by Stefano Vaccara
NEW YORK (ITALPRESS) – It had to be a speech on the economy. It seemed instead a national live outburst, a rant in the fullest sense of the term: rapid, nervous, repetitive, almost certainly written or dictated by Trump himself, so much he was miserable in form and obsessive in content. From the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, with Christmas lights in the background, Donald Trump entered the American homes with a tone that shook with the atmosphere: monotonous and at the same time rabid, a strident and disturbing rant. He began with a dry one: “Good America. Eleven months ago I inherited a disaster and I’m fixing it.” From there onwards, a burst of self-celebrative phrases, promises and accusations, read at full speed, with growing phage and a voice rising from irritation. The point of arrival of the speech was his triumphal summary: “Stasera, after eleven months, the border is secure, inflation has stopped, wages are rising, prices have come down, our nation is strong… America is respected and is back, stronger than ever.”.
Too bad that most of these statements do not correspond to reality: inflation is not “stop”, prices have not come down in a general way at all, and they are still families and consumers paying the cost of duties, certainly not to benefit. But in Trump’s speech the data serves more as a slogan than as a description of the real. The problem – political before economic – is that America of December 2025 is no longer that of the election campaign of 2024. Then Trump appeared secure, dominant, even magnetic for his supporters. This time, however, the feeling was opposite: defensive, anxious. Not the leader who convinces, but the boss who claims consent by raising his voice. When a president asks for the first evening at national networks, he usually announces something important. Here the news was not the content, but the tone. The line of the speech was clear: if something doesn’t work, it’s not his fault. He said explicitly: “It’s not the Republicans’ fault. It is the fault of the Democrats.” He insisted several times on “hereditated a disaster”, claiming that the economy would be doing well and that the Americans should just wait a little longer to notice it.
Then the announcement of a check to the military, presented as a patriotic gesture: “We are sending every soldier $776,” he said, talking about a “dividing of the warrior”. And he added, with emphasis: “The checks are already coming.” To pay, according to him, would be the duties, described as a miraculous machine able to make America richer, finance bonuses and relaunch industry. But listening to him snocciolare numbers and superlatives, with that tense look and the finger pointed ideally against the public, another reality emerged: Trump no longer speaks to a hypnotized country, but to citizens who compare slogans and shopping carts, promises and bills. And that’s where the speech betrayed something deeper: the end of that “magical” moment in which it was enough to affirm to be believed. Wednesday evening, more than strength, the president is leaked restlessly. And when a leader must cry, it means he feels he is no longer listened to by whom he believed, obeyed, and perhaps he would also be ready to fight for him.
– Photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
