Trump served us a batty stew of obsessive complaints ... about the time he was president

July 19, 2026 — 3:34pm

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Ordinarily, I love stories of obsession: Wuthering Heights, The Story of Adèle H., Remembrance of Things Past, The Caine Mutiny, Fatal Attraction, The Good Wife, Moby-Dick and the new Generation Z horror hit Obsession.

My Netflix algorithm is trained to compulsively hunt for tales of compulsion.

But US President Donald Trump has reduced the grandeur of obsession to something pathetic. When you commandeer primetime, or try to, you’d better have something prime to say. Trump didn’t. His speech on Thursday (US time) was a dud — a batty stew of whiny complaints stemming from an election that he claims was stolen that wasn’t, during a period when he was running the country. If something was wrong, dude, why didn’t you fix it? He still has no proof, and he muddied matters by releasing documents containing information already known and warning about “vulnerabilities” his administration has made worse.

And, if the president believes what he is saying about China being a huge danger to our elections, why hasn’t he retaliated against President Xi Jinping, the man he warmly calls a “friend” and a “great leader”?

Trump seemed very low-T in his East Room address. I’m surprised that Pete Hegseth, who says his “High-T Department of War” will start screening........

© The Sydney Morning Herald