It’s pretty easy to see why the White House felt compelled to act. Trump has been getting hammered on the economy, an issue that used to be one of his greatest strengths but has become a major liability… and rightfully so, because he only has himself to blame for the economic malaise the country has been mired in.

Of course, he wants Americans to believe that everything is hunky-dory, and that all of the bad parts are the fault of Joe Biden.

And, since Trump isn’t exactly subtle, he tried to drive home that point in the first seconds of his prime-time address.

“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” he said. “When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans.”

Like we said, subtlety isn’t one of his core competencies. Lying, however, is, which is why it should come to no surprise that what he said is not true (and that the entire address was full of falsehoods and exaggerations).

While inflation was very high in the first half of Biden’s term in office, by the time Trump took over, it had dropped to a manageable level. And, during the first months of the year, it dipped even lower before now trending up again.

Oh, and by the way, the unemployment rate just reached its highest level in four years.

So, while Trump would love to blame all of this on Biden, the facts tell a different story.

And poll after poll shows that Americans know it… not least because the president promised on the campaign trail that he would fix it all on day one.

It seems unlikely that this address changed anything.

First of all, Trump sounded like a desperate used car salesman as he rattled off statistics and dollar amounts that were supposed to show that the economy was doing great and would soon be even greater. But the reality simply doesn’t match Trump’s rhetoric. When he talks about how much cheaper turkey was this Thanksgiving, for example, that doesn’t really help the majority of Americans who said they will spend less money on Christmas presents this year.

The timing of the address was also puzzling. Congress is about to leave (without addressing the massive insurance premium hikes for millions of Americans that Republicans will get blamed for), and there is no upcoming election. In other words, there is no point in trying to convince voters now that things are looking up.

The biggest blunder, however, was that Trump made a bunch of promises that he very likely won’t keep.

For example, when talking about the provisions of the GOP megabill the president signed this year, he stated that “many families will be saving between $11,000 and $20,000 a year, and next spring is projected to be the largest tax refund season of all time.”

While it is true that the bill included tax cuts, most Americans are more likely to get back hundreds of dollars, not thousands.

This highlights one of Trump’s biggest problems.

On the campaign trail, he could make outrageous boasts and promises. As president, however, he has to deliver on them, and so far he has failed to do so in most cases (apart from border security and a sweeping immigration crackdown).

And this is perhaps the biggest blunder with regard to Wednesday night’s address: Trump once again made a promise that he is not going to be able to keep.

“We’re poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen,” he said.

Now, that might be true if by “we” he means his family, which has certainly profited from his presidency. However, if Trump is talking about the American people, then this is not just unrealistic but downright foolish. Dangling an unprecedented economic boom in front of voters who are having trouble making ends meet is political malpractice, and we would be shocked if we didn’t see the clip of him making that promise (and others) in Democratic campaign ads next year.

For them, the address was an early Christmas gift.

For Republicans, on the other hand, it will likely turn out to be a real problem.

Which brings us back to the question of who in the White House could possibly have thought it would be a good idea to interrupt the season finale of Survivor so that Trump could try to gaslight Americans into believing that he has turned things around.

And, since the primary purpose of the exercise seems to have been to make him feel better about himself, our money is that the president himself was the driving force behind this dumpster fire.