It’s been nearly a decade since President Donald Trump entered the national stage as a serious presidential contender — and introduced the world to his unfiltered, rambling speaking style. There have been so many head-scratching moments since 2016 that the rants have almost become expected.
However, a recent spate of concerns, including mysterious bruises on his hands, wobbly walking, and verbal slip-ups, has critics reevaluating the past with fresh eyes, searching for early warning signs of decline.

One moment from a campaign rally last year stands out. During a June 2024 speech, Trump went on a mini rant about “washing machines to wash your dishes,” “no water in faucets,” and “rain,” without making a clear connection between the three.
In the speech, Trump was discussing flow restrictors, which typically regulate water on showerheads in homes, but that logic became lost in the rambling. Trump made the remarks at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, and Fox News provided live coverage until they abruptly cut away, interrupting Trump’s musings on water mid-sentence.
A shortened version of the unflattering clip circulated in the news at the time. In it, Trump told his audience: “There’s so much water you don’t know what to do with it. You know, it’s called rain. It rains a lot in certain places,” he stated the obvious before launching into a perplexing word salad. “But uh, no, their idea, you know, did you see the other day. I opened it up, and they closed it again. I open it, they close it. Washing machines, to wash your dishes. There’s a problem. They don’t want you to have any water,” he said. He was presumably referring to the Biden administration.
Earlier in the speech, Trump slammed Biden’s $2 trillion proposal to address climate change — a less ambitious version of the Green New Deal — calling it “wasteful” and the “green new scam.” Trump went on to complain about not having enough water to wash his “beautiful, luxuriant hair.”
“You turn on the water and it goes drip, drip… You’re trying. The worst is your hair,” he said. “I have this beautiful, luxuriant hair, and I put stuff on. I put it in. Lather. I like lots of lather because I like it to come out extremely dry because it seems to be slightly thicker that way. And I lather up, and then you turn on this crazy shower and the thing drip, drip, and you say, ‘I’m gonna be here for 45 minutes.’ What?”
Trump’s tips for thick-looking hair aside, the blunder sparked concern. Despite his long history of speaking off the cuff in a boastful, flamboyant style, many found it hard to blame age alone.
“President Joe Biden’s campaign, allies and defenders called the moment ’embarrassing’ for Trump and claimed the former president is ‘senile,’” read the caption by The Daily Mail.
“Why is he talking about washing machines and it raining a lot?” someone recently wondered on Instagram. “His dementia is showing,” stated one. Another agreed: “Incoherent, Trump! This is who people voted for?”
Inaugurated at 78, he was the oldest president to be sworn into office. Prior to 2024, the median age of U.S. presidents on the day of their first inauguration was 55, according to the Pew Research Center. The study also found that most Americans prefer their presidents to be in their 50s, which has historically been the case. The U.S. has certainly been in uncharted territory with Biden and Trump back-to-back.
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