MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday said President Donald Trump is the “worst public speaker” in America, fact-checked his White House address on the economy from earlier in the evening — and invited House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to share his reactions.
“America’s worst public speaker struggled mightily reading a teleprompter full of lies tonight,” said O’Donnell. “His speech, if we can call it that. In it, Donald Trump said that when he took office, quote, ‘Inflation was the worst in the history of our country.’”
He continued, “That is a lie. A typical Trump lie. Inflation was at 3% when Donald Trump took office. Inflation is at 3% right now. Donald Trump said that when he took office, we had, quote, ‘Transgender for everybody.’ That would mean that Donald Trump is transgender.”
O’Donnell further debunked Trump’s claims that he was “elected in a landslide” (he won the popular vote by 1.5 percentage points), that his tariffs aren’t being footed by the American taxpayer (they are), and that Democrats are demanding costlier health insurance (they’re not).
The “Last Word” host went on to note that Trump delivered his speech “in a monotone anger” and argued that he shouted the Oval Office address because he still hasn’t “learned how microphones work” — before concluding, “He seemed to be angry at the truth.”
“It was an unhinged speech that was of course untethered from reality and truth,” Jeffries agreed. “Donald Trump has made things worse for the American people. He refuses to acknowledge that the tariffs that he is solely responsible for have actually increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year.”
Jeffries also touched on Trump’s comments about the ongoing health care crisis, noting it was unnecessarily exacerbated by the Republican Party and Trump with the “big, beautiful bill” that kicked millions of people off Medicaid and downsized federal food programs.
“And all of this was done so that Donald Trump and Republicans could reward their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks, which they’ve now made permanent,” he said, noting Trump had also “promised to lower the high cost of living on day one.”
Jeffries continued, “Those aren’t my words — those are his words. But he broke that promise. And life isn’t getting more affordable in the United States of America. It’s getting more expensive. And that is the problem that Donald Trump refuses to confront.”
