US President Joe Biden, 81, appeared to freeze again – before Barack Obama came to his rescue and carried him off the stage

Harry Cole Political Editor

We need to talk about Joe Biden.

The White House tried to keep it under wraps for months, but in Italy it was clear that the elderly leader of the free world was not doing well.

The annual G7 meeting actually achieves more than warm words, but the unprecedented $50bn (£39bn) of Russian assets seized to aid Ukraine will not be what the 24th Puglia summit will be remembered for.

“This is his worst performance yet,” said an experienced diplomat. Someone whispered to me yesterdayand now the whole world can see it.

For years, questions have been raised about the sanity of the world’s most powerful man, but on the eve of the US election, those doubts have suddenly exploded.

During the summit, there was hushed discussion about the 81-year-old Biden and his worrying lack of mental clarity.

Another insider told me that while the president can appear sharp at times in meetings, he also seems to exhibit disturbing “loss of focus” and concentration.

But at that moment, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni During a parachute jump for her fellow world leaders at the luxurious Borgo Egnazia estate, it finally dawned on her…

Is the Commander-in-Chief crazy?

This olive tree jewel Adriatic Sea The coast, located at the heel of Italy, was made famous by Justin Timberlake’s 2012 wedding.

Now, this may go down in history as the place where Westerners realized that the fate of Sleepy Joe had come to an end.

Meloni’s photo opportunity to show unity and military strength was quickly overshadowed when Biden decided to turn his back on the G7, as the G7 applauded each skydiver who displayed their flag.

He stood there laughing for a few seconds before deciding to walk away from this powerful group of people.

After taking a few small steps, he started talking to someone and gave a thumbs-up.

The other leaders stood there, looking at the President with confused looks on their faces.

Emmanuel Macron, Rishi Sunak and Georgia Meloni looked in his direction, then looked at each other with understanding eyes.

Quick-thinking Meloni walked straight up to the president and tugged on Biden’s arm.

At this point, the president was facing the exact opposite direction, with his back to everyone, clearly not following the script.

As if helping a confused elderly relative, Melloni gently directed Biden toward photographers, while the other G7 leaders gathered around a visibly bewildered Joe.

When everyone smiled and looked at the camera, Biden decided to slowly put on his sunglasses.

White House It didn’t take long for it to go into full propaganda mode, trying to say that the viral video at the moment had been edited.

But they knew the truth and had to prevent their boss from walking alone, and instead had assistants accompany him to try to hide his physical weakness.

Biden’s irascible press secretary, Andrew Bates, claimed his boss was simply congratulating a diver who was collecting something on the floor.

He went on to accuse a “desperate” media of using an “artificially narrow framework” to disparage Biden.

When asked yesterday morning, Rishi Sunak tried to put on a brave face, repeating that the president had only thanked the diver “very politely”.

The Prime Minister claimed that his key allies had “just gone over and spoken to all of them individually”.

“From what I understand, he went over and talked to some of the skydivers, thanked them or said hello,” he told me.

But no matter which angle you watch it from, the video tells a different story.

People have their own eyes and their own thoughts that need to be made up.