President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union speech on Tuesday was, true to form, a bold assertion of winning and success, both of the first year of his second term and of the nation at large. I don’t want to attempt to analyze all the claims made, as I’m sure many national commentators will do that job better. But for our audience, it was noteworthy that the president began by reminding everyone that this year is the 250th anniversary of our nation, something Carolina Journal and the John Locke Foundation have also made a major focus:
Less than five months from now, our country will celebrate an epic milestone in American history, the 250th anniversary of our glorious American independence. This July 4th, we will mark two and a half centuries of liberty and triumph, progress and freedom, in the most incredible and exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth. And you’ve seen nothing yet. We’re going to do better and better and better. This is the golden age of America.
If you haven’t made plans to attend one of the many local events across the state celebrating this anniversary, don’t miss out. Most of us probably won’t be around for the 300th anniversary in 50 years.
But, back to Trump’s comments: whether we really get “better and better” and create a “golden age” will come down to whether we truly address the major challenges we face today. And Trump did a good job of identifying most of the problems that we face as a nation.
America’s challenges, 250 years on…
A few of the major challenges we are facing, and which Trump mentioned, are prices, immigration, the fentanyl epidemic, housing, health care, military strength, violent crime, energy, trade, and national identity.
To tackle these challenges, we should approach them the same way our nation generally has over the last 250 years — by leaning on freedom, rule of law, federalism, national unity, and creative problem solving. Many of Trump’s plans as expressed in the speech, followed this tradition.
The idea of giving health care dollars directly to the consumer so that they can shop for their own plans or of having major industrial sites like AI data centers make their own power plants feel like quintessentially American solutions.
Others though, like Trump’s comments on housing, missed that mark:
Low interest rates will solve the Biden created housing problem, while at the same time protecting the values of those people who already own a house that really feel rich for the first time in their lives. We want to protect those values; we want to keep those values up. We’re going to do both.
The idea that we can solve the problem mainly by lowering interest rates, rather than building the necessary housing, implies that we will purposefully restrict supply to artificially keep prices high, thereby protecting housing as an investment for those whose home values recently skyrocketed. That plays older generations against younger ones with market manipulation, rather than encouraging the economy to create the houses needed for young families and those entering the workforce.
Later, though, he noted how he signed an executive order to ban investment firms from buying homes. He said corporate investors drive up prices so normal Americans get outbid. It’s unclear whether he believes removing this major source of housing demand would hurt the eliminate the high values just said he was trying to protect.
I said I wouldn’t break down all his policies and proposals, so I’ll stop there. But suffice it to say, Trump, like recent leaders of both parties, frequently arrives at solutions that kick the can down the road and score political point rather than achieving a lasting resolution.
A couple more challenges not mentioned…
Arguably the biggest challenge we face politically as a nation — the $39 trillion and growing national debt — did not (unless I missed it) get mentioned at all. That’s because it’s a complicated problem that would step on every political landmine to solve. It would mean really getting to the root of why our health care is so expensive. It would mean addressing the fact that our population is quickly aging, with more and more retirees relying on fewer and fewer workers. And it would mean eliminating or drastically cutting areas of government relied upon by core voting blocs.
The only way problems of this magnitude get solved is by getting leaders of all sides together so no one person or party gets the blame. But the impossibility of that occurring brings us to our last challenge: polarization.
Returning to our leaders of 250 years ago, I’m reminded of a book my 5-year-old daughter really enjoyed (and which I enjoyed reading to her, at least the first dozen times), “The Worst of Friends,” about Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The book detailed how they started off allies and even best friends when the fight was against the British, but then, once the nation was independent, they joined opposing parties and became enemies (especially when they ran against each other for president).
But years later, after all the dust settled, they began to write letters again, first a trickle, then a flood. They ended their lives as friends again, coming to see that the other had truly been trying to do what they thought was best, dying moments (though many miles) apart on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826. I’m sure there are versions of this tale written for adults too.
Countrymen should have the same primary goals: the common good of the nation, or if we have to be more specific, a population full of prosperous, educated, healthy, free citizens. So even if we disagree on how to achieve this, even the worst of friends should be able to come together for a time to solve a problem the size of evicting the world’s superpower or Founding a nation (or in our day, solving the national debt).
Trump ended his speech mentioning again the 250th anniversary.
For our destiny is written by the hand of Providence and these first 250 years were just the beginning… the Golden Age of America is upon us. The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended; it still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot. And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder and more glorious than ever before.
Hopefully he is correct. But for it truly to be a golden age, we will need to address those issues he brought up — as well as those he didn’t include, like the debt and political polarization. Like Jefferson and Adams, Americans can disagree vigorously as we pursue what we believe are the real answers. And then maybe we can look back in 50 years, at the nation’s next major anniversary, and say we rose to meet the challenges of our time.