Donald Trump has been criticised after stumbling over his words while reading from an autocue during his national address on prime time TV earlier this week. As part of the speech, the US President blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for inheriting a “mess of an economy” before he claimed money is “on the way” to military service members.

However, when he delivered the figure, he mispronounced the numbers while speaking at the podium in the White House, in Washington, D.C. Trump was meant to say more than 1,450,000 military service members will receive a “warrior dividend before Christmas, but the figure didn’t come out of his mouth smoothly.

Reading from the teleprompter as he got the figure wrong, and shared: “Tonight, I am also proud to announce that more than one thousand four hundred and fifty thousand… Think of this, one million four hundred and fifty thousand.”

He then said: “In honour of our nation’s founding in 1776, we are sending every soldier $1,776 and the checks are already on the way.”

The estimated total cost for military service members is almost $2.6 billion – but it is unclear how these dividends will be funded. The 79-year-old did, however, credit tariffs for bringing money in for the US.

Taking to X to comment on the blunder, one person noted: “[He] stumbles over his words daily. Judging him by his actions and policies would only double the trouble.”

“Moments like that are why questions about fitness and clarity keep coming up,” a second added.

Meanwhile, a third person said: “He doesn’t understand numbers. Too complex.” A fourth said: “This is what decline looks like in real time.”

Despite the backlash, another user said: “Everyone stumbles over words sometimes. Leadership should be judged by actions and policies, not by momentary slips.”

Another supporter said: “I heard the speech. I was a good speech.”