Z A R I

This is the longest State of the Union speech in history (107 minutes), and also the first annual State of the Union address of President Trump’s second term. We will focus only on the issues that affect financial markets and the economy. Overall, he did not introduce too many new points. Here are some of the key highlights:

🔹 The opening part of the speech mainly focused on the economy and cost of living. He stated that inflation has cooled, prices are stabilizing, and people's living standards are gradually improving. He highlighted CPI around 2.4% and core inflation at 2.5% to show that the pace of price increases has slowed down.

🔹 On tariffs, he continued to affirm his desire to use import tariffs to replace income taxes, arguing that foreign countries will pay the cost instead of American people.

🔹 Regarding housing, he called for restrictions on large corporations buying too many homes, emphasizing “houses for the people, not for businesses.” He said that speculation by investment funds has driven up home prices, making it difficult for young people and middle-class families to buy homes. His goal is to reduce market pressure and increase homeownership opportunities for ordinary citizens.

🔹 He is also awaiting a ruling on his authority over the FED, because interest rates directly affect mortgage borrowing, investment, and business activities.

🔹 On cost of living and healthcare, he blamed the Democratic Party for causing the “price crisis” in previous years. He proposed reducing the role of insurance companies and giving money directly to the people through health savings accounts, instead of channeling funds to insurance companies through programs like Medicare and Medicaid, in the hope of giving people more control over their healthcare expenses.

🔹 In the financial markets, he emphasized that stock market growth must be accompanied by fairness. He called for banning members of Congress from trading stocks to prevent profiting from insider information, thereby restoring public trust in the system. This is one of the few issues that received support from both parties.

🔹 On energy and AI, he said that technology companies must build their own power plants for data centers to avoid driving up electricity prices for ordinary citizens. Simply put: when demand rises, prices rise. AI data centers consume huge amounts of electricity, increasing maintenance costs; companies then have to upgrade the grid, costs go up, and they later request rate hikes. If the government approves, ordinary people will end up paying more. $BTC