Around 15 students gathered in Moseley Center on Feb. 24 for the State of the Union watch party, hosted by Elon Votes. The broadcast was President Trump’s first State of the Union of his second term and lasted a record 108 minutes, according to AP News. The previous record for the longest presidential address to Congress was 100 minutes and was set by Trump last year.

Sophomore Jordyne Lewis, a co-coordinator for Elon Votes, said the event was designed to help students connect with politics in a low-pressure environment.

“You can’t be engaged if you’re not educated about what’s going on in your community as well as in the world and in the country around you,” Lewis said. “What really inspired us to do this was to provide an avenue, especially if students maybe didn’t have access to a television, to come somewhere and have the opportunity to see what’s going on in the country and hear from our leader.”

Freshman attendee Caleb Williams said he went to the watch party to hear the president’s plans in his own words.

“I wanted to hear from the president himself what he says his political goals are currently,” Williams said. “While I believe there are some crises that our nation is undergoing at present, I want to kind of have a holistic approach to hearing what the policy making currently is.”

Lewis expressed she was happy with the turnout, especially for the middle of the week and a busy time in the semester.

“It really warmed my heart to know that there are students out there who care and want to learn more about the community and the politics around them,” Lewis said. “I was happy to see people that were watching and engaged and just really trying to hear the words that were said and observe what’s going on in our government.”

Several Democratic lawmakers planned to boycott the address and instead attend a rally on the National Mall. Williams immediately noticed the polarization in Congress during the address.

“It’s sad to see polarization move away from political ideas towards more moral problems in our country,” Williams said. “I feel like a lot of important things were said, but I wish there was some more peace in the minds of our country.”

Trump spent most of his speech discussing the economy, immigration, and foreign policy. He claimed the stock market was at an all-time high while inflation and unemployment were at record lows. He also flexed his sweeping global tariffs and criticized Supreme Court justices for striking them down Feb. 20.

The president spoke at length about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and honored some victims’ family members seated in the audience. Among those was the mother of Iryna Zarutska, who was murdered in Charlotte in August 2025. Her death led to the passage of criminal justice law HB 307, “Iryna’s Law,” in North Carolina. Trump also demanded the restoration of funding to the Department of Homeland Security.

On international relations, Trump asserted that he had ended eight wars and was in negotiations with Iran to end their nuclear program.

Trump also spent a significant amount of time awarding citizens and veterans with medals. He announced the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team goaltender Connor Hellebuyck would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and honored Korean War veteran Royce Williams and Army pilot Eric Slover with Medals of Honor. A Coast Guard officer who responded to Texas flooding received the Legion of Merit, and two National Guard officers were given Purple Hearts.

Lewis encouraged students to attend future Elon Votes events to learn more about current policy decisions, especially on the local level, as those decisions have the potential to directly affect Elon students.

“We’re in a really unique spot where we have so many out-of-state students and a lot of them actually choose to register here rather than in their home state,” Lewis said. “Local government and things that happen here on the town or county level impact you more than you know, and especially when it comes to a place like Elon where that’s so emphasized, I think it’s very important that students know what is going on around them.”