Since Monday, a video clip of President Donald Trump making a puzzling assertion has circulated widely online, reigniting speculation about the 80-year-old commander-in-chief's cognitive health.

Speaking at a General Motors plant in Milford, Michigan, where he was praising American automakers, Trump detoured into an anecdote about his father, Fred Trump, who passed away in 1999. The remark left many in the audience confused.

"I had a wonderful father, right, and he was a hard worker who was in the real estate business... He didn't want planes," Trump said. "They didn't have planes in those days, I don't think."

Trump appeared to realize he had drifted off-topic and referenced his well-known speaking style, adding: "Just to mention, you know, it's called the weave, right? I go from one — we always get back to the right subject."

Commentators swiftly highlighted the factual inaccuracy. "Trump claims that airplanes didn't exist when his father was alive," political commentator Ed Krassenstein wrote in a social media post.

Fred Trump was born in 1905 and died in 1999. Critics noted that the Wright Brothers completed their first powered flight in 1903 — two years before Fred Trump's birth. According to the Daily Star, "Aviation didn't just exist during Fred Trump's life, it dominated it, spanning World War II air warfare, the rise of commercial jet travel and even Concorde." The outlet also pointed out that the first commercial flight — a 17-mile journey from Tampa to St. Petersburg — took place in 1914, when Fred Trump was nine years old.

"Facts are stubborn things," one commenter observed. Others interpreted the incident as possible evidence of cognitive deterioration.

"Senility has a MAGA voice," one person wrote. "He clearly inherited his father's Alzheimer's gene," another suggested. A third asked: "Do narcissists lie because they believe that people just take what they say as the truth without checking?"

This is not the first time questions about Trump's mental health have surfaced. The topic of presidential age and cognitive fitness has become a recurring theme in American politics — Trump himself frequently made opponent Joe Biden's mental acuity a centerpiece of campaign messaging, popularizing nicknames like "Sleepy Joe" to cast doubt on his rival's sharpness. Now, observers have noted apparent confusion in Trump's own recent speeches, with some suggesting he may be "sundowning," and even some of his allies reportedly warning that dementia has him "off the rails."

A source described as being inside the White House stated: "Donald is deteriorating before our very eyes. His physical and mental health is in decline. Those around him don't know what to do about it. It can only get worse. He's 80 — and it's showing."

As a neuroscientist explained last week, there has been "growing interest in Trump showing progressing signs of dementia, notably FTD," as well as "Malignant Narcissism." FTD, or frontotemporal dementia, is a neurodegenerative condition affecting the brain regions associated with personality, behavior, and language. While the president has not been officially diagnosed, the neuroscientist stated there is a clear "psychological pattern" suggesting Trump may have some form of "neurodegenerative disorder."