Trump says 63-year-old Obama is “exhausted” and “looks old” – as the 78-year-old pulls out of another campaign event

Donald Trump, 78, has claimed that Barack Obama, 63, is “exhausted” and “looks older” – hours after the Republican candidate withdrew from another campaign event amid increasing speculation about his own age and mental capacity.

Trump – the oldest presidential candidate in US history – spoke at a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina on Tuesday evening, where he lashed out at Obama, 63, who was in Detroit with Eminem and campaigning for Kamala Harris.

“I’m glad they’re getting him out. The reason they're taking him out – because he doesn't even want to do it. I think he’s exhausted,” Trump said in an apparent attempt to shift the spotlight on his opponents.

“I watched him talk. I think the guy is exhausted.”

He added: “And I never say a man looks old. But he looks a bit older, doesn't he? You know, there's nothing wrong with that. But he’s exhausted.”

The Republican presidential candidate also repeatedly called Obama “an idiot” and said North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un agreed with his assessment.

Meanwhile, in Detroit, Obama rapped on stage after being introduced by Eminem as they campaigned in the Michigan city that Trump recently insulted.

Trump's comments came after he withdrew from several campaign appearances in recent days. The 78-year-old was reportedly “exhausted.”

Before his appearance in Greenville, Trump was expected to participate in a virtual health town hall on Tuesday afternoon alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard. But he canceled at the last minute and his team cited “changes in Trump’s schedule.”

The Republican has also pulled out of scheduled interviews with CNBC Squawk Box, the shadow room Podcast and NBC.

The series of canceled or postponed appearances in recent days has led to rumors that Trump is too “exhausted” to fully campaign in the tight race against Harris.

Trump's team rejected that claim, denying that he was exhausted from the campaign and calling it “clearly false.”

“President Trump is running around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail,” Trump’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week. “And has been doing media interviews every day this week. He has more energy and a harder work ethic than anyone in politics.”

Trump's age and mental abilities have increasingly come into question since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 election campaign. The Trump campaign previously used the president's age as a target, but now finds itself on the receiving end.

If he retakes the White House next month, Trump would be the oldest person in U.S. history to be elected president.

Mental health experts weighed in on Trump's cognitive “deterioration,” to which the former president responded by calling on Harris to undergo a cognitive test.

Experts said previously The Independent that Trump appears to have “lost touch with reality,” as evidenced by his “exuberant” speeches and “inconsistent” debate performance on September 10th.

Dr. Ben Michaelis, a clinical psychologist who previously conducted cognitive assessments for the New York Supreme Court, said The Independent that Trump was “really not in a strong cognitive state,” while Allen Frances, professor and chair emeritus of psychiatry at the Duke School of Medicine, said it was “likely” that Trump had “deteriorated very significantly.”

Trump claimed he took two cognitive tests and passed both with “top marks.”