During a speech in Detroit on June 15, former US President Donald Trump questioned President Joe Biden's mental acuity and proposed that Biden should take a cognitive test. Trump, 78, praised his own performance on a similar test he took in 2018 under the supervision of then White House physician Ronny Jackson. However, during his speech, Trump mistakenly referred to Jackson as "Ronny Johnson."
The cognitive assessment in question is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), which Trump took upon his request to detect early signs of memory loss and cognitive impairment. The test involves exercises such as remembering a list of words, repeating numbers backward, naming words starting with a specific letter, and drawing figures.
Additionally, Trump criticized Biden's behavior at a G7 summit in Italy, claiming Biden had turned "to look at trees" instead of focusing on a parachutist landing. This claim is based on a viral video edited to omit scenes showing Biden acknowledging a different skydiver.
The speech took place at a Turning Point Action event attended by about 2,000 supporters. The gaffe about Ronny Jackson's name was swiftly picked up by online critics, including the Biden campaign, which shared clips of the error on social media.
Trump's address in Detroit was part of his larger campaign strategy to question the 81-year-old Biden's fitness for a second term in the upcoming presidential election.