We all love a political gaffe as much as the next person - but in this case, the headlines circulating about Donald Trump are incorrect.
On Saturday (February 24), the former POTUS took to the stage to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland.
During his speech, 77-year-old Trump began to gush over his wife, Melania, saying: "Well look, my wife, our great first lady, she was great... people love her."
At that moment, the standing-room-only crowd began to cheer and applaud for the former FLOTUS, prompting Trump to respond by saying: "Oh look at that, wow. Mercedes, that's pretty good!" Check out the moment below:
This led to social media users and publications alike to criticize Trump for appearing to get his wife's name incorrect, with some even questioning his mental capacity.
For example, one headline from the Metro reads: "Trump got his own wife’s name wrong in a ‘gross sign’ of dementia." Another headline from The Independent reads: "Donald Trump calls wife Melania ‘Mercedes’ during live CPAC speech".
And over on X, one social media user blasted Trump, writing: "DEMENTIA DONNIE? Trump gets his wife's name wrong or maybe he thinks she's a car. Melania, Mercedes, Tomato, Tomatoe."
However, despite being what many have believed to be a forgetful slip-up, it turns out that Trump did mean to say "Mercedes" after all.
As reported by Newsweek, it appears as though Trump was actually addressing Mercedes Schlapp - his former White House director of strategic communications - who was in attendance at the CPAC event.
In fact, Schlapp has since taken to X to share a screenshot of an article calling out Trump's "mistake", labeling it "Fake news at its finest."
Elsewhere at the event, Trump stated that the people of the US are currently "living in hell" with regards to Joe Biden's presidency.
"In many ways, we’re living in hell right now, because the fact is, Joe Biden is a threat to democracy," Trump the crowd. "I stand before you today, not only as your past and hopefully future president but as a proud political dissident. I am a dissident."
He also claimed that if he were to be reelected in 2024, it would be a "liberation day" for his supporters and "judgment day" for his political rivals, per CNN.
So yeah... all in all, a pretty standard Trump rally.
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