Donald Trump highlighted concerns about President Joe Biden’s mental acuity during a speech in Michigan on Saturday, but the former president had a slip-up while doing so.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, challenged his lead opponent to a cognitive test while speaking at a Turning Point Action convention in Detroit, but Trump misstated the name of the doctor who once performed the same test on him.
“I think [Biden] should take a cognitive test like I did. I took a cognitive test, and I aced it,” Trump told the crowd. “Doc Ronny, doc Ronny Johnson, does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor, and he said I was the healthiest president, he feels, in history.”
Trump was referencing Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), who served as the presidential physician from 2013 to 2018.
Trump, not realizing the error, continued to boast about the results of his cognitive test.
“In fact, he said if I didn’t eat junk food I would live to 200. That’s what he said,” Trump told the crowd.
The Biden campaign was quick to spotlight Trump’s gaffe, sharing a video of the moment on X and noting the inaccurate name.
Trump, who just turned 78 on Friday, has zeroed in on the scrutiny over Biden’s age at nearly every opportunity, observing how the president, who is the oldest president in U.S. history at 81 years old, has at times appeared lost on stage, stumbled on stairs, or fumbled over his words.
Trump himself has often displayed a higher energy level at public appearances than Biden; however, some political observers say Trump, too, is succumbing to his age in some respects.
“On physical appearance, yes, Trump seems more energetic,” University of Minnesota Center for the Study of Politics and Governance Director Lawrence Jacobs told the Washington Examiner. “On enunciation, mispronouncing words, freezing, etc. — even. Developing a thought-out plan for change and following it — Biden.”
