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Former US President Donald Trump appeared to forget his own wife’s name in a blunder which one expert warned was a ‘gross sign’ of dementia.
While speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump, 77, gave a standing ovation to his wife of 18 years – then referred to Melania as ‘Mercedes’.
He said: ‘Oh look at that Mercedes, that’s pretty good.’
The blunder is gaining widespread media attention as discussions over both Trump and President Joe Biden’s memory are increasing ahead of the November elections.
Dr John Gartner, a former professor at John Hopkins Medical School, formerly wrote of how Trump, rather than current President Biden, 81, is showing signs of memory loss.
He said: ‘In 2018, Trump took the test and bragged about his results during the campaign cycle. He has already urged his rival to take the test as quickly as possible.
Trump appeared to stumble over his wife’s name (Picture: AFP)
Trump and Melania have been married for 18 years (Picture: Shutterstock)
It comes as discussion over both Trump and Biden’s minds is increasing (Picture: Getty)
‘Trump was the first US president to undergo the test as part of his presidential physical, and said Biden “didn’t take a cognitive test because he couldn’t pass one.”‘
The blunder comes as many campaigners, pundits and uhm-and-erring voters have been grappling with the idea that either of the leading 2024 presidential candidates would be the oldest president in history by the end of their term.
As both men face questions over whether they’re simply too old to be president again, one political professor has said Trump’s cognitive decline is ‘more apparent’ than Biden’s.
Paul Quirk, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Newsweek how Biden’s grey hair and wrinkles have been the go-to targets for Republican attacks.
Yet, he says: ‘From the standpoint of the campaign, Biden’s age should be less of an issue than Trump’s more apparent cognitive decline – displayed in slurred speech and gross, repeated errors in one campaign rally after another.’
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Quirk feels that Biden will be just fine if he’s re-elected later this year and his age won’t ‘compromise his performance as president’.
‘He has been, if anything, surprisingly effective in policy terms,’ Quirk said, adding that the special counsel’s report that called attention to Biden’s ‘memory problems’ has been ‘widely disparaged as a partisan hit job’.
Biden ‘willfully retained and disclosed’ classified documents as a private citizen after stepping down as vice president, a report released last Thursday found.
In a 345-page report to the Justice Department, Hur found there wasn’t enough evidence ‘to establish Mr Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt’.
Investigators did, however, find instances of the Democratic leader muddling dates and even forgetting when he was vice president.
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