Boston Mayor Michelle Wu struck a defiant tone against the federal scrutiny that’s fallen on the Hub in recent weeks and months since President Donald Trump has taken office during her State of the City address.

Wu, in wide-ranging remarks delivered before a packed crowd at the MGM Music Hall, vowed that Boston would continue to protect immigrants at a time when the city’s sanctuary polices are being probed by a congressional oversight committee and praised city workers for their dedication as “public service workers” on the federal level are “being dismissed and discredited.”

“Today, Boston is stronger, more determined and prouder than ever to be who we are in a moment where we need each other and our nation needs Boston,” Wu said. “So, tonight, I can say that the State of our City is strong. And we have to be.

“Because all over the country, people are feeling the weight of a federal administration that’s attacking our source of strength — the same people and purpose that make Boston great: public servants and veterans, immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community, the institutions that conduct groundbreaking research and provide lifesaving care.”

Wu said Boston is home to the nation’s best hospitals, colleges and universities, labs and research facilities — institutions that she said drive the city’s economy, provide jobs and make the Hub “America’s engine of innovation.”

“Today, they are all under attack,” Wu said. “Boston is a target in this fight for our future because we are the cradle of democracy, pioneers of the public good, the stewards and keepers of the American Dream. We were built on the values this federal administration seeks to tear down.

“But for 395 years and counting, come hell or high water — no matter who threatens to bring it — Boston has stood up for the people we love and the country we built, and we’re not stopping now,” the mayor said.

Wu was one of four-big city mayors to be notified by the Department of Justice this month of an impending visit by its federal task force to probe the city’s response to “incidents of antisemitism” at the Hub’s schools and colleges.

She co-led a coalition of mayors last month in filing an amicus brief in federal district court in Boston to challenge the Trump administration’s “drastic and illegal cuts to federal research funding.”

More notably, Wu was one of four big-city mayors compelled to testify before a congressional oversight committee earlier this month as part of its probe into so-called sanctuary cities that limit local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities and their impact on public safety.

The mayor, in her State of the City address, repeated her oft-mentioned claim that Boston is the “safest major city” in the country, while pointing to the Hub’s record-low homicide rate in 2024, and praising Police Commissioner Michael Cox — who, like Wu, has drawn the ire of Trump’s border czar Tom Homan.

Wu specifically mentioned her time testifying in D.C. to kick off her speech, positioning herself as the winner in her battle with House Republicans at the March 5 high-stakes hearing, where she appeared, baby in tow, with ashes on her forehead as it coincided with Ash Wednesday.

“Two weeks ago, I went down to D.C. because Congress had some questions about how we do things here in Boston,” Wu said. “It might have been my voice speaking into the microphone that day, but it was 700,000 voices that gave Congress their answer: This is our city.

“No one tells Boston how to take care of our own,” the mayor said. “Not kings, and not presidents who think they are kings. Boston was born facing down bullies.”

Later on, Wu, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who benefited from birthright citizenship and gave birth to her third child this past January, said, “While this national moment isn’t the one that I — and so many families — had hoped for, I am grateful that my daughter gets to call this city home.”

“Boston is not a city that tolerates tyranny,” Wu said.

Notably, amid a Suffolk Superior Court trial that will determine the fate of the city’s public-private plan to rehab Franklin Park’s White Stadium for a new pro women’s soccer team, Wu defended the $200 million project that’s divided the community in her speech, saying it will benefit Boston Public Schools students.

She also touted her administration’s efforts to improve housing affordability, which her opponent in the mayoral race Josh Kraft has sought to seize on as one her vulnerabilities, and announced a series of initiatives, including around housing.

Wu announced plans to launch the city’s first-ever anti-displacement plan to help stabilize families, a co-purchasing pilot program to help residents purchase multifamily homes with 0% deferred interest from the city, and expand its office to residential conversion program to universities and employers looking to reactivate office buildings as dorms or workforce housing.

The mayor also announced a plan to tackle high energy bills through a “historic new partnership with Eversource and National Grid that will deliver more than $150 million in state funding for our residents to upgrade their homes and lower their bills.”

Following recent approval from the Zoning Commission, after it initially struck down the mayoral initiative to speed up net-zero emission requirements, Wu said, “because buildings are the biggest source of city emissions, starting this summer, all new big buildings in Boston will be net-zero from day one.”

Opposing Zoning Commission members had cited concerns with costs to developers, saying speeding up net-zero requirements may hinder the production of housing during an affordability crisis.

The mayor also announced another expansion of the city’s free museum program, announced as a pilot for BPS families in last year’s state of the city address, to include Boston’s revolutionary sites for all Boston school families.

Wu’s opponent in mayor’s race, Josh Kraft, said the picture wasn’t as rosy as she made it out to be.

“All of us want a stronger and more vibrant city, but the state of the city under Mayor Wu is headed in the wrong direction,” Kraft said in a statement to the Herald.

“New housing production has ground to a halt, the problems at Mass and Cass have been pushed out into many neighborhoods, the same schools continue to fail our kids, poorly planned bike lanes have clogged our streets, and our residents are paying higher taxes due to a bloated payroll and irresponsible fiscal management.”

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