Â鶹ӰÊÓ

Skip to main content

Donald Trump says when he mixes up names, it's on purpose

Share

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his recent mixing up of names was intentional.

During a speech last month, Trump confused Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination, with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He also suggested former Democratic president Barack Obama was still in office.

"When I purposely interposed names, they said I didn't know Pelosi from Nikki," Trump said at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday. He said calling Obama the current president was sarcasm, not a gaffe.

"I'm a great speaker," Trump said.

The issue of age and mental competence have been thrust to the forefront of the 2024 election campaign after a report last week suggested U.S. President Joe Biden, 81, was suffering from memory lapses.

Meanwhile, Biden allies have pointed to verbal flubs by former president Trump, including the Haley and Pelosi mix up and the Obama remark.

Trump, the Republican frontrunner for his party's presidential nomination, is eying a general election rematch with Biden in November.

Haley, 52, has called for mental competency tests for presidential candidates over 75 years old, including Biden and Trump, the two oldest men elected to the U.S. presidency.

Some 78 per cent of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published Tuesday - including 71 per cent of Democrats - think Biden is too old to work in government. Trump suffers less from voter skepticism over his age; 53 per cent of respondents consider him to be too old for government work.

Biden recently mixed up the names of world leaders, including France's former president Francois Mitterrand with its current president, Emmanuel Macron.

Special Counsel Robert Hur, a Republican former U.S. attorney in Maryland during Trump's administration, said in his report on Biden's handling of classified documents last week that Biden was a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory" who was not able to recall to investigators when his son, Beau Biden, died.

Biden responded angrily to the report, saying his memory is "fine."

During Wednesday's rally, Trump also insisted that he "loves" the U.S. military. Haley has attacked him in recent days for past comments Trump has made disparaging veterans, including one last week when he mocked her husband, who is deployed oversees with the Army National Guard.

Trump is close to clinching the Republican nomination after wins in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

Haley, who has no clear path to the nomination, is refusing to quit the race, making a potential last stand in her home state of South Carolina in its Feb. 24 primary. She trails badly in opinion polls behind Trump there.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

The British Columbia election campaign is set to officially start today, with Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin issuing the writ for the Oct. 19 vote.

A northern Ontario man is facing a $12,000 fine after illegally shooting a moose near the Batchawan River.

Unusual flippered feet are making their way into the Saint Lawrence River this weekend. Led by underwater explorer and filmmaker Nathalie Lasselin, volunteer divers are combing the riverbed near Beauharnois in Montérégie to remove hundreds of tires that have been polluting the aquatic environment for decades.

A sea lion swam free after a rescue team disentangled it near Vancouver Island earlier this week.

Local Spotlight

Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.

Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.