Fresh concerns over US president Donald Trump’s health were sparked on Tuesday, after the 80-year-old snapped at The Independent’s Washington correspondent Andrew Feinberg and had trouble remembering who the journalist was, despite the reporter apparently giving his name and outlet minutes earlier.

During a White House press conference on “corruption and fraud”, for which the influencer and YouTuber Nick Shirley was in attendance, the president told Feinberg: “Listen to you. Hey … I don’t know who the hell you are, but you better be careful.”

Later, he barked at the reporter: “Wait, wait, wait. Quiet, quiet, quiet!

“What’s wrong with you? Are you a sick person? I actually think there’s something wrong with you.”

However, X/Twitter users have been calling Trump “sick” over the interaction, with former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger saying “literally something is broken”:

Another ex-GOP congressman, Joe Walsh, called for the 25th amendment to be triggered:

“He is like a demon,” wrote news outlet MeidasTouch:

Political commentator Jo Carducci compared him to a “rabid animal”:

One account quipped: “He’s too emotional to be president”:

And journalist Molly Jong-Fast said: “Imagine if Biden said this or Obama or Bush or anyone…”:

Feinberg himself commented on the exchange by tweeting that he had “told him exactly who I was not five minutes before”:

Further attacks on the journalist came on social media via the official VP account for JD Vance, and the White House’s ‘Rapid Response’ account, with the former branding the correspondent an “imbecile” and the latter insulting him by using a slur for people with Down’s Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities.

Responding to Vance, Feinberg tweeted: “Mr. Vice President, if you’re going to insult me at least have the guts to tag my account”:

Feinberg also penned a piece for The Independent giving his take on the incident, writing that the president appeared to point at him “more than once”, but apparently wanted to call upon the AFP (Agence France-Presse) reporter standing directly behind him.

“Because from my vantage point he was pointing directly at my face, I started to speak up. He didn’t like that,” he wrote.

Addressing Trump’s remarks that he’s a “sick person” and that there’s “something wrong” with him, Feinberg concluded: “For the record, I had an annual physical earlier this month, and I can report I’m in perfect health.

“I was doing my job, and I’ll be right back at it tomorrow.”

Mic drop.

Why not read…?

• ‘What an idiot’: Trump wants to change the name of something - again
• Trump is bragging about a ‘perfect’ cognitive test score again

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