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President Donald Trump tried to hit the reset button with Americans on Wednesday night time by reminding them of the Biden administration and arguing his personal insurance policies have pushed down costs and made America nice.
It was a factually challenged address that reads like a screed. It could attraction to Trump’s MAGA base, however it isn’t possible to persuade reasonable and impartial voters who’re fearful about the economic system.
NCS’s Fact Check group took a run through the speech, however I went line by line as a result of a lot of what he stated was not reality checkable and it’s essential to attempt to comply with his prepare of thought.
The speech, which was comparatively quick and browse principally from a teleprompter, is under, together with context.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good night, America.
Eleven months in the past, I inherited a multitude, and I’m fixing it. When I took workplace, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and a few would say in the historical past of our nation, which triggered costs to be larger than ever earlier than, making life unaffordable for hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Americans.
(Many of Trump’s feedback started with a comment about how horrible issues had been below former President Joe Biden. These statements about inflation are factually inaccurate. Inflation in January of 2025 was about the identical as it’s at the moment. It’s completely true that Americans then and now are struggling to afford issues.)
TRUMP: This occurred throughout a Democrat administration, and it’s once we first started listening to the phrase “affordability.” Our border was open, and due to this, our nation was being invaded by a military of 25 million folks, many who got here from prisons and jails, psychological establishments, and insane asylums.
(The border was by no means “open,” and the drop in border crossings started throughout Biden’s time period when he lastly used government authority to minimize down on crossings. But it’s definitely true that border crossings have dropped much more dramatically below Trump. Undocumented immigrants should not a military in any literal sense of the phrase. The declare about prisons and psychological establishments has been oft repeated by Trump and repeatedly reality checked. There’s no proof for it.)
TRUMP: They had been drug sellers, gang members and even 11,888 murderers, greater than 50 % of whom killed multiple individual. This is what the Biden administration allowed to occur to our nation, and it could possibly by no means be allowed to occur once more.
(He used the oddly particular variety of 11,888 murderers, which is down from the roughly 13,000 determine he used to use. Both are incorrect and truly refer to immigrants over a 40-year period, together with throughout his first time period, as NCS has beforehand reality checked.)
We had males taking part in in ladies’s sports activities, transgender for everyone, crime at document ranges, with “law enforcement” and phrases comparable to that simply completely forbidden. We had the worst commerce offers ever made, and our nation was laughed at from throughout the world.
(“Transgender for everybody”? Really? Many of the commerce offers in place, together with with Canada and Mexico, had been made by Trump throughout his first time period.)
TRUMP: But they’re not laughing anymore. Over the previous 11 months, we’ve got introduced extra optimistic change to Washington than any administration in American historical past. There has by no means been something prefer it. And I believe most would agree.
(Trump’s approval ranking is underwater, and under 40% in some polls, so most individuals most likely don’t agree. Internationally, whereas Trump has delivered some commerce agreements, most of the offers he promised haven’t but materialized.)
TRUMP: I used to be elected in a landslide, successful the common vote and all seven swing states and every thing else with a mandate to tackle a sick and corrupt system that ex— it actually simply took the wealth from folks and crushed the goals of the American folks.
(Trump’s win was actual. It was not a landslide. Ronald Reagan successful each state however Minnesota was a landslide.)
TRUMP: For the final 4 years, the United States was dominated by politicians who fought just for insiders, unlawful aliens, profession criminals, company lobbyists, prisoners, terrorists, and, above all, international nations, which took benefit of us at ranges by no means seen earlier than.
They flooded your cities and cities with unlawful aliens. They decimated your hard-earned financial savings. They indoctrinated your kids with hate for America. Really, I imply, they simply launched a degree of violent felons that we had by no means seen to prey on harmless. They triggered warfare. They triggered mayhem. They triggered a horrible scenario throughout the globe.
(Objectively, this can be a very dim view of Democrats, who characterize about half the nation. They would possible disagree with every thing he stated.)
TRUMP: But now you may have a president who fights for the law-abiding, hardworking folks of our nation, the ones who make this nation run, who make this nation work. And after only one yr, we’ve got achieved greater than anybody might have imagined.
Starting on Day 1, I took instant motion to cease the invasion of our southern border. For the previous seven months, zero unlawful aliens have been allowed into our nation, a feat which everybody stated was completely unimaginable.
Do you bear in mind when Joe Biden stated that he wanted Congress to move laws to assist shut the border? He was all the time blaming Congress and everybody else. As it turned out, we didn’t want laws. We simply wanted a brand new president.
(Trump has definitely pushed sources to the southern border and unlawful border crossings have dropped precipitously. Biden argued Congress ought to move a border legislation for him to execute, which is the mannequin put ahead in the Constitution. Trump has performed way more with government authority, testing the Constitution in a number of methods.)
TRUMP: We inherited the worst border anyplace in the world, and we rapidly turned it into the strongest border in the historical past of our nation.
In different phrases, in a couple of quick months, we went from worst to greatest. We’re deporting criminals, restoring security to our most harmful cities. Just check out Washington, DC. It’s at ranges of security that we’ve got by no means seen earlier than.
(The administration is deporting much more than criminals. There are numerous tales of households who’ve lived law-abiding lives in the US for years or a long time being separated. DC residents typically oppose Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to the metropolis.)
TRUMP: And they decimated the bloodthirsty international drug cartels.
(Not positive who “they” is on this sentence, however it might refer to his extrajudicial use of the army to fireplace on drug boats. Lots of people thought, with the US Navy flooding the Caribbean in a seeming march to warfare, that Trump would discuss Venezuela on this speech. He didn’t.)
TRUMP: We did that each one by ourselves with our folks, and we’re so happy with it, as a result of they had been poisoning and destroying our inhabitants. Drugs introduced in by ocean and by sea are actually down 94 %.
(Most fentanyl doesn’t come into the US by sea, in accordance to earlier NCS reports.)
TRUMP: We have damaged the grip of sinister woke radicals in our colleges, and management over these colleges is again now in the fingers of our nice and loving states, the place training belongs.
(Trump has promised to finish the Department of Education, though its mission has by no means been to dictate native college curricula. The Trump administration is definitely additionally attempting to dictate local policies by tying federal cash to ending variety and inclusion efforts, notably the place it relates to the trans neighborhood.)
TRUMP: After rebuilding the United States army in my first time period, and with the addition we’re including proper now, we’ve got the strongest army anyplace in the world, and it’s not even shut. I’ve restored American energy, settled eight wars in 10 months, destroyed the Iran nuclear risk, and ended the warfare in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East, and secured the launch of the hostages, each residing and useless.
(US bombers focused nuclear websites and Israel focused Iranian scientists earlier this yr. Iran says the amenities had been broken, however its nuclear program, which it says is for vitality, remains intact. The peace after 3,000 years declare is hyperbole, however Trump ought to get credit score if peace in Gaza holds. However, the humanitarian situation in Gaza stays horrendous.)
TRUMP: Here at house, we’re bringing our economic system again from the brink of break. The final administration and their allies in Congress looted our treasury for trillions of {dollars}, driving up costs and every thing at ranges by no means seen earlier than. I’m bringing these excessive costs down, and bringing them down very quick.
Let’s take a look at the details. Under the Biden administration, automotive costs rose 22 %, and, in lots of states, 30 % or extra. Gasoline rose 30 to 50 %. Hotel charges rose 37 %. Airfares rose 31 %. Now, below our management, they’re all coming down, and coming down quick.
Democrat politicians additionally despatched the price of groceries hovering. But we’re fixing that too. The worth of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33 % in contrast to the Biden final yr. The worth of eggs is down 82 % since March, and every thing else is falling quickly. And it’s not performed but. But, boy, are we making progress. Nobody can consider what’s occurring.
(This is all fuzzy math. Refer again to NCS’s fact check, which notes the price of eggs and turkey are down, however different groceries are up.)
TRUMP: Here are simply a few of the efforts that we’ve got below method that you will note in your wallets and financial institution accounts in the new yr. After years of record-setting, falling incomes, our insurance policies are boosting take-home pay at a historic tempo. Under Biden, actual wages plummeted by $3,000. Under Trump, the typical manufacturing unit employee has seen a wage improve of $1,300. For development staff, it’s $1,800.
For miners — we’re bringing again clear, lovely coal — it’s $3,300. And for the first time in years, wages are rising a lot sooner than inflation. Remember that. The wages, simply take a look at it. Wages are going up a lot sooner than inflation. How huge is that?
(Wages are rising sooner than inflation. But simply barely, as NCS’s David Goldman has written, not sufficient to make Americans really feel the distinction, since wage development is definitely slowing down.)
TRUMP: Very importantly, there are extra folks working at the moment than at any time in American historical past. And one hundred pc of all jobs created since I took workplace have been in the non-public sector. Think of that; one hundred pc of all jobs have been in the non-public sector, fairly than authorities, which is the solely method to make a rustic highly effective and nice.
This historic pattern will proceed. Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of funding into the United States, which implies jobs, wage will increase, development, manufacturing unit openings and much larger nationwide safety.
(The $18 trillion determine is fake, in accordance to NCS’s reality verify. Trump did lay off many authorities staff, though these cuts are the topic of a number of lawsuits. But the unemployment charge has additionally risen to a four-year high of 4.6%, in accordance to latest knowledge.)
TRUMP: Much of this success has been achieved by tariffs, my favourite phrase, tariffs, which, for a lot of a long time, have been used efficiently by different international locations in opposition to us, however not anymore. Companies know that, in the event that they construct in America, there aren’t any tariffs. And that’s why they’re coming house to the USA in document numbers.
They’re constructing factories and vegetation at ranges we haven’t seen. AI, vehicles, we’re doing what no one thought was even potential, not even remotely potential.
(If the tariffs work, the advantages haven’t but been totally realized to the extent of Trump’s claims. The Supreme Court can be weighing whether or not Trump exceeded his authority by imposing across-the-board tariffs, one thing the Constitution says must be performed by Congress.)
TRUMP: One yr in the past, our nation was useless. We had been completely useless. Our nation was prepared to fail, completely failed. Now we’re the hottest nation anyplace in the world. And that’s stated by each single chief that I’ve spoken to over the final 5 months.
(Who are these leaders?)
TRUMP: Next yr, additionally, you will see the outcomes of the largest tax cuts in American historical past that had been actually achieved by means of our nice huge lovely invoice, maybe the most sweeping laws ever handed in Congress. We wrapped 12 completely different payments up into one lovely invoice.
That contains no tax on ideas, no tax on additional time, and no tax on Social Security for our nice seniors. Under these cuts, many households will probably be saving between $11,000 and $20,000 a yr. And subsequent spring is projected to be the largest tax refund season of all time.
(One situation for Trump is that a lot of the tax minimize invoice is an extension of tax cuts he signed into legislation on a brief foundation throughout his first time period. Many Americans may not really feel the distinction. However, many lower-income Americans would possibly lose their Medicaid protection because of the legislation. SNAP advantages are anticipated to shrink. And the nationwide debt will develop. The invoice provides $3.4 trillion in deficit spending over 10 years. Read more about how the bill will affect you.)
TRUMP: Because of tariffs, together with the just-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” tonight, I’m additionally proud to announce that greater than 1,450,000 — consider this — 1,450,000 army service members will obtain a particular, we name “warrior dividend” earlier than Christmas, a warrior dividend.
In honor of our nation’s founding in 1776, we’re sending each soldier $1,776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the method. Nobody understood that one till about half-hour in the past. We made much more cash than anyone thought due to tariffs, and the invoice helped us alongside.
(Nice gesture! But the cash — $2.6 billion — Trump stated is coming from tariffs was previously appropriated by Congress. Also, people who find themselves seeing their health insurance costs spike as a result of Trump opposed extending Obamacare subsidies might need most well-liked Trump to additionally ship on that.)
TRUMP: Nobody deserves it greater than our army. And I say, congratulations to everyone. And, by the method, we now have document enlistment in our army. And, final yr, we had amongst the worst recruitment numbers in our army’s historical past. What a distinction a yr makes.
(Army recruitment met its objectives in 2025, however it additionally met its goals in 2024. Military branches have been engaged on enhancing recruitment for years.)
TRUMP: In addition, I’m doing what no politician of both get together has ever performed: standing up to the particular pursuits to dramatically scale back the worth of prescribed drugs. I negotiated instantly with the drug firms and international nations, which had been making the most of our nation for a lot of a long time, to slash costs on medicine and prescription drugs by as a lot as 400, 500, and even 600 %.
In different phrases, your drug prices will probably be plummeting downward, and I used the risk of tariffs to get international international locations who would by no means have performed it to pay the price of this big greenback discount. They stopped ripping us off, and it started as of 4 days in the past.
There has by no means been something like this in the historical past of our nation. Drugs have solely gone up, however now they are going to be taking place by numbers by no means conceived potential. It’s referred to as most favored nation, and no president has ever had the braveness or capacity to get this performed till now.
The first of those unprecedented worth reductions will probably be obtainable beginning in January by means of a brand new Web website, TrumpRx.gov. And these huge worth cuts will significantly scale back the price of well being care.
(Dropping costs 600%? Would the drug firms pay you? Read extra about Trump’s most favored nation efforts and the web site he’s naming after himself. Separately, Democrats handed a legislation throughout the Biden administration that for the first time allowed Medicare to negotiate for prescription drug costs. That program continues below the Trump administration and can save the US billions of {dollars}.)
TRUMP: I’m additionally taking up the gigantic medical health insurance firms which have gotten wealthy on billions of {dollars} of cash that ought to go instantly to the folks. The cash ought to go to the folks, that’s you, to allow them to purchase their very own medical health insurance, which can give much better advantages at a lot decrease prices. It will probably be much better medical health insurance.
The present “Unaffordable Care Act” was created to make insurance coverage firms wealthy. It was unhealthy well being care at a lot too excessive a price, and also you see that now in the steep improve in premiums being demanded by the Democrats, and they’re demanding these will increase, and it’s their fault. It is just not the Republicans’ fault. It’s the Democrats’ fault.
(Interesting that Trump is not calling it “Obamacare,” however fairly “The Unaffordable Care Act.”)
TRUMP: It’s the “Unaffordable Care Act,” and everyone knew it. Again, I would like the cash to go instantly to the folks so you should buy your individual well being care. You will get significantly better well being care at a a lot lower cost. The solely losers will probably be insurance coverage firms which have gotten wealthy in the Democrat Party, which is completely managed by those self same insurance coverage firms.
They won’t be blissful, however that’s OK with me, since you, the folks, are lastly going to be getting nice well being care at a decrease price.
(This can be an attention-grabbing change in the US system, the place giant teams of individuals, not people, get the greatest charges on well being care. It can be good to see Republicans and Democrats work collectively to move one thing to repair the system.)
TRUMP: Another main focus is the price of vitality. For years, the radical left Democrats exploited the green-energy rip-off as an excuse to funnel many billions of {dollars} into their very own huge slush funds, as their vitality restrictions drastically drove up costs, and so they drove them up at document ranges.
Electricity prices surged 30 to one hundred pc below Biden, and the typical household misplaced $5,000 to $10,000 in larger vitality prices. Think of that, $5,000 to $10,000 you misplaced. On day one, I declared a nationwide vitality emergency. Gasoline is now below $2.50 a gallon in a lot of the nation. In some states, it, by the method, simply hit $1.99 a gallon.
(The retreat from local weather change efforts is an enormous whiplash in US coverage that may have an effect on automotive and vitality firms and every thing in between. It’s not clear what Trump means by slush funds. On costs, the common worth of gas nationwide has fallen from simply over $3 when he took workplace to slightly below $2.90 at the moment. But the common price of electricity has risen on Trump’s watch.)
TRUMP: And inside the subsequent 12 months, we can have opened 1,600 new electrical producing vegetation, a document, and it’s a document that gained’t be crushed by virtually — I might say by anyone, or definitely not very quickly. Prices on electrical energy and every thing else will fall dramatically.
The Democrat inflation catastrophe, once more, the worst in the historical past of our nation, additionally robbed hundreds of thousands of Americans of homeownership and certainly the American dream. The yearly price of a typical new mortgage elevated by $15,000 below Democrat rule. In 11 months, we’ve got already gotten that annual price down by $3,000, and it’s coming down loads decrease.
Wait till you see. The numbers are going to be surprising. And I’ll quickly announce our subsequent chairman of the Federal Reserve, somebody who believes in decrease rates of interest by loads, and mortgage funds will probably be coming down even additional.
(Trump can’t actually take credit score for a dip in mortgage charges, which have fallen incrementally throughout his time in workplace and stay over 6%. The Fed has minimize charges in latest months, and mortgages have adopted, not directly. That’s not as a result of the Fed is glad with the charge of inflation however as a result of it’s involved about the job market. If something, the Fed could have minimize charges extra if Trump hadn’t put tariffs in place. Read more.)
TRUMP: Early the new yr — and you will note this — in the new yr, I’ll announce a few of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American historical past. A significant component in driving up housing prices was the colossal border invasion. We have by no means been invaded. This is the worst factor that — frankly, in my view, the worst factor that the Biden administration did to our nation is the invasion at the border.
The final administration and their allies in Congress introduced in hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of migrants and gave them taxpayer-funded housing whereas your lease and housing prices skyrocketed. Over 60 % of development in the rental market got here from international migrants.
(It will probably be attention-grabbing to learn Trump’s plan. Perhaps it’ll borrow on zoning modifications like these embraced in New York City and Austin. One situation for housing is an absence of expert staff, which his immigration crackdown can not have helped.)
TRUMP: At the identical time, unlawful aliens stole American jobs and flooded emergency rooms, getting free well being care and training paid for by you, the American taxpayer. They additionally elevated the price of legislation enforcement by numbers so excessive that they aren’t even to be talked about.
For the first time in 50 years, we are actually seeing reverse migration, as migrants return house, leaving extra housing and extra jobs for Americans. In the yr earlier than my election, all web creation of jobs was going to international migrants. Since I took workplace, one hundred pc of all web job creation has gone to American-born residents, one hundred pc.
(The Trump administration is paying people to self-deport. At the identical time, the US wants extra staff. Even Trump admits a few of them can have to be immigrants. It’s additionally price noting that undocumented immigrants steadily pay into security web techniques like Medicare with out being eligible to get advantages.)
TRUMP: In the finish, authorities both serves the productive, patriotic, hardworking American citizen, or it serves those that break the legal guidelines, cheat the system, and search energy and revenue at the expense of our nation.
Look at Minnesota, the place Somalians have taken over the economics of the state and have stolen billions and billions of {dollars} from Minnesota and certainly from the United States of America. And we’re going to put an finish to it.
(This is a complicated story. Trump likes to simplify it to blame Somali immigrants normally. He referred to as all of them “garbage.”)
TRUMP: For as long as — earlier than my election, the overwhelming majority of excellent and respectable Americans had been pressured to watch as corrupt politicians plundered the halls of energy, exploited our taxpayers, and pillaged each system that makes civilized society operate, however not anymore, and also you see that each day, not anymore.
We’re placing America first, and we’re making America nice once more, quite simple. We are making America nice once more.
(Let’s count the ways the Trump household is brazenly attempting to profit financially from the Trump administration.)
TRUMP: Tonight, after 11 months, our border is safe, inflation has stopped, wages are up, costs are down, our nation is robust, America is revered, and our nation is again stronger than ever earlier than.
We’re poised for an financial growth, the likes of which the world has by no means seen. Soon, we’ll host the World Cup and the Olympics, each of which I bought, however, most significantly, we’ll rejoice the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There could possibly be no extra becoming tribute to this epic milestone than to full the comeback of America that started only one yr in the past.
(Happy 250th birthday, America!! Hopefully you’re lucky enough to afford a ticket to a World Cup match.)
TRUMP: When the world seems to be at us subsequent yr, allow them to see a nation that’s loyal to its residents, devoted to its staff, assured to its id, sure to its future, and the envy of the whole globe. We are revered once more, like we’ve got by no means been revered earlier than.
To each one in all you, have a merry Christmas and a cheerful new yr. God bless you all.