Nikki? Nancy? Newest Gaffe May Renew Debate Over Trump Mental Fitness

Former president Donald Trump’s latest public misstatement — mixing up his GOP primary opponent Nikki Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — may revive age as an issue on the 2024 campaign trail, this time aimed at Trump himself.

Speaking about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol during a rally Friday in Concord, New Hampshire, Trump seemed to attempt to blame the insurrection on Pelosi — but confused her name with that of his opponent, Haley.

“By the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6. You know Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley. You know they — do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it? All of it,” Trump said.

“Because of lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security — we offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people.”

Haley has said she was not in Washington that day or even in public office, having left her job as ambassador to the United Nations at the end of 2018.

(The House speaker is not in charge of the Capitol’s security, which is overseen by a four-member board that includes the sergeants-at-arms for both the House and Senate, the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police and the Architect of the Capitol.)

Days later, a Haley supporter, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) highlighted the gaffe in a national TV appearance .

“Nikki just turned 52. She’s 25 years younger than Donald Trump,” said Norman, one of the few South Carolina elected officials to publicly endorse the state’s former governor, in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I would say 25 years ago, he wouldn’t have made that