WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is expected to address Congress for the first State of the Union address of his second term sometime in February.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Wednesday: “I think the date—and this is off the top of my head—is, like, February 24th that we’re looking at, okay? It’ll be soon.”

“We were looking at some alternative dates and trying to figure out what works, but I think that’s the week that we’re in session in mid-to-late February and that would be the preference of the White House,” Johnson said at his Wednesday morning press conference. “But just wait for further development.”

A Senate Republican source told CQ Roll Call also to anticipate a February address from the president.

This will be Trump’s first State of the Union since he reassumed the Oval Office last January; his speech to Congress in March 2024 was considered a joint address. In that speech, the president pressed Congress to pass legislation to make his 2017 tax cut permanent, a push that eventually turned into the mammoth budget reconciliation law enacted in July.

The high-stakes address lands at a politically fraught time on Capitol Hill, taking place within weeks of the Jan. 30 funding deadline, when appropriations for most federal agencies expire under the recent stopgap. Lawmakers are scrambling to move spending packages before then to avoid another potential shutdown like the 43-day partial government shutdown last fall, the longest in U.S. history.

The February speech will be Trump’s opportunity to again pitch his legislative priorities to congressional Republicans for this year, with the midterm elections and control for both chambers looming. Trump has already signaled some of his upcoming policy priorities, including crime, immigration and housing, as well as health care, the thorny issue that topped the list for causation for last year’s shutdown.

Trump posted to TruthSocial on Wednesday that he will be “taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes,” and he would be calling on Congress to codify such changes.

Rising international conflicts will also be top-of-mind in the wake of the U.S. bombing of Caracas over the weekend and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, following a monthslong military campaign against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean, all without prior congressional approval. Fears of further escalation in countries like Greenland have been floating on Capitol Hill.

The Trump administration has already begun shifting the focus on Venezuela to oil reserves—the South American country has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. Trump has indicated that energy companies will begin to rebuild Venezuela’s massive oil sector. That shift has already riled up congressional Democratic leaders.

“Bragging about oil fields [is] not going to lower people’s rents. And even in this plan they have, the money would go back to Venezuela,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said in remarks on the floor.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said from the Goldman Sachs Energy, CleanTech and Utilities Conference on Wednesday, “We’re gonna let the oil flow” and sell to the market, adding those sales need to be “done by the U.S. government and deposited into accounts controlled by the U.S. government.”

Schumer indicated that in the coming week that Senate Democrats intended to lay out their policy initiatives on issues such as child care, energy and home ownership.

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—Kelly Livingston, Erika Chan and John T. Bennett contributed to this report.

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