Visibly tired, unkempt and deluded Donald Trump insists United States economy can grow by 25% annually

Donald Trump is not looking his best. For the past few weeks, the 79-year-old has been raging against claims he’s simply too old to be president. This is, of course, deeply ironic given he wouldn’t let up on Joe Biden for precisely the same reason.

But what goes around comes around, and Trump isn’t helping his case by repeatedly nodding off in important meetings, giving garbled and confused-sounding speeches (even by his standards), and making grandiose claims with no connection to reality. Now, in a fairly telling development, even his usually perfectly coiffed hair looks like a mess.

Last night, Trump addressed reporters in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. Even though this was a mid-afternoon event, the president looked and sounded exhausted, barely able to summon up the energy to answer questions.

When he did offer a thought of his own, he simply didn’t make any sense. For example, Trump said “he didn’t know why” the United States can’t achieve an annual GDP growth of 25%.

Trump says he doesn't know why America can't achieve 25 percent annual economic growth pic.twitter.com/UdSm4C2PuL

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 10, 2025

For reference, the GDP growth rate for the United States is generally around 2-3%. The highest GDP growth has ever been was 7.2% in 1950, when the U.S. economy was ending its transition from wartime and experiencing massive industrial and consumer growth.

It’s a little sad to see him like this

You don’t need to be a Harvard economist to be able to tell that Trump’s insistence that 25% annual growth is a wild fantasy completely unmoored from reality. Frankly, these are simply the deluded ramblings of a confused old man with little-to-no concept of how the economy works.

As the comments put it: “Trump asking why America can’t hit 25% growth is like asking why humans can’t sprint at 200 mph“.

U.S. GDP $35T.

25% growth = +$9T in a year. That’s more than Germany, France & UK combined.

And hyper-inflation if that could be achieved

But it won’t— Labor, energy, supply chains—these can’t magically scale 25% in one year without breaking something.

Econ101.

— John Herrmann, PhD (@ablT315I) December 10, 2025

At this point, it’s unlikely that Trump will study economics and understand how the global superpower he’s supposed to be in charge of actually works. But, at the very least, we can only beseech him to at least let someone do something about his hair. Seeing him in this rumpled and exhausted state is just outright depressing.