{"id":194102,"date":"2026-02-26T02:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194102\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T02:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:41:08","slug":"trump-honors-bakersfield-crash-survivor-dalilah-coleman-in-state-of-the-union-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/194102\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump honors Bakersfield crash survivor Dalilah Coleman in State of the Union address"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) President Donald Trump highlighted a Bakersfield girl injured in a 2024 crash during his second State of the Union address, drawing applause in the chamber as she attended with her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cDalilah Coleman was only five years old in June 2024 when an eighteen-wheeler tractor trailer plowed into her stopped car at sixty mile an hour or more,\u201d Trump said, referring to a six-vehicle crash in the Mojave Desert in 2024 in which Dalilah was pinned in the back seat.<\/p>\n

Dalilah suffered a broken femur and a fractured skull, and doctors removed part of her skull to relieve swelling caused by pressure building in her bruised brain.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

Trump honors Bakersfield crash survivor Dalilah Coleman in State of the Union address (CBS Newspath)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe driver was an illegal alien let in by Joe Biden and given a commercial driver\u2019s license by open borders politicians in California,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Dalilah attended the address accompanied by her father, Marcus Coleman, who said the moment was unexpected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was surreal to be honest with you. It was something that – it wasn\u2019t really expected. I wasn\u2019t sure what people\u2019s reaction was going to be,\u201d Marcus Coleman said.<\/p>\n

Coleman said he was surprised that some people in the room did not stand when his daughter was mentioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand how or why that is. At the end of the day, you know, she\u2019s seven years old now, five years old at the time. It\u2019s not like she had a choice on what president she wanted or anything like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

Trump honors Bakersfield crash survivor Dalilah Coleman in State of the Union address (KBAK\/KBFX) <\/p>\n

Coleman said his daughter\u2019s recovery has continued to exceed expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t think that she was going to make it. So, when she made it, they didn\u2019t think she was going to be out of a vegetative state. So, when she was out of the vegetative state they didn\u2019t think she was going to be able to walk. Then when she started to walk. It was just always \u2018we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Coleman said he is not against immigration, noting his wife is a legal resident from Mexico, but he does not want similar crashes to happen again.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

Trump honors Bakersfield crash survivor Dalilah Coleman in State of the Union address (CBS Newspath)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re against people operating the vehicles that shouldn\u2019t be operating the vehicles. If you can\u2019t understand basic English, you can\u2019t understand basic road signs then you shouldn\u2019t be operating a vehicle here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) President Donald Trump highlighted a Bakersfield girl injured in a 2024 crash during his second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-194102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}