MS Now Anchor Katy Tur Questions Donald Trump's 'Mental Acuity' 

MS NOW host Katy Tur raised direct questions regarding President Donald Trump's mental fitness and acuity to lead the country during a segment of her show, Katy Tur Reports, on Monday, March 30.

Her challenge focused on his age — he is turning 80 in June — and a series of public behaviors that have fueled national concern.

“Is Donald Trump well? Is his head in the presidency? Does he have the mental acuity to lead this country?” Tur, who is married to CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, said.

“He also doesn’t sound as energetic and clear as he did even a few years ago — comparatively speaking, of course," she added. “Case in point: the wild asides mid-thought.”

She referenced a Washington Post/ABC/Ipsos poll showing that 56 percent of Americans believe Trump lacks mental sharpness, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll where 60 percent of respondents said he is becoming more erratic with age.

Tur noted reports of the president appearing to sleep or doze off during high-level Cabinet meetings and Oval Office sessions and cited reports that the 79-year-old POTUS allegedly forced top aides to wear a specific brand of shoes in sizes he had personally guessed.

“Why is that?” Tur said. “Well, the apparent sleeping during Cabinet meetings and Oval Office visits probably isn’t helping. Neither are the stories about how he’s forcing his top aides to wear his preferred brand of shoes — buying them in incorrect sizes that he’s guessed they wear."

She pointed to a five-minute "rant" about Sharpie markers during a meeting on serious policy issues, which the manufacturer later denied ever occurred, as Trump described.

Tur detailed other "yarns," including a false account of being hugged and praised by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and claims about his uncle teaching the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, at MIT (who never attended the school).

“Okay, so Wes Moore quickly came out and said that conversation was imaginary, it never happened,” Tur said.

She also mentioned another baseless story the president told about former Fox News star Tucker Carlson.

“There’s the one where he claimed Tucker Carlson reached out to profusely apologize amid a MAGA split over U.S. involvement in Israel’s strikes on Iran, which Carlson has flatly denied,” Tur added.

Tur’s comments were commended by those who have accurately complained that the media was relentless in its coverage of former President Joe Biden’s age and health, while remaining reticent about Trump’s.

“While a lot of this has always just been part of who Donald Trump is — a man who works the room, seeks attention, seeks applause — he’s now about to be 80 years old, and he’s launched a war that he does not seem to have a plan for," she concluded.

Tur's commentary comes amid heightened international tensions involving Iran, in which she argued that the lack of a clear plan and the president's perceived decline could pose a "perilous" risk to leadership stability. While Tur noted that Trump remains physically mobile and more active than former President Biden was in his final months, she characterized the current pattern as a "precipitous slope down."

The White House has pushed back against these assertions, citing a 2025 neurological exam in which Trump reportedly scored a perfect 30/30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a test administered only when a patient’s cognitive health is suspected to be in decline.