Donald Trump threw another fit on his social media website on Sunday, this time challenging a host of rivals to a “mental acuity test.”
Trump, who is refusing to debate any of his Republican presidential rivals but instead offered to debate Meghan Markle, is demanding that US President Joe Biden, right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and others take a test of his choosing, at a place of his choosing.
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“It will be a tough one,” the former president wrote on Truth Social. “Nobody will come even close to me!”
Trump was triggered by a Wall Street Journal poll in which 49% said he was not mentally up for the job of president. (That number was 60% for Biden.)
“A few years ago I was the only one to agree to a mental acuity test, & ACED IT,” Trump wrote in response to the poll, which he claimed was “probably rigged.”
Trump hasn’t taken a “mental acuity test,” or at least hasn’t publicly revealed the results of such a test if he did. However, in 2020 he took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA, which is used to check for signs of cognitive impairments that could be an indication of dementia.
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Trump has often bragged of passing the assessment, and insisted that it was hard.
But it’s not supposed to be.
“It is supposed to be easy for someone who has no cognitive impairment,” Dr Ziad Nasreddine, who invented the test, told MarketWatch in 2020.
It asks the subject to complete tasks like identifying an elephant, or remembering and then repeating five words ― which, in Trump’s case, were infamously “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.”
Now, however, he seems to think passing the MoCA means he can challenge Biden, Murdoch, Murdoch’s sons, and the heads of the Wall Street Journal to the test of his choosing.
Neither Biden nor Murdoch have responded to Trump’s “challenge,” but the former president’s critics had plenty to say:
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What a narcissistic idiot. Trump boasts about his “mental acuity test”, which was being able to remember the words “person, woman, man, camera,TV”. pic.twitter.com/t7dsxPcr8s
This senile old dotard is still bragging about acing a mental acuity test. As someone who was tested years ago due to depression, I can tell you this test is so simple, that’s it’s very telling that one would be boastful about passing it. pic.twitter.com/t1UbwbWyUJ
Person: Donald Trump Woman: Fani Willis Man: Witness #1 Camera: In the Fulton County Courtroom TV: Broadcasting the trial worldwide https://t.co/3F4XcUUEbb
PLEASE, let’s not forget that the test didn’t actually examine his mental acuity. The test was given to monitor cognitive decline over time. In the Fox interview where he discussed it, Trump confessed the memory questions were the most difficult for him. https://t.co/gavlADJC9k
A major defamation lawsuit against Fox News has begun – and much is at stake.
Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine company, has brought a $1.6 billion (£1.29 billion) defamation case against the right-wing network in a trial over the broadcaster’s alleged role in spreading the lie of a stolen 2020 presidential election.
As well as the threat to Fox of eye-watering damages, the six-week trial has potential to pull back the curtain on former US president Donald Trump’s flse claims and how the right-wing TV network operates.
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Sworn testimony is expected from Fox’s billionaire founder, Rupert Murdoch, and on-air talent, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.
What is the case?
Denver-based Dominion claims New York-based Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp, essentially destroyed the voting company’s business and subjected employees to threats by falsely implicating it in a bogus conspiracy to rig the election against Trump.
Dominion says its lawyers sent Fox employees more than 3,600 emails attempting to correct Fox’s reporting on the issue. The company identified 20 specific statements from Fox broadcasts between November 8, 2020, and January 26, 2021, that it says were legally defamatory.
Fox contends that it was reporting newsworthy charges made by supporters of the Republican then-president and is supported legally by libel standards. After a one-day delay that raised the possibility of a last-minute settlement between the litigants, seating of the jury in Delaware took place on Tuesday, with opening statements expected to follow.
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What do we know already?
Court documents have already been unsealed by Delaware superior court judge Eric M Davis, and the cache has illuminated the inner workings of the conservative network like never before.
It shows prominent figures at Fox didn’t believe the fraud allegations. Yet in public, Dominion argues, Fox News amplified the conspiracy theories and invited guests such as Trump ally Sydney Powell on air to allege Dominion’s voting systems had switched votes from Trump to Joe Biden, the Democrat who beat Trump to the White House.
Multiple staffers texted and emailed in disbelief as Trump latched onto increasingly tenuous claims of being robbed by voter fraud.
Hannity said in a deposition that he did not believe the fraud claims “for one second” but wanted to give accusers the chance to produce evidence. Hosts Carlson, Hannity and Laura Ingraham mocked Powell for spreading the claims. “This Dominion shit is going to give me a fucking aneurysm,” one Fox producer wrote in a message. “MIND BLOWINGLY NUTS,” wrote Fox Corporation SVP Raj Shah, per court documents.
Murdoch, questioned under oath, agreed the 2020 election was free and fair: “The election was not stolen,” he said.
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In one email, Murdoch called Trump’s rhetoric “bullshit and damaging”. After Trump aide Rudy Giuliani gave a disastrous press conference on the conspiracy claims, Murdoch commented: “Really crazy stuff”.
Why did Fox adopt its position?
The court papers have laid out a profound concern at Fox over the impact of its election night call that Biden had beaten Trump in the battleground state of Arizona.
Calling Arizona for Biden was an unpleasant shock to supporters of Trump, including many Fox viewers. Not only were they facing losing the White House, but the news had been delivered to them by a source they could usually expect to advocate for their cause.
<img class="img-sized__img landscape" loading="lazy" alt="Tucker Carlson, left, and former US president Donald Trump in 2022.” width=”720″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.wellnessmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/fox-news-on-trial-the-1-6bn-defamation-lawsuit-explained-3.jpg”>
Tucker Carlson, left, and former US president Donald Trump in 2022.
via Associated Press
Fox got the scoop on the call, but Trump and many Fox viewers began tuning in to rival conservative media outlets such as Newsmax.
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Emails and memos released in the case show Fox executives were highly aware of a drop-off in their network’s viewership at the same time that Newsmax was gaining viewers, and the executives viewed that dynamic as a potential threat.
Carlson noted with irritation that the company’s stock price was down. Fox News Network CEO Suzanne Scott wrote in an email to Murdoch about the need to “keep the audience who loves and trusts us”.
What is Fox’s defence?
While Dominion’s case may seem strong, the US Constitution and Supreme Court precedent makes it difficult to prove defamation by a news outlet. Dominion will need to prove “actual malice”, meaning that Fox either knew what it was airing was wrong or acted in reckless disregard for the truth.
Fox says Dominion can’t prove its case, but some First Amendment advocates suggest the voting machine company has a strong argument. Their worry is that a prolonged legal battle would give the Supreme Court a chance to change libel laws that would weaken protection for all the media.
“Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade in search of a financial windfall, but the real cost would be cherished First Amendment rights,” Fox said in a statement to HuffPost. “While Dominion has pushed irrelevant and misleading information to generate headlines, Fox News remains steadfast in protecting the rights of a free press, given a verdict for Dominion and its private equity owners would have grave consequences for the entire journalism profession.”
Was there any evidence of election fraud?
Federal and state election officials, exhaustive reviews in multiple battleground states where Trump challenged his loss, and Trump’s attorney general found no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Nor did they uncover any credible evidence that the vote was tainted. Trump’s allegations of fraud also have been roundly rejected by dozens of courts, including by judges he appointed.
Donald Trump’s announcement that he will make a third run for the White House has been met with the coolest of reactions from the media – with one once supportive newspaper trolling the former US president.
On Tuesday, Trump made public the worst kept secret in politics by unveiling his 2024 campaign from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. He appeared to preview a campaign slogan – “Make America Great And Glorious Again” or “MAGAGA” – that raised plenty of eyebrows on social media.
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The announcement came despite the disappointing midterm election results that saw the majority of the candidates he endorsed defeated, and his low energy performance on Tuesday only added to the lack of enthusiasm around Trump’s latest pitch.
Step forward the New York Post, the newspaper owned by conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
“Florida Man Makes Announcement,” was the headline running across the bottom of the front page of its Wednesday edition, directing readers to an article on buried on page 26.
April 2016: “The Post endorses Trump” Today: “Florida man makes announcement”
Last week: “Trumpty Dumpty” Intriguing developments in the Murdoch-Trump relationship… pic.twitter.com/fbXZR1yKPY
The tone of the story, under the headline Been There, Don That, was even more savage.
The copy refers to Trump as a “Florida retiree” and his Mar-a-Lago resort as a “classified-documents library”, a reference to the investigation Trump faces for retaining government records, some of which were marked as highly classified.
It adds: “His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup.”
The reporter also points out that Trump himself has stated that “his qualifications for office include being a ‘stable genius’.”
Maggie Haberman, reporter for The New York Times and author of Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, said on CNN: “There is nobody who knows better than Rupert Murdoch that the way to upset Donald Trump is not to say his name.”
Best lines in New York Post write-up of Trump’s announcement, buried as filler on page 26
“Florida retiree”
“Mar-a-Lago, his resort and classified-documents library”
“His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup.”
Last week, the Post put the blame for the Republican Party’s showing in the midterm elections squarely on the former president and his choice of candidates.
On its Thursday front page, the Post depicted Trump as the hapless nursery rhyme character Humpty Dumpty.
“Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall — can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?” the tabloid newspaper asked.
New York Post
On Wednesday, the Post suggested Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis was “DeFUTURE” of the GOP with this front page.
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DeSantis is widely tipped to run for president in 2024 and convincingly won reelection in the midterms.
Workers at the New York Post have been ordered to mask up even while the newspaper slams masks and mask mandates to its readers and the public, CNN Business reported Monday.
The same Fox memo also encouraged even fully vaccinated people to mask up in public spaces, and it’s mandated for all in “small, confined spaces.”
New York Post workers were told in an August 12 memo from Sean Giancola, publisher and chief executive of the tabloid, that “masks are required while walking the floor/not at your desk,” CNN reported.
Employees must “mask up” and “cover” their face when “away from their desk or chatting with colleagues,” according to CNN, which obtained a copy of the memo. Workers may remove masks when sitting alone at their desks.
Workers are also required to submit to a daily health screening “every day before entering the office,” so they don’t come to work sick.
Yet despite that standard for its own workers, the Post has railed against calls to mask up, incredibly blasting it as “madness” when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in July that even the vaccinated wear masks in communities with high transmission rates of COVID-19. The Post’s editorial also called the CDC recommendation “nonsense” and “pernicious.”
There was reportedly no mention of a vaccine requirement in the Post memo, unlike the demand from Fox News.
A disgusted Malcolm Turnbull, former prime minister of Australia, last month accused Murdoch of using his media properties to peddle lies about Covid-19 that he himself doesn’t believe just to make money by pandering to his gullible consumers.
Murdoch is “making billions of dollars out of a news channel, a news platform, Fox News, which is promoting and enabling all of this vaccine hesitancy,” Turnbull warned.
“Anybody who is “promoting these conspiracy theories about vaccines, and anyone who is discouraging people from getting vaccinated is contributing to death and disease. There’s no question about that,” Turnbull said.
