President Donald Trump admitted to confusion Saturday when faced with a simple question regarding one of his own deals.
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Trump, asked by a reporter if he was considering a withdrawal from the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement he negotiated and passed during his first term — and touted as “the best agreement we’ve ever made” — appeared not to remember it on Saturday.
“Are you considering withdrawing from the USMCA deal?” the reporter asked.
“What does that mean?” Trump responded.
The reporter paused for a beat, then explained the acronym, “Are you considering withdrawing from the USMCA deal with U.S., Mexico, and Canada?”
“That’s a strange question to be asked over here,” Trump replied.
This exchange captured the immediate attention of Trump’s critics on social media.
“Sharp as a tack,” progressive political commentator Molly Jong-Fast joked in a post on X.
“Truly a man at the top of his game right here,” added media columnist Justin Baragona.
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Trump’s administration declined to renew the USMCA in July, triggering annual reviews that keep the pact in force until 2036 unless a country moves to withdraw.
Trump has previously said that he’s considering withdrawing from the USMCA, but on Saturday, he denied plans to withdraw from it and talked up his relationship with Canada despite an ongoing trade war.
“No, I get along great. We’re going to have a great relationship with Mexico,” Trump said. “We actually have a good one with Canada but the United States has been ripped off for fifty years by Canada.”
Trump then claimed both Canada and Iran wanted to make a deal “very badly.”
This prompted political analyst and staff writer for The Atlantic Tom Nichols to warn of “cognitive decline” in Trump.
“His brain is now just a Mad Libs template with the same answers written in over and over. ‘What do you think of [issue] and [country]?'” Nichols wrote. “‘[Issue] is going great. [Country] is very eager to make a deal.’ You can insert almost anything and get the same answer.”
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