President Donald Trump delivered an extensive list of grievances during his final Cabinet meeting of the year, where he rambled for more than 30 minutes before his team went around the room lavishing him with praise.
The president, 79, is not happy with the Democrats, Joe Biden, affordability, the media, the Nobel Peace Prize, Jerome Powell, Obamacare, Japan, South Korea, clean energy, health questions, and more.
“There’s this fake narrative that the Democrats talk about affordability. They just say the word. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” Trump complained.
It came as Americans are still struggling with higher costs after inflation skyrocketed, coming out of the pandemic under Biden, and prices remain up in many areas amid new uncertainty over tariffs.
“I watched the other day where some very low congresswoman talked about affordability, affordability, affordability,” Trump whined. “She had no idea their prices were much higher.”
The president raged that the word affordability is a “Democrat scam.”
Trump quickly also turned his wrath to the Federal Reserve chairman. He complained Powell was a “stubborn ox who probably doesn’t like your president, your favorite president.”
Trump later insisted that he was bringing down prices in other ways, including slashing drug prices by “200 percent, 300 percent, 400 percent, 500 percent, 600 percent, 700 percent, 800 percent.”
While Trump boasted that he was cutting drug prices to what would amount to negative numbers, he still has a serious health crisis on his hands with the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies at the end of the year.
“Obamacare is a disaster. I said it years ago, and I say it now,” he declared.
Trump said the money should go directly to people and not insurance companies, but the administration has yet to reveal its health care plan as the clock ticks down on premiums soaring. Trump repeated his claim that he was negotiating with Democrats, but did not say who.
Moments later, Trump also insisted he had ended the “green new scam.”
“They call it the green new scam. One of the greatest scams in the history of our country,” he said. “They talked about global warming and all that crap.”
Trump then turned to the tariffs he has been imposing on countries around the world as he called out allies that he argued have been ripping off the U.S. for years.
“I won’t use the names. I won’t mention Japan. I refuse to mention South Korea. I will not mention names,” he said as his Cabinet laughed.
Trump repeated that he would be sending out dividend checks from the tariffs to Americans, despite Republican lawmakers next year, and he even suggested that they would end the federal income tax because of tariffs.
But the president’s list of grievances did not just include policy gripes as his team wraps up its first year in office. He also took issue with the coverage of his health.
“This country is being destroyed by the border, but you always find something new, like, is he in good health?” Trump complained.
He slammed Biden while claiming he does four news conferences a day.
“If I go one day, I had one day where I didn’t do a news conference. ‘There’s something wrong with the president.’ You people are crazy,” Trump said. “I’ll let you know when there’s something wrong. There will be some day. That’s going to happen to all of us.”
As he spoke, the president’s hand was covered with a glob of cover-up for the repeated bruising on it. The White House attributed it to constant hand shaking while taking aspirin as part of his preventive routine.
“I think I’m sharper than I was 25 years ago, but who the hell does? I took, by the way, I took my physical. I got all A’s, everything,” Trump bragged.
Trump also touted taking a cognitive test and getting every single question right.
“I’m a smart person, not a stupid person, and as the doctor will tell you, I aced it. Right, Susie?” Trump said, noting his chief of staff.
Monday was not the first time Trump had been set off by reporting about his health. He went on a tear against The New York Times recently for reporting about his age and shrinking schedule. He brought it up again on Monday.
“Then I read in the New York Times, ‘Is Trump sharp?’ Trump is sharp, but they’re not sharp. That’s why they’re going out of business, The New York Times,” Trump raged. “They’re losing so much money. It’s ridiculous. A bunch of fakers.”
He then suddenly brought up the 2020 election out of left field, calling it “rigged” and “fake.”
As the president continued to rattle off comments, he also repeated his claim that he has ended eight wars and suggested he would end more. Trump said he cared about saving lives, but it was clear he’s still bitter about not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, as he brought it up again.
“Every time I end a war, they say ‘if President Trump ends that war, he’s going to get the Nobel Prize,’” Trump said. “Think of all the wars I ended. I should get the Nobel Prize for every war, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to be greedy.”
After Trump finally wrapped up, his Cabinet went around singing his praises and gushing about what an honor and privilege it was to serve under him while bashing and blaming the previous administration.
As the officials’ compliments and discussion of their work dragged on for more than an hour, Trump sometimes nodded along as they lauded him. At other times, he appeared to be struggling to keep his eyes open.
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