Voters react as President Donald Trump discusses election policy during the 2026 State of the Union. (Maslansky & Partners)
While Democrats reacted negatively, Republicans had a positive response to Trump's call for the passage of the SAVE America Act. While Independents did not react as positively as Republicans, their line in the dial test remained above the Democrats.
The group monitored by Carter, which included 29 Democrats, 41 Republicans and 30 Independents, had mixed reactions to a number of moments in Trump's speech. Carter found that the most polarizing issue of the night was gender policy. One of the president's special guests was Sage Blair, a young woman whose family filed a 2023 lawsuit alleging that Appomattox County High School staff socially transitioned her and treated her as a boy without her parents' knowledge.
"But surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents' arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents' will," Trump said. "We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately."
President Donald Trump applauds, with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson, as he delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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While there were many moments that caused disagreement among American across the political spectrum, there were points of unity in the speech. Republicans and Democrats had positive responses when Trump awarded the Purple Heart to Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe and deceased Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom. Wolfe and Beckstrom were shot by a gunman who ambushed them last year in Washington, D.C. Wolfe was critically injured in the attack, while Beckstrom was fatally shot. Beckstrom's parents accepted the award in their daughter's honor.
Another unifying moment came when Trump brought out the U.S. men's hockey team, which just scored a historic overtime victory against Canada in the Olympics. Carter noted that the president's critics were pleased with the recognition of the Olympians, with one calling it a "nice moment."
Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrats-cool-trump-pushing-save-act-election-bill-voter-dial