Over recent years, Trump has experienced several instances of slurred speech.
On March 12, during a Women’s History Month event, he exhibited noticeable verbal errors and faced criticism for allegedly fabricating details in his speech.
While attempting to say “three hundred thousand,” he started with “Since I took office, we created more than three hund…” before pausing. He continued, “Take a listen to this number, three hundred thousand jobs by proud, hard-working American women. Jobs are coming in through the roof, and we have factories being built all over the country… We’ve taken in $18 trillion-plus in 11 months.”
In a similar incident on February 11, at a White House event, the The Apprentice star stumbled over his words while declaring himself the “Undisputed Champion of Coal.” He began with “I’m proud to officially name the undispuut…” before pausing and asking, “When did this come out? Mr. Speaker.” After appearing briefly confused on stage, he continued, “The undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal.”
He further remarked, “We have to proceed, always — don’t use the word coal, you know, it needs a PR job.”
In December 2025, he delivered a nationally televised address that was difficult to understand due to unclear speech.
These repeated communication issues, alongside his Montreal Cognitive Assessments, have led clinical psychologist Dr. John Gartner to speculate about possible underlying concerns. During an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Gartner commented, “You know, he kind of gave the game away again, as he often does. You could maybe justify giving someone the MoCA once, just on their age, just as part of a physical. If you’re giving it to him three times, that means you’re not assessing dementia. That means you’re monitoring dementia.”
He further explained, “Because if you keep feeling like, no, he’s still got the symptoms, we’ve got to see how bad he’s doing now, we’ve got to check again, see how bad he’s doing now – I think they’re giving him cognitive tests and MRIs every six months to monitor the progress of his dementia, and/or strokes.”
