President Donald Trump might have spent the first legislative address of his second term hollering at Democrats on the benches of Congress but one CBS anchor seems to be all for it.
“It was an extraordinary speech,” CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil told viewers Tuesday night. “The longest joint session in history, the longest State of the Union address in history. In some ways, vintage Trump: combative, populist, historic for other reasons as well.”
He further praised “all the energy of the speech, the heart of the speech, on culture issues through the middle.”
Dokoupil’s boss, Paramount CEO David Ellison, attended the State of the Union as a guest of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
It was not immediately clear whether those “culture issues” referred to a particular moment, around 50 minutes into Trump’s address, when the president belted out a racist tirade against migrants as he was heckled by Democratic Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
“When it comes to the corruption that is plundering America, there has been no more stunning example than Minnesota—where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer,” Trump said.
The president has himself been found civilly liable for fraud, and has a conviction for falsifying business records.
Trump further declared that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
It has been just over a month since federal agents shot and killed anti-ICE protesters Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. They were both American citizens.
Dokoupil’s comments come amid what’s been widely decried as a rightward editorial shift at CBS under the leadership of Bari Weiss.
Weiss assumed her role as editor-in-chief in October 2025 following the controversial merger between the network’s former parent company, Paramount, and media conglomerate Skydance. Skydance paid her $150 million to acquire her digital media company, The Free Press.
The resulting entity, Paramount Skydance, is owned by the Ellison family, avid supporters of the MAGA administration.
