December 18, 2025: Fact-Checking President Trump's End-of-the-Year Address, Congress Passes $901B Defense Authorization Bill, and Ending the Year with GOOD NEWS!!

UNBIASED Politics

Jordan Berman

Education

4.8 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

SUBSCRIBE TO JORDAN'S FREE NEWSLETTER. Get the facts, without the spin. UNBIASED offers a clear, impartial recap of US news, including politics, elections, legal news, and more. Hosted by lawyer Jordan Berman, each episode provides a recap of current political events plus breakdowns of complex concepts—like constitutional rights, recent Supreme Court rulings, and new legislation—in an easy-to-understand way. No personal opinions, just the facts you need to stay informed on the daily news that matters. If you miss how journalism used to be, you're in the right place. In today's episode: Trump Signs AI Regulation Executive Order; Here's What It Means and Doesn't Mean (0:18) Trump Designates Fentanyl a "Weapon of Mass Destruction." Here's What That Means and What'll Change (4:58) Congress Sends Defense Authorization Bill to President's Desk; Here's What's In It (9:14) Fact-Checking President Trump's End-of-the-Year Address (~17:53) Quick Hitters: Bongino Steps Down, Hegseth on Strike Video, Government Admits Fault in Mid-Air American Airlines Crash, CDC Adopts New Hep B Vaccine Recommendation, Judge Allows White House Ballroom Construction to Proceed, Inflation Cools, HHS Proposes Revoking Funding for Providing Transition Treatment for Minors, Trump Signs Executive Order Fast-Tracking Marijuana Re-Classification (~35:09) GOOD NEWS to Close Out the Year (~44:08) SUBSCRIBE TO JORDAN'S FREE NEWSLETTER. Watch this episode on YouTube. Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok. All sources for this episode can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought you by Shopify. With Shopify, 2026 is the year you make it happen. It gives you the tools to build your dream store, online and in person. Plus with marketing built in, it'll help you reach exactly who you need to. Join the millions who've already made the leap, like Jim Shark and all birds, and ring in the new year with Shopify.
0:23.3	Sign up for your £1 per month trial at Shopify.com.uk.u-slash Spotify.
0:30.0	Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis.
0:36.9	Welcome back to Unbiased politics.
0:38.7	Today is Thursday, December 18th, and this is the last news episode of the year.
0:44.5	And we definitely have a lot to talk about.
0:47.4	So we're just going to jump right in.
0:49.5	We are going to start with this new executive order, I guess newer executive order on
0:53.9	artificial intelligence,
0:55.2	which the president signed at the end of last week. Now, the story didn't make it into Monday's
1:00.0	episode, but I know quite a few of you have had some questions about it since then, so I do just
1:04.7	quickly want to cover it. First and foremost, it is important to keep in mind the purpose and meaning
1:09.7	behind executive orders
1:11.3	generally. So an executive order is basically a directive from the president that tells federal
1:18.2	agencies how to carry out either existing laws or new policy. It does not create new laws.
1:25.7	That is something Congress does, not the president. Now, executive orders also do not automatically override laws. Executive orders only apply to the executive branch, and they simply direct federal officials to do certain things, take certain actions. So when you hear executive order, it's it's less about changing the law and
1:46.0	it's more about telling federal agencies, hey, this is how I want you to operate. At its core,
1:51.9	this particular executive order is about who gets to regulate AI. And the administration is saying
1:58.3	that AI regulation should be handled at the national level,
2:02.1	not the state level. The White House or the president is essentially arguing that AI is very
2:08.4	fast moving. It affects the entire country. And having 50 different sets of rules makes things
2:15.0	messy and complicated. Companies that operate nationwide have to follow one set
	...

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