President Donald Trump is perpetually unable to quell rumors about his failing cognitive and physical health, and now, as highlighted in a report from The Daily Beast, he is “once again under scrutiny after a series of jaw-dropping gaffes on the world stage.”
Trump is currently in the Turkish capital of Ankara for the latest NATO summit. So far, the trip has been dogged by controversy of his own making, as he sparked outrage with new comments about annexing Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, and trashed Iranian leaders while his ceasefire deal falls apart.
Amid all of that chaos, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that his addresses have been littered with gaffes and verbal slips, which the outlet likened to those that raised alarms about Trump’s much-hated predecessor, Joe Biden.
“During a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump repeatedly referred to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as ‘President Putin,’ mixed up the Islamic Republic of Iran with the ‘Islamic Republic of Japan’; and confused the name of [Barack] Obama’s ‘JCPOA’ nuclear deal with another acronym, the ‘JCPOC,’” the report detailed. “The 80-year-old even bragged about his popularity on a social media app that doesn’t quite exist.”
“Do you know who’s number one on Tic Tac? I am,” Trump said, later correcting the flub. “I’m number one on TikTok — and all I talk about is how bad communism is.”
Trump made similar boasts prior to leaving for Ankara. As fact-checks promptly pointed out, Trump is not, as he claimed, more popular on TikTok than even Taylor Swift. In fact, his account on the platform boasts only around 16.7 million followers, roughly half of Swift’s 33.5 million. Both pale in comparison, however, to the biggest creator on the platform, Khaby Lame, who boasts 162.3 million followers.
“The gaffes were reminiscent of the kind of flubs Trump previously used to highlight his predecessor Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.” The Daily Beast continued. “However, Trump, who is now the oldest president to ever occupy the Oval Office, repeatedly insists he is in great shape, and often brags about ‘acing’ cognitive tests, not realizing that they are in fact screening tests for dementia. The president’s latest medical report from his White House physician also says he remains in ‘excellent health’ and is fully fit to carry out his duties as Commander-in-Chief.”