December 17, 2025
President Trump just wrapped an 18 minute address to the nation. I’m going to talk about what he just said and what else he said in a second but just on style trump was wearing his signature blue suit with a red tie. He was standing in the diplomatic reception room of the White House decorated for Christmas. And if you watched the speech in its entirety – you probably noticed that at times Trump was talking really fast and almost shouting into the microphone.
If you’ve ever watched any of his campaign speeches or watched him give the state of the union– this felt like that. Except – an address to the nation on TV is not usually done in the same tone as a campaign rally or a state of the union in front of a joint session of congress. Now – let’s get into what he actually said. And I think the best way to frame that is by sharing how he started the speech.
Trump spent the first minute and half of the speech blaming President Biden. Then he moved into all the things he’s done in his first 11 months in office. He touted what he sees as his accomplishments on immigration, eliminating what he calls “woke radicals in schools”, the buildup of the US military, the strike on Iran’s nuclear facility, the Gaza peace deal and hostage release and the passing of the big beautiful bill. And he sees the current US economy as a success. And he says there’s one reason why.
Those tariffs are brining in money to the US economy but according to the chairman of the Federal Reserve those tariffs are also costing you money making lots of things more expensive. At least twice in this speech Trump said prices are coming down “rapidly” for all of us and inflation has been stopped. As I have reported repeatedly that’s not accurate. Yes – some prices have come down for some things – but prices for lots of other things have gone up. And the fact is – when Trump came into office in January of 2025 inflation was 3%. According to the most recent inflation number from his own administration in September of 2025– inflation was also 3%. Inflation has stayed up since Trump came back into office. It hasn’t “stopped” as Trump claimed. He also talked about how your wage growth is far outpacing inflation…as his own labor department reported yesterday – that’s not accurate either. In fact I showed you how average hourly wage growth in November increased 3.5%while inflation has increased 3%. That’s not wages far outpacing inflation that’s wages barely covering inflation.
During the speech Trump also looked forward to 2026. He talked about continuing to work on lowering energy prices, creating housing reforms and the new TrumpRX prescription drug website where you can buy prescriptions directly from the manufacturers.
The only thing Trump announced that we have never heard before is that his administration in going to give more than 1 million members of the US military what trump calls a “war dividend” for Christmas. It is a one-time bonus check of $1,176. Of course that number was chosen to honor the founding of our country which we will celebrate next year when America turns 250 years old.
Watch President Trump’s prime time address here.
