Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump,78, stumbled over phrases at a campaign rally on Saturday, sparking speculation about his cognitive abilities from critics on social media.
Speaking at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday night, the former president slurred and mispronounced “wrecking” as “reckting,” “mobs” as “marbs” and said “place” instead of “police” before correcting himself.
“Together we will stop Kamala Harris‘ nation reckting[…]I’ll tell you what…,” he said before changing the subject, and then later “She will not stop, she said she was endorsing defund the place, and, the police, and she said violent marbs, let the violent mobs keep going.”
Newsweek has contacted Trump’s campaign via email for comment outside business hours.
John Bazemore/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Some users on social media described the stumbles as “glitches” and raised concerns about Trump’s age and mental fitness.
Harris’ campaign account @KamalaHQ posted the first clip on X, formerly Twitter on Saturday night and wrote “Trump glitches: ‘Together we will stop Kamala Harris’ nation reckting— akfjslk I’ll tell you what…” The post had been viewed more than 500,000 times by Sunday morning.
User @Acyn, a digital editor for Trump-critical media network Meidas Touch posted the second clip on X on Saturday night and wrote “Trump glitching heavily with claims of defunding of the ‘place’ and ‘violent marbs.'” The post had been viewed more than 1 million times by Sunday morning.
The main account of the network @MeidasTouch reposted the clip and wrote “This is sad. He is declining fast. His brain is mush. This decline will only rapidly accelerate.”
A Harris-supporting account @MuellerSheWrote wrote “He’s not well. The media should talk about it.” While Democratic strategist @AdamParkhomenko wrote “I’m surprised the media is not asking more questions about why no one around him is intervening with what is a clear and continual decline. We should also talk about his age.”
User @TimOBrien, a political analyst for MSNBC, also said the stumbles were a symptom of decline. “Trump has degraded noticeably in recent years and senior moments like this are just another reminder.”
In the rally, Trump also continued to falsely claim that he won Georgia in 2020, a state he lost to President Joe Biden. He called Biden “such a bad precedent,” instead of “president,” before correcting himself, and said that Harris was “a low IQ individual.”
He said of the recent prisoner swap with Russia, “Boy, we make some horrible, horrible deals.”
Trump has made numerous bizarre statements and gaffes on the campaign trail which have made his age and cognitive fitness a major talking point. He has repeatedly mentioned fictional serial killer “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” in connection to illegal immigration, which some critics speculate may be because he is conflating asylum-seekers with insane asylums.
In June, he went on an incoherent rant involving a hypothetical about sharks, boats, and batteries.
Before Biden, 81, announced in July that he would not seek reelection, his and Trump’s ages were both identified as major concerns for voters. A February poll from ABC News and IPSOS found that 59 percent of voters believed both candidates were too old to be president. If elected, Trump will become the oldest person to be inaugurated president in U.S. history.
Trump was repeatedly critical of Biden’s frequent gaffes or mental stumbles during public speeches, calling him “cognitively impaired” and an “old broken down pile of c***.”
A more recent poll found that the majority of Republicans would prefer a president younger than 75.
Harris, meanwhile, is 59, and will be hoping to capitalize on the fact she is much more popular than Trump with younger voters.