One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead. Our country was ready to fail. Totally failed. Now, we're the hottest country anywhere in the world.

Trump delivered a combative address to the nation. That's where we're starting The Seven from The Washington Post.

I'm Rene Svranovsky in for Hannah-Jule. It's Thursday, December 18th. Let's get you caught up with

today's seven stories. Last night, the president crammed his usual 90-minute rally routine into 18 minutes of primetime television.

His goal had been to ease concerns about the economy and to persuade Americans that he gets it.

Instead, he bashed his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and praised his own policies on immigration and inflation.

Tonight, after 11 months, our border is secure. Inflation is stopped. Wages are up. Prices are down.

Our nation is strong. America is respected, and our country is back stronger than ever before. We're poised for an economic boom,

the likes of which the world has never seen. Afterward, even some of Trump's own allies puzzled over

whether the president did more harm than good with the address. Trump read much of his speech at an unusually rapid pace,

quickly jumping from one topic to the next. We had men playing in women's sports, transgender for

everybody, crime at record levels with law enforcement and words such as that, just absolutely forbidden. We had the worst trade deals ever made

and our country was laughed at from all over the world, but they're not laughing anymore.

And his tone was loud and sharp without any of his usual playful riffs or digressions.

But at one point, Trump did deliver a line with a message White House officials have urged him to lean into, that his administration

has more work to do to get costs down. And it's not done yet, but boy, are we making progress?

Nobody can believe what's going on.

Trump has faced declining poll numbers on the economy as inflation has remained stubborn.

And we've got more on Trump for number two.

He trolled former presidents with new plaques on a presidential

walk of fame. In September, a display of former presidents was installed at the White House.

It was intended as a bit of a troll. For example, instead of featuring a photo of Joe Biden,

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