July 31, 2025

Trump’s Senior Moments, “Mr. Japan,” and Hulk Hogan’s Bid to Save Hooters

Show Notes
Transcript

Patrick Gutfield unpacks Donald Trump’s latest mental slip-ups, including imaginary chats with dead relatives, forgetting his own appointments, and calling world leaders “Mr. Japan.” Plus, Hulk Hogan’s beer brand tries to rescue Hooters from bankruptcy—because of course it does. Portions of today’s show were made with the help of A.I. and nice hooters.

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Callaroga Shark media from Washington, d C. Where Trump's so

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vain he probably thinks this joke is about him. This

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is valid, that's right. But the best part of this

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first story is that there's a decent chance Trump gets

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my name wrong when he gets mad about it. Hi,

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I'm Patrick Gutfield, and Rolling Stone reports on what might

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be the most uncomfortable topic in politics right now, President

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Trump's increasingly frequent senior moments. And when I say uncomfortable,

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I mean the kind of uncomfortable where everyone in the

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room is pretending not to notice that Grandpa just called

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the mailman. President Roosevelt. Trump is now the oldest man

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to assume the presidency in United States history, the same

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Trump who spent months attacking Joe Biden for being too

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old and cognitively declining, which creates this awkward situation where

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Trump is now older than the guy he said was

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too old to be president. That's like complaining that your

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neighbor's music is too loud and then turning your own

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stereo up to eleven. Rolling Stone has compiled a Greatest

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Hits collection of Trump's recent gaps, and honestly, it reads

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like a medical textbook. Chapter on warning signs your relatives

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should maybe stop driving. First up, Trump told a completely

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false story about his uncle teaching the un obamber at

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a Pennsylvania energy summit. Trump claimed that Ted Kazinski, you know,

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the guy who mailed bombs to people, was one of

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his uncle John Trump's students at mit. Trump even claimed

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he asked his uncle about Kazinsky, saying what kind of

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student was he? Uncle John. Here's the problem. Literally, none

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of that happened. Kazinski never went to MIT. He went

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to Harvard in the University of Michigan. John Trump died

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in nineteen eighty five, more than a decade before anyone

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knew who the un obamber was. So Trump is having

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conversations with his dead uncle about a terrorist who wasn't

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identified until after said uncle died. That's not political story telling.

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That's the setup for a really weird seance. Then there's

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Trump's confusion about Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. Trump has

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been complaining about Powell, saying he was surprised he was

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appointed and that Biden put him in and extended him.

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Plot twist, Trump appointed Powell in the first place. Trump

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is literally surprised that Trump appointed Powell. That's like being

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shocked to discover you're wearing your own shoes. At this point,

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Trump is so reflexively blaming Biden for everything that he's

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erasing his own decisions from memory. Trump also recently dumped

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on his own trade deal. During his tariff discussions, He

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criticized past North American trade agreements, apparently forgetting that he

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negotiated and signed the United States Mexico Canada agreement himself.

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He's basically reviewing his own work and giving it one star.

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Who would ever sign a thing like this? He asked,

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You did, sir, You literally held a signing ceremony. But

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my personal favorite is when Trump called the Japanese Prime

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Minister mister Japan during a Fox News interview about tariff deals.

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Trump said, Dear mister Japan, here's the story. You're going

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to pay a twenty five percent tariff on your cars,

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Mister Japan. That's not diplomacy. That's like addressing a letter

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to mister Europe or Miss Africa. Mister Japan sounds like

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he's one of the guys in the Justice Gang from

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the New Superman movie. Don't worry, Green Lantern, Mister Japan's

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got this the Prime Minister's name is Shigaro Ishiba, but

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apparently Trump's brain filed that under too complicated, just use

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the country name. The Japanese government, to their credit, figured

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out they were mister Japan and managed to strike a

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deal anyway, which shows remarkable diplomatic flexibility when your negotiating

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partner apparently thinks your name is your entire nation. During

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a press conference at a Florida detention center, which Trump

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built in the Everglades because apparently regular prisons weren't dystopian enough,

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a reporter asked how long detainees would be held before deportation.

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Trump's response a rambling speech about how much he loves

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Florida and how he has a very nice little place,

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nice little cottage in Palm Beach. Nice little cottage. He's

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talking about mar A Lago, which is about as much

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of a cottage as the Pentagon is a tool shed.

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But sure it's a cottage if cottages typically have ballrooms

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and require their own zip codes. The reporter asked about

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detention timelines and got a real estate review instead. That's

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like asking someone for directions and getting their life story

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about why they moved to the neighborhood. But the crown

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jewel of this collection is Trump's West Point commencement speech,

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where he advised military graduates not to marry trophy wives.

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At a military academy, Trump went on this bizarre tangent

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about developer William Levitt, rambling about how Levitt's second marriage

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to a trophy wife didn't work out too well. A

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lot of trophy wives. It doesn't work out, but it

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made him happy for a little while at least, Trump

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told future army officers, because nothing says military leadership like

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unsolicited marriage advice from someone who's been married three times,

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he continued, he sold his little boat. You got a

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big yacht. He had one of the biggest yachts anywhere

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in the world. He moved for time to Monte Carlo,

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and he led a good life. That's not a commencement speech.

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That's a fever dream about rich people's relationship problems. These

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cadets are expecting to hear about duty, honor, and country,

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and instead they're getting marital advice and yacht reviews. Trump

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gave the same speech at the University of Alabama, discussing

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Levitt's marital disappointments and advising graduates about something he calls

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momentum time, which sounds like either a self help concept

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he invented or a physics term he doesn't understand. The

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thing is, during the twenty twenty four election cycle, we

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had months of debate about Biden's age and cognitive decline.

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Biden had to drop out of the race because of

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concerns about his mental fitness. But somehow, when Trump has

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equally bizarre moments, it gets written off as Trump being Trump.

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But there's a difference between being eccentric and forgetting that

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you appointed the guy you're complaining about. There's a difference

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between being unconventional and thinking Japan's leader is named mister Japan.

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Rolling Stone points out that Trump is not today the

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same man who first assumed office in twenty seventeen. He

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has new health issues, less self control, stronger authoritarian impulses,

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and visibly looser skin. Visibly looser skin. That's the kind

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of observation that's both medically accurate and deeply uncomfortable to contemplate.

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The most telling line in the rolling Stone piece might

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be the conclusion, Unfortunately, for both the young and the elderly,

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taking one's own advice can often be the hardest lesson

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to learn, because Trump spent so much time insisting that

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cognitive decline was disqualifying for the presidency, and now we're

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watching him call foreign leaders by their country names and

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have imaginary conversations with dead relatives about tear arrists. The

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real question is if this was anyone else, would we

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be having a very different conversation about fitness for office?

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Or are we so used to Trump being Trump that

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we've stopped noticing when Trump stops being Trump. When wrestling

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legend Hulk Hogan died Thursday of cardiac arrest, there was

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another unexpected casualty. The future of Hooters might be hanging

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in the balance. Before his death, Hogan's Real American Beer

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brand had launched a bid to acquire Hooters, which filed

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for bankruptcy in June after abruptly closing dozens of locations.

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So now we are in the bizarre situation where the

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fate of a restaurant chain known for wings and orange

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shorts might depend on what happens to a beer company

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named after a wrestling catchphrase. Real American Beer had initially

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bid just for hooters intellectual property, but then expanded their

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offer to acquire all of Hooters of America, including over

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four hundred locations worldwide locations. That's a lot of places

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serving buffalo wings under the guidance of someone who used

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to drop leg drops on people for a living. When

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Hooters filed for bankruptcy, management insisted the company wasn't going

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anywhere and would be well positioned to continue our iconic

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legacy under a pure franchise business model, which is corporate

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speak for we're broke, but we're optimistic about it. Real

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American Beer was competing against a proposal led by Hooters, Inc.

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So basically it was Hulk Hogan's beer company versus the

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people who actually know how to run Hooters. That's like

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having a cage match between someone who understands restaurants and

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someone whose main qualification is that he once body slammed

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Andre the Giant. Real American Beer had big plans for Hooters,

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saying their bid was about rebuilding Hooters from the ground

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up with a fresh operational model, new revenue streams, and

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a cultural strategy designed to re engage diners in their

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twenties and thirties. It shows you don't understand Hooters if

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you think our eyes are focused on the ground, and honestly,

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if Real American Beer does successfully acquire Hooters, I'm expecting

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the new menu to include something called the leg Drop

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Wings and a dessert named what You're Gonna Do When

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these ice cream Sundays run wild on you. Portions of

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today's show were made with the help of AI and

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Nice Hooters.