WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump suggested Saturday night that President Joe Biden “should take a cognitive test,” only to confuse who gave him the test in the next sentence.
The former president and presumptive Republican nominee referred to Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as White House physician for part of his presidency, as “Ronny Johnson.” The moment came when Trump questioned Biden’s mental acuity, something he often does during the campaign and on social media.
“He doesn’t even know what the word ‘inflation’ means. I think he should take a cognitive test like me,” the former president said of Biden during a speech at a Turning Point Action conference in Detroit.
Seconds later he continued: “Dr. Ronny Johnson. Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? He was the White House doctor and he said that he thought I was the healthiest president in history, so I immediately liked him a lot.”
Jackson was elected to Congress in 2021 and has been one of Trump’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill.
Trump, who turned 78 on Friday, has made the question of whether Biden, 81, is ready for a second term a centerpiece of his campaign. But online critics were quick to seize on his gaffe on Saturday night, when Biden’s campaign, which has long battled criticism over the Democratic president’s verbal gaffes, posted a clip of the moment minutes later.
Trump took the cognitive test in 2018 at his own request, Jackson told reporters at the time. The test is designed to detect early signs of memory loss and other mild cognitive impairments.
The Trump-administered Montreal Cognitive Assessment involves memorizing a list of spoken words; listen to a list of random numbers and repeat them backwards; name as many words as possible in one minute that begin, for example, with the letter F; accurately draw a cube; and describe concrete ways in which two objects, such as a train and a bicycle, are the same.
Trump later said he had to memorize a list of words and recite them precisely in the order: “Person.” Women. Man. Camera. TELEVISION.”
During the same speech in Detroit, Trump also referred to a video that was widely circulated online in Republican circles, showing Biden at the just-concluded Group of Seven summit in Italy, watching paratroopers land with flags of different countries. .
A cropped version of the video shows Biden walking away from the leaders, turning his back to them and walking in the opposite direction. He gives a thumbs up, but it’s unclear who he’s pointing at. However, a fuller view of the same scene shows the president turning and looking at a landing parachutist.
However, Trump seized on the video clip and falsely described Biden as turning “to look at the trees,” prompting laughter and shouts from the crowd.
Biden’s campaign issued a statement dismissing the clip as deceptively cropped and accusing those who distributed it of “manipulating the video to fabricate lies.”
