Is Trump’s speech to Congress a State of the Union address?

President Donald Trump’s speech will have blanket television coverage and all the pomp and circumstance of previous speeches, but it isn’t technically a State of the Union address.

The president delivers remarks at the invitation of the speaker of the House. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s invitation welcomed Trump to deliver an “address,” a recognition the president needs to be in office a full year before giving an official State of the Union.

Every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 has addressed a joint session of Congress shortly after their inauguration. That includes Trump, whose first speech took place on Feb. 28, 2017.

As for the annual speech itself, the Constitution states the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

George Washington, in 1790, was the first to deliver a regular address to Congress. The address has transformed over the years, shifting from a speech to a written statement, and back to a speech with the advent of radio and later television. Since 1947, it has officially been known as the State of the Union.

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