Tipsheet

Gutfeld Says Democrats’ Ego Cost Them at State of the Union

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  February 27, 2026 11:30 AM

Greg Gutfeld offered his take on why Democrats refused to stand during President Trump’s call to put American citizens first at Tuesday’s State of the Union. While many viewed the moment as a tacit admission that Democrats are unwilling to prioritize Americans, Gutfeld argued the real driver was ego and an unwillingness to risk their political brand, even as they continue to lose ground in the immigration debate.

"So why did they not stand up?" Gutfeld asked. "It goes back to one word: ego. And it prevents you from actually joining in with other people, because if it's compared to what you had thought before, it's wounding. This is a party that is governed by status and ego, and it's paralyzing their entire progress. They can't do anything. So it makes them appear miserable because they can't participate."

And this is also why the woke was able to take over and terrify them, because they were so concerned about how they were perceived. They could not be perceived as being less compassionate. They could not be perceived as wrong. Whereas as Republicans and independents, we have learned politically, it doesn't matter if you're wrong. If you're proven wrong, you take that as information that improves upon your own position. I talk about that with decriminalization, how my positions have not been proved correct, hardly. I think I'm wrong on that. But I don't sit there and defend it. 

"They need to let go of their ego," he added.

The Fox News host went on to argue that Democrats’ ego problem has plagued them for years, dating back to the mid-2010s, when accusations of racism were routinely deployed in political debate. Why? Because Gutfeld suggested, many on the left were themselves fearful of being labeled racist by their far-left peers. Today, he contended, those accusations no longer carry the same weight, and more people are simply tuning them out.

"And when you hear cries of racism, it's like seeing somebody with an iPhone 7. Why don't you wear a trucker hat and an Ed Hardy T-shirt? Because you are about 20 years behind," he said. "Your kryptonite has worn off. And I'm sure that there are things that are truly racist, but the problem is you created an environment where nothing is credible. And every time you hear somebody do that now—remember how we were in 2015? If you heard somebody say, this is racist, we'd get kind of defensive and try to explain it. Now...it's like when somebody says, I think this is racist, it's like, I don't care. I would have cared."

Democrats’ ego problem may have cost them dearly this time, as Republicans have already seized on what many viewed as a disastrous State of the Union performance to power a wave of attack ads likely to resonate with voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.