For the second time just this year, the former United States President and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump confused the incumbent President Joe Biden for his predecessor Barack Obama. This time around the gaffe happened during a rally in the US state of Virginia over the weekend.
Obama or Biden?
Addressing a rally in Virginia over the weekend, the former president confused Biden who once served as the vice president in the Obama administration and said how the Russian president has “so little respect for Obama” that he is threatening nuclear war.
“And (Russian President Vladimir) Putin…has so little respect for Obama that he is starting to throw around the nuclear word. You heard that. Nuclear. He’s starting to talk nuclear weapons today. And I was waiting for that to happen,” said Trump, presumably talking about Biden.
He added, “We have a fool…as a president.” The video also shows that the crowd previously heard cheering and clapping went silent after the former president’s gaffe.
It is also worth noting, that the goof-up took place days after Trump called on Biden to take a cognitive test slamming the Democrat for what he called “terrible decisions”. He also boasted about how he has “aced” such a test twice himself.
“Crooked Joe Biden must take a Cognitive Test. Maybe that way we would be able to find out why he makes such terrible decisions,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, on Thursday (Feb 29).
He added, “All Presidents, or people wanting to become President, should mandatorily take this test!”
Trump’s gaffe also came a day after Biden, twice, confused Ukraine and Gaza while announcing that the US would airdrop humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the besieged enclave.
American voters concerned about Biden’s age
As the US gears up for the presidential election in November, likely to be a rematch between Trump and Biden, polls have shown that most voters have expressed concerns about the incumbent president’s age.
At 81, Biden is the oldest president in US history and would be 86 by the end of a second term, if he wins. However, Trump, who is around three and a half years younger than his successor, was also the oldest president in American history by the end of his term.
(With inputs from agencies)
