Donald Trump has dedicated a significant portion of his 2024 election campaign to mocking President Joe Biden’s perceived lethargy and mental acuity.
However, the former president, now 78, is encountering similar scrutiny regarding his own cognitive abilities, as reported by AP News on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
Despite frequently being criticized for his verbal missteps and disjointed speeches, Heather Cox Richardson, a Boston College history professor, notes that Trump’s memory issues are becoming increasingly apparent, potentially jeopardizing his campaign efforts.
“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,” she wrote.
“And there might be more attention paid to Trump’s lapses now that Biden has stepped aside.”
To illustrate her argument, Richardson referenced a recent moment when Trump claimed he never recommended Jamie Dimon for the position of Treasury Secretary.
During a July 16 interview, Donald Trump revealed he had “a lot of respect for Jamie Dimon,” and he was asked if he’d think about appointing him Treasury Secretary, his response was, “He is somebody that I would consider, sure.”
However, on Tuesday, July 23, he ranted on his Truth Social platform: “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.”
The Trump campaign is encountering additional challenges in the wake of President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race and support Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy.
Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe, asserted that one of Trump’s greatest concerns was the prospect of not facing Biden as his opponent, as the former president had structured his campaign around attacking Biden. report from BBC.
Scarborough added, “If you talk about boxing, he was used to going against Biden, right? So, what have they done? They’ve switched it up — it’s going to be a southpaw now.”
Trump’s campaign team is reconsidering whether JD Vance remains the optimal choice for running mate, given the altered political landscape following President Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race.
Some senior members of the Republican campaign staff have admitted that Vance’s selection was made with the assumption of a Trump landslide victory over Biden, rather than to attract swing voters in a close contest.
With Biden no longer the opponent, Trump associates are reevaluating the merits of Vance as his running mate.
“Most striking thing I heard from Trump allies yesterday was the second-guessing of J.D. Vance — a selection, they acknowledged, that was [born] of cockiness, meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nail-biter,” reporter Tim Alberta wrote via social media on July 22.
