Longtime political analyst Larry Sabato was asked by CNN anchor Jim Acosta this weekend about former President Donald Trump’s increasingly frequent mental lapses. Trump’s recent verbal slip-ups includes a recent campaign stop when he spoke about former President Barack Obama — alarmingly — as if he were the current occupant of the White House.
In response, Sabato told Acosta the truth: Trump’s supporters “don’t care” if he’s lost a step or two. “The Trump base, which is the biggest part of the Republican base, isn’t listening to any criticism of Trump,” Sabato said.
But the reality is that the rest of us should care about the increased frequency of Trump’s cognitive red flags, since he very well could win the presidency in 2024.
To be clear, I’m not talking about Trump saying outrageous and incendiary remarks or lying to help himself politically. We are all — sadly — used to that Trump. No, this is something far more alarming. In just the past two months of campaigning, Trump’s confusion and errors range from saying he defeated Barack Obama in 2016 to confusing the name of the city and state he was in.
Below is a rundown of just some of his most egregious recent misstatements.
September 16
In a speech to the conservative Pray Vote Stand summit, Trump made a series of errors. He confused Barack Obama with President Joe Biden, first saying he was “leading by a lot” against Obama.” (Obviously, Obama is not running in 2024.)
During that same appearance, Trump declared, “With Obama, we won an election that everyone said couldn’t be won.” Apparently realizing his mistake, Trump then quickly said, “Hillary Clinton’ — his actual opponent in 2016.
Trump also bizarrely claimed that Biden would get the United States into “World War II,” apparently meaning to say World War III.
September 25
During a speech in South Carolina, Trump confused Jeb Bush and his brother, former President George W. Bush. Trump began to reminisce about his 2016 win in the South Carolina GOP primary, telling the audience with typical bombast that, “When I came here, everyone thought Bush was going to win. They thought Bush because Bush supposedly was a military person — great.” He then added about Bush, “He got us into the Middle East. How did that work out, right?”
Fact check: In 2016, Trump defeated Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida who neither served in the military nor led the US into the Iraq war. The person he was referring to was George W. Bush, who Trump never ran against.
October 23
During a speech in New Hampshire, Trump appeared confused about which country Viktor Orban is the president of.
He told the audience: “There’s a man — Viktor Orban — anybody ever hear of him? He’s probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world,” Trump said, adding, “He’s the leader of Turkey.”
Actually, however, Orban is the leader of Hungary. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the president of Turkey. The two countries aren’t even particularly close geographically.
What made this comment more surprising and unsettling is that Trump knows Orban well. He has a long history of praising the rightwing autocrat. In that same speech, Trump also erred in telling the audience that Orban’s nation shared a border with Russia. In fact, neither Hungary nor Turkey do.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/opinions ... index.html
