When MS Now’s Katy Tur began covering Donald Trump on the campaign trail in 2015, he was 69 years old. Now, as he pushes 80, she says the president is showing clear signs of decline.
“He is different than he was. He doesn’t have the same amount of energy,” Tur told The Daily Beast Podcast.
The Katy Tur Reports host gained national attention while covering Trump more than a decade ago, when she quickly became one of his favorite targets at his campaign rallies—an early preview of the routine attacks on reporters that have come to define his presidencies.
But since reclaiming the White House in 2024, the 79-year-old president has started his days later, traveled far less domestically, and has scaled back his official appearances by 39 percent compared to the same period in his first term, according to a New York Times report.
And when he does speak at public events, “He’s not as coherent as he used to be,” argued Tur, 42.
“He’s always been not entirely coherent. But it’s different now. He’s slower. His speech is slower,” she told host Joanna Coles.
Trump’s lengthy speeches at official events often devolve into bizarre ramblings—about the power of water to destroy magnets, autism prevalence among the Amish, or his love for “big, beautiful, firm paper”—that critics frequently dismiss as “word salads.”
“There are questions about his cognitive ability. Sometimes he slurs his words. Sometimes his speeches make even less sense than they used to,” said Tur, who Trump frequently derided as “little Katy” during the 2016 campaign.
“He’s different. I mean, he’s what? He’s 79 years old. He’s about to be 80. Anybody at that age is going to start slowing down.”
When reached for comment, White House Assistant Press Secretary Liz Huston told the Daily Beast in a statement, “President Trump is the most accessible, energetic, and transparent President in modern American history. On the other hand, Katy Tur has long suffered from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Tur is a Democrat activist, not a reporter and should not be taken seriously whatsoever.”
Earlier this month, Trump appeared to be slowing down in real time when he was filmed appearing to be asleep while slumped in his chair during an Oval Office press conference on GLP-1 weight loss medications.
Tur observed that Trump is increasingly being held up alongside former President Joe Biden, whose own visible decline in office he long used for mockery and political attacks.
Comedian Shane Gillis, who has amassed a MAGA fanbase, said last week that Trump “seems a little slower than usual.”
“He’s definitely not at ‘Biden brains’ yet,” said Gillis, 37. “But he’s circling the drain.”
Tur noted that Trump is “doing much more than certainly Joe Biden did” and “is out there in a way that past presidents haven’t even been out there,” with constant TV exposure and frequent trips abroad.
But she argued that concerns about his health nonetheless deserve scrutiny from reporters, especially as his physicians refuse to take questions from the media and his press team often sends out exaggerated assessments of his condition.
“We have a job to acknowledge the reality in front of us,” Tur said. “It’s part of the job to point out, ‘Hey, you got an MRI. We don’t know why.’”
Neither Trump nor White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has provided a straightforward answer about why he needed an MRI during his latest checkup.
Psychologist Dr. John Gartner previously told The Daily Beast Podcast that he thinks Trump is exhibiting a “massive increase” in “clinical signs of dementia,” citing the president’s nonsensical speeches, tendency to change topics mid-sentence, and memory lapses.
Beyond concerns about his cognitive health, Tur pointed out that online speculation has grown over “over some physical things, like the dragging of the leg, the bruise on his hand, the swelling of his ankles.”
Trump, who has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, on Wednesday blew up over The New York Times’ report about him showing signs of aging, calling the writer, Katie Rogers, “ugly, both inside and out.”
He declared, “There will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone, but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (“That was aced”) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now!”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Biden’s team for comment.
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