Donald Trump, 77, claimed on Saturday that he feels “sharper” than he did 20 years ago, responding to recent criticism from Nikki Haley. Trump’s running mate for the Republican presidential nomination questioned his mental clarity, citing verbal gaffes.

At a rally in Nevada ahead of the Feb. 8 vote — in the race to nominate the Republican Party nominee against 81-year-old Democratic President Joe Biden — Donald Trump said, among other things, that US presidential candidates should to undergo a cognitive assessment. He thus picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Nikki Haley, who had earlier made this suggestion.

Commenting on Trump’s response, Haley said in a speech in South Carolina that if he really wanted to take a cognitive test he would have no problem facing her in a debate, which she called “the ultimate test of mental capacity for any presidential candidate.” .

Trump has recently fallen into some verbal slips. In a January 19 speech, he confused Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On another occasion, he had mixed up his words, referring to the president… Obama.

After back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, and almost assured of 26 delegates in Nevada, Trump has virtually secured victory in the race for the Republican nomination. But it angers him that the former US ambassador to the UN refuses to drop out of the race. “Time to end it,” Trump said Saturday, calling Nikki Haley “chicken-brained.”