A video that appears to show Donald Trump slurring his words at a rally in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Sunday is stoking concern among social media users.
The five-second clip was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by the Biden-Harris HQ account, which is run by Joe Biden's re-election campaign. In the footage, taken from conservative outlet Right Side Broadcasting Network, Trump comments: "You don't have to be a total genius, remain in Mexico, until you've..." at which point he becomes unintelligible for the final two seconds. The Biden-Harris HQ account wrote: "Trump slurs his words while ranting: In Mexico until [unintelligible]."
Trump slurs his words while ranting: In Mexico until [unintelligible] pic.twitter.com/IlGqfQdqMO — Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) January 22, 2024
Republicans have focused heavily on the health and mental acumen of Joe Biden, with several arguing the 81-year-old doesn't have the stamina for another four years in the White House. But Democrats have hit back in kind against 77-year-old Trump, by some margin the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, by drawing attention to gaffes such as when he appeared to confuse GOP rival Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi during a rally in New Hampshire on Friday.
The video from the Biden-Harris HQ was reshared on X by the 'Biden's Wins' account, which has over 306,000 followers and added: "BREAKING: Donald Trump is slurring his words. Why won't the media cover his mental decline?"
A third Democratic supporting account wrote: "Hey media? Can you cover ANYTHING about Trump slurring his words? He is not healthy." They followed this with the X handles of ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN Politics and MSNBC.
Newsweek reached out to representatives of Donald Trump on Monday for comment.
The former president's slurred speech took place as he attacked Biden over immigration and praised the 'Remain in Mexico' policy he implemented in January 2019, which required migrants seeking to enter the U.S. to stay in Mexico until their immigration court date.
In full, Trump said: "So we have a policy 'Remain in Mexico.' You don't have to be a total genius, remain in Mexico until... We had hundreds of thousands of people in Tijuana, this was not a lovely place at that point, this was not a good place to take the family for a little trip, it was rough stuff, but you know what they weren't in our country and we do it right. We had such a great system."
Tijuana, a Mexican city across the border from California, has been a major hub for migrants looking to reach the U.S.
Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally on January 21, 2024, in Rochester, New Hampshire. A clip of Trump appearing to slur his words at the rally has been shared on social media. Alex Wong/GETTY
Attacking his successor, Trump added: "Under Biden, the USA has been turned into a dumping ground and a disrespected one. We have people coming in from all over the world, from parts unknown, speaking languages that people here have never even heard, and they're being dumped into our country. They're coming in from mental institutions, they're coming in from jails and prisons, they're terrorists and they're coming in at levels nobody's ever seen before."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recorded a surge in suspected illegal migrant encounters across the southern border over the past couple of years, with 2.4 million encounters recorded in the 2023 fiscal year, versus 1.7 million in 2021.
In September, the Department of Homeland Security said it had stopped 216 people on the Terrorist Screening Dataset from entering the U.S. thus far that year, up from 165 in all of the 2022 fiscal year.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Sunday dropped out of the Republican leadership race and endorsed Trump, while claiming his main rival Nikki Haley represents "warmed over corporatism." Voters in New Hampshire head to the polls in the state's Republican primary on Tuesday, with polling showing Trump is the clear favorite to win, as he did in the Iowa caucus on January 15.