Donald Trump confirms he has short-term memory loss; he can’t even name Maria Machado after taking her Nobel Peace Prize
He just abandoned her like that.
Donald Trump stood in front of the press and talked for minutes about the Nobel Peace Prize he just received. But he never once managed to name Maria Corina Machado. The president is never beating the dementia/Alzheimer’s allegations.
On Friday, reporters asked Trump what he planned to do with the Nobel medal he had received from Machado. In his rehearsed speech, Trump described her simply as “a person” or a “woman.” He repeatedly avoided naming her directly, even as he acknowledged her “very nice gesture” of giving him her award.
I thought it was a very nice gesture. And by the way, I think she’s a very fine woman. And we’ll be talking again — a very nice person.
The reporters followed up, asking him why he’s still aligning with Kelsey Rodriguez and not with Machado for Venezuela’s control. To this, Trump trailed off into a non-sequitur about Iraq before circling back:
I’ll tell you, I had a great meeting yesterday with a person who I have a lot of respect for, and she has respect, obviously, for me and our country. And she gave me her Nobel Prize. But I’ll tell you what — I got to know her. I never met her before, and I was very, very impressed. She’s a really — this is a fine woman
Trump did not even say “Machado,” let alone her full name
Never once did Trump actually say “Maria Corina Machado.” This is about basic recall and basic decency of at least acknowledging the name of the person who just gave away their highest honor to you.
Machado has said she presented the medal to Trump in recognition of his role in the U.S.-led capture of Nicolas Maduro. She framed it as advancing a democratic transition. However, the Nobel Committee has been crystal clear that the prize can’t actually be given, shared, or transferred. Yet in Trump’s press remarks, when asked about that very award he had just taken, he repeatedly described Machado in vague terms.
Social media users tore through Trump’s demented response
If you can’t remember who just gave you an award, particularly one you’ve spent years craving, that’s revealing. Trump’s failure to name her looks less like a slip and more like evidence of a rudimentary memory lapse. Social media reaction did not take a nap through that context. They hit right where it would hurt.
“He thinks her name is ‘person,’” one mocked. Another added, “You are so right. He strong-arms the woman and then can’t remember who she is.” Another went a step ahead, writing, “He never bothered to learn it in the first place.” One reasoned, “Because he really doesn’t give a sh-t about her or Venezuela beyond how much he can steal from it with her help.” But the dementia allegations did not get buried. “We’re months away from him not remembering his own,” one jabbed.
The comments were not exaggerated; they reflected exactly what people saw on camera. When a president is asked why he accepted a hand-me-down prize and the answer is a half-formed description without a name attached, the problem is cognition and attention. He could have said, “I’m grateful to María Corina Machado for presenting me with this medal.” But we got “A person with respect for me gave me this. She’s a fine woman.”
For someone already shadowed by questions about memory and fitness, that omission did more damage than any denouncement from the Nobel Committee ever could.
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