#televised address

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.”

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.

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.

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.