Washington (United States) (AFP) – President Donald Trump will set out plans to make the United States “stronger than ever” in a televised address to the nation Wednesday as his popularity dips over his handling of the economy. Trump’s speech at the end of his first year back in the White House comes amid Republican fears that voters angered by the cost of living will punish them in the November 2026 midterms.
“The message this evening is we inherited a mess, and we’ve done a great job, and we continue to, and our country is going to be stronger than ever before very soon,” Trump told reporters. He spoke after attending a somber ceremony marking the return of the bodies of two US soldiers and an American civilian who were shot dead in Syria over the weekend.
Republican Trump is also expected to tease his policies for 2026, following a blitz of hardline protectionist and nationalist policies at the start of his second term. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the speech would focus on his “historic accomplishments” including tackling inflation, which Trump blames on his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, and curbing immigration. Leavitt said on Tuesday that the president would also talk about his plans “to continue delivering for the American people over the next three years.”
Billionaire Trump, the oldest elected president in US history, has boasted of a new “golden age” in America. He recently rated the economy as “A++++” and rages against what he called an “affordability hoax” by rival Democrats.
But polls show US voters are increasingly angry about high prices of everything from gas to groceries, which experts say are partly fueled by the tariffs he has slapped on trading partners. 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 even faces criticism from within 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. But there are signs Trump’s team has had a wake-up call 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 — urged voters to show patience during a speech on Tuesday. “They know Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Vance said in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a Vanity Fair article published Tuesday that his program would feature “more talks about the domestic economy and less about Saudi Arabia.”
© 2024 AFP
