Trump spews lies about economy in end-of-year address to nation

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump needed just eight seconds to start lying in his prime-time speech Wednesday night, screaming during a fairly typical unhinged speech, except it was relatively short and addressed to a prime-time audience directly from the White House.

“I inherited a mess years ago, and I’m fixing it. When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country,” Trump said in the first of numerous falsehoods throughout the speech that his White House asked television networks to broadcast live.

In fact, inflation had dropped to around 3% when Trump took office 11 months ago and was still trending downward. That trend reversed in May, after Trump declared his trade war against the rest of the world and imposed taxes on most imports, becoming the largest tax increase for Americans in decades.

The only new announcement in the 18-minute speech was that he was issuing checks for $1,776 to 1.5 million military service members, a bonus that will cost $2.5 billion.

Trump claimed the money would come from tariffs on imported goods. “We make a lot more money than anyone thought from tariffs,” he said, but failed to point out that every dollar collected in tariffs comes from American importers.

Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool

Almost every element of Trump’s speech, which he shouted the entire time, even though he had a microphone placed at his lectern in the Diplomatic Reception Room, has been heard many times before in his public comments, his question-and-answer sessions with journalists and his social media posts.

“This is what the Biden administration allowed to happen in our country, and it can never be allowed to happen again. We had men playing women’s sports, transgenderism for all, crime at record levels with law enforcement, and words like that, just absolutely banned,” he said.

It is unclear what he meant by the “law enforcement and words” remark.

He attacked his predecessor Joe Biden for failing to crack down on illegal immigration. He again mixed asylum seekers with people in mental institutions. He lied about the drop in food prices and about the number of wars he has ended.

And he claimed he was cutting prescription drug prices by mathematically impossible amounts.

“I negotiated directly with pharmaceutical companies and foreign nations that took advantage of our country for many decades to reduce prices of drugs and pharmaceuticals by up to 400, 500 and even 600%,” he said.

At one point, he even accused Biden and Democrats – without providing further details or evidence – of stealing taxpayer money. “The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our Treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything to levels never seen before,” he said.

In the current impasse over the expiration of enhanced subsidies for millions of Americans who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Trump bizarrely claimed that Democrats, who want to keep the subsidies, somehow want to raise ACA premiums.

“It was bad health care at too high a cost, and you see that now in the sharp premium increases that the Democrats are demanding, and they are demanding those increases and it’s their fault,” he said.

It is not immediately clear what Trump meant.

It is also unclear why the speech was given. Typically, when presidents give a speech from the White House, it is to advocate a particular policy directly to the American people. That didn’t appear to be the case Wednesday night.

In brief comments to the limited group present at the speech (only one television reporter and one photographer were allowed to be present), Trump suggested that he gave the speech because Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said it was necessary.

Trump is scheduled to give a speech in North Carolina on Friday night, in which he will likely repeat many of his falsehoods and attacks, before continuing to Florida for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.