Trump Blames Biden On Immigration, Claims End To Wars In Year-End Address

US President Donald Trump used a year-end prime-time address on Wednesday to present what he described as the key achievements of his second term, highlighting immigration enforcement, economic measures and claims of ending multiple international conflicts, according to PTI.

Speaking for 19 minutes, Trump said his administration had reversed what he called failures of the previous government and delivered results within months of returning to office in January. “Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I'm fixing it,” he said at the start of the address.

Trump outlined a range of actions he said his administration had taken, including tightening border controls, reducing migration, lowering prices, imposing tariffs to boost revenue, supporting job creation and ending conflicts abroad, PTI reported. He also reiterated his long-standing criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of immigration.

“I've restored American strength, settled eight wars in 10 months, destroyed the Iran nuclear threat and ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East, and secured the release of the hostages, both living and dead,” Trump said.

While he did not specify the conflicts during the address, Trump has repeatedly claimed over the past year that his administration helped end or defuse tensions between India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Rwanda and the Congo, according to PTI.

A significant portion of the speech focused on immigration and its alleged impact on housing and employment. Trump said rising housing costs were driven by what he called a “colossal border invasion”. “We have never been invaded. This is the worst thing that frankly, in my opinion, the worst thing that the Biden administration did to our country is the invasion at the border,” he said.

He accused the previous administration and its allies in Congress of allowing “millions and millions” of migrants into the country and providing them with taxpayer-funded housing, while rent and home prices for Americans increased. Trump claimed that more than 60 per cent of growth in the rental market was due to foreign migrants.

“At the same time, illegal aliens stole American jobs and flooded emergency rooms, getting free health care and education paid for by you, the American taxpayer,” he said.

Trump further claimed that the US was now experiencing “reverse migration”, saying migrants were returning to their home countries, freeing up jobs and housing. “For the first time in 50 years, the US is now seeing ‘reverse migration, as migrants go back home, leaving more housing and more jobs for Americans,’” he said.

Referring to employment trends, Trump said that in the year before his election, all net job creation had gone to foreign migrants. “Since I took office, 100 per cent of all net job creation has gone to American-born citizens. Hundred per cent,” he said, as reported by PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)