President Donald Trump delivered an end-of-year address to the nation on Wednesday night, the vast majority of which consisted of him repeating attacks on his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, as he sought to once again tie him to affordability concerns among voters.
Eleven months after re-entering office with virtually the highest approval rating of his political career, the president finds himself having lost significant support from voters, specifically regarding his stewardship of financial matters, as the president’s tariffs maintain inflationary pressure on consumer markets. A poll published Tuesday by Reuters found that just 33% of respondents gave Trump’s economic policies a passing grade, down 10 points since January.
Republicans have privately pressured the president to do more to sell his agenda, especially in the wake of Democrats winning a slew of elections in November. But while the White House has rolled out a handful of new economic initiatives in recent weeks, Trump has largely stuck to the message that elected him a year ago, blaming Biden and claiming affordability is simply a “hoax” orchestrated by Democrats.
The president maintained those lines of attack Wednesday night, but he also announced one new initiative that seemed more than a tacit acknowledgement of souring consumer sentiment.
Halfway through his speech, Trump announced that more than 1.45 million American servicemembers would be receiving a “warrior dividend” worth $1,776 before Christmas.
“The checks are already on the way,” the president stated, adding that the money for the dividends would be pulled from the revenue brought in from his slate of tariffs. “Nobody deserves it more than our military, and I say congratulations to everybody.”
Trump, who frequently touts his experience as a developer, also touched on the current housing crisis, claiming that Biden “robbed millions of Americans of homeownership and, indeed, the American Dream.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Washington Examiner over Labor Day Weekend that Trump was considering declaring a national housing emergency in the fall, which would be the first executive branch housing emergency declaration since the end of World War II.
Trump did not put forward any specific housing proposals on Wednesday evening, but previewed an announcement of “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history” next month.
Still, Americans hoping to hear more about Trump’s plans for the future were sadly disappointed.
Trump’s remarks closely followed the general flow of the affordability-themed speech he delivered last week in Northeastern Pennsylvania, albeit truncated down from last week’s more than two hour runtime, down to less than twenty minutes, complete with a number of charts claiming to show areas where prices have decreased since the highs of the previous administration and seven instances of lashing out at his predecessor.
“When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans,” Trump opened Wednesday evening. “This happened during a Democrat administration, and it’s when we first began hearing the word affordability.”
VANCE: DEMOCRATS ON AFFORDABILITY IS LIKE ‘CHARLES MANSON CRITICIZING VIOLENT CRIME’
Despite the president’s lack of new proposals, one Trump world insider told the Washington Examiner they viewed Wednesday night as a “win.”
“He got 15 minutes to tell the whole nation that he’s doing good stuff,” that person surmised.
You can watch Trump’s remarks in full below.
