U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, while wearing a "Make America Great Again" cap, after disembarking Air Force One, as he returns from his Asia trip, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump delivered a speech on Wednesday that observers can't help but notice seems laced with shouting-level "panic," The Atlantic's Tom Nichols wrote.
Writing late Wednesday, Nichols, a retired professor from the U.S. Naval War College, characterized Trump's speech as one he was clearly reading, but it sounded like he'd "dictated" it "angrily himself, because it was full of bizarre howlers that even Trump’s second-rate speech-writing shop would probably have avoided."
Among the falsehoods Nichols pointed out was Trump's claim that the U.S. was worse in 2024 than it had been since 1977, 48 years ago. Nichols had no idea why Trump chose that year, but he was "wrong" regardless, ignoring the 2007 and 2008 crash and mortgage crisis. Inflation was considerably higher in 1977 than it is today, and even worse in the three years that followed, according to Investopia charts.
While fact-checkers have already pulled apart Trump's speech, Nichols wrote that it was Trump's "demeanor" that stood out. He read the speech quickly, his voice rising in frustration as he hurled one lie after another into the camera.
"Americans saw a president drenched in panic as he tried to bully an entire nation into admitting he’s doing a great job. For 20 minutes, he vented his hurt feelings without a molecule of empathy or awareness," Nichols read. "Economic concerns? Shut up, you fools, the economy is doing fine. (And if it isn’t, it’s not his fault—it’s Joe Biden’s.) Foreign-policy jitters? Zip it, you wimps, America is strong and respected."
It was reminiscent of Trump's reaction to a female reporter on Air Force One a few weeks ago, Nichols recalled.
"Even by Trump’s standards, this was an unnerving display of fear," Nichols closed. "This was a desperate tin-pot leader yelling into a microphone while cornered in his palace redoubt. The president has been unraveling for weeks, and his speech tonight, like Trump himself, was unworthy of America and its people."