When Trump Gave a Strange Rambling Interview and Netizens Asked "What in the Dementia is This"

Social media was left scratching their heads after former president Donald Trump's bizarre, rambling interview that aired on Newsmax. In the interview, Trump focused mostly on his then-upcoming debate with President Joe Biden, but the bit for which he faced massive trolling on social media was when Trump criticized the border under the current administration. 

The criticism slowly veered into exaggerated claims about deaths because of Biden's border policy, with Trump suggesting that hundreds have died. But his speech was completely incoherent, with many not being able to understand what he was saying. MeidasTouch reporter Acyn uploaded a clip, with the captions suggesting Trump was saying, "We lose hundreds of, think of it, hundreds of thousands of people are dying at our border, coming through our border every year because of our border."

Internet users slammed the former president, with a user joking, "WHAT IN THE DEMENTIA IS THIS?" Another user mocked, saying, "Just a preview of what to expect at the debate. It’s gonna be nuts." Another user slammed, "Every day is hell when millions of people confuse whatever the hell this is with POTUS material..." Someone else slammed, "Trump's brain rot has been the least discussed topic in mainstream media history."

Then, one individual commented on Trump's usage of the phrase 'think of it,' saying, "'Think of it' is one of the phrases Trump uses in a desperate attempt to cover up one of his ever-escalating cognitive glitches." Another user charged with a similar jab, "Fun fact, every time he says 'Think of it' another few brain cells just died," with yet another user saying, "'Think of it' is his tell anytime his memory trips over itself." 

Someone else asked, "I'm unsure what is more striking: the completely made-up numbers or the agrammatical gibberish sentence." Then, one person took a shot at his attacks on Biden, saying, "When you sound like this and struggle to form a cohesive sentence, your campaign resorts to lying about your opponent, projecting onto others your drug use, and calling them senile."

The border and immigration are anticipated to be hot topics during the June 27 debate. Whatever transpires on Thursday night—sharp points, awkward gaffes, or stumbles—will be felt for months because the second debate is not expected to take place until September. Voters' top issue now seems to be immigration; and early this year, Trump and Biden even hosted parallel trips to the border between the United States and Mexico, per Axios.

Republicans have accused Biden of being overly lenient toward border crossings, citing an increase in border crossings since his election. The president signed the most forceful executive order of his administration to date earlier this month, to reduce illegal border crossings. The action had been long anticipated. Earlier this year, Trump reportedly pushed Republicans to sabotage a bipartisan border agreement that would have implemented tight border controls, a point expected to be raised at the debate.

This article originally appeared on 6.27.24