Wednesday News: Trump’s “Excruciatingly Tedious, Lie-Packed Mess” of a SOTU Was Filled with “lies and xenophobic rants,” myriad inflated, misleading or simply false claims”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, February 25.

• Grasslands and Wetlands Are Being Gobbled Up By Agriculture, Mostly Livestock (“A new study takes a first-of-its kind look at how farming converts non-forested areas and major carbon sinks into cropland and pasture.” Basically the worst thing you can do for the environment is to eat meat.)
• Ukraine-US talks in Geneva on Thursday ‘preparation for trilateral meeting with Russia’, Zelenskyy says
• Four years ago, the world expected Ukraine to be crushed, but it has stood firm. So what now for Putin? (“A quick landgrab has distorted into a complex geopolitical conflict – and even Trump’s fulminations can’t seem to make Ukrainians give in”)
• Thanks, Ukrainians Say, but Please Stop Calling Us Resilient (“Ukraine must project strength to secure continued Western support. But its people want the world to know they are not superhuman.”)
• Ukraine Wants to Join the E.U. Quickly. That Won’t Be Easy. (“Negotiators agree that joining the bloc is critical to Kyiv’s future. But obstacles abound, and compromises might forever change how the union works.”)
• Iran pushes back against Trump ahead of Geneva talks in the face of major US military deployment
• Trump lays out case for possible attack on Iran (“President Donald Trump pointed to Tehran’s support for militant groups, its killing of protesters and the country’s missile and nuclear programs as threats to the region and the United States.”)
• Mexico Has Finally Toppled a Major Drug Kingpin. What Comes Next Matters More.
• See Where Mexico’s Cartels Are in Control (“Crime syndicates in the states of Sinaloa and Jalisco have expanded their territory”)
• The End of Diplomacy (“The once-bustling corridors of the State Department are tomblike as ambassadors scrape for information.”)
• Trump’s ICE Is Quietly Stockpiling Weaponry—and It Should Alarm Us All (“In addition to staffing up at a furious rate, ICE and CPB are acquiring a vast cache of weapons from private contractors, new data reveals. This will not end well—or anytime soon.”)
• Trump’s Tariff Goes Into Effect at 10 Percent, Not the 15 Threatened
• Fresh Off a Supreme Court Loss, Trump Could Face New Challenges on Tariffs
• John Roberts Is Losing Patience With Trump (I’d be very skeptical of takes like this one.)
• Critic of Mainstream Medicine Is Poised to Become Top Doctor in U.S. (“Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer and President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, will appear before a Senate ” Vomit.)
• ‘I Genuinely Am Upset That Your Kids Are Vaccinated’ (“Del Bigtree, a longtime ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., isn’t just anti-vaccine. He’s pro-infection.”)
• What Hath Trump Wrought (“What Trump has, a little more than one year into his second term, is a failed presidency: one that has crashed on the rocks of his ambition to supplant constitutional government with that of his own will. Yes, Trump has done a tremendous amount of damage. And yes, he has degraded American democracy to the point where it is on life support. But he’s failed to make himself a dictator, and the public is poised to punish his party for his transgressions.”)
• Trump touts ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda – but no mention of climate crisis (“President derided Biden’s ‘green new scam’ during State of the Union address, and hailed the rise in US oil production”? Trump is literally insane.)
• ‘A Tedious, Tiresome Performance’: The Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s State of the Union
• Trump’s State of the Union Was a Bloated Awards Show (“And midterm voters got a nothingburger”)
• Trump’s State of the Union: Hockey Champions and Grisly Tales of Bloodshed (“In the longest ever State of the Union address, President Trump camouflaged his claims of a historic economic boom in star-spangled spectacle as his approval ratings dip deep underwater.”)
• The most important line from Trump’s State of the Union (“The president’s grim, anti-democratic address, explained.”)
• Why the longest-ever State of the Union address was the most inconsequential (“Amid Trump’s lies and xenophobic rants, people struggling to pay bills and make ends meet are unlikely to be moved”)
• President Trump’s State-of-the-Union Variety Show (“Were you not entertained?”)
• Takeaways from Trump’s address: Sales mode on economy, heavy on patriotism, dark turn on Democrats
• Trump’s ftheatrical State of the Union address offers little hint of any change in course
• Trump Brushes Off Affordability Worries in State of Union Speech
• Fact check: Trump makes false claims about the economy, elections and crime in State of the Union
• Trump Delivers Excruciatingly Tedious, Lie-Packed Mess Of A ‘State Of The Union’ Speech
• What Trump avoided in the State of the Union could haunt him in November (“The president’s state of the union was notable for something his second term has largely lacked: restraint.”)
• Trump Hails an Economic Turnaround Many Voters Don’t See (“The president said in his State of the Union address that he had unleashed a new age of prosperity. One thing he didn’t say: I feel your pain.”)fmem
• Jobs, gas prices and ending wars: factchecking Trump’s State of the Union claims (“The president’s lengthy speech to Congress contained myriad inflated, misleading or simply false claims”)
• Trump has lost the ability to entertain. Sadly, he hasn’t lost the ability to offend (“Throughout the speech, Trump seemed tired. He had difficulty reading from his teleprompter; he gripped the podium with a tightness bordering on desperation”)
• Democrats hold counter-events during Trump’s State of the Union address: ‘These are not normal times’
• The Epstein Files Are Revealing Darker and Darker Truths (“Trafficking. Buried bodies. The news is going to get much worse before it gets better.”)
• Dozens of FBI records apparently missing from Epstein files, including Trump accuser interviews
• Missing Epstein files include interviews with alleged Trump accuser (“A woman who came forward in July 2019 to accuse Jeffrey Epstein of assaulting and raping her several times in the 1980s, beginning when she was just 13, is also a Trump accuser featured in the Epstein files.”)
• The Epstein files Trump’s DOJ is withholding
• Kash Patel’s Olympics Schedule Left Plenty of Time for Leisure
• Kash Patel’s use of jet delayed FBI team’s mass shooting response, whistleblower tells top senator (“Sen. Richard Durbin says FBI director’s ‘misplaced priorities’ led to the delayed response to the Brown University shooting in December.” This would be a MASSIVE scandal in a Democratic administration.)
• Federal judge rejects government’s request to search Washington Post reporter’s devices
• Exclusive: Hegseth gives Anthropic until Friday to back down on AI safeguards
• Hegseth revives push to punish Sen. Mark Kelly (Seriously, Hegseth can f*** himself- the guy is pure evil.)
• SOTU erupts as Al Green is escorted out over anti-Trump sign
• Editorial: Potomac sewage spill shows need for infrastructure investment
• Sen. Mark Warner on Fourth Anniversary of Russia’s “brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine”: “the Trump administration is failing to meet the moment” (“The Ukrainians are fighting on the front lines of freedom”)
• Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine Introduce Legislation to Require Refunds of Trump’s Illegal Tariffs (“To date, the Trump administration has collected an estimated $175 billion in illegal tariff revenue, raising taxes on products from nearly every country on earth”)
• Kaine, Warner introduce bill to help small businesses get tariff refunds
• Video: Kaine Delivers Annual Reading of Washington’s Farewell Address on Senate Floor
• New law moves 2026 midterm primaries in Virginia from June to August
• Video, Transcript, Reactions: Gov. Abigail Spanberger Says Trump “lied…scapegoated…distracted…offered no real solutions to our nation’s pressing challenges — so many of which he is actively making worse”
• ‘We did not hear the truth’: Spanberger criticizes Trump over cost of living (“Virginia’s new governor gives State of the Union rebuttal while Alex Padilla echoes similar themes in Spanish response”)
• Spanberger rips Trump over affordability, immigration in Democratic response to SOTU
• In State of the Union response, Gov. Spanberger asks ‘Is the president working for you?’ (“‘As we watched our nation’s lawmakers gather for a joint session of Congress, we did not hear the truth from our president,’ she said from Virginia’s Colonial Capitol in Williamsburg.”)
• Spanberger: We did not hear the truth from our president
• Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger questions whether Americans feel the ‘golden age’ Trump describes
• In Democratic rebuttal, Spanberger accuses Trump of driving up costs and chaos (“Newly sworn-in Virginia governor cites affordability, corruption and national security in response to president’s State of the Union address.”)
• Video: Prior to Delivering SOTU Response, Gov. Abigail Spanberger Says She Will Not “be in fear of a president who says things that are…anything from outright lies to twistings of the truth.” (Spanberger says it’s “distressing” that people would “accept [Trump’s] punitive nature as normal”)
• Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger questions whether Americans feel the ‘golden age’ Trump describes
• NEW: DNC Releases Virginia Impacts of Trump’s First Year in Office Ahead of His State of the Union Address Tonight (“Working families…lost $590…last year from Trump and Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill and reckless tariffs.”)
• Call their bluff: It’s time for data centers to pay sales taxes like the rest of us
• ICE enforcement nationwide shaped Virginia immigration bills in real time
• Antisemitism on the rise in Virginia, especially among its youth (Horrible.)
• State lawmakers consider FOIA exemptions every year, and this one is no different
• Virginia’s alcohol ratio for restaurants may soon be changing
• Spanberger meets with chicken producing co-op at Virginia Capitol
• Virginia Beach attorney selected as GOP nominee for Del. Barry Knight’s seat (“Virginia Beach Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Andrew Rice beat five other candidates to become the Republican nominee in a special election to fill Del. Barry Knight’s House of Delegates seat.”)
• Rice wins HD-98 GOP nomination
• Augusta County leaders debate blocking early voting in redistricting referendum
• Gov. Spanberger’s chief of staff is suing a prominent Democratic operative for defamation (Wow.)
• Data center complex with gas power plant planned for Wise County (“Officials say the project would involve nine buildings totaling approximately 2 million square feet, plus on-site natural gas generation.” UGH.)
• Lynchburg council votes to go to court over redistricting referendum
• Kathy Cohen will seek Roanoke City Council seat
• New population estimates: Fairfax County population losses accelerate, so do population gains downstate
• CWG Live: Iffy chance of precipitation tomorrow. Some wintry potential early next week. (“It’s uncertain if we get some rain, and maybe wet snow north of D.C., on Thursday, or if precipitation stays to our south.”)