I’ve sat through five presidential addresses in my life. But they were all in Russia, where I was a member of the State Duma. And I have to say, the U.S. president’s address to Congress wasn’t all that different from the Russian format.
At its core, it’s a ritual—an event meticulously planned down to the last detail, filled with statistics, dramatic gestures, emotional storytelling, and applause breaks perfectly timed for prime-time television.
But there’s one fundamental difference. You would never see the so-called opposition disrupting the script in Russia—no silent protests. No heckling. There are no signs or symbolic clothing choices. In the U.S., that happens. And for all its flaws, that’s still proof that democracy here is alive.
But did it make any difference? Did it weaken Trump? Give Democrats a new strategy? Probably not.
Meanwhile, Trump, ever the showman, focused on people’s stories. He highlighted “ordinary American heroes” in key moments of his speech. The widow and daughters of the man who shielded his family during the July 13 assassination attempt sat in the audience. The mother of Laken Riley, the young woman killed by an undocumented migrant, stood next to Trump as he signed a bill in her honor. A teenager battling brain cancer was recognized as an honorary Secret Service agent. A young man who had always dreamed of attending West Point found out, live during the speech, that he had been accepted.
These moments were carefully crafted. And in politics, this kind of storytelling always works. The Democrats? They Didn’t return with stories of their own and didn’t put forth their party’s vision. That’s where they’re making a mistake. When an entire party fails to engage with stories about the “little guy,” they voluntarily write themselves out of the American political conversation. The modern Democratic Party has become so fixated on opposing Trump that it has forgotten how to speak to ordinary voters—people who don’t live and breathe politics but care about their jobs, safety, taxes, and future. Protest is not a strategy. And without a clear vision, protest feels like whining.
I know what fighting for absolute values, not just convenient slogans, means. As Deputy Chair of the Committee on Family, Women, and Children in the Russian State Duma, I spent five years pushing for laws against domestic violence, fighting for gender equality, and taking on ultra-conservatives. I saw firsthand how authoritarianism takes hold—not in one dramatic moment, but gradually, step by step, as the opposition weakens, fractures, and loses its ability to connect with the public.
And now, I see the same pattern emerging in the U.S.
Like Putin, Trump knows how to weaponize ‘traditional values.’ Family, religion, patriotism, and national sovereignty are official state doctrines in Russia. In America, for now, they are just political tools.
There was one moment in Trump’s speech when the Democrats did stand with him: Ukraine funding. But what comes next?
If we’re being honest, Trump has a pretty good shot at brokering a ceasefire in 2025. He now has a team that, while not always agreeing with him, will ultimately follow his lead—unlike his first administration, where chaos and internal conflicts reigned. \e. Neither Ukraine nor Europe can pressure the U.S. to stay on course. Washington covers nearly two-thirds of NATO’s military spending, and Kyiv depends entirely on American aid. And Russia is also ready to negotiate—of course, on its terms.
However, perhaps the most interesting shift under Trump’s return is that Russia is no longer considered America’s number one enemy. Moscow and Washington have no significant economic rivalry, and their interests even overlap in some areas. Trump sees Ukraine as an obstacle to bigger geopolitical deals. He wants to settle the issue, meet with Putin, and redraw the map of global influence.
It has been almost six months since the Democrats lost the 2024 election. Maybe they’ve reflected on it. But if they have, they’re keeping those reflections to themselves. Their strategy is still centered on criticizing Trump and little else. There are no new leaders, no clear direction, just a party stuck in a cycle of outrage.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is already preparing for the 2026 midterms. If his team can package his economic policies into a slick, digestible message—even with questionable statistics—he’ll have something to sell to voters. And let’s not forget: 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the United States. Expect a full-scale campaign focused on America’s greatness, unity, and prosperity.
Trump will present eye-catching (and, as usual, not consistently accurate) numbers on budget cuts, executive orders, and Supreme Court rulings. By the time the elections roll around, he’ll have a list of “achievements” ready to present to the public.
And the Democrats? If their main message is still “We’re not Trump,” they’ll lose. Again.
And Trump’s speech, in my view, was the most ambitious promise to create paradise on Earth since Nikita Khrushchev stood before the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party in 1961 and declared that Soviet citizens would soon be living under communism.
And we all know how that turned out.