--- title: Bernie Sanders Responds to Donald Trump's State of the Union description: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders offered a rebuttal to President Trump's State of the Union address in a speech live-streamed on social media canonical: https://time.com/5126159/bernie-sanders-sotu-response/ author: Eli Meixler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-31T05:16:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:04:58.759Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Bernie Sanders' Rebuttal to Trump's State of the Union og:description: Sanders said that wealthy Americans "have never had it so good" og:url: https://time.com/5126159/bernie-sanders-sotu-response/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt631b81fc5039f8bb/6988fa0ee76ad24288630d4c/rtx4fiw6.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Senator Bernie Sanders arrives at Democratic Party caucus meeting og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Bernie Sanders' Rebuttal to Trump's State of the Union twitter:description: Sanders said that wealthy Americans "have never had it so good" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt631b81fc5039f8bb/6988fa0ee76ad24288630d4c/rtx4fiw6.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Bernie Sanders' Rebuttal to President Trump's State of the Union Address by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Jan 31, 2018 5:16 AM UTC  Senator Bernie Sanders arrives at Democratic Party caucus meeting in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 19, 2018. Senator Bernie Sanders arrives at Democratic Party caucus meeting in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 19, 2018.Yuri Gripas—Reuters by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Jan 31, 2018 5:16 AM UTC Vermont Senator and former Democratic primary presidential candidate Bernie Sanders live-streamed his rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s[ State of the Union address](http://time.com/5123973/trump-state-of-the-union-livestream/) Tuesday night. In an [address streamed ](https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/)on Facebook, [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2ibkHGRyaQ), and Twitter, Sen. Sanders delivered an alternative to the official [Democratic rebuttal from Congressman Joe Kennedy](http://time.com/5123254/joe-kennedy-iii-state-of-the-union-what-to-know/) and a Spanish-language rebuttal from Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman. Sanders opened his speech by addressing President Trump’s early economic record, criticizing Republicans’ “so-called ‘tax reform bill’,” and arguing that wealthy Americans have “never had it so good” while “millions of American workers are working two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water.” “In my view, that’s wrong,” Sanders said, adding, “the taxpayers of this country should not be providing corporate welfare to the wealthiest families in this country.” Sanders also took note of issues that Trump’s State of the Union did not address, including climate change, campaign finance, voter suppression, and college debt and argued that many Americans hold “a very different vision for the future of our country” than the one offered by Trump and Congressional Republicans. “But the truth is that there is a lot of good news out there as well,” Sanders said, referring to the Women’s March among other demonstrations that have called for social, economic, and racial justice. “In an unprecedented way, we are witnessing a revitalization of American democracy with more and more people standing up and fighting back,” he said. Read Sanders’ full speech below: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5126159/bernie-sanders-sotu-response/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5126159/bernie-sanders-sotu-response/"},"headline":"Read Bernie Sanders' Rebuttal to President Trump's State of the Union Address","datePublished":"2018-01-31T05:16:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:04:58.759Z","description":"Sanders said that the wealthy \"have never had it so good\" while millions of Americans \"are working two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water\"","url":"https://time.com/5126159/bernie-sanders-sotu-response/","keywords":["Bernie Sanders","Donald Trump","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt631b81fc5039f8bb/6988fa0ee76ad24288630d4c/rtx4fiw6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eli Meixler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt631b81fc5039f8bb/6988fa0ee76ad24288630d4c/rtx4fiw6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senator Bernie Sanders arrives at Democratic Party caucus meeting","caption":"Senator Bernie Sanders arrives at Democratic Party caucus meeting","creditText":"Yuri Gripas—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5126159/bernie-sanders-sotu-response/","name":"Read Bernie Sanders' Rebuttal to President Trump's State of the Union Address"}}]}] ```