Trump claims inflation win in Pennsylvania; US jets edge near Venezuela
President Donald Trump hits Pennsylvania with a fresh pitch on prices, arguing his administration is finally bending inflation in the right direction.
Plus, millions could see premiums jump as Affordable Care Act subsidies near expiration. But Democrats and Republicans are still far apart, offering dueling plans with no clear path to a deal before the deadline.
And Elon Musk is now saying he wouldn’t do DOGE again, reflecting on the department’s sweeping cuts and the fallout that followed.
These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Wednesday, December 10, 2025.
‘We’re crushing’ inflation: Trump claims affordability push is top priority
After weeks of dismissing the country’s affordability problems as a Democratic “hoax,” President Donald Trump is now saying inflation is no longer a problem at all under his watch.
At a rally-style event in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, the president struck two notes at once, calling “affordability” a term invented by Democrats, while also insisting he has “no higher priority” than making the country more affordable.
“They gave you high prices. They gave you the highest inflation in history… we’re bringing those prices down rapidly. Lower prices, bigger paychecks. You’re getting lower prices, bigger paychecks,” Trump said. “We’re getting inflation, we’re crushing it, and you’re getting much higher wages… it’s really going up big, it’s called the stock market and your 401ks.”
The president’s message comes as economists say the opposite has been true in recent months. They say that inflation picked up again after his sweeping global tariffs took effect in April.
And while inflation is far below the 2022 peak of just over 9%, consumer prices were still rising. They’re up 3% year-over-year in September.
New numbers, delayed by the government shutdown, are now expected after the Federal Reserve’s scheduled for Wednesday.
Meanwhile, voters appear to be growing more skeptical.
A CBS News/YouGov poll from November found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the president’s policies are driving up grocery prices.
Fighter jets fly near Venezuela in closest airspace encounter in years
As tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela continue to climb, American fighter jets just made their closest known approach to Venezuelan airspace in years.
The Pentagon flew two F/A-18 fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday. It was the closest a U.S. military aircraft has come to the country’s airspace since the Trump administration launched its expanded anti-drug mission in the region.
A U.S. defense official told Fox News that the flight was a “routine training mission” meant to demonstrate how far the aircraft can operate, but it comes amid a broader buildup.
American forces were also seen unloading trucks and heavy equipment from military ships in Puerto Rico.
Trump has said land operations are coming, though he’s offered no timeline on specifics.
Since September, the U.S. has carried out multiple strikes on what it says are drug-smuggling boats off Venezuela’s coast.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claims the U.S. is using those missions as cover to try to force him from power.
And now, one of those early strikes is facing scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are demanding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth release the full, unedited video of a follow-up strike that killed two survivors of the initial attack.
Hegseth said Tuesday he’s still deciding whether to make that footage public.
Zelenskyy stands firm as peace plan advances to US; Trump, Pope weigh in
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine will present its updated peace plan to the U.S. on Wednesday, and he’s drawing a hard line: no land will be given to Russia.
After a whirlwind tour through London and Rome, and meetings with European leaders, Zelenskyy made it clear that Ukraine has “no legal or moral right” to give up territory.
In a statement on X, he says the revised peace framework is ready for Washington.
“Together with the American side, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible,” Zelenskyy wrote.
This comes as Trump ramps up public pressure, again suggesting Ukraine must “play ball.” He argued Zelenskyy is “losing” the war after Russia seized large stretches of territory years before Trump returned to office.
“Well, he’s gonna have to get on the ball and start accepting things. You know, when you’re losing, cause he’s losing…” Trump said. “They’ve lost territory long before I got here. They lost a whole strip of seafront, big seafront.”
On Tuesday, Pope Leo offered a rebuke after meeting Zelenskyy outside Rome.
The pope condemned Trump’s recent remarks in a Politico interview about European leaders being weak and the president suggesting the U.S. scale back support for Ukraine.
“I think, unfortunately, some of parts of it that I have seen make a huge change in what was, for many many years, a true alliance between Europe and the United States,” Pope Leo said. “The remarks that are made about Europe, also in interviews recently, I think, are trying to break apart what I think needs to be a very important alliance today and in the future.”
Zelenskyy also met with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who reiterated Europe’s support as talks with the U.S. remain bogged down over the Trump administration’s proposal that Ukraine surrender Donbas, a demand that Kyiv and Europe have flatly rejected.
Health plans compete: GOP, Democrats push rival fixes as subsidies approach expiration
A significant healthcare dispute is brewing on Capitol Hill, with Republicans and Democrats presenting competing plans that will be voted on sequentially on Thursday. Neither side is likely to reach 60 votes.
Republicans walked out of their lunch Tuesday, ready to support their own proposal — a bill from Sens. Bill Cassidy and Mike Crapo that doesn’t continue the expiring ACA subsidies. Instead, it shifts that funding into health savings accounts for people with bronze-level plans.
“This is a failed program, and it does nothing but drive premiums up and the increase in premiums, who’s that going to? That’s going to the insurance companies. So the proposal we’ll put out there will bring insurance premiums down, it will be fiscally responsible, and it will get us away from the practice of giving the money all to the insurance companies and put it back in the hands of the patients.”
— Sen. John Thune, Senate majority leader
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the GOP plan saves money and reduces costs, while Democrats, he argued, are staging a “show vote” to extend the current subsidies for three more years.
Those subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year — just three weeks away — a change that could lead to double-digit premium increases for millions of Americans.
“The American people are not dumb. They see that these sham proposals for health care savings accounts and tax credits are simply a ruse and a sham by republicans to disguise the fact that they are blocking the extension of health care subsidies that make insurance affordable,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said.
Democrats claimed their plan is the fastest, cleanest solution: no gimmicks, no strings attached and everyone in their caucus agrees.
Republicans, meanwhile, are struggling to achieve unity, even proposing several competing ideas in recent days. However, with 53 GOP seats, neither Democratic nor Republican proposals are expected to garner the 60 votes needed for passage.
Thursday’s side-by-side votes will, however, require every senator to choose a position before premiums increase.
Elon Musk talks DOGE, says he wouldn’t do it again
Six months after leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk reflected on his time leading one of the most controversial projects of the Trump administration and whether he would do it again.
On a podcast hosted by former Trump aide Katie Miller, Musk called DOGE “kind of a made-up department,” even mentioning that its name originated from an internet joke.
And he made one thing pretty clear: if he had to do it all over again, he wouldn’t take the job, even if he thinks the mission had some wins.
Katie Miller: “Would you do DOGE again, knowing what you know now?”
Elon Musk: “I mean, the thing is, I think instead of doing DOGE, I would’ve basically built, you know, worked on my companies, essentially. And the cars — they wouldn’t have been burning the cars.”
Miller: “Do you think you were successful?”
Musk: “We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful. I mean, we stopped a lot of funding for — that really just made no sense, that was just entirely wasteful. Where, like — for example, there was probably $100, maybe $200 billion worth of zombie payments per year.”
Trump created DOGE on the first day of his second term, tasking Musk with cutting federal spending, shutting down what he called wasteful programs and driving massive workforce reductions through layoffs and buyouts.
In some instances, entire agencies were cut, including the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Paleontologists uncover thousands of dinosaur prints in Bolivia
A prehistoric discovery from Bolivia: Scientists believe Tyrannosaurus rex and its relatives inhabited this part of South America around 60 million years ago.
A team of paleontologists has documented over 16,000 dinosaur footprints, making it the largest collection of theropod tracks ever recorded. They are bipedal and mainly carnivores, a group that includes the T. rex.
Researchers found the prints across ancient shorelines and lakebeds near Toro Toro, a village and national park in Bolivia’s Andes Mountains.
They also uncovered nearly 1,400 footprints preserved in mud, evidence that these dinosaurs were wading and splashing through rising lake waters.
The size range is extensive, from tracks of a creature about 33 feet tall to prints only a foot long, probably from smaller dinosaurs accompanying the herd.
A fascinating glimpse into prehistoric life — and the closest experience we’ll have to seeing a T-rex go for a morning walk.
More from Straight Arrow News:
Why your neighbors may have more Christmas trees than kids
Bridget McGregor Harris loves the soft glow of a Christmas tree.
“There’s this whimsical sense of magic with it that adds such a warm, happy feeling to my heart,” she told Straight Arrow News.
In recent years, she has opted for even more magic, pushing beyond her longstanding tradition of decorating one Christmas tree in her family’s Mississippi home. Now, she has three full-sized trees on display and another four mini-trees scattered among her children’s rooms and her entryway.
Sound strange? It isn’t. A growing number of Americans are displaying multiple trees.
“The average household has about 1.5 to 1.7 trees in the house,” said Chris Butler, CEO of National Tree Company, one of the nation’s largest artificial Christmas tree producers.
This new tradition has its — pardon the pun — roots in the proliferation of increasingly affordable artificial trees as real trees become ever harder to come by. And it’s being sped along by everything from social media trends to a shift in how much space Americans take up in their homes. Read the full story now>
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
