U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event to honor “Angel Families” who have lost family members to crimes committed by people in the country illegally, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 23, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump is set to call for a new tax cut proposal during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, he said during a pre-address meeting with news anchors at the White House.
CNBC’s Joe Kernen attended the gathering and reported on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” that the president laid out his plans to advocate for new personal and corporate tax cuts, which will Trump wants to be advanced using a second party-line budget reconciliation effort in Congress.
Reconciliation is a parliamentary process that allows a party in control of the House, Senate and White House to skirt the Senate filibuster’s 60-vote threshold and advance certain legislation along party lines. Congressional Republicans passed tax cuts and a swath of other domestic policies through reconciliation last year in a package known as the one big beautiful bill. The process also requires the Senate parliamentarian to rule that the legislation pertains to the budget.
Trump’s State of the Union is expected to focus heavily on the economy. Public polls indicate the president is losing ground on how he is handling economy, while Democrats are making gains on a message of affordability ahead of the 2026 midterms.
However, advancing any legislation through reconciliation is now significantly more challenging given House Speaker Mike Johnson‘s shrinking margin in the lower chamber. Republicans hold a 218-214 vote majority in the House, which is effectively a one-vote margin.
That means any effort to advance new tax cuts through reconciliation would be a tumultuous fight and require near-unanimity on the Republican side — far from a guarantee.
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