President Donald Trump appeared to reveal one of his deepest personal anxieties about Melania Trump while attacking Jill Biden over Joe Biden’s controversial 2024 debate performance.
The moment came after Jill told CBS last Wednesday (May 27) that she was “frightened” watching her husband struggle onstage against Trump, saying she briefly wondered if he was having a stroke.
Highlights
- Trump attacked Jill Biden for not rushing onto the debate stage when she feared Joe Biden was having a stroke.
- The Daily Beast’s hosts argued that Trump’s post may have revealed anxiety about whether Melania would do the same for him.
- The discussion came after renewed questions about Trump’s health.
“I had never, ever seen Joe like that before,” Jill said. “I thought, oh my God, he’s having a stroke. And it scared me to d**th.”
Trump later responded on Truth Social, mocking Jill, writing that she “never rushed onto the stage to help her troubled husband, as any good wife would do.”
But according to The Daily Beast’s Joanna Coles and Hugh Dougherty, the post may have said more about Trump’s own fears than about the Bidens.
The Daily Beast’s hosts suggested that Donald Trump may secretly fear his wife would abandon him if his health faltered in public
Image credits: Getty/Win McNamee
Trump’s post began as a familiar attack on the former first lady and the former president’s 2024 debate collapse.
“Jill Biden is now out there finally admitting that she did NOT know what went wrong with Sleepy Joe during our spectacular, and highly rated, 2024 Presidential Debate, where Joe was not exactly performing to the highest level of debate standards,” Trump wrote.
He then claimed Jill had said she thought Biden was having “a ‘stroke,’ and various other really bad things,” before criticizing her for not intervening in front of the cameras.
Image credits: White House
The president then turned the post back to himself, arguing that Jill had failed to mention “how well I was doing prior to his near total collapse.”
“In other words, as many have asked, did my strong performance in that debate cause him to plain and simple ‘choke,’ leading to his ignominious defeat, or were other reasons the cause?” he added.
“Nobody else knows the answer to that, BUT I DO!!!”
Image credits: Getty/Chip Somodevilla
On May 29, The Daily Beast’s hosts Coles and Dougherty argued that the revealing part of the post was not Trump insulting Biden’s debate performance, but Trump specifically focusing on whether a wife would step in during a public health event.
“What would Melania do?” Coles asked.
Image credits: White House
“What do you think Melania would do if she looked up at a debate and saw what she thought was her husband, that’s the president, having a stroke?” she continued. “Would she rush up on stage?”
Dougherty said the question appeared to cut directly into Trump’s own situation.
“Trump is 79 and there are big questions over his health,” he said. “And I think we have here a real insight into what he thinks about when he is in public.”
The discussion comes a week after Donald Trump returned to the hospital for the third time in 13 months
Image credits: Getty/Ron Galella
Coles noted that Monday (May 25) was Memorial Day, and that Trump went to Walter Reed hospital on Tuesday for a checkup.
“We still do not know the results of this checkup,” she said.
She argued that Trump’s attack on Jill Biden landed differently because it came shortly after that visit.
Image credits: realDonaldTrump - Truth Social Post
“And yet we have Donald Trump saying, would Joe Biden’s wife come to his rescue if he suffered a public health event?” Coles said. “The question really, he’s asking that question about himself. What did the doctors tell him? What happened here?”
Dougherty said The Daily Beast asked the White House whether Trump would expect Melania to come onstage and rescue him in a similar situation, but had not received an answer.
“We haven’t had an answer yet,” he said. “But we also haven’t had the non-answer. We haven’t had an ab*se of answer.”
The hosts contrasted that silence with other White House responses to Daily Beast questions, including attacks on commentators such as Michael Wolff and David Rothkopf.
The discussion then turned to Melania’s public distance from Trump, including moments where she appeared reluctant to hold his hand.
“We know she doesn’t like to hold hands with him,” Dougherty said. “She’s always flicking him away.”
Audience members watching live also weighed in. One suggested Melania would “call her lawyer.” Another joked she would be “torn between ordering the fish or a salad.” A third said she would “watch quietly.”
The hosts argued that Trump’s erratic sleep schedule and late-night social media use could be taking a toll on his health
Coles and Dougherty tied the post to broader concerns about Trump’s condition and public stamina.
At the beginning of the program, Coles said Trump appeared exhausted.
“He’s so exhausted, he falls asleep in his cabinet meetings,” she said. “That’s really every four to five months he’s being checked up on.”
“They are monitoring our president, which is a good thing. We want him to be monitored. But that’s a lot of hospital visits for a president,” she continued.
Image credits: Getty/Johnny Nunez
They also pointed to visible bruising, makeup, and repeated reports of Trump having trouble staying alert.
“He nods off in the Oval Office,” Coles said. “He nods off at the cabinet, nods off everywhere.”
Dougherty connected that to their own tracking of Trump's nighttime posting schedule, saying the president appeared to get only a few longer stretches away from Truth Social during the month examined.
“We’ve seen his bruising. We’ve seen the Cancun. We’ve seen the nodding off. We’ve heard the snoring,” Coles said. “We have seen the social media posting which appears to be disinhibited. And it comes in the middle of the night. It comes in frenzies of post after post after post.”
She described the behavior as “almost manic” and said it appeared to happen when Trump was likely alone in his bedroom.
Dougherty also noted that Trump is 79 and approaching 80, while Melania is 56.
The hosts also raised Trump’s absence from a family event as another point of public curiosity
Image credits: Getty/Chip Somodevilla
According to the program, Donald Trump Jr. married Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson over the weekend in the Bahamas. Coles said there were rumors online that Trump had been advised not to fly after a recent trip to China, though that claim has not been confirmed.
“There are lots of rumors going around on the web,” she said. “Actually, Trump has been advised not to fly right now.”
She suggested that might be one reason Trump did not attend the Bahamas wedding, though she also noted the White House was in the middle of construction issues and event conflicts.
Image credits: White House
The program also touched on Trump’s diet, with Dougherty saying most people at his stage of life try to move toward healthier eating.
Coles noted that Trump’s diet has long been associated with McDonald’s, fries and Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, while also referencing Michael Wolff’s claim that Trump eats hamburgers in bed.
The hosts contrasted that with past presidents such as George W. Bush, who was known for exercise and a stricter diet, and Barack Obama, whose administration was associated with Michelle Obama’s White House garden and healthy eating efforts.
“Normally people at that stage of life are reckoning with a healthier diet,” Dougherty said.
"He always makes it about himself," a netizen wrote
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