U.S. President Donald Trump delivered an address to the nation on Wednesday, December 17, in which he sought to take superlative stock of his first year back in power, exaggerating his achievements on the economic front at a time when polls put his popularity at its lowest level since January, mainly due to the high cost of living in the country.
The president opened the expected speech repeating many of the things he says during his almost daily public interventions: he attacked immigrants and the government of his predecessor, Joe Biden, and assured that in a few months the U.S. has “gone from the worst to the best” thanks to his deportations, the strict closing of the border or the use of tariffs against other countries.
Trump delivers address to the nation
President Donald J. Trump delivers a speech from the White House 🇺🇸
“Over the past 11 months, we have brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in American history.” @POTUS pic.twitter.com/E9v8zG18dc
– The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 18, 2025
According to Trump, the first 11 months of his second term have brought the biggest “positive changes” in history and he stressed that “wages are rising faster than inflation.”
Payrolls in the U.S. have been rising at a rate of around 4% this year, below the increase in prices, which stands at around 3%.
However, this marginal difference is not reaching a significant part of the U.S. population, whose pockets are suffering more and more with inflation that is mainly due, according to the Federal Reserve, to the tariffs that Trump decided to implement last April.
Low approval rate
🥕Trump destroys the US economy 📉
Polls sink him… only 31% approve of the management.Trump has taken control of many government institutions but the reality in the US is different.
And these tariffs, a “strategy” to countries that were going to make them fall, have failed. pic.twitter.com/qu1Y1pJNRK– Jean MM Pe (@JMichaelV1) December 14, 2025
This leaves polls showing the lowest approval rating for the president since he returned to the White House, with Gallup putting the percentage of Americans who approve of his job at 36%, just two points above the low he recorded in his first term, just after inflaming the mob that stormed the Capitol in January 2021.
Another NPR, PBS and Marist University New York poll released Wednesday puts his popularity at 38% and shows a growing dislike among groups that voted for him en masse in 2024, such as rural residents.
In Wednesday’s speech, Trump also promised healthcare reform that would end so-called “Obamacare” and also a new program to facilitate affordable housing.
He assured in turn that “a gallon of gasoline is now at $2.5 in much of the country” and that in some states “it has just dropped to $1.99,” although the national average is currently around $2.9, according to data from tracking platforms.
He also highlighted the reductions that his government has achieved in drug prices, although he mentioned, once again, “cuts of 400, 500 and even 600%”, volumes that do not even make mathematical sense.
Some 1,600 new power plants
🚨 #ULTIMAHORA
#Trump announces checks for 1 million 450 thousand solados for $1,776 dollars as a dividend from tariffs the U.S. has collected since April of this year.
The announcement comes as disapproval of his management of his economy exceeds 50% in the nation. pic.twitter.com/iSw0o8H1Tr– Stephanie Ochoa 🇲🇽🇺🇸 (@StefyOchoa) December 18, 2025
He also assured that in the next 12 months, 1,600 new electricity generation plants will be inaugurated in the country, which will bring electricity prices down “drastically”.
A statement that comes at a time when the citizens of many states are suffering sharp increases in their bills, due to the growing energy consumption of the data centers needed for the development of artificial intelligence.
Trump also announced that he will grant 1,450,000 members of the Armed Forces a “special bonus,” which he has dubbed the “warrior’s dividend,” worth $1,776, a symbolic figure that refers to the year of the country’s founding.
It was virtually his only reference to the military after he said Tuesday that Washington will block all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela.
The US President, who in September ordered a massive military deployment in the Caribbean with the aim of stopping the drug trafficking that according to him finances Caracas, had also assured that the Venezuelan Executive has stolen crude oil fields and US assets, making apparent reference to the expropriations carried out during the Hugo Chávez Administration.
In turn, Trump has said in recent days that the US will soon begin ground attacks on drug trafficking groups in Venezuelan territory.
Although his own chief of staff, Susie Wiles, admitted in an interview published on Tuesday that the president would need congressional authorization to make such a move.
In any case, the New York magnate did not mention Venezuela once in his address to the nation on Wednesday.
With information from EFE
