Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. Trump is showing his age. Sometimes, it's amusing, but sometimes it's disturbing. Cognitive decline is no joke when it involves someone who can wipe out all life on Earth.
Dan Diamond and JM Rieger at WP:
President Donald Trump hosted one of the more attention-grabbing press events of his term in the Oval Office this week, announcing price cuts for weight-loss drugs, only to be interrupted when one of the attendees collapsed in a faint.
Before that dramatic turn of events, however, Trump appeared to struggle to stay awake as his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and two other deputies took turns explaining the announcement. Clips of the scene have circulated widely on social media and drawn heavy criticism from Democrats.
A Washington Post analysis of multiple video feeds found that Trump spent nearly 20 minutes apparently battling to keep his eyes open at the Thursday event. It was a seemingly stark illustration of the strain of the presidency on a 79-year-old who typically keeps a vigorous travel schedule that even his aides say they struggle to keep up with — and who has reveled in calling his predecessor “Sleepy Joe” Biden.
Sitting behind the Resolute Desk on Thursday, the president displayed a constellation of movements familiar to anyone who has attempted to stay awake during a work meeting. He closed his eyes. He put his hand to his temple. He slouched in his chair.
Farrah Tomazin at The Daily Beast:
He spoke about people being forced to flee to Miami from “South Africa” due to communism, when he meant to say “South America.”
He recalled getting “indicted” over allegations he improperly sought help from Ukraine, when in reality he was “impeached.”
...
Ten months into his second term, 79-year-old President Donald Trump finds himself facing the same kind of scrutiny that haunted his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Over the past 48 hours alone, the Daily Beast has counted at least a dozen times when Trump has either confused names and dates, mixed up facts, or even appeared to drift off in public, prompting the obvious question: Is the president OK?
The confusion over his first impeachment, and his South Africa/South America mix-up, took place while Trump was in Miami addressing a business forum on Wednesday.
At the same event, the president declared communism began “1,000 years ago” (which would be 1025, when Vikings roamed the Earth) and that America’s electricity grid was built “200 years” ago (it was mostly built in the 1960s and ’70s, says the energy department).
He also claimed that the U.S. economy would be “in a depression” without his tariffs (history shows that is not the case), and bragged that the U.S. has “never lost a war” (apparently forgetting the Bay of Pigs invasion against Cuba, or America’s retreats in Vietnam, Korea and Afghanistan, to name just the most prominent examples).
In some cases, it is difficult to determine whether Trump is merely confused, deliberately lying, or simply uninformed about the facts.
