Donald Trump has sparked fresh questions about his health after confusing major awards, stumbling over investment figures and appearing to forget the name of a lake during a rally. The 80-year-old US President made a series of blunders while addressing supporters at Clemson University in South Carolina on Wednesday, ahead of crucial midterm elections.
Nobel Prize Confusion
At Wednesday's rally, Mr Trump returned to his long-running complaint that he should have received the Nobel Peace Prize before appearing to confuse it with the Pulitzer Prize. He said: “I settled all these wars, and they gave the wonderful peace prize — right, does anybody know the name of that peace prize?”
Apparently referring to winner Navi Pillay, he added: “They gave the Pulitzer prize to a young lady, she's 80 years old, a young lady who nobody ever heard of.”
Investment Figures and Lake Name Slip
Mr Trump also appeared to stumble over figures while boasting about investment commitments secured by his administration. He told supporters: “We secured commitments for $22.2 trillion in new investments coming into the United States.” He then referred to the figure as “22.2 million” before correcting himself.
“Uh billion, sorry, billion with a B, not an M,” he said. “If it was an M, we'd be in big trouble — with a B. $22 billion.”
The President later appeared to struggle to recall the name of Lake Ontario, which he had ordered federal agencies to refer to as Lake America during a trade dispute with Canada. He said: “Recently I changed the name of a lake… that fronts… you know the lake…” “I did it very lightly and the damn thing got changed… that's power, right? When you do it sort of half-heartedly and it gets changed. It's changed. It's called the Lake of America.”
Atlantic Ocean Renaming Proposal
Mr Trump went on to describe how he had considered renaming the Atlantic Ocean, claiming he contacted Google chief executive Sundar Pichai to ask whether the company could make the change on its maps. According to Mr Trump's account, Mr Pichai rejected the proposal, explaining that oceans were different because they spanned multiple countries.
“No, no, no, this time I'm not doing it,” Mr Trump recalled him saying. “Oceans are different, sir. They cover a lot of countries. Please don't ask us to do that.” Mr Trump said he would probably abandon the idea of renaming the Atlantic, before suggesting the Pacific Ocean could instead become the “American Ocean”. Google had not publicly confirmed Mr Trump's account of the conversation.
Reaction and Health Defense
The President also made several unusual vocal sounds during his remarks, prompting further reaction on social media. Acyn Torabi, an editor at MeidasTouch, commented: “Wow Trump is just making huge gaffes during this speech.” Juliet Jeske, founder of Decoding Fox News, said: “Even his diehard fans didn't know how to react to Trump's random vocal sound effects.”
White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended Mr Trump's condition, telling The Independent: “President Trump's sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when the legacy media intentionally covered up Joe Biden's serious mental and physical decline from the American people.” He added: “President Trump is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health.”
An Economist/YouGov poll in April found that 48% of Americans believed Mr Trump was experiencing either modest or significant cognitive decline. Mr Trump has previously insisted his health is excellent, declaring after a physical examination in May that “everything” had “checked out PERFECTLY”. The rally took place less than two weeks before the US midterm elections, with the President's remarks attracting renewed attention to his public performances and health.
