Donald Trump Didn't Mistake Wife Melania's Name For Mercedes Despite 'Cognitive Decline' Allegations

Donald Trump raised eyebrows after allegedly mistakenly calling his wife, Melania Trump, "Mercedes," but many insisted it wasn't really the case.

Trump spoke fondly of his wife during his Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) speech on Saturday. While talking about how people praised Melania's beauty, he mentioned the name "Mercedes," which critics immediately claimed was a mistake.

"Well look, my wife, our great first lady, she was great... people love her," Trump said as the people gave Melania a standing ovation. "Oh, look at that, wow. Mercedes, that's pretty good!"

Trump continued praising Melania and stressed how the people warmly embraced the former first lady.

"She's good, and she loves our country, and she loves the people. When I give these big state rallies, they say, 'We love our first lady.'"

Several netizens took issue with Trump's statement. Luke Beasley, a political commentator, seemingly called out Trump for an alleged "cognitive decline" in a since-deleted tweet.

"Donald Trump called his wife, Melania, 'Mercedes' in a speech, and I haven't seen a word from the media," he wrote. "Donald Trump is in cognitive decline -- why won't the media cover it?"

Another user shared the same sentiment and claimed that big news outlets won't report it because "they're all busy calling President Biden old" when the alleged mistake "should be a much bigger story."

However, several netizens defended the former president, pointing out that Trump did not make a mistake because he was talking to Mercedes Schlapp, who was hosting the event.

"Top story on Drudge is a HOAX claiming Trump forgot Melania's name & called her Mercedes. Such a lie. Mercedes is the CPAC host who was in the audience. Drudge is just awful now," Melissa Tate, a political and cultural commentator, wrote.

Schlapp herself reacted to one report from The Independent with the headline, "Donald Trump calls wife Melania' Mercedes' in CPAC speech." "Fake News at its finest," she commented with a face with tears of joy emoji.

"Trump spews out astonishing evidence of his dementia, brain trauma, and possible substance abuse on an hourly basis. There is NO reason to add to this list easily disproven nonsense. He did NOT call his wife 'Mercedes' at CPAC," Keith Olbermann, American sports commentator and writer, added. "He's unmistakably referring to Mercedes Schlapp [man facepalming emoji]."

Trump and Melania are rarely seen together in public lately, but the former first couple get along well. In a past interview with Larry King, Trump said they were compatible and never had an argument before their engagement.

"We were together five years, we literally never have an argument or forget about the word fight. We never had an argument. We're just very compatible, we get along," Trump said.

Melania also acknowledged the "chemistry" during their first meeting. Trump said he was supposed to meet another supermodel, but Melania caught his attention.

"It was a great chemistry and energy. We had a great time. We started to talk. And, you know, something was there right away," Melania said.