President Trump recently addressed the nation about his administration’s many accomplishments over its first year. Glenn Beck reviews the best moments of the speech, as well as some moments he doesn’t believe will age well. Plus…did Trump trick the media into playing his highlight reel by making them think he would declare war with Venezuela?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So last night, the President spoke, and, you know, he started out.
It was -- it was -- let me give you the overall first. I've never seen him more disciplined.
I think the speech was like, I don't know. It was over by 20 minutes after. And I think he ran six minutes late. I mean, I've never seen -- he doesn't say hello in less than 20 minutes.
He stayed on script the whole time. He was extraordinarily disciplined. He was forceful with it. And he explained what has been done in the last year. And he started out saying, a year ago, our country was dead. Now we're the hottest country. We're the hottest country in the world right now. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.
He said, you know, when he took -- when he took over, inflation was the worst in 48 years.
Caused prices to be higher than ever. Making life unaffordable for millions of Americans. And he said, over the past 11 months, we brought more positive change to Washington than any administration in American history.
Never been anything like it.
He talked about successfully negotiating $18 trillion of investments into the country.
And he said, but the real problem for most Americans was under Biden, car prices rose 22 percent in many states. He said, 30 percent or more. Gasoline rose 30 to 50 percent.
Hotel rates raised 37 percent. Airfare rose 31 percent. And he said, they're all coming down. They're coming down fast. Faster than anybody expected. Drugs, brought by ocean and sea are now down by 94 percent. He said, we broke the grip of sinister woke radicals in our schools.
I restored American strength, settled eight wars in ten months, destroyed the Iran nuclear threat. And ended a war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years, peace to the Middle East.
Then he talked about, you know, what's coming next!
Now, here are my thoughts on this: You know, everybody was speculating, he's going to say we're going to war. What would give you that impression?
I mean, he doesn't -- that is the very last resort. And we are not out of tricks with Venezuela.
I don't think we're going to war with Venezuela.
I think he's making it look like we're going to war, to freak Venezuela out.
And to get Maduro out.
I don't think we're going into war.
I hope we're not. I could be wrong.
But I just don't think that's his deal.
Everybody is speculating, he will announce we're going to war.
No. He's not.
However, is it possible that they were leaking this?
Because I saw this as the kickoff of the campaign. I saw this as okay. This is the message for 2026 for the Republicans.
And it was so disciplined and -- and so tight. You know, he gets -- when the president calls a speech at night and says, he wants to address the nation be, the networks are asked to carry it.
Sometimes they don't. They don't have to. But if he said, look, I only need 20 minutes, I'm sure that everybody at NBC. I mean, I did. Rolled my eyes. Yeah. It will be 20 minutes.
It will be an hour and 20 minutes. But it was tight and focused in 20 minutes.
I wonder if the war thing wasn't a way to get them to cover this.
If -- if it wasn't a leak from the White House. You know, I think he might. I think he might announce war tonight. Then everybody will cover it. I don't know.
Maybe that's me being too sinal. I don't know. Can you be too cynical at this point?
Here's the thing. He said a couple of things that I didn't think will serve him well. And it's only because -- and I think you feel the same way.
I know I'm sick of it. And I've been reporting on it since the beginning of Obama.
And I hated it when Obama was doing it. And he did it for eight years. Biden did it for four years.
And here's the line: I inherited a mess. I inherited trouble. I'm cleaning up somebody else's mess.
True. It's absolutely true. It wasn't with Biden.
It kind of was with Obama, at the beginning.
But, you know, when you're seven years into it. You haven't cleaned that up yet?
I mean, you've got to get a bigger mop. But it's definitely true under Donald Trump. However, people have heard that now from the last three presidents.
And they're tired of it. It has no meaning anymore. Even though it's true.
And I want to go back to truth here in a second. The other thing that I don't think will serve him well is the economy is doing better than ever.
You're going to love it. It's great. People are not -- that might be true!
In my opinion, it's not. It is doing much, much better.
I mean, you know, you -- you had -- what was it?
Twenty-five percent. Thirty percent inflation added to everything? You've got to go into negative inflation to be able to get those prices down. They're going to be up there. And what's happening is, we still are adding 2 percent inflation. And that's the target. I don't know why we put up with that target, but that's the target.
So you'll have 2 percent price increases every year. Now, we're at 3 percent. We get the numbers out today.
It might go into the twos. Are they out yet?
STU: Yeah. 2.7, the number out today.
GLENN: 2.7 that's great.
STU: Yeah, it's better. It's going the right direction. They say part of that might be because the government shutdown, so we're not sure how long that lasts, but positive movement anyway.
GLENN: Yeah, so that's fantastic! So coming down to 2.7. Remember, we were at 9, and it was compounding year after year after year.
So he is bringing things down. And the price of some things like gasoline and eggs. And some of the stuff you get at the grocery, are way down. They're not back to where they were in 2016. Or 2020.
Because, I mean, he's just trying to stop the inflation.
So what's happening, and this is what I say, will serve him well is, there was this great marketing book out in the '80s called Positioning the Battlefields of Your Mind -- or, Battleground of Your Mind.
And it was a book that led to the Cola Wars. It was the understanding of the Cola Wars and how Pepsi could beat Coca-Cola.
They had to change the perception. And the perception was, that Coca-Cola was it!
And Pepsi had to change it, and that's why they became the choice of a new generation. And for a while, Pepsi was -- it may have even beaten Coke.
But there was this real Cola War back and forth the whole time. They didn't change the flavors. They didn't change anything.
Pepsi was what Pepsi always had been. Coca-Cola was what Coca-Cola had always been.
They needed to change the perception, okay? Because perception, whether it's true or not, perception is reality.
Whatever people perceive, and feel, is their reality.
So it's the reality that you have to deal with.
People don't feel the relief yet. They see the prices coming down. But they're still paying out the same amount of money that they were paying out under Joe Biden.
It's not getting worse. Except, by 2.7 percent overall.
But it's -- it's not getting better to them. You know, certain categories are.
But overall, you're still struggling with your rent and everything else!
And so people's perception is: It -- it's not what I expected. Because what I expected was 2019!
I expected to have jobs and the economy rolling. And the price of housing coming down. And everything else.
And it's not.
So what's not going to serve him well is saying, "Your perception is wrong." He might be right! It doesn't matter! You can't tell people their perception is wrong. You have to change that perception.
And the only way to really change it is to demonstrate it, or through ads, you know, back in the Cola War era, they just changed slogans and do ads and everything else. But people don't buy slogans anymore. They don't buy ads anymore. They don't even trust logos anymore. So that won't work.
You actually have to change people's lives to change their perception. Now, 25 percent last month said that they felt that their personal finances were doing better. That was last month. Or the month before last.
This last month, it's up to 27 percent.
So he's moving that in the right direction. But to win, you've got to be over 40 percent.
Easy over 40 percent have to feel like their personal finances are getting better. 27 percent is not enough. But it is moving in the right direction.
So when the president says he's got to relate to the people who steal -- who have defended him, liked him, and believe in him, he's got to say, I know you're feeling the pinch.
You know, one of the things he said last night. But I don't think it's connected yet to people.
And it's because it's absolutely true. Why do you think that you are spending more every month for your rent?
Why?
You're spending more on rent, because there's too many people chasing too few houses and apartments.
You cannot add ten to 15 million people in four years, while you're not building things. You can't add 10 million people into your country and say, oh, by the way. Go get housing.
Where are they going to get the housing?
The housing, you're going to have a shortage, which will cause the prices to go up.
So until you get rid of those 10 million people. You're not going to lower the price.
And especially if the government is subsidizing them.
Because, I mean, look at the NGOs. If people know, the government will pay. They will keep the price up. What would happen with NGOs. Look what's happening with universities. Why do you think universities are so expensive?
They weren't like that. Until the government said, we will guarantee the loans. Once the government said, we'll guarantee the loans, prices went true the roof because everybody could get a loan!
That's the problem. He's got to connect this, and I think he started last night. He's done it a few times. But somewhere or another, it's really got to connect with the American people.
You cannot solve the housing crisis and not solve the immigration crisis. You have to send people back home, or you're going to have to wait five years, as we build new apartment complexes and new buildings. And we stabilize under these ten million new homes that were needed.
That's not popular. And nobody is going to wait that long. Somehow or another, he's got to make that point. And it's got to connect with people, to give him more time to turn things around, on the housing.
Now, he also was really strong in saying that he was appointing -- wait until you meet the guy to appoint the head of the Fed.
Well, I would like to meet that person too. I would like to know who that is. He said he will do it right after the first of the year. Because our Fed chair is leaving, after the first of the year in February. And he said he's a guy who understands low interest rates. And, you know, low mortgage rates, looser money. That could be really dangerous with -- with inflation, but we'll see.
But that could be a turning point, one way or the other, a new Fed chair will be a new turning point.
And hopefully, Trump and this new Fed chair know what they're doing, and it won't make things worse.
But I don't know how you can with the Fed. I mean, they've already made everything so bad.




