President Donald Trump’s high-energy delivery of fabricated numbers drew laughter and applause from social media users Wednesday night.“This
President Donald Trump’s high-energy delivery of fabricated numbers drew laughter and applause from social media users Wednesday night.
“This isn’t a speech, this is a primal scream of panic,” said Atlantic writer Tom Nichols, referring to Trump’s fast-talking “infomercial-style” delivery of bogus data and bragging.
“Two minutes in and we’ve already hit 11 on the bonkers scale,” Nichols continued, adding: “I’m very glad that all the networks are carrying this, people need to know their president is a raving narcissist.”
“Why is he screaming?” was a popular repeat statement also echoed by former Fox News, NBC News and CNN journalist David Shuster on X.
That the president felt compelled to lie incessantly through his speech says volumes about how awful the year has been.
The top 10 most brazen lies from Trump’s year-end prime-time address
That the president felt compelled to lie incessantly through his speech says volumes about how awful the year has been.
Dec. 18, 2025, 8:59 AM EST
The idea behind a year-end presidential address isn’t necessarily unreasonable. In late December, it stands to reason that White House officials would take a moment to pause, reflect and take stock of the year that was, giving the public an assessment of their performance.
That is, in theory.
In practice, Donald Trump’s year-end prime-time address presented the American public with 18 minutes of combative presidential blame-shifting and excuse-making, packaged in the unsubtle desperation of a man who doesn’t seem to understand why so much of the public doesn’t appreciate his systemic failures and embarrassments.
But above all, the Republican president did what he always does: He lied uncontrollably. In fact, his speech was so littered with brazen falsehoods that it was rather easy to come up with a top 10 list.
#10: “Already, I’ve secured a record-breaking $18 trillion of investment into the United States.” It’d be great if that were true, but it’s not.
#9: “Our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people.” That total wasn’t even close to being true.
#8: “I was elected in a landslide.” No, he wasn’t.
#7: “The price of a Thanksgiving turkey was down 33% compared to the Biden last year.” Is he still peddling this nonsense? Evidently, yes, though it’s still not true.
#6: Trump said the Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed this year included, among other things, “no tax on Social Security.” That might sound nice, but that wasn’t actually a part of the far-right package.
#5: “When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country.” Trump says this all the time, but it’s demonstrably false.
#4: “I’ve … settled eight wars in 10 months.” I get the sense that he’s convinced himself that this happened, but it hasn’t, no matter how many times he repeats the line.
#3: “Gasoline is now under $2.50 a gallon into much of the country. In some states, it, by the way, just hit $1.99 a gallon.” This is a weird thing to lie about, since consumers know better, but for the record, this obviously wasn’t true.
#2: “The price of eggs is down 82% since March, and everything else is falling rapidly.” The president would very likely be more popular if this were true, but it’s not.
#1: “I negotiated directly with the drug companies and foreign nations, which were taking advantage of our country for many decades, to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400%, 500% and even 600%.” This whopper claimed the top spot for me, because on top of the absurdity of the lie, one has to layer the fact this guy still doesn’t understand how numbers work.
On Wednesday night at 9 PM Eastern, President Trump delivered a prime time address to the nation that was aired by all major broadcast netwo
On Wednesday night at 9 PM Eastern, President Trump delivered a prime time address to the nation that was aired by all major broadcast networks. It preempted the season finale of “Survivor” on CBS, one of the network’s most highly-rated shows, the season finale of “The Floor” on Fox, and holiday specials on ABC and NBC.
Typically, networks will interrupt their primetime schedule for presidents to address wars, crises, or very significant new policies. In his remarks on Wednesday, Trump delivered his standard talking points, bragging about his mass deportation policies and tariffs and attacking Democrats and the Biden administration. The only crisis was Trump’s sagging approval ratings.
The billionaire president’s delivery grew frantic as his speech on the economy wore on, ending with him practically shouting.
President Donald Trump used a rambling primetime address to brag about his economic record, even as millions of Americans say they are struggling with cost-of-living pressures.
“Good evening America. 11 months ago, I inherited a mess and I’m fixing it,” the billionaire president, 79, said in his address on Wednesday evening, which comes as he approaches the one-year mark of his second term.
Trump began his 18-minute address, part of a messaging blitz to try to convince voters that his economic plans are working, at a normal pace, but his delivery gradually grew more frantic and he was practically yelling by the end.
“Trump is delivering this speech like the prompter operator passed out with his finger on the 3x speed button and he’s trying to keep up with the text as it flies by,” one X user observed.
