Il « radote ». Il “rambles”. It is easy to put on ” angry “. It goes from “digressions in digressions”more than usual. Donald Trump, who has become the oldest candidate for the presidency of the United States in history, does not benefit from the preferential treatment that Joe Biden enjoyed in the American press until his abandonment. The age argument, which was that of the Republicans against his former rival, turned brutally against Trump as the New York Times described in a long survey published this week as increasingly ” confused “ and easily “distracted”.
In short, at 78, Trump would be… old! A scoop! The flagship daily of the East Coast elites scrutinized hours of speeches, compared his public performances in 2024 with those of his beginnings when, in 2015, he launched his candidacy from Trump Tower. As long as he could be compared to Joe Biden, the candidate of the American right looked good and looked young.
The New York Times thus reveals that the Republican would suffer from immediate memory loss “while he is quite capable of remembering past events”notably those he experienced in the 1980s or 1990s when the real estate mogul was at the height of his glory. In his public speeches, he would also mention more frequently than usual his life when he was a dashing forty-year-old then fifty-year-old… But it is hard with Donald Trump to know if it is a question of personality trait or cognitive problems. He who has never smoked or ever drunk, who often (and even too often according to his detractors who would prefer him sitting behind a desk working on the country’s affairs) golf and whose only vice is junk food and the red meat, overcooked and hard as sole that he covers with ketchup while quenching his thirst with Diet Coke, does not give the impression of being in the winter of his life. It was necessary to find some symptoms of mental degeneration in him!
“He pronounces names wrong”
The New York newspaper noted Trump’s numerous slips of the tongue, gaffes and mispronunciations: “He mispronounces names and places with some regularity: “Charlottestown” instead of “Charlottesville,” “Minnianapolis” instead of “Minneapolis,” the website “Snoops” instead of “Snopes,” “Leon” Musk instead of ‘Elon’.” Worse, the New York Times (four journalists signed this investigation, no less…) counted Trump’s swear words. “He is using 69% more than in his first campaign, a trend that may reflect what experts call disinhibition. »
Rudeness is, however, universal in this country which, however puritanical it may seem, loves verbal violence in politics. George Bush Jr called journalists “assholes”Joe Biden asked Trump in the middle of the debate to “shut up”, the latter treating the Democrat, in a meeting, of “son of a bitch…”. Further from us, Lyndon Johnson, in perfect possession of his intellectual means, had the habit of dropping his pants in front of reporters (both men and women). Ronald Reagan, in his last years in power (he was then America’s oldest president), was already suffering from Alzheimer’s.
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Long speeches, often off teleprompter
Yes, yes New York Times patiently waited for Joe Biden’s forced withdrawal to attack Trump, others did not take this precaution with regard to the former Republican president. The renowned Cornell University in New York State published a study last March on Trump’s senility.
Its author, Harry Segal is a lecturer in the department of psychiatry at the Cornell Medical School… and a specialist in the lives of young adults! The scientist thus cited several clinicians who had noticed “the way Trump misworded, lost his train of thought, confused Biden with Obama, especially during long evening meetings”. He further noted “examples of phonemic paraphasia – which consists of substituting pieces of words for others that sound similar – are all signs of early dementia, even if they are intermittent”. At the time of his investigation, Biden was still a candidate but was judged more favorably than Trump on his cognitive abilities. Segal assured, however, that his study did not reflect “not a partisan position… If the numbers were reversed, I would make the same judgment.”
Except that until last August, talking about Biden’s senility was almost like a conspiracy theory. It was not until the very end of his candidacy that the media finally took a more objective look at the health concerns of Joe Biden (aged 81). A look marked with tenderness and sympathy that we don’t find when it comes to talking about Trump’s age. On the one hand, there is the good grandpa with whom we would go fishing and this sort of aunt Danielle, American and masculine version, racist and incapable of telling the difference between Kansas City in Missouri and Wichita (very serious!).
But the Democrats’ boomerang strategy on age could also, if it goes too far (Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, has a field day in rallies, saying that Trump “has no more energy” et “must rest every weekend”), could alienate the vote of a certain number of seniors. America is also the country where minorities are not only ethnic or sexual but also generational. Especially since to criticize Trump’s cognitive abilities, we must also listen to his speeches lasting more than an hour, often off teleprompter: who, on the left, is capable of this in the United States? At 60, Harris talks less, laughs, it’s true, more but remains glued to the texts written by her spin doctors. Something Trump does not do. Not bad for an angry old man.
