Trump denies he has a cognitive problem after recent blunders but says he agrees with Putin that Biden should be the next president in a wild 87-minute CPAC speech where he presses and complains about water pressure

Donald Trump gave an 87-minute speech at CPAC in which he denied the chatter and addressed critics who say he has a cognitive disability — saying he was in fact a “genius.”

“They’ll say he was wandering — he’s cognitively impaired,” Trump said about an hour after his speech, denying those who criticized his mental state. ‘No, it’s really the opposite. It’s downright genius, you know that,” Trump said, after calling himself a “stable genius” during his time in office.

Trump made the comments during his extended remarks in which he gave impressions of Biden, portraying the president as someone who constantly asked people where he was and had difficulty managing stage instructions.

He repeatedly defended his own style of going off script, defending his “very informative” stories during remarks in which he gave impressions of Joe Biden and railed about favorite topics ranging from low-flow water-saving appliances to his complaints about electric cars.

It came after a week when President Biden’s age and memory were once again an issue, including the president’s use of note cards even at private events.

In one of many strange tangents in his speech, Trump praised Russian President Putin days after the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, then agreed with Putin’s recent comment that Russia would like to see a second term for Biden.

‘I have spoken a lot with Putin. I got along well with him, although he recently announced that he would much prefer to see Biden as president. And I agree with him. I agree, because you know, I ended Nord Stream, right?” Trump said this, referring to previous US sanctions against pipeline construction.

“Biden, he is more experienced, more predictable, he is a politician of the old formation,” Putin said this week. “But we will work with any American leader the American people trust.”

Referring to the media, Trump said: “These fakers over there. ‘He wandered endlessly. I tell these terrible and very boring stories.” No, they’re very informative stories, they’re actually very important stories,” Trump said.

‘No, they said there is no cognitive problem if you know anything about it. If it was, you will be the first to know because I will tell you,” he told the crowd.

Then Trump backtracked on one of his digressions, which related to imposing tariffs on Mexico.

“What happens is I talked to the gentleman, and he’s very confident about it, and I said no, you’re going to do it. You’re going to do it. And he thought, this is a weird conversation because he kept saying no. I said, No, you’re going to do it. 100 percent. Don’t even think about it. No, I said no. I said no, but he tells me to say no? I said, I said: Yes. He said: I can’t do it. Said this is what I’m doing. It’s Friday evening, starting Monday morning, at seven o’clock. By the way, Mexico is going to pay a 25% tariff on all the cars you stole from our country…’

Trump spoke during a week in which President Biden’s memory and age were once again in the news

Trump said he agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said Russia preferred a second Biden term

That led Trump to complain about the “all-electric mandate,” meaning incentives to buy electric cars. ‘Everyone has an electric car, and that doesn’t go far. I’m having a few problems. Does it go far? Doesn’t work in cold weather, remember.

He blasted California Governor Gavin Newsom, who he said had “destroyed” California, and then switched to water-saving devices.

He complained that authorities were “notifying people in Beverly Hills.” You can only use 40 liters of water… They say you can only brush your teeth once a day. Who the hell wants that to mean: you can’t use too much water on your hair. That would put me out, I would…” he joked.

Trump seemed to enjoy his time off script.

“And besides, isn’t this better than reading from a damn teleprompter,” Trump said 58 minutes into his monologue.

He seemed attuned to what critics might say, in a speech in which he ripped into “fake news” and booed the crowd.

‘They will say: he went astray. No one can wander around like that,” Trump said a few minutes before the full hour.

He mentioned an award for ‘best speaker’ and then accepted that he might not take home any trophies.

“I probably won’t get the best speaker this year because I went off this stupid teleprompter,” he said, after lengthy detours about ISIS, why he likes to call the former president “Barack Hussein Obama,” and other matters.

Trump spoke on the day of the South Carolina primary, where former Gov. Nikki Haley accused both Trump and Biden of being past their prime, insisting that Trump was confusing himself and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.