Up First from NPR - Trump Addresses Nation, Congress ACA Vote, Venezuela Oil Tankers

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

In a nationwide address, President Trump says the U.S. is poised for an economic boom and that high prices are falling rapidly. Four Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote on a three year extension of the enhanced healthcare subsidies. And, President Trump has ordered a ban on all sanctioned oil tankers going to and from Venezuela.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletterToday’s episode of Up First was edited by Rebekah Metzler, Kelsey Snell, Andrew Sussman, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.And our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In a primetime address to the nation, President Trump defended his economic record, insisting prices are falling and an economic boom is on the way. Our policies are boosting take-home pay at a historic pace. Does that ring true to voters? I'm Michelle Martin with Laila Faddle, and this is up first from NPR News. A group of swing district Republicans have sided with Democrats to force a vote on extending health care subsidies. This doesn't need to be in all-or-nothing zero-subsidies. some game. We can't come to the center and build consensus.

Will that encourage Congress to act before lawmakers head home for the holidays? And President Trump is escalating with Venezuela ordering a ban on some oil tankers. It's a blow to a country dependent on oil exports. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial. When you think about the people you love, it's not the big things you miss the most. It's the details. What memories will your loved ones cherish when you're gone? At Dignity

Memorial, the details aren't just little things, they're everything. They help families create meaningful celebrations of life with professionalism and compassion. To find a provider near you, visit DignityMemorial.com. AI expert Alvin Grayland has worked in Silicon Valley and China's tech scene for over three decades. Talk of an AI arms race, he thinks it's a big mistake. When I hear this from people who are very influential in the decision making in America, it feels a little bit ignorant and very scary. Ideas about AI in 2026 and beyond. Listen to the TED Radio Hour on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. In a defensive and boastful address to the nation Wednesday night, President Trump insisted

that the U.S. is poised for an economic boom and said that high prices are falling. He blamed his predecessor and immigrants for many of the country's problems. The speech comes as a majority of voters say they are not feeling the economic relief Trump promised in his campaign and touted in his speech. Recent polling shows Trump's rating on the economy is historically low and high prices remain a top concern. With us to talk this through is NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shiverum. Hi, Deepa. Hey, good morning. Okay, so what did the president say to try to counter how Americans are feeling about high costs? Well, his message overall is essentially telling people to just

hang on and wait. He says costs of goods like gas are going down. And he said the administration is, quote, making progress on lowering other costs, but it's not done yet. You will see in your wallets and bank accounts in the new year. After years of record-setting falling incomes, our policies are boosting take-home pay at a historic pace. In other words, the policies that he passed this year will have benefits next year, things like the big tax cut bill, which includes things like no taxes on tips or overtime. He also said families will see a larger tax refund next year. He also touted what he said was an $18 trillion investment in the U.S. from foreign countries, though his own White House website puts that tally at a little more than half of that.

I mean, the message to tell Americans, oh, you can't feel it, but just have patience, the economy is pretty good. I mean, that's something that we heard from the Biden administration. That's what they tried to do. And that didn't really work, right? Yeah, it's a familiar message, right? Telling people that they will feel it in their pocketbooks just later is a complicated place for Trump to be in heading into a midterms year. A recent poll from NPR, PBS News, Marist, just said that 36% of Americans approve of Trump. 's handling of the economy. That's a new low. So he's clearly trying to turn some of these feelings around. He did announce a few new things last night. One is an initiative of paying service members,

a check of $1,776. The other plan is to come next year on lowering the cost of housing. And I will say just one other major part of his speech was talking about immigration. That's long been an issue he falls back on when other things aren't going well. He tried to tie bad economic feelings to illegal immigration. He said migrants were the reason housing costs have gone up, but of course housing prices fluctuate based on a number of factors and can't be pinned down to just

blaming immigrants. The worst thing that the Biden administration did to our country is the invasion at the border. The last administration and their allies in Congress brought in millions and millions of migrants and gave them taxpayer funded housing while your rent

and housing costs skyrocketed. So that message of attacking immigrants and Democrats, you know, that's something we've heard from Trump again and again, and it's possible that stays part of his economic messaging. I mean, on that note, why don't we take a step back here and talk about his overall address last night? It comes at a time the president is seeing lower approval ratings, a lot of criticism over Venezuela, his reaction to the killing of filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner, the issue of affordability. What was his big message to Americans?

Yeah, I mean, this sounded like a pretty typical Trump address in a lot of ways. It was a long list of everything he seems to think his accomplishments are, all of that tacked together, everything from claiming that he's ended eight wars this year to showing off tariff policy. He ended his remarks saying that the country is doing better than ever, which is a definite contrast to polling that shows that Americans are worried about the future and the direction of the country. His response to things when, you know, they aren't going in his favor is usually to dig his heels in deeper. So as all of these criticisms like you mentioned of his rhetoric in these recent weeks have ramped up and his approval numbers fall, he's trying to paint a different picture of the last 11 months saying that they have just been stellar and that only he could bring about what he says is a strong nation. That's NPR's Deepa Shiverum. Thank you, Deepa. Thanks. The House of Representatives voted Wednesday on a Republican-led health care plan.

but extending health care subsidies was not part of it. More than 20 million Americans rely on the subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the month. In a rebuke of party leadership, a handful of Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote at some point on a three-year extension of those subsidies. Joining us to talk through this is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt. Hi, Barbara. Hi, Leah. Okay, so Republicans have been promising for weeks that they have plans to fix the health care system. But it doesn't sound like they agree on what exactly that entails. What happened this week?

Well, centrist Republicans have been pushing for leadership to let them have an amendment vote to extend those subsidies. And there was a lot of back and forth on this. And leadership ultimately said, nope, you're not getting it. So the group of swing district Republicans had a choice, which was either go home for the holidays with no vote on the amendment that they had wanted to bring or vote alongside Democrats who launched what's known as a discharge petition, which can bypass leadership and force a vote. in this case on extending the subsidies for three years. And that's exactly what this small group of Republicans did. And who were they? Well, the group is three congressmen from Pennsylvania, Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan,

and Ryan McKenzie, along with Mike Lawler of New York. Worth noting, these are competitive districts. They'll be important next year in the midterms as we figure out who's going to control the House. Yeah. And these four votes were critical because they got Democrats to the magic 218 number of signatures that's required to force a vote. What's the timeline for this force vote? Well, under House rules, there's a waiting period. The speaker could choose to move the vote sooner as soon as today. But if he doesn't, the vote wouldn't happen until next month because lawmakers are leaving at the end

of this week for the holidays. And then, of course, the bigger picture, we have to consider what kind of future this could have in the Senate. Just last week, four Republican senators voted to advance a three-year extension. It did not clear the 60-vote threshold that it needs to pass there. So what I'm watching is come January, does that shift? Does all of this say something bigger about the Republican Party here? I think so. I mean, I think if you didn't already know that the midterms were next year, this would be a clue. Members are acutely aware of what's important to their constituents, to their district.

And in this case, concern about what these premiums will look like for folks back home if the subsidies are not extended. And so there is, I think, a disconnect between. what this group feels will be a big issue for their voters and how they want to address it versus how leadership is approaching it. And what does that mean for House Speaker Mike Johnson? Well, it means more headaches, something that he's used to this year trying to unite a conference that has a very narrow majority. And what that has led to lately has been these discharge petitions. Last month, we had a similar situation where a handful of Republicans rebelled against leadership, sound familiar, teamed up with Democrats to force a vote in that case on releasing the Epstein files.

So I think this is just another example of the growing willingness of the conference to buck leadership on issues that matter to them and their constituents. NPR's Barbara Sprunt. Thank you, Barbara. Thank you. President Trump has ordered a ban on all sanctioned oil tankers going to and from Venezuela. The threat of a partial blockade marks an escalation in the Trump administration's pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. It also raises questions about whether the U.S. and Venezuela are edging closer to a direct military conflict. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myrie is following this story and joins us now. Good morning, Greg.

Hi, Leila. So with the president's latest announcement, what actions should we expect against oil tankers trying to reach or leave Venezuela's ports? Well, we, should look for the U.S. to target oil tankers that the U.S. has already sanctioned, but not all tankers going to and from Venezuela. Now, a full blockade is considered an act of war, but the Trump administration move appears to be limited, blocking only the tankers already on this U.S. Treasury sanctions list. Now, a monitoring group, tanker trackers, said recently that around 30 of the 80 oil tankers in or near the waters of Venezuela were on this U.S. sanctions list. So those 30 could potentially be targets while the others presumably would not be.

And we saw an example of this just last week when the U.S. Coast Guard seized a fully loaded tanker that was on the list. How do oil tankers get placed on this U.S. sanctions list? So for several years now, the Treasury Department has been keeping this list of so-called ghost ships, tankers that try to disguise their identity and location and are used by countries trying to evade the U.S. and Western sanctions. We're talking about Venezuela, Russia, and Iran. So this could be a major blow to Venezuela. The country is so dependent on oil exports. One of these fully loaded tankers can carry about $100 million worth of oil. And if the U.S. does seize more ships, this could have additional consequences. It may just scare away non-sanctioned tankers because they may just decide it's not worth the risk.

And how is Venezuela responding? Yeah, President Nicholas Maduro said the country's oil trade won't be stopped. His defense minister went on television and offered a defiant response. He said this U.S. threat is an active aggression and it makes clear the main U.S. goal is seizing Venezuela's oil resources. The country has the largest proven oil reserves, but production has dropped dramatically in recent years. One irony, Lela, is that U.S. oil company Chevron is still a major producer in Venezuela. Chevron is responsible for about a quarter

or even as much as a third of Venezuela's production of roughly a million barrels a day. Now, the U.S. has built up a large military presence in the region. What kind of operations could it carry out? So the U.S. has at least a dozen warships in the region and around 15,000 troops at sea and on land. So this is more than enough firepower to stop oil tankers. or keep up these attacks on suspected drug trafficking boats that we've seen. And also the U.S. could carry out sustained airstrikes against Venezuela if that becomes part of the plan. However, if Trump is considering a ground invasion, then the U.S. would need a significant force, perhaps more than is in the region right now. And PR is Greg Meyer. Thank you, Greg.

Sure thing, Leila. another story we're following today. The Trump administration has announced an arms sale package to Taiwan worth more than $10 billion. The largest arms sale package to Taiwan since the 1990s, including medium-range missiles, halitzers, and drones. The State Department issued a statement asserting that the proposed sale will help improve Taiwan's security and, quote, assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region, unquote. China condemned the sail to an island it claims as its territory, saying it harms China's sovereignty and undermines peace.

And that's up first for Thursday, December 18th. I'm Leila Fauden. And I'm Michelle Martin. Your next listen is, consider this from NPR. We at up first give you the three big stories of the day, our consider this colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single new story and what it means to you in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, I have lines. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Kelsey Snell, Andrew Sussman, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolkley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow.