Trump Spews Lies About The Economy In His Year-End Address To Nation | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump wanted solely eight seconds to begin mendacity in his prime-time handle Wednesday night time, shouting by way of a reasonably typical unhinged rally speech, besides comparatively transient and to a prime-time viewers immediately 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 stated within the first of quite a few falsehoods all through the handle that his White House requested tv networks carry dwell.

In reality, inflation was right down to about 3% when Trump took workplace 11 months in the past and was trending downward nonetheless. That development reversed in May, after Trump declared his commerce battle in opposition to the remainder of the world and imposed taxes on most imports ― what has turn into the biggest tax improve on Americans in many years.

The solely new announcement within the 18-minute handle was that he was issuing $1,776 checks to 1.5 million navy service members ― a bonus that can value $2.5 billion.

Trump claimed the cash would come from tariffs collected from imported items. “We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs,” he stated, however did not level out that each greenback collected in tariffs comes from American importers.

Nearly the entire components in Trump’s handle, which he yelled all through, although he had a microphone arrange for him on his lectern within the Diplomatic Reception Room, have been heard many instances beforehand in his public remarks, his question-and-answer periods with reporters, and his social media posts.

“This is what the Biden administration allowed to happen to our country, and it can never be allowed to happen again. We had men playing in women’s sports, transgender for everybody, crime at record levels with law enforcement and words such as that, just absolutely forbidden,” he stated.

What he meant by the “law enforcement and words” comment is unclear.

He attacked predecessor Joe Biden for not cracking down on unlawful immigration. He once more conflated asylum seekers with folks in psychological establishments. He lied about grocery costs coming down and the variety of wars he has ended.

And he claimed that he was chopping prescription drug costs by mathematically unattainable quantities.

“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%,” he stated.

At one level, he even accused Biden and Democrats ― with out elaboration or proof ― of stealing taxpayer cash. “The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our Treasury for trillions of dollars driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before,” he stated.

On the present deadlock over expiring enhanced subsidies for thousands and thousands of Americans who buy medical insurance by way of the Affordable Care Act, Trump bizarrely claimed that Democrats, who wish to keep the subsidies, in some way wish to improve ACA premiums.

“It was bad health care at much too high a cost, and you see that now in the steep increase in premiums being demanded by the Democrats, and they are demanding those increases and it’s their fault,” he stated.

It just isn’t instantly clear what Trump meant.

It can also be unclear why the speech was given in any respect. Typically, when presidents ship an handle from the White House, it’s to make the case for a specific coverage on to the American folks. That didn’t seem like the case Wednesday night time.

In transient feedback to the restricted pool current for the speech – just one tv reporter and one photographer have been allowed to be there – Trump prompt he gave the speech as a result of chief of employees Susie Wiles stated he wanted to.

Trump is scheduled to present a rally speech in North Carolina Friday night time, by which he’s more likely to repeat lots of his falsehoods and assaults, earlier than persevering with on to Florida for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.