Remember when Trump made a bunch mix-ups on stage in Wisconsin and got an earful for it?
Donald Trump loved focusing on Joe Biden's mixups on stage when he was still running against the president in the 2024 Election, but Trump has also had his fair share of down days while on the campaign trail.
One of the former president's most damaging recent campaign rallies saw him stumble and fumble over his words at several points during a 90-minute plus September 7th speech in Mosinee, Wisconsin.
Most of Trump's mix-ups in Mosinee weren’t too terrible, but they did result in a lot of attacks on the former president from his critics for his varies flubs, most of which were levied against him online.
One of the most egregious errors the former president may have made on stage was an offhand remark suggesting that people in their 80s were not accountable for the documents they signed according to the Raw Story’s David McAfee.
The statement was a problem for Trump since Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 Election immediately turned Trump into the oldest candidate who has ever run for the White House.
“Trump, currently 78 years old and running for a four-year term in the nation's highest office, is at this moment the oldest candidate ever to sustain a run for the presidency in the United States,” McAfee pointed out.
However, the former president’s quick remark about 80-year-olds and documents wasn't what got his critics riled up, but rather a few seemingly trivial verbal mix-ups prompted questions about Trump’s mental fitness for office and led to online criticism from some of his critics.
Biden’s mental decline and potential inability to perform his duties as president were two significant issues Trump targeted regularly when he was still running against Biden but it was Trump who was on the backend of similar attacks after his rally in Mosinee.
For example, while speaking to his crowd of supporters, the former president accidentally mixed up the name of his new political ally Elon Musk, referring to him as Leon during a very weird rant about the problems Boeing’s starliner was facing.
“Boeing, I shouldn’t say anything there is a beautiful Boeing plane right there… But, ehh Boeing had a little hard time, so they are going to save—Leon is going to send them a rocket,” the former president said according to The Daily Beast.
“He looks forward to it, that’s all he thinks about is things like that,” Trump added, and while it may seem like a minor mix-up, former prosecutor and Trump critic Christopher Alberto noted the error was a sign of Trump’s mental decline.
"Trump's gaffe calling Elon Musk 'Leon' Musk isn’t just a simple slip-up—it’s a glaring sign of his worsening cognitive decline,” Alberto wrote on X according to Raw Story.
“These frequent errors aren't minor; they highlight a serious, irreversible issue. His mental decline makes him unfit to serve as president,” Alberto added. However, this wasn't the only verbal flub that slipped (or didn't slip) from the former president's mouth while on stage.
While speaking about education, Trump failed to say the word “eliminate,” fumbling over it as he tried to explain that his future administration would eventually eliminate the Department of Education.
"Ultimately, will li--- [garbled], and you know what we're doing here,” Trump reportedly said according to Raw Story. "I say it all the time, I'm dying to get back to doing this. We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education,” Trump went on to add.
The incident earned the former president a simple “Yikes” from former Lincoln Project Veterans Affairs adviser and current Democratic campaign consultant Fred Wellman according to Raw Story.
Trump also mispronounced Wisconsin GOP Chairman Brian Schimming as “Briar,” mixed up the name of the Keystone Pipeline, calling it the “Keystown” Pipeline, and accidentally said “tampom” while trying to ridicule Tim Walz by calling him Tampon Tim.
Each of Trump’s verbal mishaps earned a comment from a critic with his “tampom” flub leading Democratic Party supporter Patricia Yamane to say: “And the rubes chuckled in childish glee,” according to Raw Story.
While Trump’s mistakes on stage may have been funny to some, they did prompt legitimate concerns about his age and ability to perform the duties of the president in the same way that those questions were promoted about Biden when he made a mistake.
Whether or not the former president’s verbal misfires in Wisconsin would lead some voters to reevaluate Trump as a candidate was unknown, but it was clear at the time nearly half the country was still willing to vote for Trump despite his growing issues.