President Donald Trump crammed his usual 90-minute rally routine into 18 minutes of prime-time broadcast television on Wednesday, perplexing “Survivor” finale viewers and his own allies alike.
He spoke more than 2,600 words in that time, markedly faster than his usual plodding pace at the teleprompter. His purpose was to ease concerns about the economy and to persuade Americans that he gets it. Afterward, even his own allies puzzled over whether the president did more harm than good with his rushed delivery and harsh tone.
“Trump is speaking so fast he seems panicked,” supporter Trisha Hope posted online. “I’ve never seen him like this, and I have attended 42 of his rallies.”
The president spoke directly into the camera rather than following his usual method of shifting conversationally between teleprompter screens to either side.
He stood alone in the Diplomatic Reception Room, starved of any audience to interact with or live reaction to gauge.
His tone was continuously loud and sharp, without any of his usual playful riffs and digressions.
“Why is he yelling at us?” conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson said on X.
Trump usually prefers to speak at length with frequent riffs and long digressions. At the Republican National Convention in July 2024, he broke the record for the longest acceptance speech — which he had set in 2016. (His 2020 speech ranks third.) An adviser who spoke with Trump ahead of Wednesday’s speech said the president admires Russian President Vladimir Putin’s year-end news conferences, which last more than four hours, but Trump takes press questions so frequently that a news conference would be less noteworthy than an address.
On Wednesday, the broadcast networks gave Trump only about 15 minutes. But they didn’t cut away once the president exceeded that limit.
The prime-time speech is a precious tool for presidents to address crises and set the agenda. Trump delivered this one as his approval ratings have fallen and as advisers urged him to find a more sympathetic tone on affordability. He followed their advice, acknowledging that many Americans still feel the pinch of inflation, and blaming the problem on the previous administration rather than insisting the problem doesn’t exist.
Aides previewed the speech as a chance for the president to tout his accomplishments in his first year and assure Americans of better times ahead. But his clipped tempo and harsh tone had the effect of sounding less like he was apprising Americans of how much he was doing than scolding them for failing to appreciate him.
“He was not his usual confident self,” right-wing podcaster Owen Shroyer said in an online video. “He seemed to be speed-reading. The charisma was gone. The aura was gone. The swagger was gone. And the message was stale. There was nothing new.”
Former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon, covering the speech on his “War Room” podcast, pointed out that this address was seen by prime-time network TV viewers, not just the president’s base.
Bannon posed the question: “Was this too intense for a broadcast audience?”
One sign of the anxiety ahead of the speech was open discussion among some allies urging Trump to use the address to do something bolder, such as further escalate tensions with Venezuela. Instead, Trump recited his campaign stump speech, blaming government spending and permissive immigration under his predecessor, Joe Biden, for driving up prices. The speech contained no new policy announcements.
Said right-wing blogger Matt Walsh on X: “That was perhaps the most pointless prime time presidential address ever delivered in American history.”
Natalie Allison and Scott Nover contributed to this report.
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