Trump pushes back on criticism of economy in contentious prime-time speech – The Washington Post
Trump pushes back on criticism of economy in contentious prime-time speech
Updated, December 17, 2025 at 10:28 p.m. EST51 min ago
President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Dec. 17. (Doug Mills / AFP/ Getty Images)1 min
President Donald Trump delivered a sharply political televised speech Wednesday evening focused heavily on the economy, an effort to reverse declining public opinion numbers and the view even among some supporters that he has not lived up to key campaign promises.
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Trump’s prime-time speech echoes themes from his campaign rallies
Facing internal White House strife, a slowing economy and tension overseas, President Donald Trump turned to a familiar routine Wednesday in his prime-time address: the campaign.
Trump zigzagged from the economy to immigration, and from transgender rights to global trade to his new war on drugs, in an 18-minute distillation of the stump speeches he gave on his way to a second term.
Trump, though, has been president again for nearly a year.
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Trump also touted his efforts to lower health costs through his “Most Favored Nation” pricing deals with pharmaceutical companies.
It’s true that some of the deals — like Trump’s work to lower the price of GLP-1 drugs — have been striking. But drug costs represent just one relatively small component of America’s high health costs.
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Trump’s many distortions on the Affordable Care Act
Trump in his speech tonight riffed on a favorite target: the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 health law passed by Democrats that he has spent much of his political career vowing to repeal.
“The current Unaffordable Care Act was created to make insurance companies rich,” Trump said. “It was bad health care at much too high a cost.”
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Former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon, covering the speech on his “War Room” online talk show, pointed out that this address was seen by prime time network TV viewers, not just the president’s base.
Bannon posed the question: “Was this too intense for a broadcast audience?”
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Trump said “100 percent” of new jobs in his second administration have gone to U.S.-born workers. Economists say that is not true.
A quirk in federal survey calculations is muddying the data on foreign- vs. U.S.-born workers in the labor force. Officials at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau warn against using that data to draw conclusions about population counts — or comparing it with figures from previous years. Doing so would be “a multiple-count data felony,” Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Commerce Department economist, told The Washington Post in August.
Continue/Read Original Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/17/trump-address-nation-2026-agenda/
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Monday, December 1, 2025
Leaked calls expose US-Russia peace deal -- Ukraine troop cap contentious as US pushes for peace deal to end war -- Vilnius airport halts flights again after balloon sightings -- Ukraine, Norway to jointly produce drones starting in 2026 ... and morehttps://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025/12/monday-december-1-2025/
October 7, 2025: Attorney General Pam Bondi spars with the Senate Judiciary Committee | CNN Politics
October 7, 2025: Attorney General Pam Bondi spars with the Senate Judiciary Committee
By Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand, Jeremy Herb and Casey Gannon, CNN
Updated 2:37 PM EDT, Tue October 7, 2025
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi attends a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 7, 2025. REUTERS /Kent Nishimura Kent Nishimura / ReutersWhat we covered here
• Attorney General Pam Bondi testified for a contentious 4 and a half hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
• Bondi continuously deflected questions from Democrats on controversial issues, including the Jeffery Epstein files, prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey and legal rationale for using the national guard in US cities.
• The hearing comes one day before Comey is set to be arraigned in federal court. His recent indictment by a federal grand jury was an extraordinary escalation in President Donald Trump’s effort to prosecute his political enemies.
20 Posts 5 hr 9 min ago
Our live coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing has ended for the day. Click here to read the takeaways. 5 hr 9 min ago
Takeaways from Bondi’s 4 and a half hour Senate hearing
From CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee today.Alex Wong/Getty Images
Democrats and Republicans repeatedly talked past one another throughout the hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi, pointing fingers across the aisle over who was to blame for weaponizing the Justice Department.
• Deflect and attack: Bondi fended off questions on the investigation into accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, National Guard deployments, and investigations into Trump’s political enemies, using quick-one liners to deflect and personal attacks to push back against Democrats.
• Democrats press Bondi on Trump’s influence: Democrats pointed to numerous examples they say show Bondi has failed to keep the Justice Department independent from the whims and wishes of the president.
• Republicans jump on news FBI reviewed senators’ phone records: Several Republican senators pointed to the release of documents the night before Tuesday’s hearing that showed the phone records of eight Republican senators and a House lawmaker were obtained as part of the special counsel’s investigation into Trump and 2020 election interference.
• Bondi and GOP defend going after Comey: Bondi and a former Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee defended the indictment of Comey during Tuesday’s hearing, one day before he’s set to be arraigned on charges that he allegedly lied to Congress in 2020 testimony. Bondi said several times that the Alexandria, Virginia, grand jury that handed up the indictment was a “liberal” one.
Editor’s Note: There are a number of blog posts here, and online about Jack Smith. His report is covered. Use this to see the coverage.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: October 7, 2025: Attorney General Pam Bondi spars with the Senate Judiciary Committee | CNN Politics
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