Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) on Tuesday sought to ward off attacks on President Donald Trump, ahead of the chief executive’s looming address to a joint session of Congress.
“The entire world will be watching,” Mast wrote in a Newsweek op-ed. “What it will see is a president who did what many didn’t think was possible.”
The timing of Trump’s State of the Union speech is viewed by some as coming at a low point of his second term in office. The Supreme Court’s move to strike down Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs last Friday and two Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related killings in Minnesota, which prompted the White House to wind down its federal immigration surge in the state earlier this year, have been used by Democrats as fodder for fire against the incumbent president and his party. Affordability has also remained a sticking point for Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Mast rejected dire assessments of Trump’s presidency this week. As chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he hailed Trump’s leadership on a number of foreign policy points, including ending the war in Gaza, a “feat” the lawmaker said “no one else could have achieved.” Mast pointed to Trump’s extraordinary military operation targeting former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro as sending a “loud” message against drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. The president’s move to authorize military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities last summer was another indicator that he favors “action” above “half-measures” and “empty warnings,” Mast said.
“As the State of the Union approaches, Americans can take pride in this: we have a president who fights for our security, defends our sovereignty, and delivers real results,” the Florida lawmaker said. “He understands that geopolitics isn’t a classroom debate—it’s hardball. And he plays to win for the American people.”
Some of Trump’s actions, including his move to oust Maduro and bring him to stand trial in New York on narco-terrorism charges, have received pushback due to concerns that they marked an abuse of presidential power. Amid the scrutiny, a host of Democrats, including nearly a quarter of the opposition’s senators, have announced plans to boycott Trump’s high-profile speech to Congress on Tuesday evening.
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Mast said Trump’s “decisive actions” have helped “restore America’s standing on the world stage and make it clear that we’re done apologizing for defending our interests.” And he praised the president’s Pentagon for expanding the defense budget and promoting the “eradication of woke DEI policies and a total refocus on lethality.”
“America is back, stronger than ever, and we won’t apologize for it,” he wrote. “For too long, our foreign policy establishment chased global approval instead of defending American interests. Under President Trump’s direction, the State Department is getting back to basics—advancing U.S. priorities and putting American citizens first.”