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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's going to be a long speech because I have - we have so much to talk about.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A long speech because there's so much to talk about. President Trump giving us a preview there of his State of the Union address tonight. The constitutionally mandated address to Congress is expected to kick off at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Among those who will be listening live in the room, conservative podcaster Michael Knowles. He is there as a guest of House Speaker Mike Johnson, and he joins us now to share what he will be listening for. Welcome. Good to speak to you again.
MICHAEL KNOWLES: Wonderful to be with you. Thanks for having me.
KELLY: What do you see as the point of a speech like tonight's? In an era when most Americans have made up their minds what they think about President Trump, what they think of his agenda, what do you think a State of the Union address can achieve?
KNOWLES: Well, the first point is he has to do it. It's constitutionally required. But obviously, the president is thinking beyond that, and we're obviously looking ahead at the midterms here. So I think that the point of the speech is not even so much to convey all of the accomplishments of the administration. And I agree with President Trump - I think there have been a lot of accomplishments in the administration on a whole variety of issues. But the poll numbers for the president are mixed, and they're sometimes even mixed on particular issues, the clearest one being, in the wake of the enforcement of immigration law in Minnesota, that the majority of Americans still support mass deportations, and also the majority of Americans want ICE to stop deporting these people. And so there's a little bit of a contradiction.
KELLY: And I will just insert - you're talking about polling numbers - the latest Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll has got 58% of Americans disapprove of the way that President Trump is handling immigration.
KNOWLES: On ICE, yes. So this is what's so strange, though, is when you dial in on the issue, they still support immigration enforcement. That was one of the reasons President Trump won the popular vote. But then some of the particulars have made people uneasy. And so I...
KELLY: But to circle us in on tonight, relate that to...
KNOWLES: Yes.
KELLY: ...Tonight and what you're hoping the president will hear. You want to hear him explain why he's doing what he's doing on immigration and a whole raft of other issues?
KNOWLES: No. I think Ronald Reagan said it best when he said, when you're explaining, you're losing. The reason I mention the contradictions in some of the polling numbers is because I think what Americans want is a sense of safety. I think Americans feel uneasy. They feel uneasy on an issue like immigration. They feel uneasy on the economy. You know, there are a whole host of great economic numbers that have come out - rents falling six months in a row. The jobs numbers are pretty good. Inflation's quite good. The fundamental issues on the economy are looking quite good under Trump in basically every category. And so I think what President Trump has to do is relay the accomplishments across all of those disciplines in the administration. But what he has to convey to the American people is that he is the one who is bringing back security.
KELLY: How confident are you that he will stay on message, on that message that you're laying out?
KNOWLES: Well, I'm certain he will not stay on script. That is a guarantee. He will weave and go off script. However, I think he's gotten better at it, and he's gotten better at staying on message. I think he's honed in exactly what his message is. So I'm not placing any bets on him following the teleprompter, but I do think he will stay on message.
KELLY: Should he use tonight to articulate to A, Congress and B, the American people what his aim would be for a war with Iran?
KNOWLES: It will. Knowing President Trump's ability to surprise, you know, some of us might expect the bombs to be flying while he's speaking. Though maybe that's, you know, expecting too much.
KELLY: But this is a man who campaigned for the White House on a promise to pull America out of endless wars in the Middle East, not to drag us into another one.
KNOWLES: Certainly. But I think President Trump's record on war has been quite good. The action in Venezuela took about 88 minutes, start to finish. His action in Iran was over on the Fordo nuclear base before people even knew it began. And so the case that he has to make, regardless of what he does with regard to Iran, is that what he is doing is prudent. It is expedient. It is chiefly in the American interest, not in some kind of abstract interest, and that it will not be protracted.
KELLY: Last thing, Michael Knowles, you know, at the outset of our conversation, I said he's going to be speaking to a lot of Americans who have made up their minds. Do they like him? Do they not? Do they like his policy and his agenda? Do - or not? We're speaking in a midterm year. For Americans, you know, going into tonight's speech who are skeptical, who didn't vote for Trump, who don't like him, is there anything you would wish to hear him say to reach across the aisle to build a bigger tent?
KNOWLES: Well, he's built a large tent. I mean, I think we're underselling the fact that the man not only won reelection, but he won the popular vote. So, you know, he won the majority of American voters, which is good. He needs to maintain that coalition, perhaps even rebuild (ph)...
KELLY: But again, back to those poll numbers saying 60% say the country is worse off than a year ago.
KNOWLES: No, I certainly agree. He has to beef up that coalition. He has to reearn the support of some of that coalition. There's no question about that. But the way that he's going to do it is going to be to remind them why they voted for him in 2024 in the first place, and that is going to be recentering immigration. That's going to be recentering crime. And that's going to be recentering a normal American way of life. Many of the excesses from the Democrats that were rejected in November '24 pertain to the mass migration, to the radical social issues, notably the trans ideology and some other pieces. And so Trump, I think, needs to remind people that he represents normal. It's kind of funny because he's a billionaire reality TV star, but he needs to show them that he is the candidate of the ordinary American way of life and the ordinary American. He has done that before, and so what remains to be seen is whether or not he can do that again.
KELLY: And I guess my question would just be what's normal? We're a big country with a huge diversity of people, which is one of our greatest strengths. Is there room in the tent for people who may have a very different view from President Trump's?
KNOWLES: Certainly, there is room for people of a wide variety of backgrounds. However, there is still a norm. You know, basic stuff. Most people want to be able to afford a house, get married, have kids, have a brighter future, give their kids a brighter future than they themselves had. They don't want some of the radical ideologies, notably, once again, the gender ideology. They don't want totally open borders. They don't want foreign interventions that are disconnected from American interests. They want pretty basic stuff. And so we can say we're a wide, diverse country, but when it all comes down to it, the majority of people want roughly the same sorts of things. The Democrats had ceased to speak to those desires. Trump was able to really capture that, build a broad new coalition, and that's where he needs to get back to basics tonight.
KELLY: Michael Knowles, I hope you packed your PowerBar to get through it, but promises to be a long and interesting night.
KNOWLES: (Laughter) Wonderful to speak to you. And maybe I'll speak to you in a few days when the speech is over.
KELLY: We will look forward to it. Thanks so much. That's conservative podcaster Michael Knowles, host of "The Michael Knowles Show." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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