Name: Voters in crucial swing state district react to Trump’s speech
Uploaded: 2026-02-25T23:01:03.000Z
Duration: 10 min 31 s
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CNN senior political contributors Van Jones and Scott Jennings have been pounding beers and eating popcorn and watching the they're doing a special CNN Voter Live cast.

Saginaw was one of two counties in that crucial swing state to flip from Biden to Trump.

Michigan is home to several key midterm contests later this year.

Tonight, Van and Scott are joined by 10 voters, four Democrats, four Republicans and two independents who watched tonight's speech.

Van and Scott, walk us through the reaction in the room to the president's address.

And we're going to get a chance to hear from everybody.

Look, I think the most important thing I can say is that people here who are not in Washington, D.C.

who are on the ground look at this stuff very, very differently.

Tell me why I didn't like this speech because he did not talk about what he was doing to make our lives better.

As Governor Spanberger said, is the president working to make our lives better?

James Carville said it's the economy and it still is the economy and he's not talking about that at all.

Did that make you feel like he's on your side?

People's health insurance premiums are going up.

But, but Erica, you are a Trump supporter.

You like the speech and you had some positive things to say.

But I know there will be a huge change with the children tax break and my husband works a lot of overtime.

I think no senior should pay Social Security taxes.

And then I liked how I wish he would have stayed more on Iran because I was already wondering, trying not to worry about it but kind of not paying attention.

But it sounds like he said if they're not going to go to nuclear, we don't have to do the effort.

The thing that I missed the most was a focus on the economy and looking forward and Supreme Court struck the tariffs down and he's going for another round of tariffs.

And I also think that's the wrong direction.

Our costs are up and we need to control our costs.

And, you know, without, you know, raising rates, we can't give raises to our employees.

So, so I'm stuck in that kind of vicious cycle of raise the rates, prices go up, raise the rates, and, you know, how do we continue that?

So he didn't help you on the tariff stuff at all.

But you said that you enjoyed this speech and that there were moments that moved you.

Well, the celebrating people is always good.

But again, that 18 trillion investment, the 25 million in Trump accounts.

But I did hear something on the health care.

We have a law, the Obamacare, the aca, and

we don't have, we don't, we don't have a way around it.

And it's really just pooled care that's gone up every year.

And he, this most favored nation, he's taken a stab at lowering the cost for us.

And unless the legislature acts, he's at least doing something that's going to hit our pocketbook.

I think the part of the speech that's probably going to live on for most Republicans is when he asked the Congress, stand up if you think your duty is first to American citizens before illegal aliens, Republicans stood up.

It gave him his most sustained applause for the night.

I suspect, man, you're going to see this in a lot of campaign ads that Democrats wouldn't stand up.

What did you all think of the showmanship of that or of sort of the spectacle of trying to get Democrats to stand up for that?

Well, I think the point, I think that, you know, it may have gotten a little muddled, but, you know, in the showmanship.

Everybody in that room represents the citizens in this country.

He should, you know, the governor ask, is Trump doing his job?

Trump ask, are all of you doing your job?

But don't you think it was just kind of a cheap stunt?

I mean, to just, you know, you're somebody who's been in politics for a long time.

No matter what Trump told Democrats, stand up.

If he said stand up, if you like puppies, they would have said, we like kittens.

I mean, there's no way they were going to stand up.

So to me, he was just trying to make Democrats look bad.

Pastor, the Role should be to unify the country.

And I think this was the opportunity for us to come together as one.

We're not a states of red or blue states, but we're the United States.

Would you have stood up if you were a Democrat and Donald Trump said stand up if you are against illegal immigrants, whatever he said, would you have stood up?

I would have respected our country and I would have stayed stuck to my standards.

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Voters in crucial swing state district react to Trump’s speech

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