Accusing political opponents of possibly having strokes is a tactic that President Donald Trump seems rather fond of at this point. Following an earlier baseless suggestion that Democratic presidential pick Joe Biden had suffered a stroke (or strokes), Trump has now leveled the accusation at conservative media figure Matt Drudge. Trump made the accusation after Drudge’s website ran a headline insisting that a video shows Trump “dragging” his right leg, which the site posted alongside a headline about Trump denying that he’d had a series of mini-strokes — although it’s unclear who’d even made that accusation in the first place. Where did Trump get the idea? Is it something that his doctors think may have happened?
This Trump double down is delicious. Screaming all day I DIDNT HAVE A STROKE is super convincing. Keep going, invisible plane guy!
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) September 1, 2020
Trump tweeted:
‘Drudge didn’t support me in 2016, and I hear he doesn’t support me now. Maybe that’s why he is doing poorly. His Fake News report on Mini-Strokes is incorrect. Possibly thinking about himself, or the other party’s “candidate”.’
Drudge didn’t support me in 2016, and I hear he doesn’t support me now. Maybe that’s why he is doing poorly. His Fake News report on Mini-Strokes is incorrect. Possibly thinking about himself, or the other party’s “candidate”. https://t.co/9FraoFqOKq
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2020
Trump is lying with his claim that Drudge didn’t support him in 2016, and he also doesn’t seem to have any evidence for the claim that Drudge’s website is doing “poorly.” Reporter Oliver Darcy reported that “the last time Trump knocked Drudge’s web traffic, Drudge went on record & told me his site was actually experiencing record traffic.”
Fact check: @DRUDGE strongly supported Trump in 2016, not only in the general but also in the Republican primaries.
And the last time Trump knocked Drudge's web traffic, Drudge went on record & told me his site was actually experiencing record traffic. https://t.co/MVVXX4rOUq https://t.co/oFrInUtRav
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) September 1, 2020
In reality, Trump just seems pathologically unable to accept just about any kind of scrutiny in any form. His recent physical faltering has been on display for all to see — are people not allowed to be worried about the fact that the president has at least twice publicly seemed to have trouble with walking short distances? At a West Point Military Academy ceremony, he struggled down a ramp, and at a more recent New Hampshire rally appearance, he stumbled after walking up what seemed like just three steps. The president’s health is again in the public spotlight after a claim emerged from a book from New York Times reporter Mike Schmidt that Vice President Mike Pence was on standby to potentially assume the powers of the presidency if Trump had to be put under anesthesia during an abrupt visit that he made to Walter Reed Medical Center late last year.
Describing Trump’s unexpected November 2019 visit to Walter Reed Medical Center, he reports the White House wanted Mike Pence “on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized.”
— Adam Goldman (@adamgoldmanNYT) August 31, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response below:
