Trump’s comments about Biden’s cognitive abilities come amid ongoing speculation about Biden’s potential reelection bid in 2024. Trump, who recently turned 78, has been critical of Biden’s mental acuity and has suggested that he should take a cognitive test similar to the one he took in 2018 at his own request. The former president referred to Rep. Ronny Jackson, a staunch defender of Trump on Capitol Hill, who served as the White House physician during part of Trump’s presidency. However, Trump mistakenly called him “Ronny Johnson” during his speech at a convention in Detroit.
The cognitive test that Trump took in 2018 is designed to detect early signs of memory loss and other cognitive impairments. It includes tasks such as remembering a list of words, repeating random numbers backward, naming words that start with a specific letter, drawing a cube, and describing similarities between two objects. Trump later mentioned a specific sequence of words that he had to remember and recite during the test, including “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.”
During the same speech in Detroit, Trump also referenced a video clip of Biden at the recent Group of Seven summit in Italy. The clip showed Biden watching skydivers land with flags from different nations, with a cropped version making it appear as though Biden turned away from the scene and gestured at trees. However, a more complete angle of the video showed that Biden had actually turned to face a skydiver who had landed. The Biden campaign dismissed the cropped video as misleading and accused those who circulated it of tampering with the footage.
Critics online quickly seized on Trump’s gaffe of incorrectly referring to Rep. Ronny Jackson as “Ronny Johnson,” with the Biden campaign posting a clip of the moment shortly after. Jackson, who was elected to Congress in 2021, has been a strong supporter of Trump and is known for his defense of the former president. Trump, who has been questioning Biden’s ability to serve a second term, has made the issue of Biden’s cognitive abilities a focal point of his campaign.
Despite the controversy surrounding his comments about Biden’s cognitive test, Trump’s speech at the Turning Point Action convention in Detroit drew laughter and hoots from the crowd as he falsely described Biden’s reaction to the skydiver video clip. The Biden campaign issued a statement accusing those who disseminated the cropped video of spreading lies and misrepresenting the president’s actions. The ongoing debate about Biden’s mental acuity and Trump’s criticism of him may continue to be a key issue in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
