Donald Trump Caught Making Five Gaffes in One Week

Donald Trump made a series of gaffes during his recent 2024 campaign rallies, leading to mockery from his opponents inside and outside the Republican Party.

The former president appeared in states including New Hampshire and Iowa last week to address supporters, and during speeches he made geography errors, mispronounced words, and appeared to have issues reading teleprompters.

The issue of age has become a talking point in the 2024 presidential race, whose likely contenders are Trump, 77, and President Joe Biden, 80. Trump faced mockery in September after branding Biden "cognitively impaired" before saying the president could lead America into "World War II."

The same month, Biden was criticized after appearing to confuse the Congressional Black Caucus with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at a gala dinner, and for walking off at the end of a press conference without shaking the hand of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Trump mislabeled the president of Hungary as the leader of Turkey during an October 23 rally in Derry, New Hampshire, where he filed for the presidential primary.

"The world is exploding, if you take a look, the whole world is exploding," he said. "I was very honored there's a man, Viktor Orbán, did anyone ever hear of him? He is probably one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. He is the leader of Turkey."

Days later, on October 28, he made a one-hour speech to some 1,000 supporters in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he attacked his primary rivals, repeated claims that his legal battles are political and referring to "proterrotism."

On October 29, he made a speech in Sioux City, Iowa, at the Orpheum Theater and claimed he would win in the state.

But when he took to the stage, he greeted a city with a similar name in South Dakota.

"Hello to a place where we've done very well, Sioux Falls. Thank you very much," he said.

Republican Iowa state Senator Bradley Zaun appeared on the stage a few minutes later and whispered the correct location, Sioux City, in Trump's ear, with the exchange caught on a hot mic.

Later in the same speech, he mispronounced Canada as "Canya" while speaking about trade deals, minutes after mocking Biden for his supposed inability to read teleprompters.

While he correctly identified Orbán as the country's leader in this speech, he also claimed "Hungary fronts on both Ukraine and Russia." It shares a border with Ukraine, but not Russia.

He was mocked on social media over his gaffes, including by the DeSantis War Room account on X, formerly Twitter.

Trump's public appearances came as he steps up his 2024 primary election campaign.

But the campaign has been marred by multiple legal woes, including cases seeking to block him from the 2024 presidential ballot based on the 14th Amendment and its ban on insurrectionists running for office, as well as his ongoing and looming trials.

What may be most pressing for him this week is that in New York, sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are expected to testify in his civil fraud trial, with the former president and daughter Ivanka Trump scheduled to take the stand later.

Newsweek has reached out to Donald Trump via email for comment.