On Monday, MS NOW’s host of The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell, dialed in on Donald Trump’s presidency and the state of his economy, even going so far as to compare him to President Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. Using Trump’s characterization of the economy as the “Golden Age” of America, O’Donnell criticized Trump’s words, and inferred that he “had obviously lost his mind” and “was provably insane.”
O’Donnell committed his whole opening monologue to his elaborate comparison between Hoover and Trump. With Republicans sweeping every presidential election from 1920 to 1928, O’Donnell highlighted the obvious with Hoover’s loss to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, in which Hoover would have been deemed president a second term “if he had not signed a hugely destructive tariff increase into law, and if the stock market had not crashed in 1929, and if the Great Depression had not descended over the economy and the spirit of the country.”
O’Donnell’s nonsensical argument turned even more south after he quoted Hoover’s unemployment rate at 25 percent during his 1932 campaign. With the Great Depression having loomed over his campaign, O’Donnell compared the hardships felt by Americans almost 100 years ago to economic conditions within Trump’s administration (Click “expand”):
Herbert Hoover offered no hope of any kind. He had no plan. He could not create sudden confidence in the banking system. He could not figure out a single thing to do about crushing unemployment in a sharply declining economy. Herbert Hoover was as tone deaf about the economy as Donald Trump is now.
Herbert Hoover knew the economy was in the worst trouble that anyone had ever seen, but he had no idea what to do about it, or almost as importantly, what to even say about it. Just as Donald Trump has no idea what to say about it now. What Herbert Hoover did not do is choose to simply lie about it the way Donald Trump does. Herbert Hoover did not say it's the Golden Age of America, our nation is doing better now than ever before.
In an attempt to illustrate a vivid picture, O’Donnell failed to mention the reality of Trump’s economy, in which unemployment is at a much lower 4.2 percent. This has come after the Biden Administration, which saw increased living costs, peak inflation, and a huge rise in the national debt. Just because O’Donnell can point out the inflation of gas and groceries due to the Iran War does not warrant the comparison of the current economy to a Great Depression.
To bring his unsupported argument to a tee, O’Donnell reverted to his infamous mental excuse with the claim that someone must not be cognitively aware of their own decisions if they cause a rift. In O’Donnell’s case, a Republican making certain choices that make Democrats upset (Click “expand”):
If Herbert Hoover had said those words in 1932, he would have gotten 0 percent of the vote in November. If Herbert Hoover had said those words in 1932, Republicans and Democrats in Congress might have joined together to impeach and remove him from office if he would not leave on his own, on the grounds that the President had obviously lost his mind.
The 25th Amendment process for removing a president who had lost his mind was not passed until 35 years later. If, in 1932, Herbert Hoover had said, it's the Golden Age of America, our nation is doing better now than ever before, it would have been the most important news in the world that day, because it would have meant the President of the United States was provably insane.
The reality is, Trump has not been removed from office and it is not 1932. Just because the economy has suffered, does that mean the people in office are automatically insane? If that’s the case, the last administration has some explaining to do.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MS NOW’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell
October 5, 2026
10:03:54 p.m. EasternLAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Well, 100 years ago, Republicans and Democrats had a right to think that Republicans had a lock on the White House as Republicans won the Presidential Election in 1920, 1924, 1928. Republicans would have surely held the White House in what would have been an easy reelection campaign for Republican President Herbert Hoover in 1932, if he had not signed a hugely destructive tariff increase into law, and if the stock market had not crashed in 1929, and if the Great Depression had not descended over the economy and the spirit of the country, by 1932.
Unemployment was at 25% during the 1932 presidential campaign, in the midst of the Great Depression. Bank failures were looming. Fears of the entire banking system collapsing were real. Fears of American capitalism itself collapsing were real. People were starving, people were homeless, and the word depression applied to much more than the country's economic condition.
Herbert Hoover offered no hope of any kind. He had no plan. He could not create sudden confidence in the banking system. He could not figure out a single thing to do about crushing unemployment in a sharply declining economy. Herbert Hoover was as tone deaf about the economy as Donald Trump is now.
Herbert Hoover knew the economy was in the worst trouble that anyone had ever seen, but he had no idea what to do about it, or almost as importantly, what to even say about it. Just as Donald Trump has no idea what to say about it now. What Herbert Hoover did not do is choose to simply lie about it the way Donald Trump does. Herbert Hoover did not say it's the Golden Age of America, our nation is doing better now than ever before.
If Herbert Hoover had said those words in 1932, he would have gotten 0 percent of the vote in November. If Herbert Hoover had said those words in 1932, Republicans and Democrats in Congress might have joined together to impeach and remove him from office if he would not leave on his own, on the grounds that the President had obviously lost his mind.
The 25th Amendment process for removing a president who had lost his mind was not passed until 35 years later. If, in 1932, Herbert Hoover had said, it's the Golden age of America, our nation is doing better now than ever before, it would have been the most important news in the world that day, because it would have meant the President of the United States was provably insane.
And that is what Donald Trump said this weekend when he was out campaigning for Republicans who are in trouble in states where Republicans have believed they could never lose.
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