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What is 'garbas'? Donald Trump press conference today sparks health concerns; 'clear he's not well'
President Donald Trump, during the press conference at the White House, appeared to say that China would ‘take all the garbas’, sparking confusion and concern.
President Donald Trump delivered a long speech to mark one year in office, and during this time, some of his utterances left people confused. Snippets of Trump's speech at the White House began to be circulated widely online.
In one such clip, the president can be heard warning about China. “If they take those tariffs away, China will eat all our lunch,” Trump tells those present. “They will take all of our garbas,” the president appears to say.
The word ‘garbas’ has understandably caused some confusion, with the person who shared the clip writing, “I missed Trump saying that China will take all of our Garbas.”
What is ‘garbas’?
It remains unclear what context Trump used the word ‘garbas’ in. One person guessed that the president might have tried to say ‘carpets’ and the audio made it seem like something else.
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‘Garba’ is a traditional Gujarati folk dance coming out of India and normally would not have been mentioned by Trump in context of tariffs stopping China from taking advantage of the US.
Trump's remark sparks health concerns
Given the oddity of ‘garbas’ being mentioned in a talk about China and tariffs, many expressed concern about the president's health and wellbeing. Some even asked questions about his fitness.
“Trump's garbas is rather garbled these days,” a person quipped. Another person charged, “Ok when is Jake Tapper and the media gonna report on this? They were quick to report on Biden! It's clear he's not well! What is he even mean here? This is clearly a guy in decline!”.
Others joked that ‘covfefe’ had a ‘new friend’. Notably, Trump had earlier made a typo with ‘covfefe’, but the president is no stranger to random words often with no context. In August 2025, Trump had simply written ‘Bela’ on Truth Social, leaving social media baffled.
