President Donald Trump, 80, appeared to lose track of nearly a century during a Florida campaign rally, sparking fresh speculation about the health of the oldest person ever elected president.
The apparent blunder had Trump cite a year nearly a century later than he seemed to mean.
“With the murder rate at its lowest level in 125 years—1990,” Trump said during a speech at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers on Friday.
Trump appeared to mean 1900, rather than 1990, a mistake he repeated a second time. Even if he’d gotten the year right, fact-checkers have given the claim only a “Half True” rating.
Trump has been dogged by speculation about his cognitive health for years, and an April Economist/YouGov poll found that 48 percent of Americans believe Trump has experienced at least some cognitive decline.
Just a day earlier, at a South Carolina rally, Trump appeared to mix up the Nobel Peace Prize and the Pulitzer Prize.
“I settled all these wars, and they gave the wonderful peace prize—right, does anybody know the name of that peace prize?” Trump said. “They gave the Pulitzer prize to a young lady, she’s 80 years old, a young lady who nobody ever heard of.”
The Nobel Peace Prize went to former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay, who is 85.
Trump also appeared to struggle to recall the name of Lake Ontario, which he had become fixated on in August as part of a bitter dispute with Canada. He later directed federal agencies to rename it “Lake America.”
“Recently I changed the name of a lake… that fronts… you know the lake…” he said. After several moments of hesitation, he appeared to move on. “It’s changed. It’s called the Lake of America,” he said.
Trump was also seen days earlier stopping to wave repeatedly before boarding his helicopter, Marine One, despite there clearly not being anyone in his line of sight to wave at.
“I now have absolutely no doubt that Donald Trump has major mental decline,” political commentator Brian Krassenstein said on X.
Trump has also faced questions about whether he uses makeup on his hands to hide bruising and has been seen falling asleep during Oval Office meetings. The president, meanwhile, has insisted that he “aced” several cognitive tests, calling himself a “frickin’ genius,” at a rally earlier this month.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
