By: Samuel Mortel
On Feb. 24, the United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump delivered the first State of the Union address of his second term.
The State of the Union address traditionally presents the sitting president with an opportunity to deliver a message to the nation about the state of the country, what their administration has accomplished, and what they hope to accomplish, among other topics.
The president and members of Congress can often deliver messages without even using their voice, rather through their guests. Politicians can spend countless hours and use countless words to preach the importance of a certain issue or take a stand for a cause they believe in. Still, it’s often hard for an issue to feel “real” to people unless they see someone affected by it. An invitation could allow a politician to bring an issue to life in front of the American people. It could also allow them to show appreciation and honor someone they feel deserves it.
The president can invite up to 24 guests to the State of the Union address, and each member of Congress may also invite one guest to accompany them.
A variety of guests have been invited to attend previous State of the Union addresses as a means of showing appreciation, ranging from civil rights activist Rosa Parks (1999, invited by Bill Clinton) to Desiline Victor, a 102 year-old woman who waited in line for over three hours to cast a vote for Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election (2013, invited by Michelle Obama).
Members of Congress sometimes use their invitations to signal support for a certain issue, take a stand against the sitting president, and/or use the publicity from the event to turn the press’s eyes to a national issue.
One notable example is when Democratic lawmakers, such as Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and several others, brought the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients to attend the 2018 State of the Union address. This move was in response to a massive legislative battle over Trump’s mission to rescind the Obama-era immigration policy.
Numerous hot-button issues that became the topic of national discussion over the past year, and, like in previous years, the State of the Union became an event where the president and members of Congress could air their grievances and signal their priorities to the American people by bringing a guest (or multiple guests) as a sort of living embodiment. Here are some of the most notable guests of last week’s State of the Union address and the significance of their presence.
Minnesota Representative (D) Ilhan Omar invited Aliyah Rahman, Mary Granlund, Mubashir Hussen, and Gerardo Orozco Guzman. All four of these guests were victimized by immigration enforcement.
Rahman is a U.S. citizen who who was dragged from her car by ICE agents, Hussen is a US citizen who was arrested by ICE agents, Orozco Guzman is the son of a labor organizer who was arrested by ICE and taken to a detention center, and Granlund is the chair of the Columbia Heights School Board, which is the school that 5-year-old Liam Ramos attended before he was detained by ICE agents.
ICE terrorizing citizens is a topic that especially hits close to home for Omar, whose home state was the site of a large-scale ICE operation. The operation was met with massive protests and ultimately ended in the deaths of two US citizens, Renèe Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal immigration enforcement agents, as previously reported by The Vanguard.
Rahman was arrested during the State of the Union after authorities in the building felt that she was disturbing Trump’s speech by standing in protest. During the address, President Trump turned his attention to the issue of immigration, specifically within the state of Minnesota.
“[…] members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer.”
He went on to say, “The Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption, and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception. Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the USA.”
President Trump turned the attention of his address to two of his guests: Jacqueline Medina — the mother of a teenage girl who was killed by an undocumented immigrant in 2023— and Dalilah Coleman, a 6-year-old who was injured in 2024 when an undocumented immigrant crashed into a parked car that she was in.
“We can never forget that many in this room not only allowed the border invasion to
happen before I got involved, but indeed, they would do it all over again if they ever had
the chance. If [democrats] ever got elected, they would open up those borders to some of the
worst criminals anywhere in the world.”
President Trump continued, “The only thing standing between Americans and a wide-open border right now is President Donald J. Trump and our great Republican patriots in Congress…That is why I’m also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the
removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country.”
This section of Trump’s speech prompted negative reactions from the Democrats in attendance, namely Congresswoman Omar.
“You have killed Americans! You have killed Americans…You are a murderer!” Omar shouted. Trump departed from his speech to respond, “You should be ashamed of yourself,” to which Omar shot back, “You should be ashamed.”
Numerous survivors of Jeffrey Epstein were invited to attend the State of the Union, along with Sky and Amanda Roberts, brother and sister-in-law of outspoken Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre, who passed away last year. Various democrats invited over a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, and in some cases, the victim attended in place of a Representative. Prior to the address, House Democrats and Epstein survivors hosted a press conference where both groups called for the release of the full Epstein files. “We will keep coming back again and again until all the Epstein files have been released because accountability is impossible without full transparency,” said survivor Lisa Phillips. “We are not going away. We are not fading into silence.”
Trump and his administration have faced massive backlash over their handling of the Epstein files, with Trump in particular being criticized for being mentioned in released Epstein documents over a thousand times, including disturbing allegations.
Enrique Márquez, a guest of President Trump, is a former political prisoner of Venezuelan President Nicholás Maduro, who was captured under Trump’s direction earlier this year. Trump used Marquez’s presence to bring up his ambitions to “unleash extraordinary economic gains for both our countries.”
First Lady Melania Trump invited Everest Nevraumont, an 11-year-old youth advocate for artificial intelligence in education. President Trump himself has been a large supporter of the AI industry, going as far as to sign an executive order banning states from regulating it. The President and First Lady seem to have a shared goal in spreading the use of artificial intelligence.
President Trump also invited Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, a conservative media personality and founder of Turning Point USA, who was assassinated last year, as previously reported by The Vanguard. Invoking Charlie and Erika’s faith, Trump reaffirmed the conservative belief that America is a Christian nation. ”In Charlie’s memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God.” President Trump said. “[…]We love religion, and we love bringing it back. And it’s coming back at levels that nobody actually thought possible.”
In an event centered on the president delivering an address to the nation, guests ended up grabbing substantial media attention, resulting in press conferences, back-and-forths, and implications for what was to come.