State of the Union 2023: A Nation in Decline

Joe Biden has overseen the worst economic decline since the Great Depression. When
President Donald J. Trump returns to office, he will deliver economic opportunity and
prosperity for Americans of all backgrounds, lower inflation and cut wasteful government spending.

President Trump created 7 million new jobs—triple the projections. These new high-paying jobs
led to the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years.1 Income rose in every single
metropolitan area for the first time in three decades.
Through Biden’s energy-crippling policies, Americans suffered the highest national average
price of gasoline ever recorded in American history.2

Biden’s runaway spending for his radical agenda has caused inflation to reach 9.1%, a 40-year high.3

In an unprecedented violation of US sovereignty and national security, Joe Biden allowed a
Chinese spy balloon to surveil sensitive American military installations. In an effort to distract
and deflect from their own failures, the Biden regime has resorted to peddling disinformation.

Joe Biden’s soft-on-China policies emboldened the Chinese Communist Party to violate
American sovereignty for one simple reason: Joe Biden is controlled by Xi Jinping. House
Republicans have produced evidence proving the Biden family received millions of dollars from
a Chinese corporation to ship American natural gas to China—under the direction of Joe Biden
himself.4

President Donald J. Trump rebuilt America’s military, increased readiness, and destroyed our
nation’s enemies. Joe Biden has weakened America’s national security, emboldened our adversaries, and betrayed our allies.

Biden presided over a tragic and embarrassing military withdrawal in Afghanistan, which took
the lives of 13 U.S. servicemembers. Joe Biden left 10,000 to 15,000 Americans behind in
Afghanistan.5

Just months after Biden’s calamitous Afghanistan disaster, Russia invaded Ukraine. In 2022
alone, U.S. military aid to Ukraine reached over $50 million.6 As a result of never-ending military
aid to Ukraine, the U.S. stock of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles have
been depleted by a third.7 By issuing over $100 billion in aid without asking President Zelensky
for a realistic timeline, Biden is prolonging and escalating this conflict as it reaches its first
anniversary with tens of thousands of people killed.8910

Joe Biden’s Education Department is more focused on social justice indoctrination than
teaching students. President Donald J. Trump protected the rights of parents and ensured
children have every opportunity to receive the best education possible.
Even though 70% of parents oppose schools teaching elementary children about sexual
orientation and gender identity,11 Joe Biden ordered the U.S. Department of Education to adopt
policies to “promote LGBTQ students and educators and support the safety, well-being, and
rights of LGBTQI+ students.”12

Americans are experiencing a massive crunch regarding health services, premiums, and
essential medications thanks to Joe Biden’s inflation disaster and mangled supply chains.
From July 2021 to July 2022, the cost of more than 1,200 medications increased by an average
of over 30 percent. Some drugs in 2022 increased by more than $20,000 or 500%.13
President Trump imposed requirements for unprecedented price transparency from hospitals
and insurance companies, so patients know what the cost is before they receive care.14

President Donald J. Trump secured America’s southern border and will wage war on the
deadly cartels once he returns to the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has handed over
complete control of the U.S. southern border to the dangerous cartels and put American communities on the frontline.

The U.S. Border Patrol has reported three times as many illegal border crossings under Joe
Biden than took place under President Trump.15 The Biden administration continues to break
records for historic illegal border crossings, tallying an estimated 5.5 million illegal border
crossings since taking office.16

President Donald J. Trump reduced violent crime across the country and stood strongly with
America’s law enforcement. On Joe Biden’s watch, violent crime has skyrocketed in virtually every American city.

Joe Biden has supported and promoted radical left-wing prosecutors and district attorneys,
including hiring Soros-funded DA Rachael Rollins as Massachusetts’s top federal prosecutor.17
Joe Biden’s condemnation of America’s law enforcement has resulted in 45% increase in police
retirements, with another 18% resigning altogether since he took office.18

President Donald J. Trump achieved American energy independence for the first time in
nearly 70 years, lowering costs for consumers, and creating thousands of American jobs. Joe
Biden has demolished America’s energy independence through radical policies, excessive regulation, and anti-fossil fuel fiction.

In reality, gasoline prices doubled in Joe Biden’s first two years in office19, and diesel prices
increased 75%.20

Under Biden, Americans suffered the highest national average price of gasoline ever recorded
in American history.21

Under Biden, the average cost for residential heating oil hit $4.56 per gallon, an increase of 95%
since taking office.22 Natural gas prices have risen 28%, and electricity prices have climbed 10%
from last winter.23

Never in American history has our right to free speech been under assault and threatened to
this magnitude. Unfortunately, some of these threats have come at the request of the Biden administration.

The Biden White House pressured social media companies to censor users for posting “true, but
inconvenient” information about government policy.24
The Department of Homeland Security was exposed coordinating with Twitter and Facebook to
censor legally protected free speech.25

1 https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/ 2 https://gasprices.aaa.com

3 https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/heritage-explains/the-truth-about-joe-bidens-economy 4 https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-presses-treasury-on-joe-biden-biden-family-selling-americas-energy-
independence-to-china/ 5 https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Risch%20Afghanistan%20Report%202022.pdf

6 https://theconversation.com/us-military-spending-in-ukraine-reached-nearly-50-billion-in-2022-but-no-amount-
of-money-alone-is-enough-to-end-the-war-197492 7 https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/us-military-has-fewer-munitions-you-might-think-and-thats-
problem

8 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/06/biden-ukraine-strategy-slow-weapons-stalemate-
russia/

9 https://www.crfb.org/blogs/congress-approved-113-billion-aid-ukraine-2022 10 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/us/politics/ukraine-russia-casualties.html 11 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/16/upshot/september-2022-times-siena-poll-crosstabs.html 12 https://www.edweek.org/leadership/bidens-order-on-lgbtq-equality-what-educators-need-to-know/2022/06 13 https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/prescription-drug-price-increases 14 https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/hospital-price-transparency-trump-rule/index.html

15 https://www.newsweek.com/border-crossings-3-times-higher-under-biden-trump-1744641 16 https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/6-failures-bidens-presidency-year-2 17 https://nationalcenter.org/project21/2021/12/10/soros-backed-lawyer-leads-bidens-bay-state-prosecutors-
office/

18 https://www.policeforum.org/workforcesurveyjune2021 19 https://www.rpc.senate.gov/policy-papers/gas-prices-up-100-under-biden 20 https://www.heritage.org/energy-economics/commentary/inflation-takes-bite-out-christmas-cheer 21 https://gasprices.aaa.com 22 https://www.heritage.org/energy-economics/commentary/inflation-takes-bite-out-christmas-cheer 23 Ibid.

24 https://nypost.com/2022/12/26/biden-admin-pushed-to-ban-twitter-users-for-covid-disinformation/

25 https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-media-disinformation-dhs/

This piece originally appeared in RobManess.com and is used by permission.

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