(AFP) – President Donald Trump promised Americans an economic boom in an address to the nation on Wednesday, while blaming Democratic predecessor Joe Biden for high prices that have hit the Republican’s popularity. “Good evening America. Eleven months ago I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” the 79-year-old said in his live speech from the White House at the end of his first year back in power.
Trump faces growing voter anger over the issue of affordability despite his efforts to dismiss it as a “hoax” by Democrats, sparking Republican fears they could be punished in the 2026 midterm elections. The billionaire president insisted that prices of gas and groceries that have worried Americans were “falling rapidly, and it’s not done yet. But boy, are we making progress.”
In a surprise announcement, Trump said that 1.45 million United States military service members would each receive “warrior dividend” bonus checks for $1,776 before Christmas, paid for with revenues raised from tariffs. He added that the specific amount was in honor of the year of the founding of the United States, the 250th anniversary of which the country will celebrate next year.
Trump then promised that “we are poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen” in 2026, when the United States will co-host the FIFA World Cup, with Canada and Mexico. But while the White House had billed the speech as a chance for Trump to set out his economic agenda for the rest of his second term, much of it consisted of attacks on familiar targets. He repeatedly raged against Biden, the Democrats, and migrants whom he said “stole American jobs.”
Democrats fired back after the speech, with Senator Chuck Schumer saying in a statement that Trump “just showed he lives in a bubble completely disconnected from the reality everyday Americans are seeing and feeling.” “The facts are that prices are going up. Unemployment is going up. And there’s no end in sight,” he added.
Trump’s speech comes at the end of a whirlwind year in which he has launched an unprecedented display of presidential power, including a crackdown on migration and the targeting of political opponents.
But polls show what Americans are most concerned about is high prices, which experts say are partly fueled by the tariffs he has slapped on trading partners around the world. Trump got his worst approval ratings ever for his handling of the economy in a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll published Wednesday, with 57 percent of Americans disapproving and expressing concerns about the cost of living. A YouGov poll published Tuesday showed that 52 percent of Americans thought the economy was getting worse under Trump.
He has also faced criticism from his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement for focusing on peace deals in Ukraine and Gaza and on tensions with Venezuela, instead of domestic issues. Trump did not mention Ukraine or Venezuela, but did boast about the Gaza ceasefire, the US attacks on Iran’s nuclear program, and what he calls a war on drug traffickers.
There are signs Trump’s team has had a wake-up call on the economy in recent weeks, with next year’s midterm elections for the control of Congress already looming. Republicans lost heavily in elections in November for the mayor of New York and governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, while Democrats ran them close in a previously safe area in Tennessee.
The president is now ramping up his domestic travel to push his economic message. Last week in Pennsylvania he promised to “make America affordable again,” and on Friday he is due to give another campaign-style rally in North Carolina. Vice President JD Vance — who is rapidly becoming Trump’s messenger on the issue as he eyes his own presidential run in 2028 — also urged voters to show patience during a speech on Tuesday.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
