Colwell: Here's a whale of a tale. Or maybe it's a giraffe.

Donald Trump told a whale of a story.

Seeking to counter fears about all his gaffes and confusing statements, such as warning that President Biden could lead us into World War II, Trump cited anew his boast of achieving “amazing” results on a mental acuity test.

Said Trump of the test designed for the elderly or stroke victims:

“They always show you the first one, like a giraffe, a tiger or this or that — a whale. ‘Which one is the whale?’ Okay? And that goes on for three or four (questions) and then it gets harder and harder and harder.”

Trump picked out the whale. Big deal?

Well, isn’t it pretty easy to confuse a giraffe with a whale? Same habitat? Same neck length?

But maybe Trump didn’t actually pick out the whale.

A creator of the test told the Washington Post that there was no whale in the three versions of the test being used. So what? What if a giraffe looked like a whale?

In a more serious case of confusion, with misstatements about the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, Trump blamed Nikki Haley for failure to provide adequate security that day, even when he offered her 10,000 soldiers. Seems he was confusing Haley, who wasn’t in Washington or in government that day, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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Well, isn’t it pretty easy to confuse Haley with Pelosi? Same age? Same hair style?

Trump started out with reference to crowd sizes in the meandering New Hampshire speech. He said:

“You know, by the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6. You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know, they — did you know they destroyed all the information and all of the evidence? Everything. Deleted and destroyed all of it, all of it, because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard. So whatever they want, they turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people.”

This prompted Haley to question whether Trump is “mentally fit” to be president.

Republicans in the New Hampshire primary gave their answer, with Trump defeating Haley decisively. Trump will be the Republican nominee, no matter the number of incoherent sentences and the number of court appearances.

But all the focus now on Trump’s mental acuity hinders efforts of Trump supporters to focus all attention instead on Biden’s age and his gaffes.

It doesn’t help Trump in his attacks on Biden when he keeps confusing Biden and Obama.

In an interview with Sean Hannity, Trump displayed the confusion in citing this reason for complete presidential immunity:

“Because when he leaves office, the opposing party, president, if it’s the opposing party, will indict the president for doing something that should have been good, like Obama dropped missiles, and they ended up hitting a kindergarten or school or the apartment house, a lot of people were killed. Well, if that’s the case, he’s going to end up being indicted when he leaves office. He meant well, the missile went in the wrong direction and other things.”

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Trump many times over recent months has referred to Obama when seeking to criticize something Biden has done or has blamed Biden for something Obama did.

Well, isn’t it pretty easy to confuse Biden with Obama? They look so much alike and have the same speaking style.

But maybe Trump really did ace mental acuity questions about which he boasts.

The reason could be found in a book by sportswriter Rick Reilly, “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.” The author relates such things as Trump boasting about winning a senior golf championship where he entered his score from an easier course than the one on which the others played. That’s a whale of a story.

Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Trump's recent missteps, confusion put focus on mental acuity.