Democrats are holding competing events on the evening of the State of the Union address across Washington where lawmakers are boycotting the official event and protesters say they want to show the growing opposition to Donald Trump’s increasingly unpopular agenda.
On the National Mall, hundreds of people, including about 30 Democratic members of Congress, gathered for the “People’s State of the Union”, a counter-rally. Attendees held signs that read “No Money for ICE” and “Healthcare Not Warfare”. One person on stage carried a large poster with the photographs of the more than 30 people who have been killed in dealings with ICE since Trump took office in 2025.
The event kicked off about an hour before the president’s speech was scheduled to begin.
MoveOn’s executive director Katie Bethell told attendees the group helped organized the boycott “because we know that Donald Trump’s State of the Union will bear no resemblance to what’s actually happening in this country today”.
The crowd chanted: “Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE!” as senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, introduced his guest, Afghan refugee and immigrant advocate Fereshteh Ganjavi. Murphy explained he wasn’t at the State of the Union because “these are not normal times, and Democrats have to stop behaving normally”.
Moments later, a Trump supporter pushed through the barricades on the grounds and confronted Murphy. An organizer pulled the heckler off the stage as the crowd booed.
Host Joy Reid addressed the interruption. “Attention all Maga trolls: Your bullshit is not welcome here,” she said. “We are here to hear the truth and to hear from impacted people.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a list of about 30 lawmakers who are boycotting the president’s address was shared, and included Murphy, Chris Von Hollen of Maryland, Adam Schiff of California and Greg Casar of Texas.
Attendees also chanted: “Release the files!” as representative Summer Lee of Pennsylvania took the stage. One protester nearby held a sign that read: “Release ALL the Files.”
The real state of the union is a “government that would rather protect powerful people in the Epstein files than the women and the girls who are sexually abused”, Lee said on stage.
Earlier on Tuesday, Lee announced that she will introduce articles of impeachment against attorney general Pam Bondi for refusing to comply with a subpoena to release the full unredacted Epstein files.
Just before 9pm ET, there were an estimated 220,000 live viewers of the event on YouTube and other platforms, Liz Cattaneo, a spokesperson at MoveOn, told the Guardian.
More than two hours into the rally, the crowd erupted into a popular protest chant: “The people united will never be defeated.” Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, who was targeted by the Trump administration for deportation in 2025, initiated the chant from the stage.
He asked attendees to repeat after him: “We the people, say it loud and clear, to President Trump and his cabinet, we are not afraid of you because the love that shines in our heart is much brighter and more powerful than the darkness of fear that is blinding you.”
Meanwhile, not far from the National Mall, hundreds of people including politicians and celebrities gathered at the National Press Club for “State of the Swamp”, an event headlined by actor Robert De Niro and hosted by Defiance.org and other anti-Trump groups.
“I got into DC a few hours ago and got to this event just minutes ago,” Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey told the Guardian. “It’s full of people trying to stand up for democracy right now, angry about the trajectory of where our nation is going. They’re frustrated by the lack of abiding to the United States constitution.”
Frey, who is scheduled to make a State of the Union rebuttal speech during the event, gestured to the range of anxieties animating the ballroom: abortion rights, international tensions with Iran and environmental protections.
In the middle of Trump’s speech, former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham drew on her time inside the first Trump administration to call the president a liar. Grisham left the administration in 2021 and has since become one of Trump’s most outspoken critics.
“He used to tell me: ‘Stephanie, if you tell them enough, they will believe it,’” she told the crowd at the event, after his speech was turned off. “I can tell you, he is lying right now to this country.”
The Guardian
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