Donald Trump has never been shy about ranking himself above the presidents who came before him. But his latest attempt to claim the top spot came with a twist nobody in the room saw coming.
In the middle of yet another victory lap, the president reached for a comparison he clearly thought would bring the house down. Instead, a single word tripped him up, and his critics got a gift they won’t be giving back anytime soon.
Now a short clip of the moment is making the rounds online, and it has many people asking the same question about the 80-year-old: just how high is he?
The bragging didn’t come out of nowhere.
For weeks, Trump has been showing off a CNN segment in which the network’s chief data analyst, Harry Enten, breaks down a survey ranking Trump ahead of two of the most revered presidents in Republican history among GOP voters.
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The Daily Beast reported that the segment was recorded in August, cites a poll from May and has been played at Trump rallies in Montana and Tennessee. Trump has also used Enten’s numbers to claim on Truth Social that he’s sitting at “98 and 99% support” within the GOP, which he called an “All Time Record High.”
So when he took the stage again with Election Day closing in, he was ready to take that bragging to new heights.
This time, the moment came during a midterm rally on Oct. 29 at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Trump was there to campaign for Sen. Darline Graham and the GOP ticket five days before the Nov. 3 elections, according to WSOC-TV.
His message to the crowd was simple… vote like he’s the one on the ballot.
Then came the comparison. His target was Ronald Reagan, the 40th president, whom Republicans have treated like a patron saint for four decades. In the CNN poll Trump loves to tout, 53% of Republicans named Trump as the GOP president they most admire, compared with just 18% for Reagan and 8% for Abraham Lincoln.
Trump put it this way: “I’m the highest ever. Higher than anybody. Higher than Reaganer.”
Yes, “Reaganer.” And while the president was presumably saying he outranks the Gipper in Republicans’ hearts, “highest ever” is a hard sell outside the MAGA bubble. An NPR poll released Oct. 27 found just 38% of registered voters approve of the job Trump is doing, with 61% disapproving.
Even Enten, the star of Trump’s favorite highlight reel, has warned that the president is about 50 points underwater with independents. Enten called that the worst showing for any president heading into a midterm on record. Reagan, for his part, won 49 states on his way to a second term in 1984.
A social media user posted the moment to X while the rally was still underway, and the replies turned into a full-blown roast.
Some people were simply lost. “What????” one user wrote, while another asked, “Who is this Reaganer guy?” A third floated a theory: “Perhaps he is referring to a little known character on Vikings?” That was likely a nod to Ragnar, the legendary warrior at the center of the History Channel drama “Vikings.”
Others went straight for the obvious joke. “High as a kite?” one person replied. Another checked the math, writing, “So does ‘record low approval rating’ the same as ‘highest ever’?” before adding, “So crazy, I didn’t know that’s how it worked.”
Trump’s verbal stumbles have become a reliable source of internet theories as questions about his fitness for office keep swirling. In January, he fumbled his own name onstage during a speech at Detroit’s MotorCity Casino.
He came out with something closer to “Dunuld Chrup” while telling the crowd they were lucky to be in the same room with him. Users at the time speculated about everything from slipping dentures to whether he was “high, drunk or both.”
The questions have followed his family, too. Back in 2024, Donald Trump Jr. faced speculation after a resurfaced clip from his Nov. 17 appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” showed him slurring and struggling to get his words out. Viewers openly asked whether he was “drunk, high, or just stupid.”
For now, the president insists he’s never been higher. Voters will have the final say on Nov. 3. Until then, expect the Enten clip, and maybe “Reaganer,” to stay on the setlist.
