Primetime speech – delivered with shouty spirit but no cheer – betrayed a figure dogged by a cost of living crisis and the looming release of the Epstein files

It will go down in history as the “Bah! Humbug!” address.

But this was not an address by a self-confident man dishing out Christmas presents to the nation. It smacked of desperation from one who can feel the December windchill of opinion polls – a Reuters/ Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed just 33% of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy – dissent in his own Republican ranks and the Jeffrey Epstein files looming on Friday.

The speech also revealed Trump’s need for a reliable foil. Over the years Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been useful nemeses for a man and movement defined less by what they are for than what they are against.

  • Sludge@sh.itjust.works
    131·
    13 days ago

    I mean, 3 diet cokes is a lot of caffeine.

    Edit: I’ve been corrected that 3 diet cokes is, in fact, not a lot of caffeine. Guess he’s micro-dosing amphetamines. My bad, y’all.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        10·
        14 days ago

        Yeah, came here to say this. Soda generally doesn’t have a lot of caffeine compared to coffee.

    • Triumph@fedia.io
      16·
      14 days ago

      From someone who has been on the caffeine pony - caffeine withdrawal is no joke. If he’s been deprived of his diet cokes for medical reasons, it makes total sense that they’d give him some right before a televised address read from a teleprompter that he wasn’t supposed to deviate from.