President Trump isn't making sense | Opinion

I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but President Donald Trump, the guy who catapulted America into a war of choice with Iran, doesn't seem like he’s doing well in the think-y/speak-y cognitive department. 

In just the past few days, the leader of our new mission-less war has: boasted of a conversation with a former president that doesn’t seem to have happened; forgotten the gender of two world leaders, including one he helped put in place; and forgotten the “drill, baby, drill” line he has used endlessly, instead slurring out a bizarre three-word motto used by a New York City energy company in the 1950s.

During a March 16 news conference, Trump talked about whether other countries will provide help to secure the Strait of Hormuz, saying that “we want them to come and help us with the strait,” and that “numerous countries have told me they’re on the way.” He segued briefly into saying, “I predicted Osama bin Laden would knock out the World Trade Center.”

Then he continued talking about other countries aiding America in the strait, saying, “They’re coming already” and “They've already started to get there.” And then: “We’re the strongest nation in the world. We have the strongest military by far in the world. We don't need them.” 

President Trump isn't making any sense

As it became clear on March 17 that NATO countries and other nations were not going to bail him out of his Iran mess, Trump, allegedly of sound mind and body, posted on social media: “Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance ‒ WE NEVER DID!”

So we want them to come, and they’re coming, or maybe they’re already there, but we don’t need them, so who cares? This is exactly the kind of consistent, cogent logic you want to hear from a wartime president, and I’m sure all Americans and our brave soldiers overseas feel confident they’re in good, capable hands.

Either that or we’re all going to die.

Pay attention to how much Trump has declined

Much of what you hear from Trump is sanitized by news organizations that, for reasons of space or broadcast time constraints or … whatever, use quotes sparingly, missing the broader, often more bizarre context. It’s odd, given that those same news organizations bent over backwards to highlight any time former President Joe Biden made a verbal gaffe or forgot something, but such is life.

So allow me to highlight the signs of an apparent cognitive decline you’re often not seeing or reading about. 

On March 16, Trump was speaking about Venezuela, the country we invaded before invading Iran, and said of that country’s leader, whom Trump effectively installed: “The president has done a really good job. We get along with him really well.”

Cool. Only problem is, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez is a woman, not a man. 

Lest that be considered a one-off goof, the next day, while meeting with the Irish prime minister at the White House, Trump was asked by a reporter to respond to Ireland’s president saying the Iran war is illegal.

“Look, he’s lucky I exist,” Trump said.

The president of Ireland is Catherine Connolly, who, like the acting Venezuelan president, is not a man.

Is our wartime president imagining conversations?

On March 16, Trump told reporters about a recent conversation he had with a former U.S. president who praised him for invading Iran: “I’ve spoken to a certain president ‒ who I like, actually. A past president, former president, he said, ‘I wish I did it. I wish I did.’ But they didn’t do it.”

Later that day, he repeated the claim, declining to name the former president: “I don’t want to say because a member of a party, a member of a party, they have Trump derangement syndrome, but it’s somebody that happens to like me, and I like that person, who’s a smart person, but that person said, ‘I wish I did it.’ OK, but I don’t want to get into who. I don’t want to get him into trouble.”

A smart question from the press corps would’ve been: “Mr. President, is the former president in the room with us right now?”

Because representatives of every living former president deny that such a conversation happened, so these are the only possible explanations for Trump’s tale: He was imagining a conversation with a former president who wasn’t there; he had a conversation with himself, since he is technically a former president; or he just made the whole thing up out of whole cloth.

At some point, the news media has to recognize Trump's cognitive decline

As an American watching oil prices spike and the United States descend into another Middle Eastern quagmire, none of those options is good.

On March 17, when Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in protest over the Iran war, Trump quickly commented: “I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security.” 

What? When he nominated Kent for the post in February 2025, Trump wrote on social media: “Joe will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists around the World, to the cartels in our backyard.”

So did the president put a guy he now says is “weak on security” in charge of counterterrorism? Or did the president put a guy he promised would “keep America safe” in charge of counterterrorism?

IT CAN’T BE BOTH, GRANDPA!

Having an aging, addled leader drag America into a war is suboptimal

Finally, there’s “drill, baby, drill,” unquestionably one of Trump’s favorite and most-repeated lines throughout his chaotic time in politics. On March 16, claiming America doesn’t need oil coming through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump changed the slogan entirely, slurring: “We didn’t need ‘em before we started 'dig we must.' Dig me wust, that’s the Trump policy of lots of oil.”

Dig me wust? Hoo boy. If Biden had said that, Fox News would have spontaneously combusted.

For the record, “Dig We Must” was a slogan used by New York City energy giant Con Edison Company in the 1950s. Trump’s addled brain was likely remembering times gone by. 

That’s not a top quality you want in a wartime leader.

It might be past time to worry about whether our president is all there.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk