Trump appears to confuse Iranian and North Korean leaders in campaign rant

Former President Donald Trump appeared to confuse the leaders of Iran and North Korea during a campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, in footage posted to X.

Trump made the remarks during a stream-of-consciousness rant that began with bragging about his crowd size — an issue Trump has been increasingly sore about as his rallies have shrunk in size and Vice President Kamala Harris has called attention to videos of his supporters bailing on his speeches halfway through.

"I don't know if anybody was up there, but you saw the people," said Trump. "That crowd was massive. But last week, we had a crowd of 50 to 55-60,000 people, and we had planned an outdoor rally, and it would have been amazing, and Washington would not get us, they said that we have to guard the United Nations, which meant the president of North Korea, who's basically trying to kill me. So they want to guard him, but they don't want to guard me. So we're going to start having it out with them, because we sort of have it. They want to use — it's like a form of election interference."

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Trump most likely had North Korea confused with Iran, as U.S. intelligence recently warned his campaign about plots from that country to assassinate him. However, the rant triggered a fresh wave of speculation about the former president's cognitive state.

"We can expect Trump's cognitive abilities--or lack thereof--to dominate the news cycle, right?" wrote Mother Jones D.C. bureau chief David Corn.

"Seriously, when Biden did this it was endless stories about cognitive decline. The man is deteriorating in real time," wrote national security attorney Bradley Moss.

"I think it’s reasonable to watch this clip, add the withdrawal from a 60 minutes interview, and wonder if there’s something actually going on," wrote Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI). "I don’t know- maybe he’s fine, but it’s not a wacky or nasty thing to inquire about."

Watch the video below or at the link here.