President Donald Trump marked the one-year anniversary of his unfortunate second term in office with a press briefing at the White House on Tuesday.
Much of the over two-hour briefing played out as a self-congratulatory victory lap, with Trump repeatedly praising what he describes as the “accomplishments” of his second term’s first year.
Still, it wasn’t the bragging or the jabs that drew the most attention this time. It was Trump’s rambling walk down memory lane.
The Jan. 20 session featured the kind of inflammatory rhetoric Trump has become known for. At one point, his speech segued into tariffs and then to immigration and sanctuary cities like New York, before adding that he “signed an executive order to bring back mental institutions and insane asylums.”
He then veered completely off script, launching into a bizarre story that jumped from his mother to asylums to a childhood sport, repeating words with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for kids retelling a favorite memory.
“You know, we used to have when I was growing up, we had in my area in Queens, I grew up in Queens, we had a place called Creedmore,” he said, before reenacting out a strange conversation with his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump.
Here’s a clip about how Trump’s mom said he could be a baseball player before explaining what a mental institution is pic.twitter.com/ZCFjnstfc7
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 20, 2026
“‘Uh, mom, why are those bars on the building?’ I used to play little league baseball there, a place called Cunningham Park,” he continued. “Who’s quite the baseball player, you wouldn’t believe. But I said to my mother, ‘Mom?’ She would be there, always there for me.”
“She said, ‘Son, you could be a professional baseball player.’ I said, ‘Thanks, Mom.’ I said, ‘Why are those bars on the windows? Big building,” he added. “Big powerful building. It loomed over the park, actually. She said, ‘Well, people that are very sick are in that building.’
I said, ‘Boy, I used to always look at that building, and I’d see big building, big tall building. It loomed over the park. It was sort of now that I think it was pretty unfriendly site, but I I’ll never forget I don’t know if it’s still there because they got rid of most of them.”
The disjointed speech was shared on Threads by one user with the caption, “Someone take the mic from Grandpa. It’s time for his nap,” and other users trolled the president as well.
Another joked, “It’s time for his morphine drip,” while a third wondered why the Vance and the Republicans haven’t invoked the 25th Amendment. “The fact that the 25th Amendment has not been invoked yet is beyond as insane as this speech!!!!”
“Hahahahahahaha. MAGA come get grandpa. He wandered out of the nursing home,” another user laughed. Another person said, “This guy is in the midst of a full blown mental breakdown. I listened to Canada’s Prime Minister Carney’s speech in Davos. Educated, brilliant, strong and truthful. What a contrast with looney tune POTUS.”
Trump’s mother became the subject of memes last year after a picture of her resurfaced, and folks made comparisons about their hairdos and grumpy expressions.
Trump reportedly was not close to his mother but always spoke of her fondly, and he did play baseball at New York Military Academy for three years. Trump played first base and has claimed before that he was good enough to go pro, but there has never been any confirmation of this other than from the twice-impeached president himself.
