ABC News’ Jonathan Karl breaks down some key takeaways from the president’s traditional pre-State of the Union lunch
Donald Trump met with a slew of network anchors ahead of his State of the Union speech Tuesday, taking part in the tradition of teasing the topics he’d be hitting the most – despite his perpetual public feud with the media.
The Trump administration hosted the annual pre-SOTU lunch with anchors including ABC News’ David Muir and the network’s chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl; CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil; and NBC News’ Tom Llamas. MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle, NewsNation’s Blake Burman and Leland Vittert, and Newsmax’s NewsNation’s Blake Burman and Leland Vittert also reportedly attended.
Following the lunch, Karl posted to his social media a brief recap of what the president talked about and what he plans to focus on during the evening’s State of the Union.
“One notable thing, we did talk about Iran,” Karl said. “He said that Iran wants a deal more than I do, but they just can’t say the ‘magic words,’ which he said was they won’t build a bomb.”
He added: “The president said he is going to talk a lot about the economy, and he’s going to call for new tax cuts tonight, and he’s going to say that the ‘next three years in America will be the best years economically that we ever had.’ And he’s going to say – or he told us – ‘it’s already begun.'”
Though traditional, the lunch was a bit of a surprise, considering how often the president has attacked the legacy media networks as “fake news” during the first year of his second term. Aside from the usual callouts in interviews and on Truth Social, Trump also levied lawsuits against both ABC News and CBS News.
Trump’s State of the Union is scheduled to start at 9pm ET/6pm PT and expected to be a long one – as many of the president’s speeches have been lately. He is also expected to talk about his tariffs and immigration crackdown that has caused some turmoil throughout the country.
