Leftists leapt at the chance to portray President Donald J. Trump as mentally cooked after he said he spoke with iconic former President Teddy Roosevelt, one of the greatest figures in American history.
During remarks at the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota on Wednesday, Trump told the crowd that he had “a conversation” with the nation’s 26th president, who died in 1919, twenty-seven years before he was born.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“I even had a conversation with Theodore Roosevelt. I said, ‘What did you think about the Panama Canal? Do you consider that your greatest achievement? How do you feel about the fact that the Democrats gave the Panama Canal away to Panama for $1?’” Trump told the audience at the Burning Hills Amphitheatre after his tour of the new library.
“He built the Panama Canal, preceded really by a man who was actually – he was the tariff king, William McKinley who was the president and they took his name off Mount McKinley and I put it back on…,” he added, referring to the restoration of the name of the 25th president to the Alaskan mountain which was renamed to Mount Denali by Barack Obama in 2015.
Bad actors quickly pounced on Trump’s claim that he talked to a dead man in an attempt to brand him as being unfit for office, like his senile predecessor Joe Biden was.
🚨WTF: TRUMP HALLUCINATES ON LIVE TELEVISION
Donald Trump says he “had a conversation with former President Teddy Roosevelt” about the Panama Canal.
Teddy Roosevelt has been dead since 1919. Donald Trump belongs in a home. pic.twitter.com/zWtaRHmSIh
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) July 1, 2026
Theodore Roosevelt died in 1916. @POTUS is openly saying he talked to dead people.
25th Amendment now. https://t.co/md7V56aDWY— Marjorie Skidders (@Kanieh57) July 2, 2026
Headline: Elderly man with dementia talks to ghost of Teddy Roosevelt about the rising costs of canals.
— Chris Robinson (@ChrisRobinsonNJ) July 1, 2026
Trump: “I even had a conversation with Theodore Roosevelt”… his brain in mush https://t.co/12ENVAIPHG
— Megan (@kate6063714) July 1, 2026
If your grandfather told you he’d just had a conversation with someone who died 107 years ago,
You would call a doctor. You would call the family.
You would not leave him alone. You would certainly not leave him with the nuclear codes.— Human☮ (@4HumanUnity) July 1, 2026
Dementia with a teleprompter.
— _ (@SundaeDivine) July 1, 2026
But the truth is that the president was referring to his experience prior to the speech with a holographic artificial intelligence version of Roosevelt, an exhibit inside the library.
Special Assistant to the President and Communications Advisor Margo Martin posted a video of Trump’s talk with “Teddy Roosevelt” to social media.
President Trump asks AI President Roosevelt…“Do you consider the Panama Canal your greatest achievement?” pic.twitter.com/zvfDCL2sKS
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) July 1, 2026
During his speech, Trump also likened himself to the deceased U.S. leader, a towering figure whose visage is carved into granite on Mount Rushmore.
“He had a freakin’ wild life,” he told the audience. “He didn’t want to be quiet. He wanted to be great.”
“He was something special,” Trump said of Roosevelt. “He was a really great man. He was a man the likes of which you may never see again.”
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