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CNN’s Brian Stelter had reported that the mainstream TV networks didn’t take up the president’s PowerPoint presentation because they were concerned about the sourcing of the information.
Justin Baragona in New York Thursday 18 December 2025 21:18 GMT- Bookmark
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CloseWhite House official complains that non-Fox networks didn't show Trump's slides during primetime address
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After the majority of broadcast and cable news networks opted not to use the slideshow presentation that the White House prepared for Donald Trump’s grievance-filled national address, the president’s economic adviser complained to Morning Joe about the omission because “we spent so much time” on them.
While grumbling about the lack of TV coverage for the White House’s PowerPoint presentation, Kevin Hassett confirmed earlier reporting by CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter that the administration had shared a set of slides with the networks and pressed them to air the graphics on screen.
In the end, the networks – outside of Fox News – decided against doing the slideshow, largely due to the White House not providing clear sourcing information.
Some of the slides that Fox News showed, which were labeled as “White House graphic,” actually tanked some of the president’s dishonest claims throughout his campaign-style address.
For instance, as Trump insisted that gas prices in much of the nation had gone below $3 a gallon, the conservative cable giant showed a White House-prepared slide that the “National Average Gasoline Price” was still roughly $3 per gallon.
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open image in galleryWhite House economic adviser Kevin Hassett groused that the majority of networks refused to use Donald Trump's PowerPoint slides during his national address. (MS NOW)As Stelter noted, Fox captioned the slides as coming from the White House, seemingly as a signal to viewers that they had been provided by Trump’s communications team. Meanwhile, Sean Hannity – the Fox News primetime host and close confidant to the president – also shared some of the slides during his program after Trump’s speech.
During Thursday’s broadcast of Morning Joe, co-host Jonathan Lemire confronted Hassett on the president’s repeated embellishment and outright lies during the address, only for the Trump adviser to take that opportunity to ding the mainstream networks for not utilizing his graphics.
“Why the need to exaggerate?” Lemire wondered, bringing up Trump’s false claims about gas prices.
“I’d have to go back and look at the specific language but, you know, and I hate coming back with questions for you guys,” Hassett responded. “But the president, in order to make sure that everybody understood the facts and the facts were documented, spent a lot of time with us – with our team – preparing slides that showed the data for what he was talking about in the speech.”
Noting that “some networks” showed the slides and “some networks” didn’t, Hassett groused over how “unusual” that decision was from the outlets that refused to air the White House’s presentation.
open image in galleryOnly Fox News aired the PowerPoint slides provided by the White House during Trump’s address. (AP)“I was expecting, when I was flipping around, to just see the slides everywhere. Gosh, we spent so much time – more time on them,” he exclaimed. “But, you know, I think that the president had documentation for the facts that he was saying they were in the slides. And so if there’s a specific number you’d like to talk about, maybe he misspoke or something. I’m happy to talk about it. But I wonder, like, did you guys show the slides?!”
After co-host Joe Scarborough said he wasn’t sure if MS NOW (previously MSNBC) had aired the graphics during its coverage, Hassett encouraged Scarborough to get the slides and “maybe show them to” economic analyst Stephen Rattner – who had presented his own slides about the president’s speech and the economy earlier in the program.
“The slides were fact checked by the Council of Economic advisers. And yeah, that’s why I mentioned them,” Hassett reacted, prompting Scarborough to suggest Hassett and Rattner come on the show later and compare their charts.
Meanwhile, the loud and angry speech left many viewers showing concern over the president’s sanity, likening Trump to Grandpa Simpson. “Old man yells at cloud,” at least one social media user noted.
At the same time, it wasn’t just liberal critics of the president who mocked and blasted the address. “That was perhaps the most pointless primetime presidential address ever delivered in American history,” far-right podcaster Matt Walsh tweeted on Wednesday night.
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