Donald Trump now facing memory lapse concerns: Professor
Donald Trump is facing increased scrutiny over apparent memory lapses in the wake of Joe Biden pulling out the 2024 presidential race, according to a prominent academic.
Heather Cox Richardson, author and professor of history at Boston College, wrote in her Letters from an American substack that there are already signs that there might be more attention paid to Trump’s apparent lapses now that focus will not be on the 81-year-old president.
After Biden ended his reelection campaign on Sunday, Trump, 78, became the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history. If Trump wins November’s election, he could overtake Biden as the oldest ever sitting U.S. president during his second term.
Despite only being three years younger than Biden, and also prone to gaffes during public speaking, Trump had not faced the same level of public concern or scrutiny that he is too old or mentally unfit to run for office again as the president.
Richardson suggests that recent reports from CNN noting Trump saying he doesn’t know who said he would consider JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as his next Treasury Secretary — despite saying this in a Bloomberg News interview earlier in July — means the Republican looks could face increased scrutiny about his cognitive ability going forward.
“His lack of visibility highlights that the Republicans are now on the receiving end of the same age and coherence concerns they had used against Biden, and there might be more attention paid to Trump’s lapses now that Biden has stepped aside,” Richardson wrote.
“CNN’s Kate Sullivan noted today, for example, that ‘Trump said he’d consider Jamie Dimon for Treasury Secretary, but now says he doesn’t know who said that.’”
On Tuesday, Trump denied that he ever considered Dimon or BlackRock CEO Larry Fink as possible candidates in his next Cabinet.
“I don’t know who said it, or where it came from, perhaps the Radical Left, but I never discussed, or thought of, Jamie Dimon or Larry Fink for Secretary of the Treasury,” Trump wrote.
However, as noted by CNN, the claim appeared to have come from Trump himself, telling Bloomberg News in an interview published July 16 that he has a “lot of respect” for Dimon and that he is “somebody that I would consider” as a future Treasury Secretary.
Trump’s office has been contacted by Newsweek for comment via email.
Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, is now the presumptive 2024 Democratic nominee after Biden ended his reelection campaign following weeks of pressure to drop his bid.
Despite the switch at the top of the Democratic ticket, Trump has continued to attack Biden’s mental and physical fitness, something he had been doing throughout the 2024 campaign, targeting the president for his decision to remain in office through the end of his term.
“Does Lyin’ Kamala Harris think Joe Biden is fit to run the U.S.A. for the next six months? She must answer the question,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Now it appears Joe is delegating his Presidential Authority to unelected Washington Bureaucrats! He doesn’t even trust his Vice President. WHO IS RUNNING THE COUNTRY?”
Source: Ewan Palmer, newsweek.com/donald-trump-memory-lapses-cnn-biden-1929527