The author of a new Donald Trump book who has spoken out about the former president’s “severe memory issues” offered some alarming examples on Tuesday.
Ramin Setoodeh, who interviewed Trump six times after he left office in 2021, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that there were points during those sessions when Trump seemed to think he still had some presidential powers.
“There was one day where he told me he needed to go upstairs to deal with Afghanistan, even though he clearly didn’t,” he said.
Collins appeared stunned.
“He told you that, while you were interviewing him at Trump Tower, he told you he needed to go upstairs to deal with Afghanistan?” she asked.
“With the, quote, ‘the Afghanistan,’ is how he referred to it,” said Setoodeh, who is a co-editor-in-chief at Variety.
In another instance, he said Trump told an easily debunked story about his first run for office.
“He confidently told me, and declared, that Joan Rivers voted for him when he ran for president,” Setoodeh said. “And Joan Rivers died in 2014.”
Trump did not appear on a ballot until 2016.
Setoodeh also confirmed that Trump was “meandering and confusing” during interviews, and did not remember being interviewed by Setoodeh previously despite their multiple conversations.
“He goes from one story to the next. He struggles with the chronology of events. He seems very upset that he wasn’t respected by certain celebrities in the White House. And then he’d go to a story about ‘The Apprentice,’” he said, adding that these issues make it “very challenging” to interview the former president.
Setoodeh’s book, “Apprentice in Wonderland,” is out this week.
The Trump campaign has denied the allegations of cognitive issues, and said Trump didn’t remember Setoodeh because he is “a nobody and insignificant” and “never made an impression.”