By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Grace Meng
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Grace Meng, a Democratic representative from New York, and several Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) organization heads issued statements following President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., last night.
The statements condemned Trump’s partisan rhetoric that Meng characterized in a statement as “lies … hatred, and … one of the most divisive presidential addresses in American history.” Many of the statements highlighted that Trump’s words appeared to be intended to stoke fear in immigrants, as well as sow mistrust in the country’s election system. They also pointed to economic data that undermines Trump’s claims about a thriving economy.
During his speech, Trump claimed that “the roaring economy is roaring like never before,” and that “millions and millions of Americans are all gaining,” pointing to the cost of gasoline, mortgage rates, and the stock market as indicators.
But the stock market is not the economy, and prices for basic necessities, such as food, continue to rise, driven in part by Trump’s tariffs, the bulk of which the Supreme Court recently ruled illegal.
There is also a growing divide—not just between high-earner spending and low-earner spending (a so-called “K-shaped economy”), but between middle-earners and high-earners, creating yet another divide in consumer spending. Most middle-class and low-income Americans are facing an affordability crisis, and high earners are driving spending trends.
“President Trump’s economy is supposedly booming, yet our communities today have less opportunity than they did one year ago. Billions of dollars have been taken out of education and healthcare,” the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), a coalition of 46 leading AANHPI organizations, said in a statement, referring to the One Big Beautiful Bill that last year gutted Medicaid for millions of people across the U.S.
Samira Khan, the president of the South Asian Public Health Association, said in a statement that Trump’s speech “overlooks a reality that many South Asian families have been confronting: rising healthcare costs, cuts to critical health programs and services, and increasing threats to personal safety make it significantly harder to seek care when it is needed most.
“No community can remain healthy when individuals are forced to delay or forgo essential healthcare because the financial burden is overwhelming or because they fear for their safety in simply leaving their homes,” Khan said, referring to the federal government’s sweeping immigration crackdowns that began last year. “We call on policymakers to address these barriers with the urgency they require and to invest in the systems that protect our communities’ health.”
NCAPA’s statement also highlighted that many Asians and Asian Americans are being barred from small business loans and homeownership, “simply because of how we look or where we’re from.”
Several states are attempting to block Chinese people from owning land or a home. Last year, Texas passed a bill specifically restricting people from China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia from buying and renting property. A similar bill in Florida, passed in 2024, tacks restrictions on people from Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria onto that.
During his speech, Trump also falsely claimed that there is “cheating” in the U.S. election system. He has for years falsely claimed that the country’s election system had in 2020 been infiltrated by foreign actors—specifically China—who helped President Joe Biden win the presidential election. There is no evidence of this, and a U.S. intelligence report found that Russia, not China, attempted to interfere in the U.S. elections to help Trump win, not Biden.
Through the SAVE America Act, Trump has pushed for nationalized voting—which appears to be unconstitutional—and the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate have introduced bills that would disenfranchise millions of U.S. voters. Washington’s Sec. of State Steve Hobbs and Sen. Maria Cantwell spoke out against Trump’s and Republicans’ push to pass such a bill a few hours before Trump’s State of the Union address.
“Voting should be accessible to every eligible citizen. A majority, 56%, of Asian American eligible voters are naturalized citizens who chose this country, went through the rigorous process of becoming U.S. citizens, and deeply value the right to vote,” Christine Chen, executive director of APIAVote, said in a statement. “Any effort to limit, hinder, or prevent participation in the democratic process is unconscionable. Suppressing the vote is an attack on our democracy, and we must ensure every eligible voter can make their voice heard. Democracy only works when we uphold its principles.”
Trump also steered clear of any mention of immigration crackdowns in Minneapolis, where federal agents killed two U.S. citizens, entered homes and arrested U.S. citizens without warrants, snatched several people from their cars at gunpoint, and targeted observers.
“Leadership should protect and preserve belonging, not fear and violence. Today, we see policies that have harmed everyone—from the exponential increase of state violence, including Southeast Asian American deportation, to the dismantling of community resources that have placed greater strain on families,” Quyen Dinh, the executive director of Southeast Asia Action Resource Center, said in a statement. “Southeast Asian American communities have spent 50 years helping to build this country, yet we are still fighting to protect our families and dignity. Even in the face of grief and uncertainty, we remain resilient—survivors across generations coming together to support one another and demand a future grounded in belonging.”