments to a minimum and just tout that he's secured the border. The other thing is with tariffs. I'm not sure what he's going to say about that. As you know, the court has struck down the policies that he used to place those tariffs in effect. He does have another way of doing it, which he's doing, but there's a lot of information out there. I saw two studies. One said that the American business and consumers have absorbed over 90 percent of the tariffs in the form of higher prices. So they've had to pay that. I don't really see how that's happened or the inflation rate wouldn't have come down. I think what they're saying, if there was no tariffs, would the inflation rate be down to like one and a half percent? I don't think so. So I think that's an inconclusive study. They came up with the wrong conclusions, but he's going to have to talk somehow about tariffs because that is in play. So Michael, you bring up the Supreme Court's recent ruling striking down President Trump's emergency tariffs. Do you think that's going to undercut his speech because this is one of his core economic items? I don't think so because what happened was the Supreme Court said you can't use that IEPA law to put those tariffs into effect. There are two other laws. One law says the president can put tariffs unilaterally on everybody for up to 150 days, and at the end of 150 days, he has to get congressional approval, which he'll never get. Another law says that if the administration feels that a country has been practicing unfair labor practices, and that's fairly easy to show, then the Department of Commerce will study that, and if they conclude it's unfair labor practices, he has a right to put a tariff on. So what's going to happen? He put these tariffs on, but over the next 150 days, they'll study which countries have caused the most problems, and then he'll be able to put those tariffs on those countries. One other thing, he has signed agreements with a number of countries, the European Union and a number of countries. I don't know how that's going to affect things. According to the trade, Jameson Greer, he says that none of the countries so far have wanted to renegotiate the contracts. So if those agreements and contracts stay in effect, and Trump is able to use the other laws for tariffs, tariffs will turn out to be a positive for him rather than a negative. All right, Michael, just one final thing here. What are the stakes in terms of whether President Trump can convince the public? If he cannot, does that mean his party loses during the midterm election? It certainly isn't going to help. This is his one chance to really get his message out. I think 30 million Americans are going to watch this. So this is his one chance to get his message out to the public and to convince them. He's been in office for a year. What he's done is mostly positive. And for the things that voters care most about, immigration, the economy, he's working on that. We should stay the course all the way through this year. And in November, if we continue, he'll say, if we continue to keep the Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, and obviously the presidency, he'll be able to do a lot more. He'll cite when the Democrats were in office the last four years, we really had a stagnant economy, very high inflation, and a border that was essentially a sieve that let tens of millions of people in. So he'll tout what's he done very well and how they should keep going. And if you switch to a Democrat, you're going to end up with the problems you had back in the last administration, is what he'll say. And he did also say that for the most favored nation pricing alone, Republicans should win the midterms, but time will tell. Great hearing your analysis today, Michael. Thank you so much. Always my pleasure. Today's show co-anchors Savannah Guthrie says her family is offering a reward of up to $1 million for the recovery of her 84-year-old mother. Nancy Guthrie has been missing since February 1st in Tucson, Arizona. Here's more. I'm coming on to say it is day 24 since our mom was taken in the dark of night from her bed. As law enforcement is working on the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, her daughter, Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie is offering up a reward for her mother's recovery. We are offering a family reward of up to $1 million. This is in addition to the FBI's $100,000 reward for information about 84-year-old Guthrie. It's the first we've heard from one of Guthrie's children in more than a week. Amidst the plea, Savannah Guthrie acknowledged for the first time that her mother may no longer be alive. She may have already gone home to the Lord that she loves. CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller, believes this video comes as substantive tips in the case are slowing down. The family still believes and investigators concur with this, but there's still someone out there, maybe more than one someone, who actually knows, knows. Meanwhile, new details have emerged about the masked person seen on doorbell camera footage. The suspect visited her doorstep on two different days, not just the morning she is believed to have been kidnapped, a source told CNN. The Pima County Sheriff's Department said in a statement Monday, there was no date or timestamp associated with these images and suggesting the photos were taken on different days is purely speculative. Immigration enforcement will be a big topic for President Trump's State of the Union speech tonight. The president has invited several guests, including people affected by crime and violence involving illegal border crossings. NTD correspondent Jason Blair has more. Immigration enforcement and border security have been major parts of President Trump's second term, as they were also big topics on the Trump Vance campaign trail. The Trump administration has been making it a priority to deport as many illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in the U.S. and or abroad or qualify as being national security concerns as possible. Statistics from the Department of Homeland Security show that from January 20th, 2025 to January 20th, 2026, there have been three million total deportations of those. Six hundred and seventy five hundred thousand were forced deportations and two point two million were self deportations. The White House also touts that in 2025, the U.S. had a negative net migration for the first time in at least a half a century. In 125 years, the murders, the lowest rate. You know why? Because they closed the borders and we got a lot of people out. It's not just closing. We got a lot of people out. It's no surprise to hear that guests affected by the major influx of illegal immigrants into the U.S. have been invited to the speech. Some include seven year old Dahlia Coleman. She sustained critical injuries after an auto crash involving an illegal immigrant driving a commercial truck. And YouTuber Nick Shirley, who was in the national spotlight for bringing attention to Medicaid fraud in Minnesota, was invited to the speech by Congressman Pete Stauber. Shirley has also documented ICE protests around the country, as well as other illegal immigration related topics. And some of the angel families who have had loved ones affected by illegal immigration criminals have been invited. Many attended an event at the White House on Monday. Of how our youngest son, Joshua, was brutally beaten, tortured, strangled to death, and his body set on fire. Reporting in Washington, D.C., Jason Blair, NTD News.