Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh made shocking claims regarding Donald Trump's cognitive function.
The journalist alleged the ex-president displayed "severe memory issues" after spending a significant amount of time interviewing him for an upcoming book, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Trump sat down with Setoodeh for his forthcoming book about the ex-president's former reality show, The Apprentice. Despite their extensive chats, the journalist alleged the ex-president forgot who he was during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe.
Setoodeh appeared on Monday's edition of the news show to discuss his new book, Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass.
Setoodeh explained his working relationship with Trump in the years after he left the White House.
While noting the amount of time he had spent with Trump, the journalist pointed to his recent gaffe over the weekend, in which Trump mocked that Joe Biden "should take a cognitive test" because "I took a cognitive test and I aced it," though he soon forgot the name of the physician that administered it.
Twice Trump referred to the doctor was "Ronny Johnson" despite his name actually being Ronny Jackson, who's now a Texas congressman.
The journalist pointed out that the "other thing that I think is really interesting, because I really got to know Donald Trump post-presidency, and I got to see what he was like."
"And over the weekend, he was talking about how Joe Biden needs to take a cognitive test. Joe Biden, you know, 'isn’t all there.' Donald Trump had severe memory issues," Setoodeh continued. "As the journalist who spent the most time with him, I have to say, he couldn’t remember things. He couldn’t even remember me."
Setoodeh elaborated, "We spent an hour together in 2021, in May, and then a few months later, I went back to the White House, I went back to Trump Tower to talk to him about his time in the White House. And I said, he had this vacant look on his face. And I said, 'Do you remember me?' And he said, 'No,'"
"He had no recollection of our lengthy interview that we had, and he wasn’t doing a lot of interviews at that time," the journalist added. "So I think that the American public really needs to see this portrait of Donald Trump, because this shows what he is like and who he is and who he has always been."