President Donald Trump renewed concerns about his mental fitness with an early morning social media complaint about media coverage of his planned summit with Vladimir Putin.
The president singled out his former national security adviser-turned-nemesis John Bolton in his Wednesday morning Truth Social post as he lashed out at "fake news" reports about his upcoming talks with the Russian president in Alaska to discuss an end to its invasion of Ukraine.
"Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin. Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, 'Putin has already won,'" Trump posted. "What’s that all about? We are winning on EVERYTHING. The Fake News is working overtime (No tax on overtime!)."
"If I got Moscow and Leningrad free, as part of the deal with Russia, the Fake News would say that I made a bad deal!" Trump added. "But now they’ve been caught. Look at all of the real news that’s coming out about their CORRUPTION. They are sick and dishonest people, who probably hate our Country. But it doesn’t matter because we are winning on everything!!! MAGA"
The rambling post confused many other social media users, who pointed out that St. Petersburg had shed its Soviet-era "Leningrad" name decades ago.
"Trump in a Truth Social post refers to freeing 'Leningrad,'" posted CNN's Aaron Blake. "St. Petersburg hasn't been called that since 1991."
"Since his brain was frozen in amber sometime in the ‘80s, this tracks," said Bluesky user Shauna.
“'If I got Moscow and Leningrad free'?! WTF does that mean??" added former FBI agent Asha Rangappa. "What kind of 'deal' is he thinking he is negotiating? He’s going to try to give away Alaska, isn’t he."
"Dementia?" wondered The Bulwark's Sarah Longwell.
"Get in losers we're going to free leningrad," posted Bluesky user Mollz.
"To be clear, Trump means getting a free Trump hotel in Moscow and St.Petersburg (formerly Leningrad)," said political scientist Michael McDonald.
"A year and a half ago, Biden referred to Macron as 'Mitterand from Germany — I mean, from France' though Mitterand had been dead since 1996 (and was never from Germany)," added CNN's Isaac Dovere. "This morning, Trump referred to Leningrad, which hasn’t been the name of the Russian city since 1991."
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