Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green once again turned a solemn presidential address into a spectacle, getting himself removed from President Donald Trumps State of the Union before the speech had even begun in earnest
According to Western Journal, the Houston-area congressman, long known for his theatrical hostility toward President Trump, was escorted from the House chamber on Tuesday night after staging a protest as the president made his way to the podium. Green rose from his seat and unfurled a banner emblazoned with the words Black People Arent Apes! as President Trump walked down the aisle, briefly disrupting the carefully choreographed proceedings.
The stunt immediately drew a response from Republicans, with GOP Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana reportedly attempting to swipe the sign away, as reported by Politico. When that effort failed, security intervened and Green was led out of the chamber while Republican lawmakers responded with a pointed show of patriotism, chanting USA, USA! as he exited.
Greens banner appeared to reference a short clip that had circulated online earlier this month, in which Barack and Michelle Obamas faces were superimposed on simian characters in a Lion King-themed video posted to President Trumps Truth Social account. The video, which featured the heads of various Democratic politicians placed onto animated animals, had clearly been appended by an editing error and autoplayed after an election-integrity message was recorded, but that did not stop Green from exploiting it as a pretext for his latest outburst.
While Tuesdays removal was technically his first ejection from an official Trump State of the Union address, it marked the second consecutive year that Green has been removed from a presidential speech. Last year, he was escorted out after he shouted and shook his cane at President Trump during an address to Congress that, because the president had been in office for less than two months, did not carry the formal State of the Union designation.
Greens national profile has been built less on legislative accomplishment than on repeated, and largely baseless, attempts to impeach President Trump during both of his terms. His most recent impeachment effort, filed in December 2025, was swiftly sidelined when the House voted 237-140 to table the resolution, reflecting bipartisan fatigue with his perpetual grandstanding.
While the House ultimately voted to table my impeachment resolution, the diversity of support for this impeachment includes ranking members of full committees, subcommittees, and persons from different political caucuses, Green insisted at the time, attempting to cast the failed effort as a moral victory. He went further, declaring, This should send a powerful message to President Trump. He should understand now that targeting people is not only harmful to the people he targets, but also harmful to the continuation of his presidency.
For many conservatives, however, the message from these repeated episodes is quite different: a small but vocal faction of the Democratic Party appears more interested in performative outrage than in governing, even during one of the nations most visible constitutional rituals. Greens latest removal from the chamber underscores how far some on the left are willing to go to score symbolic points against a president they have never accepted, even at the cost of decorum, dignity, and respect for the office.
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