President Donald Trump briefly lost track of the room Wednesday, searching for a GOP lawmaker whose bill he was signing while the congressman stood inches behind him.
Reps. Derrick Van Orden and Mike Bost were already flanking the podium when the 79-year-old president strolled up without so much as a glance at either of them.
He spoke for roughly two minutes on Van Orden’s veterans bill before pausing mid-sentence.
“I’m thrilled to be joined by the bill’s sponsor, Congressman Derrick Van Orden—where’s Derrick? Derrick?” he asked, scanning the room.
Standing just to his right, Van Orden, 55, appeared to say awkwardly, “I’m here,” prompting the president to finally notice him.
“Hello Derrick, I didn’t see you back there,” said Trump, who spent the last five days in Scotland.
Van Orden attempted to save face for the president, quipping, “I’m a Navy SEAL, I snuck up on you.”
Now recognizing Bost, the 64-year-old chair of the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs, on his other side, Trump turned and added, “And Mike? How are you Mike?”
“These two gentlemen is—are terrific. They are working together, and they’ve been working together, Mike, for a long time,” he said, before continuing his speech.
Van Orden, who recently caught flak for seeming to celebrate millions of Americans losing health care and food assistance under the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” gushed about Trump when given the chance to speak about his bill.
“I’m unequivocally stating right now that President Donald J. Trump is the most positive, pro-veteran president in the history of this country,” said the Wisconsin congressman, who served in the Navy for 26 years.
Van Orden’s VA Home Loan Program Reform Act aims to prevent veterans from losing their homes to foreclosure, according to Fox News. The bill lets veterans who fall behind on mortgage payments roll those payments to the end of their loan term, and replaces the partial claims program established under the Biden administration.
Trump is the oldest president ever to be inaugurated. Critics have questioned his mental fitness, pointing to gaffes like imagining he saw Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on TV and mangling words.
The White House has released a memo from the president’s physician claiming that Trump is in “excellent health” and showed “no abnormalities” in neurological and cognitive tests.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House.
