In spite of his frequent claims that Former President Joe Biden would not be able to “ace” cognitive tests, President Donald Trump recently said that he didn’t notice any signs of cognitive decline when he met Biden in 2024. On Thursday, June 4, Trump told reporters that when they met after the election that year, Biden “was the same guy I’ve been watching for a long time.”
On social media, some people have called Trump’s response to this question “strange” because of the sudden shift. They’re also wondering why a reporter bothered to ask Trump about this, as if he’s an authority on cognitive decline.
The reporter asked Trump if he could “detect any cognitive decline” in Biden during their November 2024 meeting.
Reporter: When you met with Joe Biden in the Oval Office on November 13th of 2024. Could you detect any cognitive decline in President Biden at that time.
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 4, 2026
Trump: No, not really. He was the same guy I've been watching for a long time. They actually invited me here before the… pic.twitter.com/riFJGj2cF5
Trump said no. “No, not really,” he answered. “He was the same guy I’ve been watching for a long time.” What he said next made it clear that this was not exactly a compliment. “I mean, you could go back 40 years. I watched him 40 years ago, 30 years ago, never the sharpest guy,” Trump continued. “It wasn’t like he was sharp as a tack.”
He added, “But, no, it was the same guy… I mean, he was fine as far as I was concerned.”
But Trump critics don’t trust his judgment. “They asked him about Joe but not about himself?” one critic commented on X. Someone else said, “Why is this reporter asking a president who is clearly in cognitive decline about the cognitive decline of his predecessor?”
After all, Biden has not been president for over a year now.
So, to a lot of critics, this question seemed pretty irrelevant. People are more concerned about the current president. “The question that should’ve been asked was can you detect your own cognitive decline lately because we’ve all noticed it, u falling asleep?” a commenter wrote. “Why constantly lie about your health?”
Some critics also found it odd that Trump suddenly said he didn’t observe any signs of cognitive decline in Biden. This is the same man who previously said Biden wouldn’t have been able to identify animals while taking a cognitive test, and wouldn’t have been able to sign his own name.
Additionally, during an event in January of this year, Trump tried to impersonate Biden by giving an incomprehensible speech. He also claimed that Biden’s speeches would only “last a matter of seconds” and he “would always cough before a speech.” Yet, now, he’s saying the Biden he met with in 2024 was the same guy from 40 years ago?
So, when Trump said on Thursday that he observed no cognitive decline in the former president, critics called him out for changing his story: “That’s not what he has said over and over,” one person wrote. And another said, “this is such a strange answer… my theory is that he is trying to get ahead of age related concerns ppl increasingly have abt him.”
Trump also claimed that “something happened” to Biden during their infamous June 2024 debate.
He implied that Biden’s performance that night was out of character for him. “I don’t know,” Trump told reporters. “Something happened during the debate. It could’ve been me. I thought I had a very good debate. Nobody ever says that. They say that Biden did badly. What about me? Did I do well?”
He continued, “You know, there’s a reason he did badly. So, the question is did he do badly because he choked, or because he didn’t have it? I will say this: he did not have a good night.” When asked about their November 2024 meeting again, Trump said, “As we talked, we got along very well and I thought he was fine.”
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