President Donald Trump's cognitive decline was called back into question during a rambling speech in Pittsburgh Tuesday, during which he forgot names and told stories that were very unlikely to be true.
His speech at the "Energy and Innovation" event hosted by Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick featured Trump's typical stream-of-consciousness style, weaving between topics relevant to the event and other general remarks about his rivals and political victories. At one point, however, he claimed that his uncle, a physicist who helped create radar systems during World War II, taught future "Unabomber" terrorist Theodore Kaczynski at MIT, none of which had actually happened .
Trump, 79, is the oldest person ever to be sworn in as president, and will be nearly 83 when his second term comes to an end. Joe Biden was 80 years old when he withdrew from the presidential race last year. The latest concerns about Trump's cognitive health come days after he was pictured with swollen ankles.
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He also forgot who from his team had come with him on the trip to Pittsburgh, mistakenly gesturing to Representative Dan Meuser for Pennsylvania's 9th Congressional District, who was not present at the event.
I want to introduce Dan Meuser. Dan Meuser is here," Trump said. "Where's Dan?
"They all stayed in Washington," McCormick told the president. "Oh, they're in Washington working on our next bill? Good," Trump replied, presumably surprised.
Trump later claimed that Dr. John Trump, his late paternal uncle, once taught the Unabomber, a math professor who was arrested in 1996 for mailing letter bombs to higher education figures and others over several decades. Trump often describes his uncle as the "longest-serving professor" to ever teach at MIT, even though he does not hold that distinction, according to The Independent .
"Kaczynski was one of his students. Do you know who Kaczynski was? There's very little difference between a madman and a genius," he said. Trump then said he once asked his uncle about the Unabomber.
"What kind of student was he, Uncle John?" He said: "What kind of student - seriously, good ... he would go around correcting everyone. But it didn't work out too well for him. It didn't work out too well, but it's interesting in life,"" Trump said.
Kaczynski never attended MIT, but rather received degrees from Harvard and the University of Michigan. Even if John Trump had once crossed paths with Kaczynski, he could not have known that he would commit 16 bomb attacks between 1971 and 1995, as John Trump died in 1985, years before he was identified as the Unabomber.
It is unknown whether Trump intentionally fabricated the story — or the reason for doing so — or if he had confused Kaczynski, who died in federal prison in 2023, with someone else.
During his speech, Trump also seemed to forget the pronunciation of the name of his longtime aide, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios.
He also claimed that he had secured $16 trillion in investments in the economy, despite the U.S. economy being just under $30 trillion.
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