President Trump addresses the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Dec. 17, 2025.
Doug Mills/AFP via Getty Images
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Doug Mills/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump opened a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday with a message intended to reassure Americans.
“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I am fixing it,” he said at the start of his speech.
However, in his roughly 20-minute address from the Diplomatic Reception Room, Trump broke little new ground, restating messages his White House has been pushing for months: that current economic problems can still be blamed on former President Joe Biden, and that Trump’s second term in office has thus far been a massive success.
Indeed, Trump took a familiar, hyperbolic tone in describing his term.
“Over the past 11 months, we have brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in American history,” he said.
The address had the feel of a Trump rally speech, without the rally. Unlike the often sedate primetime addresses of past presidents, Trump spoke loudly throughout his speech, at times seeming to shout.
Trump spoke as his approval rating sits below 40% and Americans feel increasingly bleak about the economy.
Though he’s recently mocked Democrats’ focus on affordability, their focus on pocketbook issues is seen as why they swept key off-year elections in November. And the president has tried to address the issue, recently hitting the road to make his economic case. He pitched supporters in Pennsylvania last week by promising bigger tax returns in April thanks to his policies, as well as promoting “Trump accounts” for children born between 2025-2028.
But his labeling of the economy as “A+++++” in a recent Politico interview was knocked by even some conservatives as tone-deaf, however.
The address comes as approval of Trump’s handling of the economy has hit a new low, according to the latest ReadNOW PBS News Marist Poll. Fully 45% of Americans said prices are their top economic concern right now, far ahead of the next-highest category – housing prices – at 18%.
The various tariffs President Trump has unilaterally imposed are driving prices higher, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell reported last week. He told reporters that inflation growth is happening entirely in goods (as opposed to services), and that the growth is “entirely in sectors where there are tariffs.”
Trump will have another opportunity to talk directly to voters on Friday, when he will deliver a speech in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.