“The Wrong Page” or: How Trump Is Making His People Stupid

JD Vance stood in a factory hall in Des Moines, wanted to talk about agriculture, ethanol and Zach Nunn’s campaign - and suddenly completely lost the thread. In front of running cameras, the US vice president froze in the middle of a sentence, looked at his notes and for several seconds could not get a name out. “When I see Iowa farmers who have to bring E-15 to market, what is, uh… what is, uh…,” Vance said before a long pause followed. Then he turned to Republican Congressman Zach Nunn and openly said: “Zach, you gotta help me with her name. I lost my page.” Only after frantically flipping through his papers did Vance finally find the name of Democratic Senator Sarah Trone Garriott again. “Okay. Alright. There it is. I’m on the wrong page,” he said, visibly unsure.

The appearance immediately triggered new discussions in Washington about the public performances of the Trump administration. Because moments exactly like this had recently been associated mainly with Donald Trump himself. At the end of March, the 79 year old president had shown a similar lapse in the Oval Office when he read from handwritten notes and suddenly stumbled over individual words. During a statement about the construction halt on the planned 400 million dollar White House ballroom, Trump froze in the middle of a sentence, stared at his papers and asked irritably: “What is that? To…”. Only seconds later did the word come back to him. Shortly afterward he again visibly struggled with simple terms while talking about bulletproof glass and repeatedly mixed up “graph,” “grass” and finally “glass.”

Inside the White House, people had for months observed how strongly leading Republicans had adapted themselves linguistically and rhetorically to Trump. JD Vance in particular was considered one of the politicians who had almost completely adopted the president’s style. The former senator from Ohio had once been a harsh critic of Trump and years earlier had described him as a danger to the United States. Later he publicly defended nearly every line of the administration and became one of the central figures in the power struggle over the Republican succession for 2028. Behind the scenes, Vance openly competed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio for Trump’s support in the next presidential election.

That is exactly why the incident in Iowa drew so much attention. Vance is only 41 years old and was supposed to represent the opposite image of a president who more and more frequently attracted attention through rambling digressions, memory problems and verbal lapses. Instead, the appearance reminded many observers precisely of those same scenes. While the cameras were rolling, the vice president nervously flipped through his notes, lost the thread of his speech and had to rely on Zach Nunn’s help just to continue.

In 2025, American farmers suffered losses of more than $44 billion. A one-time $12 billion financial injection was sold by Trump as the holy grail. Afterwards, Trump claimed that no further aid was necessary because farmers would do well under his administration. This situation emerged even before the Iran war. The suicide rate among American farmers is now the highest it has ever been, with Arkansas in particular facing an especially severe crisis.

Read also our articles: The Price of Harvest – How Trump’s Policies Pushed America’s Farmers into the Abyss and Death

The Green Colossus Staggers - How Trump's Tariff War Shatters John Deere and the Farmers

The administration initially did not respond to questions about the incident. The timing was especially explosive. Republicans were trying with all their strength to project unity and control while Donald Trump at the same time was increasingly making headlines with public lapses of his own. Now, of all people, his possible political heir had become the center of the debate because of an almost identical moment himself.