‘The moment that's going to stay with me for the rest of my life’: Auron MacIntyre on Trump’s unforgettable State of the Union

BlazeTV Staff

Trump spotlighted Anna Zarutska in his SOTU address — the grieving mother of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee killed in a brutal light-rail stabbing by a repeat offender in Charlotte last August — but Democrats sat and scowled.

In his nearly two-hour State of the Union address last night, President Trump celebrated what he described as an extraordinary "turnaround for the ages" in his leadership, declaring America now "bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever" amid a booming economy marked by declining inflation, reduced gas and mortgage rates, rising wages, and a tightly secured border with no illegal entries reported in recent months.

He spotlighted aggressive immigration enforcement measures, stood firm on his tariff strategy, cautioned Iran against pursuing nuclear weapons while favoring diplomatic paths, floated new proposals like universal retirement savings access and curbs on institutional home buying, paid tribute to military veterans and the Olympic hockey squad, delivered pointed critiques of Democrats and previous administrations, and painted an optimistic picture of renewed national strength heading into the midterm elections.

But there was one singular moment that BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre [photo] says was genuinely unforgettable.

Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

“The moment that's going to stay with me for the rest of my life is watching Iryna Zarutska’s mother with Erica Kirk and just the pain on her face in that moment and the fact that Democrats could not even in that moment summon a shred of humanity,” he says.

“I still don’t think that we have dealt with the psychic trauma again of that one-two punch of Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska, and so I think that [Trump] highlighting that and, you know, showing the grief that is still there for that mother and knowing that we need justice, we need to end political violence, we need to end the soft-on-crime policy — I think those were all incredibly strong moments for him,” he adds..

Fellow BlazeTV host and SOTU panel member Steve Deace agrees that this was one of the most powerful, albeit enraging, moments of the entire event.

He points to a viral tweet from Turning Point USA Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer that shined a spotlight on the depths of Democrats’ hypocrisy.

Imagine wearing a Ukrainian Flag pin and your entire Democrat Party won’t stand up for Iryna who was murdered in cold blood. https://t.co/MEQHUz10QX pic.twitter.com/mvEtQfYdSf

— Tyler Bowyer (@tylerbowyer) February 25, 2026

Deace calls the close-up snapshot a “devastating” blow to Democrats.

“It’s a post of one of the Democrat members of Congress who did not want to stand during [the honoring of Anna Zarutska], and he’s got a Ukraine flag on his lapel. If that is not a portrait of where we are,” he scoffs.

“This is what the Democrats actually think of the Ukrainian people,” says guest and senior editor at Human Events Jack Posobiec.

To hear more, watch the video below.

BlazeTV Staff, February 25, 2026

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