SOTU 2026, Feb. 25 -- Only moments into US President Donald Trump's 2026 State of the Union address on Tuesday night (local time), Representative Al Green of Texas rose from his seat and refused to sit, holding aloft a stark handwritten sign that read: "Black people aren't apes!" Within minutes, security officials escorted the 79-year-old Democrat from the House chamber, bringing a swift and combustible interruption to an address already marked by partisan fracture.

The protest, silent but visually unmistakable, referred to a racist video clip recently shared by the president depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. Green's action transformed the early minutes of the annual constitutional cere...