The White House billed President Trump’s address to the nation Thursday night as presenting new information on the nation’s election security, but there was almost nothing the public had heard or seen before. Instead, the rambling and disjointed speech from an aging president was best summarized by a Trump line from his only debate with Joe Biden in 2024: “I really don’t know what he said…and I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
After speeding through his stump speech, Trump dove deep into gutter politics. He claimed a yearslong effort by China to meddle in U.S. elections, including the 2020 election. And he alleged a deep state conspiracy of intelligence agencies to hide Beijing’s interference.
A seemingly tired president appeared to struggle to read the speech, which aides had previewed as a “potpourri” of topics, but was more accurately a mishmash of MAGA buzzwords.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier claimed that the speech would be shocking. That turned out to be true, but not in the way she meant.
This is a preview of a column by Matthew Bartlett. Read the full column here.
