President Trump kicked off the 2026 campaign with a rapid-fire recitation of his accomplishments this year, declaring that America is now poised for an “economic boom” in 2026 once his policies take full effect.
He said Americans are in for a windfall after the soaring prices of the Biden years.
Speaking from the White House’s Diplomatic Room, Mr. Trump said he was bringing America back from the brink.
“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Mr. Trump said. “When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years – and some would say in the history of our country – which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans.”
“Over the past 11 months, we have brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in American history,” he said.
The president ticked off a list of complaints about Mr. Biden, from his handling of the economy, open borders, biological males playing in women’s sports, bad trade deals, and a “sick and corrupt” federal government.
Mr. Trump noted Mr. Biden’s frequent gripe that he couldn’t close the U.S. border without legislation from Congress.
“As it turned out, we didn’t need legislation,” he said. “We just needed a new president.”
Mr. Trump spent the bulk of his 20-minute speech arguing that he’s made substantial progress in lowering prices despite polls showing voters’ frustration with the cost of living.
He said he’s brought down the cost of cars, gasoline, hotels, eggs and airfare under his leadership.
In this way, he tackled head-on the biggest issue of the burgeoning 2026 midterm races: Affordability.
“I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump noted that under his administration prices have gone down and wages have gone up, predicting Americans will be seeing the best economy in years ahead of the 2026 midterms.
He said it was fitting this would occur next year, with it being the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence.
“We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before,” Mr. Trump said. “There could be no fitting milestone than to complete the comeback of America that began just one year ago.”
The president touted his efforts to lower drug prices with his most favored nation pricing and Trump Rx website, and he blamed Democrats for soaring health-care costs.
“The current Unaffordable Care Act was created to make insurance companies rich,” Mr. Trump said. “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.”
Mr. Trump said a big focus of next year will be housing reform, and that he would be announcing “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history,” but didn’t offer any specifics except alluding to his crackdown on illegal immigration.
“A major factor in driving up housing costs was the colossal border invasion,” he said.
He blamed the Biden administration and their allied lawmakers for letting millions of immigrants in and providing them with “taxpayer funded housing, while your rent and housing costs skyrocketed.”
The president boasted about his immigration policies more broadly, saying that mass deportations and immigrants fleeing America have boosted the economy, by increasing the availability of jobs and housing.
“In the year before my election, all net creation of jobs was going to foreign migrants. Since I took office, 100% of all net job creation has gone to American-born citizens,” the president continued.
The speech signaled a concerted effort by the White House to change the negative economic narrative that Democrats have been pushing.
Advisors fear that voters’ concerns about high prices will fuel a Democratic takeover in Congress, which would kill most of Mr. Trump’s agenda for the last two years of his presidency.
It has already resulted in a string of Democratic wins in the off-year elections.
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump brushed off voters’ concerns about the economy, dismissing the topic of affordability as “a hoax.” He told Politico that he’d give himself an “A plus-plus-plus-plus-plus” on the economy.
Some in Mr. Trump’s Republican Party worry that the president hasn’t spent enough time talking to jittery voters about the cost of living.
The prime-time speech and a recent campaign-style event in Pennsylvania promoting his economic policy appear to answer those concerns.
He has another campaign-style event on the economy scheduled for Friday in North Carolina.
Vice President J.D. Vance this week traveled to Pennsylvania, where he pleaded with voters to be patient, promising that economic good times were on their way.
An NBC News poll released Sunday found that 42% of voters have a negative view of the economy, while an AP-NORC poll last week found 31% of Americans approve of Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy.
That latter figure is down from 40% in March and the lowest mark of his two terms.
Mr. Trump is facing a triple threat on the economy.
Inflation remains slightly elevated at about 3%. The U.S. added 64,000 jobs in November, but unemployment still ticked up to 4.6%, higher than expected. At the same time, millions of Americans are likely to see their health-insurance premiums spike in January when enhanced Obamacare subsidies expire on Dec. 31.
Inflation has cooled somewhat under Mr. Trump. Since taking office in January through September, prices are up about 1.6%, according to the latest data from the Labor Department. That would equate to a roughly 2.4% annual pace, above the Federal Reserve Bank’s goal of a 2% inflation rate.
Gas prices have fallen below $3 per gallon in 36 states and below $2.75 per gallon in 20 states.
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.19%, a 12% decline from when Mr. Trump took office in January, according to the Consumer Price Index.
