After months of complaining about his teleprompter issues at the U.N., President Donald Trump gave it another go during a speech at the White House. The polarizing politician spoke for around 20 minutes in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room on Dec. 17, surrounded by decorated Christmas trees, the American flag, and a portrait of George Washington. He intended to boast about his first year in office, but his televised prime-time address left many viewers more stunned over his difficulty reading and his latest teleprompter struggle. After going on a rampage about his issues with a U.N. teleprompter, President Donald Trump struggled using the device during hs White House speech to the nation. (Photo by Doug Mills – Pool/Getty Images) ‘Total Idiot’: Trump’s Attempt to Confront a Leader Backfires as the Internet Catches the Grade-School Mistake His Team Scrambled to Hide Trump began his speech by offering a laundry list of complaints about his Democratic predecessor, former President Joe Biden’s administration, which left office in January when the new president was inaugurated. In the opening minutes, the current commander-in-chief also laid into Democrats by blaming the left-leaning party for a variety of issues plaguing the nation without providing evidence to back up his partisan assertions. Trump then noticeably broke his talking pattern as he read from the teleprompter. He added, “They caused war. They caused mahim,” but meant “mayhem.” After referring to immigrants as rare species, Trump described himself as “a president who fights for the law-abiding, hardworking people of our country, the ones who make this nation run, who make this nation work. And after just one year, we have achieved more than anyone could have imagined.” View on Threads Trump’s obvious stumble during his extended diatribe about the Democrats did not go unnoticed online after a clip of the moment made its way on Threads. “Every time he screws up reading the teleprompter, he does that stupid accordion thing with his hands,” one Threads poster pointed out. A like-minded person pointed out he was “Stumbling over simple words.” The Wednesday night speech contained other instances in which Trump struggled to get the words out. At around the nine-minute mark, the former reality television personality again struggled to read the text. “I am also proud to announce that more than one thousand, four hundred, fifty thousand… Think of this… 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special, we call warrior dividend before Christmas,” Trump sluggishly said, initially mispronouncing the number presented on the screen in front of him. BREAKING: Trump visibly stumbled while reading the teleprompter and couldn’t say 1,450,000, instead blurting out:“More than one thousand four hundred fifty thousand… think of it like this…”This is what decline looks like in real time. pic.twitter.com/M6Vrrp3qcl— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) December 18, 2025 That gaffe also ignited a torrent of taunting comments. As one X user posted, “He doesn’t understand numbers. Too complex.” A second person suggested, “I don’t think that’s decline. I think that is just plain stupidity.” Another commenter said, “Perhaps if Trump opened his eyes he could read the teleprompter… First 5 min take… This man can’t read 3-syllable words.” Trump versus a teleprompter has been an unexpectedly long-standing battle that has played out in the latter half of 2025. The POTUS suffered a mishap with the display device at the United Nations General Assembly in September, which became a much-talked-about topic in the political world. While Trump was giving a controversial speech at the U.N. in New York, the teleprompter apparently failed. He later accused the international governing body of sabotaging him and demanded an investigation. View this post on Instagram A post shared by C-SPAN (@cspan) According to The Associated Press, the White House was likely responsible for the prompter setback since the Trump team supposedly operated the machine, a U.N. official told the news service. Regardless, that incident stuck with Trump for the rest of the year. He continued to scold the U.N. about the broken teleprompter while speaking at the America Business Forum in Miami on Nov. 5. His teleprompter conspiracy theory became the subject of one of his infamous mid-speech tangents. “The only thing I got from them was a blank teleprompter,” Trump told the gathering of global dignitaries in business, politics, entertainment, and sports, when mentioning the United Nations. He added, “They did it on purpose, and I think I gave my best speech.” ‘Man Can’t Read’: Trump Spent Months Complaining That the UN Teleprompter Was Rigged, But His Latest Speech Showed Something Else ...read more read less