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Cato Weekly Podcast • February 26, 2026 

# Rhetoric vs. Reality in the State of the Union 

President Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday was a full-throated victory lap: America is supposedly “bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever.” Cato’s Ryan Bourne, Clark Neily, and Evan Sankey separate truth from exaggeration—testing the economic claims, unpacking the legal fight over tariff power, and decoding the foreign-policy moves behind the applause lines.

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

[![Ryan Bourne](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Ryan%20Bourne.jpg?itok=nv8-2r7d)](/people/ryan-bourne) 

##### [Ryan Bourne](/people/ryan-bourne)

R. Evan Scharf Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics, Cato Institute

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](https://x.com/MrRBourne) [ 

](mailto:rbourne@cato.org) 

[![Clark Neily](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Clark%20Neily.jpg?itok=kOJs7hwY)](/people/clark-neily) 

##### [Clark Neily](/people/clark-neily)

Senior Vice President for Legal Studies, Cato Institute

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](https://x.com/conlawwarrior) [ 

](mailto:cneily@cato.org) 

[![Evan Sankey - cropped](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-08/2015-06-12-Cato%20Institute-Evan%20Sankey--cropped.jpg?itok=OUint3Re)](/people/evan-sankey) 

##### [Evan Sankey](/people/evan-sankey)

Policy Analyst, Cato Institute

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](mailto:esankey@cato.org)