Dazed and Confused: Every Time Donald Trump Appeared Off or Made a Major Mess-Up

"Confused" Donald Trump is increasingly puzzling those around him.

The president, who has ignited speculation about cognitive health issues over the past months, continued to fuel the rumors when he mistakenly referred to Ireland's female president, Catherine Connolly, as "he" on St. Patrick's Day.

During an Oval Office event on March 17, Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin asked Trump his thoughts on Connolly's criticism of the U.S. war with Iran.

"Who said that?" Trump asked, to which Martin responded, "The Irish president."

"Look, he's lucky I exist. That's all I can say," the POTUS said, misgendering the Irish president.

Trump has slurred his speech on multiple occasions over the past years.

On March 12, he spoke with noticeable verbal slips and was accused of fabricating facts during a Women's History Month speech.

"Since I took office we created more than three hund..." he spoke haltingly as he attempted to say "three hundred thousand."

"Take a listen to this number, three hundred thousand jobs by proud, hard-working American women," he added. "Jobs are coming in through the roof, and we have factories being built all over the country... We've taken in $18 trillion-plus in 11 months."

The Apprentice star had a similar blunder during a White House event on February 11, during which he praised himself as the "Undisputed Champion of Coal."

"I'm proud to officially name the undispuut..." Trump delivered a disjointed line before lapsing into a few seconds of incoherent speech. "When did this come out? Mr. Speaker."

After he appeared momentarily disoriented on stage, he continued, "The undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal."

"We have to proceed, always — don't use the word coal, you know, it needs a PR job," he added.

Then, in December 2025, he delivered a nationally televised speech filled with unclear, hard-to-hear words.

Trump's repeated Montreal Cognitive Assessments and communication slip-ups could suggest something more serious is at play, clinical psychologist Dr. John Gartner assumed.

"You know, he kind of gave the game away again, as he often does," he said in an episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast." "You could maybe justify giving someone the MoCA once, just on their age, just as part of a physical. If you're giving it to him three times, that means you're not assessing dementia. That means you're monitoring dementia."

He added, "Because if you keep feeling like, no, he's still got the symptoms, we've got to see how bad he's doing now, we've got to check again, see how bad he's doing now — I think they're giving him cognitive tests and MRIs every six months to monitor the progress of his dementia, and/or strokes."

At a White House gathering on March 12, an apparently confused Trump misidentified White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as his former senior counselor, Kellyanne Conway.

"And of course Kellyanne Conway. Has anyone ever heard of her? She's fantastic. She's in there fighting. She's — Kellyanne. A man, a friend of mine, said, 'You know that Kellyanne?'" he asked.

Trump added, "I admire her — the way she goes in and she screams at those people — meaning, the media, because this is a man that doesn't do very well with the media, it's one of those things. But, uh, thank you, Kellyanne."

Conway was not present at the event and no longer works for Trump.

Trump sought to reframe his ongoing Iran war during a speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee's fundraising dinner on March 25.

At one point, he acknowledged deliberately avoiding calling the military conflict a "war" to bypass possible legal requirements for congressional approval. Instead, his administration began using terms like "combat operation" or "kinetic conflict."

"I won't use the word 'war' because they say, if you use the word war, that's maybe not a good thing to do," the POTUS said. "They don't like the word 'war,' because you're supposed to get approval, so I'll use the word 'military operation,' which is really what it is."

However, he had a slip of the tongue later in the same speech, saying, "The war essentially ended a few days after we went in."

Following the capture of Venezuela's former President Nicolás Maduro, Delcy Rodríguez took over as the country's acting president in January.

Although Trump and his administration recognized her authority after she was installed as acting president in Maduro's place, the commander-in-chief misgendered Rodríguez during a luncheon with Kennedy Center board members on March 16.

"Venezuela, who's been great, by the way, the relationship with Venezuela has been fantastic. The president has done a really good job. We get along with him really well," Trump said, calling Rodríguez by a male pronoun.

When Trump delivered his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the head of state left many stunned after repeatedly confusing Iceland with Greenland.

"I'm helping Europe, I am helping NATO, and until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me," he shared during the annual meeting, later adding, "I don't know that they'd be here for us. "They're not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland's already cost us a lot of money."

He made a similar mistake earlier the same week during a January 20 news conference at the White House.

Trump let it slip again when he mixed up the words "adopt" and "adapt" at the signing of an Executive Order called Fostering the Future for American Children and Families in November 2025.

"Christians and more, think of this, more than twice as likely foster care, they'll adopt the general population," he said, garbling his words. "They adopt to it so easily. When they get out, they adopt to it like it's become second nature. It's amazing."

Ahead of the meeting at a summit in South Korea in October 2025, Trump posed with President of China Xi Jinping in front of the photographers and reporters with American and Chinese flags visible in the background.

After shaking hands, Trump motioned for Xi to exit the stage to their left while saying, "Let's go."

However, the two world leaders were told to leave the stage the other way instead.

Trump, looking lost, asked, "Which way?" before walking off to the right with Xi.

While speaking proudly about the seven wars he "solved," Trump erroneously named two countries that have never been at war with each other.

"So I solved, as you know, seven wars. Seven! I did so many… including Pakistan and India, big ones. Some were unsolvable. Congo and Rwanda. I solved it. It was going on for 31 years, millions of people killed. I solved wars that were unsolvable," he shared in a September 2025 appearance on Fox & Friends.

Trump then incorrectly cited Azerbaijan and Albania as former adversaries in war, noting the war between the two countries had been "going on for many, many years."

He added, "I had the prime ministers and presidents in my office. They sat so far apart; one chair was there, one chair was there. I said, 'Fellas, get together, come on.'"

On October 22, 2025, Trump attended a roundtable event in Doral, Fla., where he decided to give a shout-out to Mayor Christi Fraga, who was sitting right next to him.

He confusingly asked if anyone knew where Fraga was, leaving the audience puzzled by his clueless behavior.

"I want to thank all of the representatives from the Doral area: the mayor and everybody — and where's Christi? Is she around?" he queried.

"Christi? Christi. Oh my, Christi," he expressed upon realizing his mistake. "Boy, oh, boy. Hi, Christi."