The Dictatorship
Trump uses White House address to insist he has the economy humming
In a wide-ranging address to the nation from the White House on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump sought to tout the wins of his time back in office while also blaming Democrats for problems that continue to plague the country under his administration — especially the cost-of-living crisis.
The president teased one-time bonuses for members of the military and vague plans around housing and health care as he at times breathlessly raced through other favorite themes.
“Eleven months ago I inherited a mess and I’m fixing it,” Trump said from behind a lectern, his voice quickly rising at the start of a roughly 20-minute speech that amounted to a remarkable display of defiance of public opinion.
Polling has repeatedly shown the president facing disapproval from a majority of Americans, especially on the economy. A new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released Wednesday found that Trump’s approval rating on the economy is at its lowest point ever — 36% — and more than 60% of Americans say the economy is not working well for them.
Instead of acknowledging those sentiments, Trump painted a picture of an administration achieving what he repeatedly called historic successes and characterized persistent challenges as leftover struggles of the Biden administration.
“We’re bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin,” he said.
Trump touted real drops in the prices of eggsThanksgiving turkeys and gasolineas well as cost-cutting deals he made with prescription drug companies. Other claims, though, were inflated, lacking context or unsupported by evidence.
For example, Trump said gasoline “is now under $2.50 a gallon in much of the country” — but the average price nationally as of Wednesday was $2.91 a gallon, according to AAA.
He also claimed “inflation has stopped,” and on Thursday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics seemed to support the idea that inflation has at least slowed, releasing a delayed Consumer Price Index report concluding it rose 2.7% in November compared to a year earlier, down from 3% in September. That November figure was lower than expected, but the bureau noted that it had no data from October and only the back half of November due to the government shutdown. That, economists warned, means Black Friday sales could have pulled the overall inflation figure down.
Much like Vice President JD Vance during his own speech on the economy Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Trump urged Americans to stay patient, pledging they would see more cash “in your wallets and bank accounts in the new year” thanks to both tariffs and the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
But the reality is more complex. Trump’s tariffs have cut into profits and have caused financial difficulty for both producers, who have raised prices to offset the impact of tariffs, and consumers, who have paid more for goods as a result. A Yale Budget Lab analysis estimatedtariffs will cost average households $1,700.
Since his initial “Liberation Day” announcement of massive tariffs back in April, the inflation rate has climbed from 2.3% to 3%. Food prices are also up, and were 3.2% higher this August compared to a year before.
When it comes to the “Big Beautiful Bill,” Trump pledged it will lead to “the largest tax cuts in American history.” But experts have said that the refunds will not impact all families equally, and the “Big Beautiful Bill” enacted historic cuts to both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which many low-income families rely on to afford health care and groceries.
Trump also mentioned a housing policy announcement to come in the new year that echoed arguments Vance has made, alleging that undocumented immigrants are responsible for rising housing costs.
“A major factor in driving up housing costs was the colossal border invasion,” Trump said.
Economists and housing experts reject that notion, pointing instead to housing shortages and elevated mortgage rates as the primary drivers of rising costs. Some have also warned that mass deportations could worsen the problem by further delaying the construction of new homes, given the crucial role immigrants play in the construction industry.
Trump also derided the Affordable Care Act but did not directly acknowledge looming spikes in health insurance premiums for enrollees. With Congress failing to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies before departing for the holiday recess, enrollees’ monthly premiums are expected to increase by more than 100%, to an average of $1,900, according to the health policy organization KFF.
“It’s their fault. It is not the Republicans’ fault. It’s Democrats’ fault!” he asserted, attempting to counter a likely 2026 campaign plank from the opposing party, which forced the recent government shutdown when Republicans refused to extend the expiring subsidies.
The closest Trump got to actually putting more money in Americans’ pockets was the announcement of what he called a “warrior dividend” of $1,776 — “in honor of our nation’s founding in 1776,” he said — to be paid out to more than 1.45 million service members.
“The checks are already on the way,” he said.
Apart from the economy, Trump also sought to cast himself as restoring law and order — without acknowledging that, on his first day back in office, he pardoned1,500 people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including people who inflicted violence on police officers.
“For the last four years, the United States was ruled by politicians who fought only for insiders, illegal aliens, career criminals, corporate lobbyists, prisoners, terrorists and above all foreign nations which took advantage of us at levels never seen before,” he said.
Trump did not directly reference U.S. forces’ repeated attacks on small boats the administration claims are ferrying drugs from Venezuela — preemptive strikes that have killed dozens, called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s job security into question and driven a wedge between the U.S. and some key allies.
But barely half an hour before Trump began speaking, U.S. Southern Command announced it had taken out another boat, killing four people.
Trump claimed his administration has “decimated the bloodthirsty foreign drug cartels” that were “poisoning and destroying our population.”
Yet just this month, Trump abruptly pardoned ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandezwho was serving a 45-year sentence for working with cartels to traffic hundreds of tons of cocaine to the U.S.
Beyond the elements of revisionist history, Trump sprinkled his speech about his first year back in office with promises that America will finally be great again — soon.
“When the world looks at us next year,” Trump concluded, “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.”
Sydney Carruth contributed to this report.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW.
Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
The Dictatorship
President Trump spoke to Live Nation CEO before antitrust case was settled, company lawyers reveal
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump spoke personally with the chief executive of Live Nation in the weeks before the Justice Department abruptly settled its longstanding antitrust lawsuit against the entertainment giant and its Ticketmaster subsidiary, the company revealed in a court filing.
Lawyers for Live Nation told the court on Monday that Trump and the company’s CEO, Michael Rapino, spoke about the antitrust lawsuit in February, but didn’t discuss “substantive terms” of any potential settlement.
They also said that White House lawyers were involved in some of the numerous in-person meetings, videoconferences, telephone calls and written communications between the company and the Justice Department in February and March.
Just days into the March trial, the Justice Department announced a settlement that most states refused to join, saying it did not go far enough to curb the company’s dominance over concert venues and ticketing for live events though Ticketmaster.
The trial continued, and a jury concluded several weeks later that the company was a monopoly that cost concertgoers and sports fans.
The White House declined to comment on Live Nation’s disclosure, referring questions to the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The revelation comes as the Justice Department has faced criticism that its independence has been threatened by substantial oversight or interference from the White House and the president.
The Justice Department and dozens of states originally teamed up to bring the antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation.
Among other things, the jury in New York found Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive practices led to people in 22 states paying an extra $1.72 per ticket, which the judge could order the companies to pay back.
State attorneys general who sued Live Nation said the verdict could potentially lead to lower ticket prices for music fans.
The federal government’s settlement deal included a cap on service fees at some amphitheaters, plus some new ticket-selling options for promoters and venues — potentially allowing, but not requiring, them to open doors to Ticketmaster competitors such as SeatGeek or AXS.
In April, Live Nation said in a statement that the verdict “is not the last word on this matter.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance say their interim deal to end the war with Iran will deliver a financial windfall to American farmers.
But the Iranians deny it. And in the absence of more details, sanctions experts are flummoxed over exactly how billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian assets would make their way to the American heartland from the escrow accounts where they’ve been locked for years by U.S. sanctions.
A tentative agreement reached last week would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas once passed, and allow Iran to start selling its oil freely again during a 60-day period when the two countries will continue negotiating key issues. The memorandum of understanding also promised to unfreeze Iranian assets.
Trump’s deal has come under fire for failing to address the reasons the president cited for going to war with Iran on Feb. 28, including curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, its missile program and its support for militant groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Lashing back at critics Tuesday on his Truth Social media platform, Trump said U.S. farmers would get a payday: The U.S. Treasury Department, he wrote, would release the Iranian assets “into escrow, controlled by the U.S.A., and will be used for the purchase of food and medical supplies, exclusively from the United States, including Corn, Wheat, and Soybeans from our great American farmers. These are things that are desperately needed by Iran.’’
Vance, who spoke about the proposal after high-level talks in Switzerland, and Trump say that any frozen funds and assets held outside of Iran will be used to buy U.S. crops.
But the Iranians deny that’s part of the deal. A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said any agricultural purchases would be based on “prices and quality,’’ not terms dictated by Washington.
“It is interesting that the philosophy and goal of the war, which was the destruction of the Iranian civilization and the collapse of Iran, has become enriching American farmers,” Baghaei said.
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Iran’s ambassador in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, rejected Vance’s contention that the U.S. and Qatar would dictate how Iran uses unfrozen funds. “Iran is the only country who decides what to do with those assets,” he told reporters.
A U.S. official dismissed the contradiction, asserting that Iranian leaders were speaking to their domestic audience. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
Joseph Glauber, a research fellow emeritus at the International Food Policy Research Institute, said Iran was unlikely to abandon its other trade partners on food.
Iran’s major suppliers include Brazil, India, Turkey, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Argentina, he said. Trump’s demand to buy from the U.S. would “create some hard feelings with some of our competitors.”
Under previous sanctions, the U.S. has required that money foreign countries spend on imports from Iran — such as South Korean purchases of oil and Iraqi purchases of Iranian electricity — be locked in escrow accounts and typically released only if the Treasury approves and if the proceeds go toward “non-sanctionable’’ items such as food and medicine.
On Monday, the U.S. Treasury approved the sale of Iranian oil, petrochemicals and petroleum products through Aug. 21. It did not mention any escrow accounts.
Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who coordinated efforts to put diplomatic pressure on Iran in the first Trump administration, said in a post on X that he would welcome “a clarification that Iran is actually restricted to only buying U.S. agricultural products.”
Richard Nephew, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, said it’s unclear what the new U.S.-Iran agreement actually means for releasing restricted Iranian assets.
Could the U.S. require that the assets be used to buy American farm products?
“Well, we can try!’’ Nephew, who helped design Iran sanctions in the Obama and Biden administrations, said by email. “All you really need to do is to tell a foreign bank that they can move the money but only to a U.S. bank to buy soybeans or whatever.”
Banks do not have to comply, he said. If they refuse, the U.S. could sanction them as well.
But it’s rare for the U.S. to conduct itself that way, he added, “in part because we don’t usually like to give the impression that we treat national security issues as a cash grab.”
___
Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
Wednesday marks four years since the Supreme Court issued its landmark Dobbs decisionwhich effectively overturned Roe v. Wade and repealed the constitutional right to an abortion. On “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski explained how the ruling set off a domino effect across the United States, affecting not just abortion-related care, but also altering “the state of women’s healthcare as a whole.”
As Brzezinski noted, states across the country have enacted harsher abortion restrictions since the 2022 ruling, with 13 outright banning the procedure with very limited exceptions. This has created a climate of fear among those who treat pregnant patients, with many healthcare providers worrying that any care involving an abortion could violate the law, even when the mother’s health is at risk.
“We are talking about people dying when they’re miscarrying because doctors are too afraid to intervene and save their lives,” Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent for The Nation, told MS NOW.
Brzezinski said the laws have effectively limited women’s “access to lifesaving healthcare.”
The MS NOW host reflected on some high-profile stories of pregnant women who faced delayed care in states with near-total abortion bans, noting “the numbers of cases that we’ve covered here on the show of women who have had their lives threatened, have been forced to give birth to dying or dead babies, and then, by the way, denied the access to ever create life again, because they became sterilized in the process.”
“There’s an image I can’t get out of my head,” Brzezinski added, before sharing reporting from ProPublica about Porsha Ngumezi, a 35-year-old mother who died in Texas in 2023 after not receiving timely care for a miscarriage.
“For months afterward, Porsha’s 3-year-old son would chase after women who looked like her on the street, shouting, ‘That’s Mommy!’” Brzezinski said. “That’s the detail I can’t forget. I can’t stop imagining that little boy chasing after strangers on the street. And that story repeats itself.”
You can watch Brzezinski’s full comments in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”
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