Donald Trump Not as 'Sharp' as 2016, Former Aide Warns

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Donald Trump aide, warned on Monday that the former president is not as "sharp" as he was in 2016.

Questions relating to the age and mental fitness of Trump, 77, and President Joe Biden, 81, have been consistent talking points during the primary season. Additionally, age has also been a concern among voters in a hypothetical rematch between Biden and Trump.

Meanwhile on the campaign trail, Biden and Trump have a history of making a series of gaffes that have come under criticism. After sharing on Truth Social in November a medical report saying that he's in excellent health and his cognitive health was exceptional, Trump began to receive pushback as some questioned the accuracy of the report.

In a speech on Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia, Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, confused former President Barack Obama for Biden.

"And [Vladimir] Putin has so little respect for Obama that he's starting to throw around the 'nuclear' word. He's starting to talk nuclear weapons today," Trump said during Saturday's rally.

In an interview with CNN host John Berman, Griffin, who served as Trump's White House director of strategic communications, discussed Trump's age amid the 2024 election and the verbal misstep Trump had over the weekend.

When asked by Berman "how much does he miss or mix-up facts?" Griffin said the former president has always had problems recalling facts or people's names.

"I have said this before, he is not as sharp as he was in 2016 and not even a sharp as he was in 2020. For some reason, that doesn't necessarily come across to voters the same way," she said.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.

Griffin, who regularly shares her thoughts and criticism of the former president in her role as a co-host of ABC's The View and as a political commentator, also questioned why voters don't see this as an issue, adding that the mix-ups have gotten worse.

"But Donald Trump is not the strongest fighter that Republicans could have right now and it's remarkable how much voters don't see the age as also an issue because he is only three-and-a-half years younger than President Joe Biden, but there's something about the way they carry themselves that is just seen very differently...I mean, it's gotten worse, it hasn't gotten better. He's not nearly as sharp as he was," she added.

This is not the first time Trump has confused Obama for Biden, according to a November 2023 article in Forbes, the former president confused Obama and Biden at least seven times between September and November of last year.

However, Trump has repeatedly denied any mental decline and has instead continuously seized on Biden's slip-ups, saying his mental abilities is a major issue in his ability to govern. The former president has also claimed that he's being "sarcastic" by repeatedly confusing Obama with Biden.

"We have a guy in the White House who can't put two sentences together and who could not find his way off this stage," Trump said in New Hampshire in November.

Biden, meanwhile, has also recently dismissed concerns about his age stating that his "memory is fine," following last month's release of special counsel Robert Hur's report that described the president as an "elderly man with a poor memory."