U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) delivered Democrats’ Spanish-language response to President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, accusing the administration of sowing “chaos” while Americans struggle with rising costs and civil-rights violations. He contrasted Trump’s message with a call to “lower costs, rein in rogue federal agencies, and safeguard our democracy.”
Padilla, the first Latino elected to represent California in the U.S. Senate, framed his remarks through his family’s immigrant story — his father a cook, his mother a house cleaner — and said the anxiety many feel today is “a far cry from the American Dream” they pursued.
“The truth is that the State of our Union does not feel strong for everyone,” Padilla said. “Not when the costs of rent, food, and electricity keep rising. Not when Republicans raise our medical costs to fund tax cuts for billionaires. And definitely not when federal agents — armed and masked — terrorize our communities by targeting people because of the color of their skin or for speaking Spanish — including immigrants with legal status and citizens.”
Padilla also accused the administration of trying to suppress eligible voters and undermine faith in elections ahead of the 2026 midterms. He urged unity under the banner “Solo El Pueblo Salva Al Pueblo” — “Only the People Can Save the People” — and closed by citing pop artist Bad Bunny: “Together, we are America.”
“Donald Trump will not be president forever,” Padilla said. “More importantly, the Dream that has inspired generations of Americans and immigrants will remain long after Trump is gone.”
Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) issued a statement after the address echoing Padilla’s criticism.
“What we heard from Trump tonight was the same old lies, distortions, and distractions,” Carbajal said, arguing that prices “continue to rise on everything from groceries to housing,” health insurance costs have “skyrocketed,” and alleging constitutional overreach and civil-rights abuses. “Under his watch, militarized ICE agents are shooting American citizens in the street, and the Epstein criminal enterprise is getting away with some of the most heinous crimes imaginable,” he said, vowing to “fight back against Trump’s cruel agenda.”
California State Senate Leader Monique Limón, of Santa Barbara, stated Trump’s State of the Union failed to recognize the impact his administration has on California and the nation.
“From tariffs to healthcare to immigration – policies under this administration directly affect the millions of people living in the Golden State. The cuts from H.R. 1 could potentially cost California millions of dollars a day to help fill the gaps in essential services like health care, SNAP benefits, childcare, and more. Americans will directly pay the price for this administration’s decisions. I am grateful to Senator Padilla for amplifying the real impacts this administration is having on California,” said Limón.
Trump declared “our nation is back” and touted a “turnaround for the ages” in a speech that ran 1 hour and 48 minutes — the longest spoken State of the Union in recent history. The address struck familiar themes on immigration and culture and offered no detailed legislative agenda.
Polling suggests the economy remains a political liability. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey released last week found cost of living is voters’ top concern, with many attributing higher prices to Trump’s tariffs. Marist pollster Lee Miringoff said Trump had an opportunity “to try and reset with the nation, but it’s a tall order when views about him are so baked in.”
Analysts noted four broad takeaways from the address in this midterm year: Trump largely sidestepped the pain many feel from higher prices; his message leaned heavily on immigration and other culture-war topics; he offered little in the way of a forward-looking legislative blueprint; and the speech may not meaningfully shift public opinion given entrenched views.
Padilla, a lifelong Californian who grew up in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley and earned a mechanical engineering degree from MIT, rose through local and state office — including as California’s first Latino secretary of state, where he expanded voter access — before being appointed to the Senate in 2021 and winning a full term in 2022. In the Senate, he has focused on immigration, voting rights, and climate change.
A video of Padilla’s response was made available following the conclusion of the State of the Union.
Bien Hecho!
Not that this forum ever participated, but what happened to unbiased reporting? Nothing but lefty lib political articles posted here, always anti Republican.
Yet you are still here. Why? Because, you are a troll.
But you certainly don’t deny it do you genter
Only a low IQ person would question why there is liberal media in Santa Barbara. They made Newsmax and OAN just for those special snowflakes.
You used the word Republican. Republicans don’t exist anymore in the party of Trump. Its the Nazi party. At this point it is right vs wrong and the thing formerly called the GOP is a cesspool of hate.
American Liberals tend more to accept reality and scientific facts, and have a more complete and generous understanding of human nature than American Conservatives. Because of that, reality itself has a perceived left wing bias in the eyes of conservatives, making it frustrating for those conservatives to accept reality. Donald Trump and the MAGA “movement” have applied extreme force on their members to adopt an identity that rejects nearly all humanitarian (“woke”) and scientific (“fake”) reporting by the media. Count yourself among the millions, SteveO, who constantly have to navigate the ever-widening gap between accepting reality, or maintaining your political identity. It’s no wonder you’re unhappy with factual reporting, or when you read about people standing up for, and taking care of other people that they don’t even know personally. Keep in mind, however, that it’s because of a choice you who made long ago. Maybe it’s time to drop it.
Nice op-ed post.
How on earth did Trump get elected when the left is so superior than the right?
Oh, I know. Because of that very ideal, that the left is always right, and conservatives are low IQ, etc. etc.
You are unhappy and frustrated because you lost the election, we get it.
Who is the left going to run next Newsom, maybe Kamala again?
Reality is only what you perceive it to be. You perceive yourself to be superior than half the nation, may be true in your mind, but not fact.
The sad fact is that much, but not most, of the public in this country has poor critical thinking skills. Republicans have been pandering to that subgroup for decades, and have managed to convince them that what’s good for billionaires is good for them.
Trump was elected because MAGA are literally the dumbest people on the planet and they have been conned.
Not that complicated dude.
And, superior to half the country. No way, man, what a horrible insult. I’m superior to at least 90% of the country by every conceivable metric.
> How on earth did Trump get elected when the left is so superior than the right?
You struggle with basic logic. And by “struggle”, I mean “fail completely”.
“A lie can run around the world before the truth has its boots on.”
Odom, I’m sure you can find plenty of right wing, anti-diversity, racist, bigoted media to guzzle down with your soft beers in Lompoc. It’s like walking into a candy store and crying because they don’t sell lumber.
Get a clue, slowpoke.
It’s terrible isn’t it and so reflective of the community of SB in general, just a bunch of lefty lib progressive types. You should probably leave, you’ll feel far more at home in Texas.
Since you’re so far to the right as to be off the charts, how could you possibly judge what is or isn’t biased?
But yeah, stuff here tends to be anti-evil.
Anyone who thinks Sen. Padilla does not have a right to stand up to Trump is absolutely wrong, wrong, and wrong. To a certain extent, Padilla’s job is to paint a terrible picture for the next thousand-plus days (1,058 according to tickcounter.com). For many people, things are looking much better than they were since Trump took over. Stock market at historic highs, gas prices down nationwide, and as of today mortgage rates are below 6 percent (“The highest mortgage rate under President Biden was 7.79% for the week ending October 26, 2023. This rate was about three times higher than the rate when he took office in January 2021.”) People can now start planning on buying a first/second home, income property, or even refinancing to save a LOT of money in interest. Things are perfect for everyone, but certainly better than things were not that long ago. Many of us have one or more retirement accounts that have really grown substantially in the last 12 months. Plenty of room for multiple opinions here, and mine is just one. Let’s embrace diversity of opinion…it’s the “only way to fly.”
Correction: “Things are NOT perfect for everyone….”
Bees your post js so out of touch, tone deaf, and intellectually dishonest it is pathetic. Thanks for letting us know that you support state sponsored terrorism, bigotry, Christian nationalism, and one party rule. Thanks for letting us know exactly where you stand.
Bend those Knees!
Let’s simply agree to keep the civil dialogue and conversations going. That’s about all we can do at this point. Acceptance that others have a differing point of view or opinion is what makes life interesting and the world go around. Diversity of mind, heart, and spirit are a good thing and something to strive toward, so let’s try not forget that. Keep it real peeps and keep the faith because we’re all in the same boat.
Bees, you support a fascist regime that brutalizes minorities and peaceful protesters, that protects child rapists that is destroying education and science, that is trampling on the constitution. There is no equivalence. Anyonr supporting these “values” is despicable. Thank you for letting us know that you support a regime.
Bend those Knees! You need to stop supporting those trying to sink the boat.
Someone made a comment here or another article that for those who are that unhappy with the way things are that they can vote or vote with their feet and move elsewhere. It’s not that easy to move elsewhere, but it certainly can be done if you put your mind to it. Americans are leaving the US in record numbers, so if/when you pick up and leave, you won’t be alone. Choose wisely though as US citizens are not particularly appreciated in many part of the world. Even moving from Cali to another US state can be a challenge. You’d think that Californians would be completely welcome elsewhere, but that’s simply not the case. Even moving to progressive Canada, Americans are quite often looked down upon. Go figure..
Drivel, as usual.
I’m not going to bother to vet your unsubstantiated claims, but the Biden economic recovery was vastly better. And this cherry picking nonsense about the stock market being at historic highs–yes, that generally happens historically. Under Biden the S&P 500 rose 40-60%. In Trump’s first term he crowed *three times* that the DOW went over 25,000 … never mentioning when it fell back below, of course.
> Many of us have one or more retirement accounts that have really grown substantially in the last 12 months.
Now do all the people who are vastly more impoverished due to health insurance costs and other effects of GOP tax policies and the resulting massive upward transfer of wealth … and guess which there are more of, them or people like you. But sure, there is room for the opinions and policy preferences of sociopaths.
https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/schatz-republican-tax-bill-is-largest-wealth-transfer-in-american-history
BeesKnees – got to say pretty good “Impression” of the ‘talking points’ from the SOTU the other day…
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sotu/
???
Right winged parrots gotta parrot.