Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger tore into Donald Trump’s economic record in the Democratic response to Tuesday’s State of the Union, calling out the president for enriching himself while American farmers lose entire markets to his tariff war.
“Farmers have suffered, some losing entire markets,” Spanberger said, speaking from the historic House of Burgesses in Williamsburg—a pointed choice of venue given Trump’s repeated references to America’s 250th anniversary.
The scale of this President's corruption is unprecedented.
— Governor Abigail Spanberger (@GovernorVA) February 25, 2026
The cover-up of the Epstein files. Crypto scams. Cozying up to billionaires for ballrooms.
It's crystal clear: the President is working for himself — not the American people. pic.twitter.com/lW0oF57fd0
The former CIA officer turned governor, who was sworn in last month as Virginia’s first woman governor, delivered what amounts to a preview of Democrats’ 2026 midterm strategy: hammer Trump on the gap between his promises to lower prices and the reality of what Americans are actually paying.
Trump spent much of his address taking credit for an economic “turnaround,” touting his tariffs as the engine of American prosperity. Spanberger wasn’t having it.
Foreign countries have retaliated against Trump’s tariffs by cutting off American farmers from markets they’d spent decades building. The levies have also driven up prices on fertilizers and other farming necessities—meaning farmers are paying more to produce crops they can’t sell.
Spanberger also went hard on Trump’s deportation campaign, which polls show a majority of Americans oppose.
Federal agents have been rolling into U.S. cities without judicial warrants and detaining American citizens, she said. The operations have been carried out by “poorly trained” personnel in places like Minneapolis.
“They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies,” Spanberger said. “They have sent children, a little boy in a blue bunny hat, to far-off detention centers and they have killed American citizens in our streets.”
The choice to tap Spanberger for the rebuttal wasn’t accidental. She’s a moderate who’s made a career of flipping Republican-held seats—first in Congress, now in the Virginia governor’s mansion. Democrats clearly see her as the template for their effort to claw back control of the House and Senate in November.
Her central accusation: Trump has used the presidency to enrich himself rather than the voters who put him back in office.
Watch the full response here: