Idle boasts and blatant lies: Debunking Trump’s egregious distortions in Knesset speech

Press TV, 15 October 2025

US President Donald Trump basked in adulation on Monday at the Israeli Knesset, where he was hailed as “the president of peace,” even as regime lawmakers laughed at his jokes, applauded his idle boasts, and rose for more standing ovations than one could count.

Behind the theatrics, Trump’s address was marked by wilful distortion and obfuscation of facts. We identified a series of false or misleading claims on topics ranging from October 7 to the Iranian nuclear program, Hezbollah, US politics, Israel and the self-fashioned mythology he sought to project

Israeli lawmaker Ofer Cassif, who was brutally manhandled and whisked out of the hall for interrupting the speech, captured the day’s irony with biting precision. Writing on Facebook, he remarked:

“During the speech of lies by the war criminal Netanyahu — I preferred to read about the truth.”

He was reading noted Israeli historian Ilan Pappé’s The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, a symbolic act of quiet defiance as Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other masterminds of the genocide in Gaza congratulated each other on killing nearly 70,000 Palestinians over two years.

Trump’s boastful speech unfolded as part show, part sermon, part self-congratulation and blended grandiose claims of “peace” in West Asia with sweeping falsehoods.

He exaggerated ceasefire achievements, distorted economic figures, misrepresented his own diplomatic record, and even belittled serious corruption charges facing Netanyahu.

Fact-checkers worldwide have since flagged his remarks as a performance of fiction than facts.

Here is a breakdown of some of Trump’s most glaring fabrications and distortions from the Knesset podium, including his portrayal of Iran and its nuclear program, his revisionist take on US foreign policy, and his persistent habit of rewriting his own presidency as a miracle of peace.

On Iran

1. “So we dropped 14 bombs on Iran’s key nuclear facilities, totally, as I said originally, obliterating them. That’s been confirmed.”

The Pentagon’s own intelligence assessment contradicts this claim, declaring that US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the country’s nuclear program. The June report confirmed that centrifuges remained “largely intact” and the damage was limited to above-ground structures.

2. “Together we stopped the number one state sponsor of terror from obtaining the world’s most dangerous weapons. They would have it in two months or less.”

The annual US intelligence threat assessment report released in March categorically stated that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, echoing similar reports in the past…………………

3. “They (Iran) want a peace deal. I think they are tired; they want to survive.”

In September, Ayatollah Khamenei rejected Washington’s demands regarding nuclear negotiations.

He warned that talks with the US under current conditions would bring “no benefit” and instead cause “serious and possibly irreparable harms” to the country.

Iran has already denounced Trump’s claims and his offer of friendship, calling them “shameful”, coming just months after a US-Israeli aggression against the country, which killed over a thousand people. https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/10/14/756900/from-idle-boasts-blatant-lies-debunking-trump-egregious-distortions-knesset-speech