TRUMP`S SPEECH TO THE PEOPLE 17 DEC. 2025
By Local TV - 17th December 2025 at 02:00 GMT
(Part of the broadcast, 10 min. missed the start)
"We did that all by ourselves, with our people, and we're so proud of it, because they were poisoning and destroying our population....radicals in our schools and control over those schools is back now in the hands of our great and loving states where education belongs. After rebuilding the United States military in my first term, and with the addition we are adding right now, we have the most powerful military anywhere in the world, and it's not even close.
I've restored American strength, settled eight wars in ten months, destroyed the Iran nuclear threat, and ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East, and secured the release of the hostages, both living and dead. Here at home, we're bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin. The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before.
I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast. Let's look at the facts. Under the Biden administration, car prices rose 22 percent, and in many states, 30 percent or more. Gasoline rose 30 to 50 percent. Hotel rates rose 37 percent. Airfares rose 31 percent. Now under our leadership, they are all coming down and coming down fast. Democrat politicians also said the cost of groceries soared, but we are solving that too. The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33 percent compared to the Biden last year. The price of eggs is down 82 percent since March, and everything else is falling rapidly, and it's not done yet, but, boy, are we making progress.
Nobody can believe what's going on. Here are just some of the efforts that we have underway. You will see in your wallets and bank accounts in the new year. After years of record-setting falling incomes, our policies are boosting take-home pay at a historic pace. Under Biden, real wage has plummeted by $3,000. Under Trump, the typical factory worker has seen a wage increase of $1,300. For construction workers, it's $1,800. For miners, we're bringing back clean, beautiful coal. It's $3,300. After the first time in years, wages are rising much faster than inflation.
Remember that. The wages, just look at it. Wages are going up much faster than inflation. How big is that? Very importantly, there are more people working today than at any time in American history, and 100 percent of all jobs created since that devolvement have been in the private sector. Think of that. One hundred percent of all jobs have been in the private sector rather than government, which is the only way to make a country powerful and great. This historic trend will continue.
I've secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States, which means jobs, wage increases, growth, factory openings, and far greater national security. Much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs, my favorite word, tariffs, which for many decades have been used successfully by other countries against us, but not anymore. Companies know that if they build in America, there are no tariffs, and that's why they're coming home to the USA in record numbers. They're building factories and plants at levels we haven't seen, AI, automobiles.
We're doing what nobody thought was even possible, not even remotely possible. There has never, frankly, been anything like it. One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead. Our country was ready to fail, totally fail. Now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world, and that's said by every single leader that I've spoken to over the last five months. Next year, you will also see the results of the largest tax cuts in American history that were really accomplished through our great, big, beautiful bill, perhaps the most sweeping legislation ever passed in Congress.
We wrapped 12 different bills up into one beautiful bill. That includes no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors. Under these cuts, many families will be saving between $11,000 and $20,000 a year, and next spring is projected to be the largest tax refund season of all time. Because of tariffs, along with the just-passed, one big, beautiful bill, tonight I am also proud to announce that more than 1,450,000, think of this, 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special we call William Dividend before Christmas, a William Dividend.
In honor of our nation's founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago. We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs, and the bill helped us along. Nobody deserves it more than our military, and I say congratulations to everybody. And by the way, we now have record enlistments in our military, and last year we had among the worst recruitment numbers in our military's history.
What a difference a year makes. In addition, I'm doing what no politician of either party has ever done, standing up to the special interests to dramatically reduce the price of prescription drugs. I negotiated directly with the drug companies, foreign nations, which were taking advantage of our country for many decades to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400, 500, and even 600 percent. In other words, your drug costs will be plummeting downward, and I used the threat of tariffs to get foreign countries who would never have done it to pay the cost of this giant dollar reduction.
They stopped ripping us off, and it began as of four days ago. There has never been anything like this in the history of our country. Drugs have only gone up, but now they'll be going down by numbers never conceived possible. It's called Most Favored Nation, and no president has ever had the courage or ability to get this done until now. The first of these unprecedented price reductions will be available starting in January through a new website, trumprx.gov. And these big price cuts will greatly reduce the cost of health care.
I'm also taking on the gigantic health insurance companies that have gotten rich on billions of dollars of money that should go directly to the people. The money should go to the people. That's you. So they can buy their own health insurance, which will give far better benefits at much lower cost. It will be far better health insurance. The current Unaffordable Care Act was created to make insurance companies rich. It was bad health care at much too high a cost, and you see that now in the steep increase in premiums being demanded by the Democrats, and they are demanding those increases, and it's their fault. It is not the Republicans' fault. It's the Democrats' fault.
It's the Unaffordable Care Act, and everybody knew it. Again, I want the money to go directly to the people so you can buy your own health care. You'll get much better health care at a much lower price. The only losers will be insurance companies that have gotten rich, and the Democrat Party, which is totally controlled by those same insurance companies. They will not be happy, but that's okay with me because you, the people, are finally going to be getting great health care at a lower cost. Another major focus is the cost of energy.
For years, the radical left Democrats exploited the green energy scam as an excuse to funnel many billions of dollars into their own massive slush funds as their energy restrictions drastically drove up prices, and they drove them up at record levels. Electricity costs surged 30 to 100 percent under Biden, and the typical family lost $5,000 to $10,000 in higher energy costs. Think of that, $5,000 to $10,000 you lost. On day one, I declared a national energy emergency. Gasoline is now under $2.50 a gallon in much of the country.
In some states, it, by the way, just hit $1.99 a gallon. And within the next 12 months, we will have opened 1,600 new electrical generating plants, and that's a record, and it's a record that won't be beaten by practically, I would say, by anybody. We're certainly not very soon. Prices on electricity and everything else will fall dramatically. The Democrat inflation disaster, again, the worst in the history of our country, also robbed millions of Americans of home- ownership and, indeed, the American dream. The yearly cost of a typical new mortgage increased by $15,000 under Democrat rule. In 11 months, we've already gotten that annual....America first, and we are making America great again.
Very simple. We are making America great again. Tonight, after 11 months, our border is secure. Inflation has stopped. Wages are up. Prices are down. Our nation is strong.America is respected, and our country is back, stronger than ever before.We're poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen. Soon we will host the World Cup and the Olympics, both of which I got. But most importantly, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
There could be no more fitting tribute to this epic milestone than to complete the comeback of America that began just one year ago.When the world looks at us next year, let them see a nation that is loyal to its citizens, faithful to its workers, confident to its identity, certain to its destiny, and the envy of the entire globe. We are respected again like we have never been respected before.
To each and every one of you, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. God bless you all!!
AI OVERVIEW OF TRUMP`S SPEECH TO THE PEOPLE
By AI ChatGPT6- 18 Dec 2026
What this closing is meant to accomplish
1. Itâs a classic âvictory narrative.â
The language is absolute and declarative:
âOur border is secure.â
âInflation has stopped.â
âAmerica is respected again.â
These are not policy explanations; they are statements of finality, designed to signal closure and success.
2. It compresses time.
Trump collapses complex, long-term issues into a single year:
âafter 11 monthsâ
âthe comeback of America that began just one year agoâ
This framing creates the sense of a rapid, almost miraculous turnaround.
3. It links national pride to personal authorship.
Notice phrases like:
âboth of which I gotâ (World Cup, Olympics)
He consistently ties national achievements directly to himself, reinforcing the idea that Americaâs success equals his leadership.
4. It shifts from policy to identity.
The most important lines are not economic:
âloyal to its citizensâ
âconfident to its identityâ
âcertain to its destinyâ
This is civilizational language, not administrative language. It appeals emotionally rather than technically.
5. The holiday ending lowers resistance.
Ending with âMerry Christmasâ and âGod bless you allâ softens the speech and frames it as unifying, even after strong claims.
Why it feels âstunningâ to many listeners
Very short
No qualifiers or caveats
No opposition mentioned
No future uncertainty acknowledged
That gives it the tone of a mission accomplished moment, regardless of oneâs political view.
(Recorded from 10 min. of public broadcast for informational purposes.)
