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Democrats plot protests for Trump’s State of the Union address

House Democrats are plotting a range of moves to broadcast their defiance of President Trump during his State of the Union address to Congress next week.

Trump’s speech marks a significant flash point amid a Department of Homeland Security shutdown, with the White House and Democrats locked in an impasse over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection after immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

While some Democrats are making a quieter stand by skipping the high-profile event, others are prepared to walk out midspeech and bring guests to underscore their arguments about the real-world impact of Trump’s policies.

“The only question for me is which of his disgusting lines prompts me to get up and leave, because at some point I will,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told Axios.

Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) told The Hill via text message that he’s “thinking” about protesting during Trump’s speech, though he didn’t share specifics on what exactly he’ll do.

“I don’t have details to share but this President is not above [the] law, his massive corruption, unconstitutional actions, his insults to our allies and despicable acts at Epstein’s island must be protested,” he said.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) said in an emailed statement she will be bringing one of her constituents, “who is a small business owner of a nonprofit daycare and advocate for the Affordable Care Act,” as her guest.

“With the address likely to be divisive, I believe it’s important to have a guest in the room who has the pulse of what the American people really care about: affordable childcare and healthcare for all,” she said. 

A spokesperson for Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) said the third-term House member views the State of the Union as “an opportunity to share the stories of those impacted by the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans’ actions over the past year.”

“She will be bringing a guest who can speak to how their disastrous policies have made it harder for him and his family to make ends meet as they face an active health care crisis,” the spokesperson said.

The president’s annual address to Congress marks a high-profile opportunity that minority parties have historically taken advantage of in ways both loud and quiet. And it’s sometimes resulted in disagreements over how to protest.

At the presidents address to Congress last year, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) stood up during the speech to assert that the president had no mandate, raising his walking cane in Trump’s direction. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) ended up ordering the sergeant-at-arms to “restore order” by removing Green from the chamber. The House later censured the Texas Democrat in a largely party-line vote.

Green hasn’t announced whether he will be attending Trump’s State of the Union next week.

Also last year, several House Democrats walked out midspeech or held up signs that read “Save Medicaid” and “False” as Trump spoke.

Dozens of members from the Democratic Women’s Caucus wore pink, with chair Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) telling Time magazine it was a color of “power and protest.”

Leger Fernandez told Axios that her members will “make sure that our opinions with regards to Trump are understood” this year and that her group “will be doing a lot of stuff around the State of the Union.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) advised members in a closed-door meeting last week to either attend the State of the Union in “silent defiance” or skip the event altogether, according to news reports.

And some members have already made up their minds not to attend, staging their own show of defiance against Trump.

Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) does not plan to attend the State of the Union, but will be watching it from her office, her spokesperson Dick Cooper told The Hill. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) will also be skipping the event, her office said. She attended Trump’s speech in March but walked out in protest.

When asked last week whether she would attend the event, progressive firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told reporters, “Probably not, no.” She had opted to livepost on Bluesky rather than sit in on Trump’s speech in March.

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) wrote in MeidasTouch that as a senior member of the House, he feels an “obligation” to attend the State of the Union. 

But, he wrote, “after watching President Trump run roughshod over the Constitution, display utter disregard for Congress, and openly engage in corruption as he and his family use the office to enrich themselves and tarnish this country that I love, I will not give him the dignity of having my presence at the State of the Union.”

Some Democrats have urged counterprogramming during Trump’s address, as the minority party faces mounting pressure from its base to fight back against the administration.

“A responsible counter-narrative isn’t about partisan theatrics — it’s about ensuring that the state of Black and Brown America, and the state of working America broadly, is part of the national conversation policymakers and leaders must confront,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) told The Hill in an emailed statement.

It remains to be seen what form of counterprogramming some House Democrats will pursue. With the partial shutdown looming over the address, however, immigration is likely to dominate the discussion.

Asked whether the State of the Union should be held if the Department of Homeland Security is still shut down, Jeffries told CBS’s Ed O’Keefe on Sunday, “Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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