Donald Trump’s apparent inability to keep the facts straight on Iran sparked a fresh set of worries over the 78-year-old’s potential cognitive decline on Tuesday, months after 81-year-old Joe Biden left the Presidential race due to a similar sequence of gaffes.
During a speech in Milwaukee, Trump referred to “the president of North Korea, who was basically trying to kill me,” seemingly confusing the leader with Iran’s. U.S. intelligence found that the country was plotting to assassinate Trump in July.
In another, Trump claimed that an Iranian attack during his presidency that left 34 U.S. troops with traumatic brain injuries was not as severe as a reporter suggested, asking if the soldiers "had a headache.” He went on to say “nobody was hurt except the sound was loud.”
Hawaii Democratic Senator Brian Schatz reacted to the apparent confusion on X, noting that it was “reasonable” to “wonder if there’s something actually going on” with the former President.
I think it's reasonable to watch this clip, add the withdrawal from a 60 minutes interview, and wonder if there's something actually going on. I don't know- maybe he's fine, but it's not a wacky or nasty thing to inquire about. https://t.co/15wl4EX9Pi
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) October 2, 2024
Some X users took the tweet as a license to express their own concerns, asking whether Trump’s flubs were evidence of a decline.
“The man is deteriorating in real time,” national security lawyer Bradley Moss wrote.
Journalist Joshua Benton from Harvard’s Niemen Lab shared that Trump “sounded 30 years younger” in a 2016 clip than he did in Tuesday’s speech.
Another reporter, David Corn, asked if the media would center Trump’s gaffes to the extent they centered President Biden’s in July.
“We can expect Trump's cognitive abilities—or lack thereof—to dominate the news cycle, right?,” Corn said.
