President Donald Trump struggled to hold his thoughts together during a wide-ranging interview about his agenda, barely maintaining focus long enough to begin answering a serious question before the response drifted off course.
What followed wasn’t just rambling, critics said, but a revealing turn in which the slip itself set off concern — and allowed something else to surface that Trump likely never intended to say out loud.
In the largely friendly interview with NewsNation host Katie Pavlich on Tuesday, Jan. 20 — just hours before his chaotic showing in Davos, Switzerland — Trump struggled to clearly articulate the hundreds of directives he’s signed since returning to office. Yet amid the meandering answers, he appeared to casually let slip what he says is driving many of his most controversial decisions.
“Well, one of the things I’d like to do, you know, we passed so many executive orders. I have great executive orders that are really common sense and good,” he said before apparently losing the ability to clearly state his objectives for the new year.
“I mean, like water coming out of a sink. I mean, the water wouldn’t come out. They had all sorts of ridiculous restrictions. I took all of that off. Coming out of the shower head. You’d stand under a shower, there’s no water coming in,” he blathered.
“So, I passed so many things like that, as straws. They don’t have to be paper anywhere. They don’t have to melt in your mouth,” Trump added as Pavlich nodded in apparent understanding, although it’s hard to even tell what Trump was trying to say.
To be clear Trump hasn’t “passed” anything. He has instead signed reams of executive orders, after criticizing former President Joe Biden for years over Biden’s orders, even accusing Biden administration officials of using an “autopen” to get some of the orders signed.
Trump’s comments sparked a social media uproar.
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“‘Water coming out of a sink.’ Trump has completely lost it. When asked what his agenda is for 2026, he babbles incoherently about faucets and straws,” Threads user Mike Sington pointed out incredulously.
“What an embarrassment,” another responded.
This Threads user simply made a two-word comment that’s becoming a common mantra when it comes to Trump: “Dementia Don.”
But the moment that truly caught social media off guard came when Trump casually framed himself as no longer the target — but the hunter.
Trump said his second term “is more pleasurable, there’s no question about it,” but added, “My first term was one of the most successful presidencies, but literally, I was hunted by these horrible people.”
“In a way, I was the hunted and now I’m more of the hunter,” he added.
Trump didn’t confirm who’s being hunted, but added, “I must tell you, these are bad people, these are sick people. They’ve got something wrong with them.”
Online critics felt the exact opposite. “He’s sick in the head,” wrote one user on X in response to the clip with a caption that read, ” BREAKING: Trump ADMITS he’s ONLY IN IT for REVENGE.”
“Yes, he is the hunter, formed his own private and still growing army that continues to violate constitutional law,” wrote another on MSN.
Another added, “A very sick man…a conman, criminal and now wants revenge for being held accountable for his crimes of which he hasn’t been held accountable for many!”
The president also misrepresented the economy during the NewsNation interview, which he’s been doing repeatedly in recent months, falsely claiming the U.S. has the “best economy we’ve ever had” as millions of Americans struggle to afford basic necessities like food, rent, and utilities.
With the expiration of the Affordable Care Act subsidies at the end of December, millions more are watching their medical insurance premiums spike so high they’re losing their health care, too.
Critics say Trump’s second term has been an ongoing unfolding disaster for a majority of Americans and it’s far from over.
But Trump’s communications team went to great lengths to put a rosy spin on what Democrats have called the implosion of American norms under the Trump administration.
Trying to prove Trump had a successful first year, the White House released a list on its website on Tuesday, Jan. 20, highlighting “365 WINS IN 365 DAYS,” claiming “Trump’s Return Marks New Era of Success, Prosperity.”
And bragging that Trump has had the “most accomplished first year of any presidential term in modern history.”
But a fact check undercuts the administration’s duplicitous account of what the president has actually accomplished and its impact on the country.
His whipsawing tariffs and threats of unstainable levies against longtime allies during the first six months of his second term drove small businesses into bankruptcy and caused price spikes on everything from steel, construction material, groceries, furniture, and more.
His foreign policy decisions and treatment of friend and foe alike has put the U.S. in a perilous position as a global leader.
He’s fired hundreds of thousands of federal workers, revoked billions of dollars appropriated by Congress to both national and international aid groups. He’s launched a deadly immigration crackdown mostly in states run by Democrats in what anti-Trumpers have called political retribution and directly ordered the Department of Justice to go after his political enemies.
