What to know about Trump's State of the Union address

The stage is set for US President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

The US Capitol in Washington DC will be packed with the country's top lawmakers, Supreme Court justices, and military leaders to hear the president's message.

Trump will address a joint session of Congress in a speech that will likely outline what he feels are the accomplishments of his first year in office and his policy agenda moving forward.

It comes ahead of the country's November midterm elections.

Lawmakers from the Senate and the House of Representatives will attend, though several Democrats have said they plan to skip it.

The event is a keynote speech in which the US president sets out their agenda for the next year, highlights their accomplishments to the American people, and shapes a political message.

It is a requirement of the US Constitution that the president "shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient".

That requirement has been interpreted differently in the more than 200 years since President George Washington delivered the first one in 1790.

In recent decades, the speech has become one of the major media events on the US political calendar: a closely watched affair that includes a rebuttal from the opposition party.

In recent years, it has also produced some memorable moments - like when then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ripped Trump's speech in half in 2020. Pelosi later said she "tore up a manifesto of mistruths".

The address is scheduled to start at 21:00 EST (02:00 GMT) on Tuesday.

It is typically held in the House of Representatives chamber in the US Capitol building in Washington DC.

Seated behind the president during his speech will be Vice-President JD Vance, who is the head of the US Senate, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican and the top lawmaker in the House.

The State of the Union will be streamed live on the BBC's website and TV channel, with special coverage starting at 20:00 EST.

It will also be shown on all major US networks.

Trump has had an eventful first year of this term, implementing policies that have divided Americans - even sometimes those in his own party.

At his last speech to Congress in March 2025 - which was similar but not technically a State of the Union speech - Trump spoke about the war in Ukraine, his desire to take Greenland, and a promise to lower taxes "for everybody".

Though it is not confirmed what the president will touch on this time, it is likely that the subject of immigration enforcement will be on the table. Under Trump, illegal crossings of the southern border have dramatically fallen.

The president has also focused on mass deportations, though some of his tactics have raised questions about oversight - including in Minneapolis, where two US citizens were shot and killed by federal agents earlier this year.

Trump’s trade policy could also come up, in the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision that said Trump exceeded his authority when he imposed global tariffs via a law reserved for national emergencies.

Other topics could include Trump's efforts to negotiate ceasefires overseas, America's relationship with Iran, and the dramatic seizing of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US forces last month.

A year ago, Trump set the record for longest address ever given by a president to a joint session of Congress, speaking for an hour and 40 minutes, beating former President Bill Clinton's record of an hour and 28 minutes.

Democrats will follow Tuesday's address with their party's response.

The rebuttal - first delivered in 1966 - is often given by rising stars in the opposition party. After Trump's similar address last March, Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin delivered a rebuttal.

The State of the Union is always a "who's who" of Washington power players.

Members of Congress from both political parties, justices from the US Supreme Court and top military brass will all be in attendance. First Lady Melania Trump and other members of the Trump family are also expected to be there, along with members of Trump's cabinet.

There are also dozens of notable guests, invited by the president and other lawmakers, who are sometimes used to highlight key policy issues.

Democratic Representative Ro Khanna - who has been advocating with other lawmakers on behalf of victims of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said he was bringing Haley Robson, a survivor of Epstein's abuse.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has invited Raiza Contreras, a New York City mother whose son, Dylan Lopez Contreras, was detained by federal immigration agents.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would bring the family of Marc Brock, a Louisiana police officer who was killed while working last year.

There will be one customary absence - the so-called "designated survivor" who is tasked with taking charge in case an unforeseen tragedy wipes out or incapacitates the many government officials gathered for the speech.

Usually a lower-level member of the president's cabinet, this individual is taken to an undisclosed location during the State of the Union. The administration has not yet announced who it will be this year, but in 2020 it was then-Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt.

A less expected absence is the sizeable group of nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers who have said they will not be attending. They include Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.

Some of the group say they will instead attend an event they have dubbed the "People's State of the Union". The event has been organised by progressive groups aiming to take attention away from what they call a "night full of lies and misplaced priorities for the American people".

Trump also invited the US national women's hockey team - who won gold at the Winter Olympics in Italy - but the group declined the invitation due to what they said was "the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments".