President Donald Trump kicked off his Monday by showering praise on a Fox & Friends appearance that, awkwardly, did not actually happen that day, giving critics fresh ammunition to question whether the 79 year old commander in chief is losing his grip.
At 7:32 a.m., Trump jumped on Truth Social to hail Rep. Tim Burchett, gushing over what he claimed was a live performance on Fox’s morning show.
“Republican (of course!) Congressman Tim Burchett was GREAT today on Fox & Friends – a Classic. His take on Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown was 100% perfecto!!! Way to go, Tim!!! President DJT,” Trump wrote.
There was just one problem. Burchett was not on Fox & Friends on Monday. The show simply recycled a short clip from an interview he had done the day before on Fox’s The Sunday Briefing, which ran as standard taped content. Trump, at least based on his own post, appears to have treated the replay as if Burchett were live on air.
That small but telling mix up was all it took for his online detractors to pounce, accusing the president of being confused about what he was watching and what day it was. Screenshots of the post circulated on X alongside comments questioning his mental sharpness.
Trolls were quick to pile on. Left wing commentator Vince Wilson did not bother with diplomatic language, writing, “This old man’s cognitive abilities are rapidly declining.” Others joked that Trump was “reviewing reruns like live TV” and griped that if any other 79 year old mixed up dates on national television, their family would be urging them to slow down, not run the country.
This old man’s cognitive abilities are rapidly declining.
— Vince Wilson (@VinceWilsonShow) November 24, 2025
The Tennessee congressman probably thought he was having a normal weekend media hit. Burchett’s original interview, which aired Sunday, was focused on his fellow Republican firebrand, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and her decision to abruptly walk away from Congress and the MAGA movement she once personified. Burchett, 61, represents a deep red slice of East Tennessee not far from Greene’s northwest Georgia district, and he did not mince words about what he thinks her announced retirement means.
For Burchett, Greene quitting is proof that Trump ultimately beat her at her own game. Once one of his loudest defenders, she spent the last year picking very public fights with fellow Republicans and drifting out of Trump’s inner orbit, before suddenly announcing she would not seek another term. Burchett described that exit as a kind of political surrender, an acknowledgment that her act had worn thin and that Trump, not Greene, was still the dominant force inside the movement.
None of that context made Trump’s misfire any less embarrassing. Coming on the heels of other recent moments that rattled viewers, including clips that went viral over the weekend and left critics “furious” about his increasingly erratic public behavior, the Fox & Friends flub fed a larger narrative his opponents are eager to reinforce, that he is not as mentally sharp as he insists.
To his base, the Truth Social post was just Trump being Trump, doling out praise to a loyal ally who took a shot at a fallen foe. To his critics, it was another sign that the country’s most powerful man is struggling to keep track of basic details, like whether a TV segment is live or a taped rerun from the day before.
And as long as he keeps handing them material like this, they are not going to stop asking the question he hates most, is the president slipping?
