Trump's 'on the nose' statement shows president has finally lost it: analysis

Donald Trump has made a rare statement that lines up with reality, according to a political commentator who says the president has "lost his mojo".

Jonathan Cohn, writing in The Bulwark, suggested Trump had "lost his mojo" during a recent speech where the usually flippant Commander-in-Chief called out cold, hard facts. Whether he did so intentionally remains unclear, but Cohn believes that Trump's usually braggadocious, reality-bending manner was nowhere to be found when he addressed his plans for the future of Iran.

Trump surprised political analysts earlier this week when he made a speech at the Easter luncheon at the White House on Wednesday.

He said, "We’re fighting wars, we can’t take care of daycare. You’ve got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too. They should pay—they’ll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them, to make up for—but we—it’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things.

"They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal [basis]. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country."

Cohn believes this talk from the president is a rare sighting from Trump, who is aware of the economic crisis his government is facing.

"Typically, Republican leaders try very hard to deny they are starving social programs to fund the military, leaving Democrats to make the case on their own," Cohn wrote. "Yet here was Trump coming right out and saying it.

"And while the president frequently blurts out statements that have no bearing on reality, in this case his description of how he’d like to rearrange federal spending priorities was pretty much on the nose.

"In fact, just two days after he made those remarks, his administration released its budget for fiscal year 2027. It envisions $1.5 trillion [in spending] for defense, then proposes to offset that cost with a 10 percent reduction in domestic spending.

"Among the casualties would be a program that helps low-income Americans pay for heating and cooling—yes, right at a time when electricity prices are on the rise."