Category: Terrible Memory

Trump’s Disjointed Speech Raises Alarming Concerns Over Deteriorating Mental Acuity

During a recent event in Pittsburgh, President Donald Trump delivered a disjointed speech that raised concerns over his mental acuity. At the “Energy and Innovation” summit hosted by Senator Dave McCormick, Trump’s erratic remarks included forgetting the names of attendees and making dubious claims about artificial intelligence, which he initially dismissed as “not [his] thing.” His statements, riddled with inaccuracies, highlighted a troubling forgetfulness and an alarming grasp of factual reality.

Among his more outlandish claims, Trump asserted that his uncle, Dr. John Trump, taught infamous domestic terrorist Theodore Kaczynski at MIT, a fabrication that is starkly contradicted by historical facts. Dr. Trump, a notable physicist, never had the opportunity to teach Kaczynski, who attended Harvard and completed his advanced degrees elsewhere. Such blatant distortion of events not only serves to propagate misinformation but also exemplifies Trump’s apparent confusion and deteriorating cognition as he approaches 80 years of age.

Further compounding the bizarre nature of his speech, Trump confused the whereabouts of attendees, incorrectly stating that they were in Washington, before expressing surprise at their absence. This disoriented behavior is indicative of deeper issues as Trump, now the oldest president in U.S. history, struggles with the demands of public appearances.

His comments about Kaczynski were met with minimal reaction from the audience, likely illustrating their concern or disbelief at Trump’s fabrications about a killer’s academic history. Despite the gravity of the topic, his remarks lacked the anticipated engagement and highlighted his troubled ability to connect with factual narratives.

As former President Joe Biden has faced scrutiny related to age in reference to his own political future, Trump’s evident cognitive decline prompts even deeper questions about leadership capability. With an upcoming second term election, the implications of a president exhibiting such signs of memory loss and confusion cannot be understated, further endangering democratic accountability and transparency in governance.

(h/t: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-ted-kaczynski-pittsburgh-b2789670.html)

Trump Calls For Iran Nuclear Deal He Killed

Donald Trump has publicly issued threats to Iran, reiterating that a military option remains viable if a nuclear deal is not achieved. During an interview with Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo, Trump referred to a letter he sent to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, urging negotiations to prevent a military confrontation. The former president emphasized that while he prefers diplomacy, the possibility of military action is looming if Iran continues pursuing nuclear capabilities.

Trump’s rhetoric reflects a recurrent theme in his foreign policy approach, characterized by a blend of aggressive posturing and attempts at negotiation. He stated, “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal,” underscoring his inclination to use force while simultaneously expressing a desire to reach an agreement. This duality raises concerns among critics about the unpredictability of Trump’s foreign policy and its potential consequences for global stability.

The conversation also highlighted Trump’s view of the Iranian people, whom he described as “great” despite condemning their leadership as “evil.” This simplification of a complex geopolitical issue is symptomatic of Trump’s broader communication style, where nuanced realities are often overshadowed by emotionally charged language. Such comments can foster misinterpretations of the Iranian populace and prioritize military solutions over diplomatic efforts.

Despite Trump’s claims of support for negotiation, his administration previously dismantled structures that fostered diplomatic engagement, notably withdrawing from the landmark Iran nuclear deal orchestrated by President Obama. This decision has been widely criticized as a contributing factor to escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with many experts arguing it undermines future negotiations and jeopardizes regional security.

As tensions mount, Trump’s willingness to resort to military action as a negotiation tactic serves to instill fear rather than foster constructive dialogue. Such threats not only highlight the reckless nature of his foreign policy but also exemplify the broader Republican indifference towards diplomatic resolutions, opting instead for a belligerent approach that could lead to unnecessary conflict.

(h/t: https://www.mediaite.com/news/trump-tells-iran-they-need-to-make-a-nuke-deal-to-avoid-military-solution-im-not-looking-to-hurt-iran/)

Trump Claims Genius While Rambling Nonsense on Fox News

Donald Trump recently took to Fox News to defend what he claims is his brilliant communication style, which he refers to as “weaving.” In a lengthy and disjointed response to a question about foreign policy, Trump insisted he does not ramble, despite his statements being widely recognized as convoluted and nonsensical. His remarks included a reiteration of disproven claims about the 2020 election being rigged, alongside baseless links to international events like the recent terrorism in Israel.

During the exchange with anchor Bret Baier, Trump displayed an alarming tendency to conflate various unrelated issues while portraying a false narrative of coherence and insight. He absurdly suggested that had the election not been “rigged,” troubling global events would not have occurred, exposing his inability to grasp the complexities of international relations. This continued effort to peddle dangerous conspiracy theories reflects a deep-seated disconnect from reality and an unwillingness to accept verifiable facts.

Moreover, Trump’s self-proclaimed title of “the great weaver” not only underscores his delusional state but also reveals his strategy of emotional manipulation. He dismisses criticisms of his communication style as merely the “fake news” narrative. This tactic is characteristic of Trump’s approach to media engagement, where he deflects scrutiny by framing himself as a misunderstood genius rather than addressing his cognitive decline.

His insistence that he is weaving together complex ideas hints at a troubling cognitive impairment. Experts have highlighted that such behavior is often symptomatic of higher-level cognitive difficulties, which many have observed during his public appearances. Rather than demonstrating intelligence, his “weaving” serves merely to obfuscate the truth and mislead his supporters.

Ultimately, Trump’s rambling monologues reveal not only a lack of clarity and coherence but also serve as a dangerous tool for misinformation. By framing his erratic statements as brilliance, he tries to validate his distorted perceptions, which undermine democratic discourse and foster division. This repetitive cycle of delusion and denial epitomizes a growing trend among Trump and his Republican allies, who actively work to dismantle informed dialogue while pushing their anti-democratic agenda.

(h/t: https://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-says-he-doesnt-ramble-in-rambling-response-about-how-he-speaks-im-the-great-weaver/)

Trump Says He Doesn’t Know Primary Challengers Before Criticizing Them With Very Specific Attacks

President Donald Trump said Monday that he does not know the three men challenging him for the Republican nomination. He then went on to make very specific comments about each of them.

Speaking outside the White House en route to a rally in North Carolina, the president took pointed shots at former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh, and former South Carolina congressman Mark Sanford.

“I don’t even know who they are,” Trump said. He added, “I don’t know them. I don’t know them.”

Then, “One was a person that voted for Obama, ran as a vice president four years ago and was soundly defeated. Another one got thrown out after one term in Congress, and he lost in a landslide. And the third one, Mr. Tallahassee trail or Appalachian trail … he wasn’t on the Appalachian trail. He was in Argentina.”

Later in the pool spray, Trump defended Kansas, South Carolina, and Nevada for not holding Republican primaries in 2020.

“Three people are a total joke,” Trump said. “They’re a joke. They’re a laughingstock. I have nothing to do [with it] — the four states that canceled it don’t want to waste their money. If there was a race, they would certainly want to do that. But they’re considered to be a laughingstock. They’re considered to be a joke. And those four states don’t want to waste their money.”

[Mediaite]

Trump doesn’t think he’s ‘ever even heard of a Category 5’ hurricane. Four such storms have threatened the US since he took office

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he’s “not sure that (he’s) ever even heard of a Category 5” hurricane, despite four such storms — including Hurricane Dorian — having threatened the US since he took office.

“We don’t even know what’s coming at us. All we know is it’s possibly the biggest. I have — I’m not sure that I’ve ever even heard of a Category 5. I knew it existed. And I’ve seen some Category 4’s — you don’t even see them that much,” Trump said at a briefing with officials at FEMA’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

“But a Category 5 is something that — I don’t know that I’ve ever even heard the term other than I know it’s there. That’s the ultimate, and that’s what we have unfortunately,” he added, in reference to Hurricane Dorian.

The comments from the President came just before Dorian, a dangerous Category 5 storm, made landfall on the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas. The storm is the most recent of four Category 5 hurricanes to endanger parts of the US since Trump assumed the Oval Office. As of Monday morning, Dorian is still battering the Abaco and Grand Bahama Islands. The hurricane — the strongest on the planet anywhere this year — lashed the region overnight and is forecast to continue through much of Monday. The storm is now expected to move northward and possibly bring hurricane-force winds to Florida Monday night before moving up the east coast.

In September 2017, nearly eight months into Trump’s presidency, Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest Atlantic basin hurricane ever recorded outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, affected at least nine US states. That same month, Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory of Puerto Rico, leaving behind an island that is still struggling to recover.

Last October, Hurricane Michael, which was originally designated as a Category 4, barreled into the Florida Panhandle as the third Category 5 hurricane to blast the US since Trump.

Trump has pledged to provide federal assistance to state and local officials to deal with Hurricane Dorian.

Not the first time Trump said he’s never heard of a Category 5

Trump has previously indicated several other times that Category 5 hurricanes are unprecedented weather events that either he or others had never heard of or witnessed.

In the days between the landfalls of Hurricane Irma and Maria, he said he “never even knew” they existed and said days later that “people (in Puerto Rico) had never seen anything like” the storm.

In October 2017, Trump claimed “nobody has ever heard of a (Category) 5 hitting land,” and earlier this year, he again said he had never heard of a hurricane of that intensity.

While the US has seen a number of Category 5 storms in recent memory — including Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — scientists estimate that Atlantic hurricanes could become more common in the coming years. And while researchers can’t definitively say the climate crisis is leading to more intense hurricanes, scientists have found that rising sea levels due to global warming can further exacerbate the impact of Atlantic hurricanes.

[CNN]

Trump vents over Axios report on hurricane nuking idea

President Trump on Tuesday again lashed out at Axios over the outlet’s report that the president suggested using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes. 

“Axios (whatever that is) sat back and said GEEEEE, let’s see, what can we make up today to embarrass the President? Then they said, ‘why don’t we say he wants to bomb a hurricane, that should do it!’ The media in our Country is totally out of control!” Trump tweeted Tuesday.

The president previously called the report a “phony story” that the “Fake News is still trying to perpetuate.” 

Axios reported Sunday that sources said Trump has suggested the option multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officers. 

Axios reported that unnamed sources recalled situations they overheard in meetings or had been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded the president’s alleged comments about nuking hurricanes.

Axios reporter Jonathan Swan tweeted that he stands by “every word in the story” after the first round of Trump’s pushback. 

At the time of Axios’s report, a senior administration official told the outlet, “We don’t comment on private discussions that the president may or may not have had with his national security team.”

Trump’s latest tweet denying the report came after one of his Republican primary challengers, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, sent a campaign email fundraising off of the Axios report.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes, Friend. But yes, this headline was — in fact — real,” the email to supporters said, with an image of Axios’s Sunday headline “Scoop: Trump suggested nuking hurricane to stop them from hitting U.S.”

“How does this make you feel about Donald Trump having his hands on our nation’s nuclear code? Yeah, we don’t feel so great about it either,” he added.

[The Hill]

Reality

And it’s funny that “stable genius” Trump doesn’t know who Axios is, as they were the only media outlet embedded with his 2016 campaign, and he conducted an interview with them just a few short months ago which you can watch in full here:

Trump Asks Woman Where Her Family Is After She Told Him Twice That They Were Killed by ISIS

President Donald Trump asked Nobel Prize-winning activist Nadia Muradwhere her family is now just seconds after Murad told him that they had all been killed by ISIS.

At an Oval Office event this week, Trump met with survivors of religious persecution and had a surreal exchange with Murad, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for her activism in preventing sexual assault after her escape from ISIS captivity.

As Murad stepped forward to speak to Trump, Ambassador Sam Brownback told Trump that she was a Nobel Peace Prize winner for a second time during the event, and Murad began to tell Trump the harrowing story surrounding her captivity.

“When ISIS attack us in 2014, they killed six of my brother,” Murad told Trump. “They killed my mom. They took me to captivity with my eleven sister-in-law, with all my sister and my nieces.”

She went on to explain that 3,000 Yazidi women and children are still missing and that the home from which she was abducted remains torn by violence between various factions.

“Now there is no ISIS, but we cannot go back because Kurdish government and the Iraqi government, they are fighting each other who will control my area,” Murad told Trump, and as she asked him to intercede with the factions, Trump interrupted.

“But ISIS is gone?” Trump asked. “And now it’s Kurdish and…”

“And Iraqi. Iraqi government,” Murad replied, then continued to explain her people’s current situation.

“My people cannot go back. We are not millions of people, we are only half million people. And after 2014, about 95 years — 95,000 years, Yazidi, they immigrate to Germany through a very dangerous way. Not because we want to be a refugee, but we cannot find a safe place to live,” Murad said.

“All this happened to me. They killed my mom, my six brothers,” Murad said, and as she continued, Trump interrupted her.

“Where are they now?” Trump asked, seconds after being told for a second time that they were all killed by ISIS.

“They killed them. They are in the mass graves in Sinjar,” Murad replied.

As she continued to explain, Trump interrupted her to claim, “I know the area very well, you’re talking about. It’s a tough — yeah,” then told her, “We’re going to look into it very strongly.”

Murad thanked Trump at which point he noted “And you had the Nobel Prize?”, then asked, “They gave it to you for what reason?”

As Murad explained her activism following her escape, Trump marveled, “Oh really? Is that right?”

[Mediaite]

‘Our recollection keeps changing’: Rudy Giuliani admits Trump may not testify because he can’t tell the truth

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani revealed on Sunday that President Donald Trump may not agree to testify or be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller because his “recollection” of the truth “keeps changing.”

“This is the reason you don’t let the president testify,” Giuliani told ABC host George Stephanopoulos. “Our recollection keeps changing, or we’re not even asked a question and somebody makes an assumption.”

[Raw Story]

Media

How could Trump be so clueless about community colleges?

(CNN) When I started college at 19, I was timid and unsure of the big world ahead of me.

Fast-forward two years later and I felt like a different person: More confident, more self-assured and more determined than ever to pursue a degree in journalism after a high school hobby grew into a full-fledged passion.

The positive changes were remarkable, and I credit much of my transformation to one thing: My education at a community college.

Sadly, though, community colleges don’t hold much value, at least if you listen to President Donald Trump. Last week, during a speech at an Ohio training facility for construction apprentices, he spoke of his desire to return to the days of vocational schools while simultaneously underscoring the valuable role community colleges play in society.

“I don’t know what that means, a community college,” Trump told the crowd in Richfield, Ohio. “Call it vocational and technical. People know what that means. They don’t know what a community college means.”

In the world of Trump quotes, this was a pretty blink-and-you-missed it one, but his words were misguided at best and incredibly destructive at worst. For Trump to display such casual ignorance shows a disregard that is nothing short of a grave disservice to the people who seek a quality education there.

And the number of people who do is not a small one in the slightest. According to the College Board, which tracks trends in higher education, in 2014 more than 40% of all undergraduate students were enrolled in a community college.

So what exactly does “community college” mean? Many things to many people. Different things to different people. It means a chance for a single parent who works full-time to take night classes and work toward a degree. It means someone who’s retired can experience the excitement of continuing education classes. It means someone fresh out of high school can save money on tuition and explore their options while taking general education classes at a two-year college.

My community college education gave me a solid foundation right from the beginning. It gave me room to grow, to learn about myself and to develop skills — both academic skills and life skills — that I would carry with me even after I left those hallowed halls and found myself in the “real world.” And things like smaller class sizes and more one-on-one interaction with instructors made me realize that solid foundation was unique; I doubt I would have had the same experience if I started at a four-year university right out of high school.

And I doubt I’d be the writer I am today if it weren’t for the time I spent as a staff writer (and later, editor-in-chief) of my college’s student newspaper. I was able to get hands-on experience in all facets of newspaper production, from writing to interviewing sources to editing to design, as well as learning leadership skills that extended far beyond the classroom.

Maybe that’s why, some six years after I graduated, I found myself walking those old, familiar halls of my community college once again. Only this time, I was no longer a student, but an adjunct faculty member. I was back as the faculty adviser to the student newspaper — yes, the same newspaper I worked on when I was a student. I was training the next generation of student journalists. In a way, it felt like everything was falling into place just as it should. It felt like everything had come full circle and I was home again.

That is the power and meaning of community college. Because everything I learned in those couple years have molded and shaped me into the person I am today. I’ve carried those lessons with me.

My community college turns 50 this year. Its longevity speaks volumes, as do the memories I’ve carried with me for almost two decades.

As Alia Wong wrote recently in “The Atlantic,” the erroneous assumption Trump made in his speech “was that community colleges and vocational schools haven’t been able to and can’t exist alongside each other — a misunderstanding that further underappreciates an already underappreciated component of American education.”

Maybe that’s the beauty of it right there: Community colleges serve a variety of purposes, all of which benefit our present and future. Education, in all its forms, is never a waste of time. Taking steps to learn something and to better yourself is always a worthwhile endeavor. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

[CNN]

Media

Trump Confuses North and South Korea

Saturday night, in the middle of a comic speech at the Gridiron Club, President Trump wandered into a completely serious riff about North Korea. “It was headed for disaster and now we’re talking,” he announced. “They, by the way, called up a couple of days ago; they said, ‘We would like to talk,’” Trump said. “And I said, ‘So would we, but you have to denuke.’”

The claim that Trump had spoken with North Korea confounded foreign policy observers. “It was not clear whether Trump was describing a direct conversation or messages sent through diplomatic channels,” reported the Washington Post.

The answer turns out to be: neither. Trump was describing a conversation with South Korea. An official from the National Security Council tells Yonhap News Agency, a South Korean publication, that Trump “was referring to his March 1 phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.” So Trump was close, geographically, but instead of describing a breakthrough exchange with the totalitarian enemy that is developing nukes and threatening to kill us, he was describing the democratic ally that has no nukes and is trying not to be killed.

Trump was right that it was a Korea, but he had the wrong one. There are so many Koreas these days, it is hard to keep track.

[New York Magazine]

Reality

Remember when Trump claimed he had “one of the great memories of all time“?

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