“The golden age of America is upon us,” United States President Donald Trump announced at the end of his State of the Union address last night.

Twenty speechwriters helped the president put together the longest State of the Union in history, clocking in at 1 hour and 47 minutes. The self-congratulatory monologue centered on the president’s favorite theme: “Our nation is back—bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.”

Based on the president’s speech, you could be forgiven for thinking America is doing great. He highlighted falling mortgage rates, lower gas prices, investment and job growth, domestic oil and natural gas production, health-care reform, falling food prices and decreased illegal immigration. “U.S.A.” chants broke out when the president honored the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team for winning a historic gold medal against Canada on Sunday.

“And for all of these reasons, I say tonight, members of Congress—the state of our union is strong,” he said. “Our country is winning again. In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it.”

Is that the true state of our union? There has been some positive change in this short-term resurgence. But digging just under the surface reveals serious problems that are not being addressed.

President Trump’s speech portrayed America’s economy as booming. In fact, our nation faces grave economic peril. Individually, Americans are deeper in debt than ever: Credit card debt has hit $1.3 trillion, nearly $6,000 per person. As of this morning, the U.S. national debt is $38.7 trillion and counting.

The president said America is the “hottest” nation on Earth. In reality, more people hate America than ever. Tariffs and unpredictable foreign policies have alienated many former allies. New alliances are forming all over the world aimed at shifting the balance of power away from American dominance.

The president presents himself as a peacemaker, ushering in a golden age of peace. But wars continue in several nations, and some conflicts that the president “ended” have reignited. While his Board of Peace wrestles with international conflicts, the world has entered the golden age of militarization. The president has done more in a year to spur Europe toward forming the prophesied 10-nation military superpower than any other president in American history.

The State of the Union exposed deep political division. About half of House and Senate Democrats boycotted the speech. Those who did attend heckled the president throughout, refusing to stand and applaud for what should have been bipartisan issues. When half of our nation refuses to even listen to the other side, we are heading toward civil war.

The president honored Charlie Kirk’s memory during the address, saying that religion is “coming back at levels that nobody actually thought possible.” But even this much-celebrated religious resurgence is extremely shallow. There may be more public discussion about religion, but America’s religious leaders are not leading the nation toward God. Evil is tolerated under the guise of religious acceptance. For example, rapper Nicki Minaj is embraced by the Christian right because she supports President Trump and talks about Jesus even as her lifestyle and lyrics actively celebrate and promote sin.

President Trump has moved on completely from the Epstein files, but these documents expose a deep sickness within our nation. Top leaders in politics, industry, finance, etc, facilitated and even joined Jeffrey Epstein in his grotesque sexual abuses of children, and almost no one is being held accountable. Why is the president not bringing the perpetrators of these terrible sins to justice?

John Adams stated in 1798, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Our nation is no longer truly moral or religious. Lawlessness permeates every level of society. We are in a golden age of sin.

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1). This is the true state of our union. We are a nation saturated in sin!

The president ended his address with the traditional words, “God bless America.” God cannot bless America unless we repent of our sins!

This strong warning message from God should have been the central theme of the State of the Union!

Throughout his marathon speech, President Trump gave very little credit to God. “What a difference a president makes,” he said. “A short time ago, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

He concluded a lengthy list of American accomplishments with this statement: “And when God needs a nation to work His miracles, He knows exactly who to ask.”

What a chilling misunderstanding of God. The president has that exactly backward! God doesn’t need us to work miracles. We need God!

The fact that President Trump holds his current office is a miracle. He faced a rigged election, the combined efforts of the political and media establishment, and an assassin’s bullet to return to the presidency. But that was not by his own power. God brought him back for a reason!

When King Nebuchadnezzar took credit for his kingdom’s power, God punished him severely (Daniel 4). Leaders must know that God rules in the kingdom of men. My father wrote in the March 2025 Trumpet, “We must look beyond the surface and beware the serious mistake of glorifying Donald Trump rather than God.” Putting your trust in a man—any man, including yourself—leads to destruction.

Our nation has been prosperous and powerful because of God’s blessings to Abraham. (Request The United States and Britain in Prophecy for more information.) Abraham Lincoln stated in his Lyceum Address in 1838: “We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them ….”

President Trump honors the idea of Lincoln, Franklin, Jefferson and Washington far more than his predecessor, but he doesn’t believe what they believed, nor does he do what they did.

As our Founding Fathers understood and as the Bible shows, miracles and blessings should point us to God, not to our leaders or ourselves. We enjoy these benefits only because God gave them to us—and He can take them away at any time. He is already removing these blessings because of our national sins!

My father has connected President Trump with a prophecy in 2 Kings 14:26-27. He wrote in the January 2025 Trumpet:

Bible prophecy says that Donald Trump is going to lead a resurgence in America. Based on the scale of his victory, this resurgence could be significant and impressive. We must see that this is not the work of a man. This is God’s doing. …

This election showed God’s profound love for and mercy toward America. …

Never forget that it is God who took pity on America in our bitter affliction and saved us—temporarily—by the hand of Donald Trump.

America is experiencing a temporary resurgence. The purpose of this resurgence is not to celebrate our president or ourselves but to seize our nation’s last chance to repent. The source is God and His mercy, not any man’s genius leadership. My father wrote in the March 2025 Trumpet, “God wants to make America’s temporary resurgence permanent. But that will happen only if we as a people truly, genuinely repent and turn to God—and that includes the president.”

President Trump believes America’s 250th birthday is the start of a new golden age: “[O]ur destiny is written by the hand of Providence, and these first 250 years were just the beginning.” But history and prophecy prove that unless we repent, our nation is actually facing the beginning of the end.

The real state of our union is deeply troubling. But as we near the crisis at the close of this age, there is hope. My father concluded his March 2025 article: “The golden age Donald Trump is promising is illusory. But the golden age God Himself promises is sure—and it is almost here!”