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VIDEO: President Trump tries to ease economic worries in year-end speech94%
By Associated Press66% KUER News0%
12/17/2025, 9:00:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Anchoring Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 53.4% saturation with 230 hits. Analysis detected 1,262 faulty-reasoning hits from 431 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 90.3% and a BS Rank of 94% (1,091 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 93.50% of the article peer group.
President Donald Trump said in a White House speech Wednesday night that he was sending a $1,776 bonus check to U.S. troops for Christmas, indicating that tariffs were funding the payments as he tried to reassure a worried public about the health of the economy.
Trump said 1.45 million military service members would get the “warrior dividend before Christmas.”
“The checks are already on the way,” he said.
Yet his bonus payments for the troops come as millions of Americans are fretting about the costs of groceries, housing, utilities and their holiday gifts as inflation remains elevated and the labor market has meaningfully weakened in recent months.
Flanked by two Christmas trees with a portrait of George Washington behind him in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room, Trump sought to pin any worries about high inflation on his predecessor, Joe Biden.
“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said.
His remarks came at a crucial time as he tries to rebuild his steadily eroding popularity.
Public polling shows most U.S. adults are frustrated with his handling of the economy as inflation picked up after his tariffs raised prices and hiring slowed.
In 2026, Trump and his party face a referendum on their leadership as the nation heads into the midterm elections that will decide control of the House and the Senate.
The White House remarks were a chance for Trump to try to regain some momentum after Republican losses in this year’s elections raised questions about the durability of his coalition.
Trump brought charts with him to make the case that the economy is on an upward trajectory.
But the hard math internalized by the public paints a more complicated picture of an economy that has some stability but few reasons to inspire much public confidence.
The stock market is up, gasoline prices are down and tech companies are placing large bets on the development of artificial intelligence.
But inflation that had been descending after spiking to a four-decade high in 2022 under Biden has reaccelerated after Trump announced his tariffs in April.
The consumer price index is increasing at an annual rate of 3%, up from 2.3% in April.
The affordability squeeze is also coming from a softening job market.
Monthly job gains have averaged a paltry 17,000 since April’s “Liberation Day” in which Trump announced import taxes that he later suspended and then readjusted several months later.
The unemployment rate has climbed from 4% in January to 4.6%.
Read more from NPR: Trump's economic approval hits a new low at 36%, a poll finds
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