A weary President Donald Trump slurred his way through a disjointed national TV address Wednesday night in which he repeated the same justifications for his war with Iran that he’s been posting on social media throughout the month-long conflict.
The primetime speech, which pre-empted scheduled television programming on all broadcast networks at the request of the White House, had been billed as a major address in which Trump would finally lay out the justifications for the military action he started against Iran — one that would finally provide details on how and when the conflict would end to an American populace that has grown weary of it.
Instead, the president spent nearly 20 minutes speaking from a lectern in the White House’s main foyer, in prepared marks that often repeated, word for word, his Truth Social posts, and offered contradictory statements about the war, Iran and the now bogged down Strait of Hormuz, while repeatedly having trouble pronouncing words like “enemies,” “Venezuela” and “battlefield.”
I am too lazy to make a list, but I am pretty sure Trump has done this exact stunt of announcing a “major policy speech coming” before. And then announcing nothing new in the speech.
Every time they said there was an important announcement in a speech there has been nothing important and no real announcement. I’ve watched him do this stunt so many times.
And yet in this, as in too many other things, Trump continues to again and again be given the assumption of seriousness and competence. It is as if all the “serious people” in this country have the memory of a mentally challenged goldfish. Case in point, from OP:
Why oh why would the networks agree to give Trump specifically live television time? Why not have your journalists watch it first, and then report on it in the next news segment if Trump said anything relevant? Especially in this case, where it was obvious that Trump would say nothing truly time critical requiring live broadcast.