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.

  • setsubyou@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    apparently this was a sugar high: just before the remarks started, according to a White House pool report, an usher brought in three Diet Cokes and ice.

    But… that’s the sugar free one… he must have been on something else.

    • Sludge@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day 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.today
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          1 day ago

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

      • Triumph@fedia.io
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        1 day 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.

      • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca
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        1 day ago

        As a regular consumer of caffeine, let me assure you it is not. As someone else said, he had the equivalent of a cup of coffee. I personally don’t start suffering any significant withdrawal symptoms until I have more than 100 mg per day, and fairly significant withdrawal symptoms if I regularly have over 400 mg per day. But even as a single dose of caffeine, 150 mg is pretty typical. That said, caffeine can give a temporary boost to cognitive function, even for dementia patients.

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      There’s no such thing as a “sugar high”. This is just Trump being Trump. He’s been an idiot for ever.

      Remember his speech to the boy scouts in his first term?

      • k0e3@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        I don’t remember the speech, but I’m guessing he was complimenting how hot their younger sisters were.

        • drhodl@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          He deviated into a story about a rich guy he knows with a boat, and what sort of parties happened on that boat… I think hookers were mentioned. To children…!

    • rem26_art@fedia.io
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      1 day ago

      only 3? With the way he consumes those things, he was probably actually going through a withdrawal