President Donald Trump speaks at an event honoring “angel families” who have lost family members to illegal acts committed by people within their own country at the White House in Washington, February 23, 2026.
Evelyn HochsteinReuter
President Donald Trump plans to call for new tax cuts in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, he said in a pre-speech meeting with news anchors at the White House.
CNBC’s Joe Kernen attended the rally and reported on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” that the president plans to advocate for new personal and corporate tax cuts, and that President Trump wants to use a second partisan budget reconciliation effort in Congress to advance the tax cuts.
Reconciliation is a parliamentary process that allows the parties that control the House, Senate, and White House to bypass the Senate filibuster’s 60-vote threshold and advance certain bills along party lines. Congressional Republicans last year passed tax cuts and a range of other domestic policies through reconciliation in a package known as “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The process also requires senators to rule that the bill is budget-related.
President Trump’s State of the Union address is expected to focus on the economy. Polls show that while the president is trailing on his response to the economy, Democrats are making headway with an affordability message heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
But pushing the bill through reconciliation is now much harder given Speaker Mike Johnson’s shrinking support in the House. Republicans hold a 218-214 majority in the House, effectively a one-vote difference.
This means any effort to push new tax cuts through reconciliation would be a hotly contested affair and require near unanimity on the Republican side, which is far from a guarantee.
