Trump questions ‘benefit’ of aiding Ukraine, challenges Biden to cognitive test- live

Donald Trump may be on the verge of setting aside another grudge within the Republican Party and elevating a former rival to be his running mate in 2024, writes John Bowden.

Donald Trump suggested that Joe Biden “should have to take a cognitive test,” only to confuse who administered the test to him in the next sentence.

During a rally in Michigan on Saturday, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee referred to Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was the White House physician for part of his presidency, as “Ronny Johnson.”

The moment came as Trump was questioning Biden’s mental acuity, something he has done often on the campaign trail and social media.

“He doesn’t even know what the word ‘inflation’ means. I think he should take a cognitive test like I did,” the former president said of Biden during a speech at a convention of Turning Point Action in Detroit.

Trump took the cognitive test in 2018 at his own request, Jackson told reporters at the time. The exam is designed to detect early signs of memory loss and other mild cognitive impairment.

Serena Williams has refused to address her relationship with former president Donald Trump even after she was revealed to be on his frequent call list in testimony at his criminal trial.

Gustaf Kilander has the full story here:

Donald Trump spoke at a meeting of major CEOs as part of his return to Washington, DC on Thursday as the assumed Republican candidate for president.

Several CEOs “said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” Sorkin said on Friday morning edition of Squawk Box.

He added that the same CEOs struck by Trump’s lack of focus “walked into the meeting being Trump supporter-ish or thinking that they might be leaning that direction”.

“These were people who I think might have been actually predisposed to [Trump, but] actually walked out of the room less predisposed” to him, Sorkin said.

One CEO who spoke to CNBC said “Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about” and that he did not explain any of his policy proposals.

Sorkin told MSNBC’s Morning Joe later on Friday morning that at one point Trump discussed his plan to bring the corporate tax rate down from 21 per cent to 20 per cent … and was asked about why he had chosen that number.

“And he said, ‘Well, it’s a round number,” Sorkin reported. “That unto itself had a number of CEOs shaking their heads.”

Trump was reportedly subdued in the meeting and there was no noticeable applause from attendees according to two people. One speculated that a low-key approach may have been an attempt to make the event feel “more like a business meeting than a speech”.

CNBC reached out to the Trump campaign but did not receive any comment.

While Trump can be equally vicious to rivals and Republicans who cross him, he is frequently complimentary of his children — sometimes too complimentary — and lauded Barron’s athleticism in the interview.

Graig Graziosi has the story:

Addressing supporters at a church in Detroit, Donald Trump claimed his administration had done more for the Black population that “any president since Abraham Lincoln.”

“We’ve done more for and I say this, I say it proudly, more for the black population than any president since Abraham Lincoln,” he said, to cheers.

“That’s a big statement. And crooked Joe Biden has done nothing for you except talk. It’s only talk. It’s all talk. He does nothing.

“He gets lost, and he’s in Europe, he’s walking around, he doesn’t know where the hell he is… and he’s supposed to help Detroit? I don’t think so.”