Donald Trump has significant difficulties with his memory, according to Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass author Ramin Setoodah.
During a Monday, June 17, appearance on Morning Joe, the journalist claimed Trump struggled to remember him mere months after they sat down for a lengthy interview to discuss the book.
"Donald Trump had severe memory issues," Setoodeh told the show host. "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."
The author clarified that he first spoke with the ex-prez for around one hour in May 2021, and several months later, Trump only stared at him with a "vacant look on his face" as if he didn't recognize him at all.
Setoodeh conducted a total of six interviews with Trump.
"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," Setoodah explained of his experiences with the controversial politician.
However, Trump campaign rep Steven Cheung fiercely denied the allegations about the 78-year-old's cognitive abilities.
"President Trump was aware of who this individual was throughout the interview process, but this ‘writer’ is a nobody and insignificant so of course he never made an impression," Cheung claimed in a statement shared with a news outlet.
"After recognizing the importance of The Apprentice and its significant cultural impact on a global scale, this ‘writer’ has now chosen to allow Trump Derangement Syndrome to rot his brain like so many other losers whose entire existence revolves around President Trump," he concluded.
This isn't the first time Trump's memory has been called into question. As OK! previously reported, Trump flubbed White House physician Ronny Jackson’s name at a Saturday, June 15, speaking engagement.
"Does everyone know Ronny Johnson?" Trump asked the crowd. "He was the White House doctor and he told me I was the healthiest president he feels in history. So I liked him very much."
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Despite the on-and-off suspicions that Trump's memory isn't what it used to be, the embattled businessman has bragged about allegedly "acing" a cognitive test given to him at Walter Reed National Medical Center back in 2020.
"It was 30 or 35 questions. The first questions are very easy. The last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question," Trump told Fox News at the time. "It's like, you'll go, 'Person, woman, man, camera, TV.' So they say, 'Could you repeat that?' So I said, 'Yeah.'"
"So it's, 'Person, woman, man, camera, TV.' OK, that's very good. If you get it in order, you get extra points," he continued. "I proved I was all there ... They said, that's an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did."
People reported Cheung's statement.