Trump brags he doesn’t need a teleprompter: ‘In fact, I seldom do, actually’

Donald Trump wants Lubbock to know he is not a teleprompter man. Mostly. “Isn’t it nice to know that you have a president that does not have to read a teleprompter? In fact, I seldom do, actually.”

The occasion was a fresh statistic, “just out today,” released, he said, a “couple of hours ago,” which he framed as proof of his range: “Isn’t it nice that you have a guy that can actually put things into a speech upon rapid notice, that doesn’t need to read a teleprompter?”

The stat itself: “Consumer confidence is up 7.5 percent in just a very short period of time,” which he called “practically a record.” That’s his figure. The Conference Board’s index, out that morning, did rise 7.5, but points, not percent, to 91.7, and it rose from a September reading that was the lowest since April 2014. That’s a bounce back to June, not a record. “Seldom” is also his word, and it’s doing a lot of work.