President Donald Trump’s guests for his State of the Union address will include right-wing activist Erika Kirk and the family of a National Guard service member who was fatally shot in Washington, D.C. during the president’s troop deployment last year.
He has also invited a seven-year-old girl who was injured in a car crash allegedly caused by an undocumented truck driver in California.
Trump’s guests for his Tuesday address follow a wave of invitations to the president’s critics from Democratic lawmakers, who are bringing survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and people arrested by immigration officers.
Among those expected to be in attendance are Epstein accusers Maria Farmer, Haley Robson and the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, among others.
Democratic lawmakers are also bringing immigrants who were locked up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers. A woman who was shot eight times by federal officers in Chicago is also expected to attend.
First Lady Melania Trump is inviting Sierra Burns, who was a beneficiary of the Foster Youth to Independence program, and Everest Nevraumont, a 10-year-old student who attends a Texas school with a curriculum that includes artificial intelligence.
They are expected to sit in the first lady’s guest box.
Trump has invited Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk, the widow of influential right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot last year.
He will call on Congress to “firmly reject political violence against our fellow citizens,” according to the White House.
Trump also invited the parents of 20-year-old U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, with the West Virginia Army National Guard who was killed in the nation’s capital last year.
The man suspected of shooting two West Virginia National Guard members near the White House the day before Thanksgiving is an Afghan national. The administration halted all decisions regarding migrants seeking asylum in the wake of the shooting, though the suspect likely underwent extensive vetting as a CIA asset and again as he sought asylum in the United States.
Dalilah Coleman, 7, has also been invited. She was critically injured after a commercial tractor-trailer crashed into the car she was riding in, according to her family. ICE arrested the driver last year.
Trump also invited the U.S. men’s hockey team to his address during a call to the team after their victory in the Winter Olympics, though it is unclear if the team will attend.
The women’s hockey team declined Trump’s invitation a day after the president jokingly told the men’s team that he would be impeached if he didn’t also invite them.
Democrats invite ICE survivors
Trump will deliver his annual State of the Union amid growing scrutiny and an avalanche of legal threats to his agenda, which Americans overwhelmingly oppose, according to public opinion polling.
His address to a joint session of Congress — just days after the Supreme Court delivered a seismic blow to a bulk of his tariff agenda — is expected to highlight his anti-immigration agenda and Homeland Security’s efforts to deport tens of thousands of people from the country.
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose state is at the epicenter of Trump’s surge of federal officers into Democratic-led states and cities, has invited several people detained by ICE in recent weeks.
Aliya Rahman, who is diagnosed with autism, was pulled out of her car on the way to a doctor’s appointment and detained at a federal detention center where she say she experienced medical neglect and violence at the hands of ICE agents.
Omar has also invited Mary Granlund, the chair of the Columbia Heights School Board. The district has seen several of its students detained by ICE and sent to a Texas detention center, including five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, whose arrest fueled outrage over the administration’s growing practice of detaining families at a facility that has seen measles outbreaks and reports of other severe medical emergencies.
Omar also invited Mubashir Hussen, 20-year-old U.S. citizen who was arrested in Minneapolis despite repeating “I’m a citizen” to officers. He was shackled inside an ICE detention center and released only after he could show his passport. Hussen and other detainees are now suing the administration to stop what they allege are suspicionless stops, warrantless arrests and racial profiling of Minnesotans.
Marimar Martinez, a Chicago woman who was shot eight times by federal agents in Chicago, is the guest of Illinois Rep. Chuy Garcia.
“I look forward to attending the State of the Union and hope the country can look at what happened to me and other victims of DHS’s unlawful behavior as a basis to call their elected representatives and demand accountability,” she said in a statement.
Epstein’s accusers will sit in attendance
Several women who say they survived Epstein’s abuse will also attend the event after invitations from Democratic lawmakers.
More than two dozen Democrats are skipping the State of the Union to attend “The People’s State of the Union” with advocacy groups. Epstein survivors and other guests are expected to attend Trump’s address in their place.
Rep. Ro Khanna has invited Haley Robson, whose “courageous fight is proof that this isn’t about politics, it’s about exposing America’s two-tiered system of justice and bringing accountability to the Epstein class involved in the horrific abuse of young girls,” the congressman said in a statement.
Rep. Jamie Raskin has invited Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide last year.
Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter has invited Lisa Philips to attend the address in her place.
Philips is “one of the many brave women who survived Epstein’s abuse” whose “presence will send a clear message: Epstein survivors will not be silenced. The powerful will not be protected. Our government will be accountable to the people it serves,” Dexter said in a statement.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, which is leading a congressional investigation into Epstein’s crimes and alleged connections to a wider network of powerful pedophiles and abusers, is bringing Epstein survivor Annie Farmer.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who is also not attending the speech, said she has invited Marijke Chartouni to attend.
“Thirty years after the FBI first ignored reports of Epstein’s crimes, Pam Bondi’s Justice Department continues to fiddle rather than hold perpetrators to account — even as other countries act decisively,” Chartouni said in a statement from Jayapal’s office.
“This injustice cannot be buried, and we will continue to make our voices heard, at every opportunity, until there is truth and accountability for every survivor of Epstein and his ring,” she added.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico is bringing state Rep. Andrea Romero, who is spearheading a state investigation into Epstein’s Zorro Ranch.
