President Donald Trump, 79, has forgotten a critical statement he made about his war with Iran just one day after making it.
Trump has repeatedly bragged about having taken three cognitive tests, which he claims he aced, despite regularly falling asleep on the job.
The president, who turns 80 next month, has now been caught out on Saturday denying something he said on Friday evening.
Trump was speaking to the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in South Florida. After he bragged about owning the Trump National Doral golf club in Miami, he complained, “Right now, I’m so busy,” due to his club hosting a PGA Tour tournament.
After recalling someone complimenting him on the tournament on Thursday, Trump diverted, “I said, ‘What tournament are you talking about? I’m so busy with the Iranians calling, trying to make a good deal, and we’re not gonna let that happen.’ But… they’ve gotta make a bad deal. But... if they make a deal at all."
He continued, “Because frankly, maybe we’re better off not making a deal at all, do you want to know the truth. Because we can’t let this thing go on. It’s been going on too long.” The audience can be heard politely applauding after he finished his sentence.
Then, on Saturday, on his way to Doral to attend the PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship at his golf club, Trump told the press he was “looking at” a new 14-point peace proposal from Iran.
“They want to make a deal,” Trump told reporters.
However, as CNN reported, a journalist then reminded Trump, “Last night you said we might be better off not making a deal with Iran.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have to,” Trump said, before adding the denial, “I didn’t say that.”
“I said that if we left right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild,” he continued. “But we’re not leaving right now. We’re gonna do it so nobody has to go back in two years or five years.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
During his dinner speech on Friday, Trump did say if the U.S. left Iran now “it would take them 20 years, 25 years to rebuild the place.” He made the comments before claiming, “Maybe we’re better off not making a deal at all.”
The president has been caught out backtracking on a previous statement before. In December last year, an ABC News journalist asked Trump about releasing video footage of the U.S. military’s attack on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Caribbean.
“I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we’d certainly release, no problem,” Trump said. Five days later, when asked about releasing the video, he backtracked again. “I didn’t say that. You said that, I didn’t say that. This is ABC fake news.”
Trump also spoke at the world’s largest retirement community—The Villages, Florida—on Friday, where he shared details about his latest cognitive test, claiming his own supporters may fail the examination.
“Thirty questions. Everyone says, very standard. It’s a very standard test, but very tough around those last 10 questions.”
He added, “I’m in a room of brilliant people, but a lot of you wouldn’t have been able to answer those 10 questions. And when I got the score in the test, the doctor said, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen...’” without finishing the sentence.
Detailed results of Trump’s cognitive tests taken in office have not been released.
During a Truth Social posting spree on Friday, Trump bragged about his brain power and claimed the tests should be mandatory.
“Anybody running for President or Vice President should be forced to take a Cognitive Examination prior to entering the Race! By doing so, we wouldn’t be surprised at people like Barack ‘Hussein’ Obama, or Sleepy Joe Biden, getting ‘ELECTED,’” he wrote in one post.
He then claimed of the tests he had “I took the Exam three times during my (“THREE!”) Terms as President, and ACED IT ALL THREE TIMES.”
