Highlights:
Trump Tweeted That His “Two Greatest Assets Have Been Mental Stability And Being, Like, Really Smart.” According to a tweet from Trump, “....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....” [Twitter - Donald Trump, 1/6/18]
Trump Also Claimed That He “Would Qualify As Not Smart, But Genius....And A Very Stable Genius At That!” According to a tweet from Trump, “....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!" [Twitter – Donald Trump, 1/6/18]
Later That Day, During A News Conference At Camp David, Trump Answered A Question About Why He Felt The Need To Tweet About His Mental State By Discussing His Intellect. According to ABC News, “Later that day, during a brief news conference at Camp David, Trump answered a question of why he felt the need to tweet about his mental state by first talking about his intellectual background. ‘Well, only because I went to the best colleges for college. I went to a -- I had a situation where I was a very excellent student. Came out and made billions and billions of dollars. Became one of the top businesspeople. Went to television and, for ten years, was a tremendous success, as you probably have heard. Ran for President one time and won,’ Trump said in his own defense.” [ABC News, 1/8/18]
Trump Bragged About His Perfect Score On His Mental Health Evaluation During An RNC Meeting. According to Business Insider, “During this segment of Trump's address, the White House press pool was escorted out of the room at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, where the RNC meeting took place. The recording revealed that Trump boasted of his ‘30-for-30’ score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test. ‘You know that's risky,’ Trump said. ‘If I take it, it doesn't come out so good, they don't get rid of it. It's risky, does that make sense to people?’ Trump noted that he had to identify animal sketches at the start of the test, which he said was fairly easy. Later in the exam, Trump said he had to partake in a word recall exercise that was substantially more difficult. ‘Let me tell you, those last ten questions are hard,’ Trump said, adding, ‘There aren't a lot of people that can do that.’ That exam — which screens for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other cognitive diseases in older adults — takes about 10 minutes. It's widely regarded as an early and easy way to determine whether someone is showing signs of dementia.” [Business Insider, 2/2/18]
Trump Claimed To Have “One Of The Greatest Memories Of All Time.” According to Business Insider, “Trump insisted that he did remember the name of the widow's husband, La David Johnson, one of four US soldiers who was killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month, during the phone call. Trump said his account was correct because he has ‘one of the great memories of all time.’” [Business Insider, 10/25/17]
September 26, 2024: Trump Struggled To Remain On Topic During A News Conference In New York
September 26, 2024: Trump Meandered And Stumbled Through A News Conference At Trump Tower. According to the New York Times, “At the beginning of the news conference, Mr. Trump struggled at times to articulate his thoughts or make a point clearly. He stumbled over some words as he read from remarks he had plainly not written. He bootstrapped one thought onto another based on whether the words associated with something else, as opposed to having a clear through line. After he accused Ms. Harris of ruining San Francisco while she was the district attorney, a recent favorite line of attack, Mr. Trump followed it up with tangents that related loosely to the city of San Francisco as opposed to the reason he was at the lectern.” [New York Times, 9/26/24]
September 24, 2024: Trump Called Charlottesville “Charlottestown”
September 24, 2024: Trump Forgot The Name Of Charlottesville, Calling It “Charlottestown.” According to the Associated Press, “Donald Trump flubbed the name of Charlottesville, Virginia, while going off script during a speech on Tuesday otherwise focused on economic policy, slamming Vice President Kamala Harris for lying about ‘Charlottestown.’ The former president was talking about imposing tariffs and other steps he’d take to bolster U.S. manufacturing in Savannah, Georgia, when he veered off topic. He began arguing that he won the recent debate with Harris, despite GOP claims the moderators were against him. ‘She didn’t say anything except lies, like bloodbath, like Charlottestown,’ Trump said. He didn’t acknowledge the error, but quickly added that he was ‘finishing this topic. Because they’ll say, ‘Oh, he fell into a trap’ — when in fact, he’d already made a conspicuous mistake. Trump was trying to refer to the deadly 2017 violence in Charlottesville, between white supremacists and anti-racist protesters. Trump has faced years of criticism from Harris and other top Democrats when he blamed ‘both sides’ for what occurred.” [Associated Press, 9/24/24]
September 17, 2024: Trump Confused Afghanistan With Alaska
September 17, 2024: Trump Confused Bagram Air Base In Afghanistan With The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge In Alaska. According to Politico, “There was no new Trump on display, no predictions from attendees that he has changed because of recent events. There were also some of the typical false statements and exaggerations. Speaking on energy policy, Trump appeared to confuse Afghanistan for Alaska, telling the crowd ‘We have Bagram in Alaska. They say it might be as big, might be bigger than all Saudi Arabia.’ Bagram is an airbase in Afghanistan, and Trump may have meant to refer to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.” [Politico, 9/17/24]
September 15, 2024: Trump Misgendered Nicky Jam
September 15, 2024: Trump Misgendered Nicky Jam While Introducing Him At A Rally In Las Vegas. According to Rolling Stone, “Nicky Jam has now joined a cohort of reggaetoneros pledging their support for Donald Trump — even if the former president doesn’t seem to know who he is. On Friday night, the Puerto Rican musician joined Trump onstage in Las Vegas to endorse him, but the former president misgendered him in his introduction. ‘Do you know Nicky? She’s hot. Where’s Nicky?’ Trump said from the stage while looking offstage to find him. Jam then arrived at the podium as Trump corrected his mistake: ‘Oh, look, I’m glad he came up.’” [Rolling Stone, 9/15/24]
September 5, 2024: Trump Provided A Nonsensical Answer When Asked About Child Care Affordability
September 5, 2024: Trump Said His Plan To Raise Tariffs Would Make Child Care More Affordable But Provided No Explanation As To How That Would Happen. According to CNN, “Asked at an economic forum Thursday how he would make child care more affordable, former President Donald Trump responded that his plan to hike tariffs would raise enough revenue, without explaining how that would help families. ‘We are going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it is relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in,’ he said in remarks at the Economic Club of New York. ‘We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people.’” [CNN, 9/5/24]
August 22, 2024: Trump Bragged About Hitting Enemies With The F-32, A Plane That Does Not Exist
August 22, 2024: Donald Trump Bragged About “Knocking The Hell” Out Of Enemies With the F-32, A Fighter Jet That Does Not Exist. According to Newsweek, “Donald Trump bragged about ‘knocking the hell out of enemies with fighter jets that don't exist during a speech in North Carolina on Wednesday. While giving a speech to a crowd at Asheboro, the former president referred to the ‘Afghanistan disaster,’ saying ‘It's just not acceptable that something like that could happen,’ seemingly referring to the US troops' withdrawal in 2021 which preceded a rapid takeover by the Taliban. He said, ‘These are fighters, they fight with broken, old, obsolete weapons and knives, we have F-16s, we have F-35s, F-32s, and we were knocking the hell out of them, just knocking the hell out of them. It was easy, but I said, what the hell are we doing this for, let's get the hell out of there, we were getting out with such strength they were so happy they couldn't believe it.’ The defense publication The National Interest reported that the military jets mentioned by Trump in his speech included the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning, however there is no such jet as an F-32.” [Newsweek, 8/22/24]
August 9, 2024: Trump Was In A Helicopter That Nearly Crashed, But Not With Willie Brown Like He Thought
August 9, 2024: Trump Was In A Helicopter That Nearly Crashed, But Not With Willie Brown. According to Politico, “The man who almost crashed in a helicopter with Donald Trump told POLITICO Trump confused him with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown — despite the former president’s repeated insistence it was Brown. It was Nate Holden, a former city councilmember and state senator from Los Angeles, who said in an exclusive interview late Friday that he remembers the near-death experience well. He and others believe it happened sometime in 1990. ‘Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco,’ Holden said. ‘I’m a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles.’ ‘I guess we all look alike,’ Holden told POLITICO, letting out a loud laugh. Holden, who is 95 years old, was in touch with Trump and his team during the 1990s when the flamboyant Manhattan developer was trying to build on the site of the historic Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Holden represented the district at the time and supported the project.” [Politico, 8/9/24]
July 31, 2024: Trump Confused What Office Dave McCormick Was Running For
July 31, 2024: Trump Referred To Senate Candidate Dave McCormick As “Mr. Governor.” According to WHTM, “Former President Donald Trump appeared to tell a Harrisburg crowd that U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick (R) would be Pennsylvania’s ‘next Governor.’ ‘He’s tough too,’ said Trump of McCormick. ‘He’s tough, he’s a great military hero.’ McCormick is making his second run for the U.S. Senate and is facing Democrat Bob Casey in the November general election. ‘I have Mr. Governor, Mr. Future Governor,’ Trump said later again during the event while pointing down at the crowd of lawmakers and politicians in front of him. Trump later corrected himself calling McCormick ‘the next U.S. Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’ shortly before McCormick retook the stage.” [WHTM, 7/31/24]
March 16, 2024: Trump Appeared To Have Confused Himself With Barack Obama. According to Forbes, “Trump (March 16): At a rally in Dayton, Ohio, Trump again mistakenly referred to former President Barack Obama, this time possibly confusing himself with Obama, though it remains unclear what he might have meant: ‘Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama, has anyone ever heard of him?’ Trump asked the crowd, before adding, ‘every swing state, Biden beat Obama but in every other state, he got killed.’” [Forbes, 3/17/24]
March 3, 2024: Trump Confused Biden With Obama. According to the Guardian, “Donald Trump confused Barack Obama for Joe Biden at a rally in Virginia on Saturday, triggering further questions about the age of the likely Republican presidential nominee who has made a string of such gaffes. It also comes at a time of similar concerns about Biden. At 77 and 81 respectively, Trump and Biden are the oldest people to run for the presidency in US history. ‘Putin has so little respect for Obama that he’s starting to throw around the nuclear word. You heard that. Nuclear. He’s starting to talk nuclear weapons today,’ said Trump, on Saturday night in Richmond. The crowd reportedly went silent as the Trump referenced Obama, who left office more than seven years ago. It’s the third time Trump has made the blunder in the past six months.” [Guardian, 3/3/24]
February 23, 2024: Trump Misquoted His Initial Comments When Running For President, Saying He Had Called Undocumented Immigrants “Racist” And Later Catching Himself. According to a tweet from American Bridge of a video of Trump’s appearance at the Black Conservative Federation, “TRUMP: And I tell the story – I did such a good job on the border. Remember? ‘They’re coming in, they’re racist, they’re this, they’re that.’ And they said – ‘rapists,’ too. I called them everything.” [Twitter – American Bridge, 2/23/24]
February 8, 2024: Trump Claimed That January 6 Was “An Insurrection Caused By Nancy Pelosi.” According to the Daily Beast, “Donald Trump has offered potentially his most deranged statement regarding the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol to date, telling reporters outside his Florida estate on Thursday that the 2021 attack was ‘an insurrection caused by Nancy Pelosi.’” [Daily Beast, 2/8/24]
February 4, 2024: Trump Said That He Had Accepted All Offers To Do Pre-Super Bowl Interviews. According to a tweet from American Bridge of a video of Trump’s appearance on Newsmax, “TRUMP: He just gave up the Super Bowl interview. INTERVIEWER: And yeah, talk more about that, he gives up a free opportunity to speak to every American at the Super Bowl. Every person watches how do you give that up? TRUMP: Well, I don’t know but I accepted it, I said I’ll take your place.” [Twitter – American Bridge, 2/4/24]
CNN Headline: “President Trump Opts Out Of Super Bowl Interview.” [CNN, 1/31/18]
February 4, 2024: Trump Was Confused About The Status Of The Indiana Primary Claiming That The Haley Campaign Had Forgotten To Apply And Said, “We Won Indiana, Or Will.” According to a tweet from American Bridge of a video of Trump’s appearance on Fox News, “TRUMP: We have a situation where they forgot to apply, I guess, for Indiana. You don’t run and not apply for Indiana. Great state. And so, we won Indiana, or will. And we’ve won just about everything we’ve touched.” [Twitter – American Bridge, 2/4/24]
January 2024: Trump Accused Haley Of Failing To Provide Adequate Security On January 6 During The Insurrection. According to the New York Times, “Former President Donald J. Trump on Friday appeared to confuse Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi during a speech in New Hampshire, accusing Ms. Haley of failing to provide adequate security during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol and connecting her to the House committee that investigated it. Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and a former ambassador to the United Nations, has never served in Congress and was working in the private sector during the Capitol riot.” [New York Times, 1/19/24]
Trump: “Nikki Haley Was In Charge Of Security. […] We Offered Her 10,000 People, Soldiers, National Guards, Whatever They Want. They Turned It Down.” According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump then repeated his frequent claim that the bipartisan House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack — including Mr. Trump’s actions that day — ‘destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence.’ Then, he claimed that Ms. Haley was in charge of security that day, and that she and others had turned down his offer to send troops to the Capitol. ‘Nikki Haley was in charge of security,’ he said. (She was not.) ‘We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that.’” [New York Times, 1/19/24]
January 2024: Trump Accused New York Attorney General Letitia James Of Driving Exxon Out Of New York, Which Occurred In 1989. According to Forbes, “Former President Donald Trump blamed New York Attorney General Letitia James for driving Exxon out of New York while speaking to reporters outside of his Manhattan civil fraud trial Thursday—even though the company moved its headquarters out of New York City more than 30 years ago. Trump equated James’ lawsuit alleging he lied about his net worth to secure more favorable business deals to Exxon’s departure from Manhattan in 1989, telling reporters ‘she should be criminally liable for this, she did this to Exxon, and they drove Exxon out of New York.’ Exxon moved its headquarters from Manhattan to Dallas in 1989, the year James received her law license.” [Forbes, 1/11/24]
November 2023: Trump Claimed Viktor Orban Had Called On Obama To Step Down As President
November 2023: Trump Said That Viktor Orban Had Called On Barack Obama To Step Down As President. According to Business Insider, “Former US President Donald Trump mistakenly told supporters that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had recently called on Barack Obama to step down as president of the US. The gaffe occurred during Trump's speech at a campaign event in Claremont, New Hampshire, on Saturday, as he seeks the Republican nomination ahead of the 2024 presidential election. In an October 2023 interview, he alleged that Orbán was asked what he would ‘advise President Obama,’ adding that the Hungarian leader wants Obama to ‘immediately resign.’ Obama's mandate ended in 2017 when Trump was inaugurated.” [Business Insider, 11/12/23]
Obama Left Office In 2017: According to Business Insider, “Obama's mandate ended in 2017 when Trump was inaugurated.” [Business Insider, 11/12/23]
October 2023: Trump Claimed To Have Defeated President Obama In An Election. According to the New York Times, “But his recent campaign events have also featured less deliberate stumbles. Mr. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance. On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. Trump wrongfully thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error. It was strikingly similar to a fictional scene that Mr. Trump acted out earlier this month, pretending to be Mr. Biden mistaking Iowa for Idaho and needing an aide to straighten him out. In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has also told supporters not to vote, and claimed to have defeated President Barack Obama in an election. He has praised the collective intellect of an Iranian-backed militant group that has long been an enemy of both Israel and the United States, and repeatedly mispronounced the name of the armed group that rules Gaza.” [New York Times, 10/30/23]
September 25, 2023: Trump Said Jeb Bush “Got Us Into The Middle East.” According to the Independent (UK), “Weeks after challenging his political rivals to a mental acuity test, Donald Trump seemed to confuse members of the Bush family as he recalled his 2016 presidential election campaign. The former US president referred to his previous rival for the Republican nomination, Jeb Bush, as the person who ‘got us into the Middle East’ – apparently mistaking him for his brother, former president George W Bush. George W Bush, who served as America’s 43rd president, ordered US troops into Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.” [Independent (UK), 9/26/23]
In Just Over A Year After He Took Office, Trump Inaccurately Stated A Date Or Time Period On At Least 51 Occasions. According to the Toronto Star, “But Trump has made these kinds of errors so frequently that you can almost set your watch to them. The president of the United States, who has boasted that he has ‘one of the great memories of all time,’ has a problem with time itself. Trump has inaccurately stated a date or time period on at least 51 occasions since he took office. It is not exactly clear why.” [Toronto Star, 4/25/18]
January 28, 2020: Trump Told Fox News He Met With Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg “Two Weeks Ago,” When Zuckerberg Had Not Been To The White House Since October 2019. According to a tweet from Daniel Dale, “Trump told Fox last week that Mark Zuckerberg congratulated him when Zuckerberg was in the White House ‘two weeks ago.’ Facebook clarifies, again, that Zuckerberg hasn't been there since October. (Intentionally or not, Trump habitually moves events much closer to the present.)” [Twitter – Daniel Dale, 1/28/20]
February 24, 2018: Trump Claimed Rep. Adam Schiff Was Prank-Called “Last Week, Two Weeks Ago” By Russian Pranksters When It Happened 10 Months Prior. According to the Toronto Star, “In February, Trump phoned a Fox News show and mocked a congressman for getting prank-called by Russian pranksters: ‘If you look at Adam Schiff, last week, two weeks ago, he got scammed by somebody.’ The call happened 10 months prior, not two weeks.” [Toronto Star, 4/25/18]
June 13, 2017: During A Lunch With Members Of Congress, Trump Falsely Claimed That The Three Year Anniversary Of His Campaign Announcement Was In A Few Days. According to Trump’s remarks at a lunch with members of Congress, “I've been talking about repealing and replacing Obamacare now for almost a year. Don't forget, on June 16th -- June 14th is my birthday, but June 16th was the day I announced that I was running. Some people said, ‘Really? Not going to happen.’ And it happened. But it's been exactly -- so in three days it's exactly three years. So we're very happy about that. And from day one, I said we're going to repeal and replace Obamacare. And that's what we're going to do.” [Trump remarks at a lunch with members of Congress – Factbase, 6/13/17]
Trump Launched His Campaign In June 2015 – Two Years Prior, Not Three. According to ABC News, “Donald Trump, the real estate mogul, reality television star and hair icon, today announced he is taking his first run at the White House. From the iconic Trump Tower in New York City, the Donald told his supporters he is ‘officially running for president of the United States.’” [ABC News, 6/16/15]
February 2017: Trump Said Frederick Douglass Was “An Example Of Somebody Who’s Done An Amazing Job And Is Being Recognized More And More.” According to CNN, “Donald Trump, at a breakfast with African-American supporters marking the start of African-American History Month, described famed 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass as ‘an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.’ Trump spoke Wednesday about Douglass – who died in 1895 – and Martin Luther King Jr. through the context of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, the newest Smithsonian museum that opened in 2016.” [CNN, 2/2/17]
Alzheimer’s Association Listed Confusion With Time Or Place As A Sign Of Alzheimer’s Disease And Dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, “People living with Alzheimer's can lose track of dates, seasons and the passage of time. They may have trouble understanding something if it is not happening immediately. Sometimes they may forget where they are or how they got there. What's a typical age-related change? Getting confused about the day of the week but figuring it out later.” [Alzheimer’s Association Accessed 4/14/20]
Trump Argued That When He Interposed Names, He Was Being Sarcastic. According to Reuters, “Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his recent mixing up of names was intentional. During a speech last month, Trump confused Nikki Haley, his last remaining rival for the Republican presidential nomination, with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He also suggested former Democratic President Barack Obama was still in office. ‘When I purposely interposed names, they said I didn't know Pelosi from Nikki,’ Trump said at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday. He said calling Obama the current president was sarcasm, not a gaffe.” [Reuters, 2/14/24]
February 23, 2024: Trump Downplayed His Missing Of Names, Saying He Interchanged Names “All The Time” And That He Did So “In Sarcasm.” According to a tweet from American Bridge of a video of Trump’s appearance at the Black Conservative Federation, “TRUMP: Do we have a good time? What the hell. No it’s true. Being sarcastic, I interchange names all the time. Every time I interchange a name, and I do it in sarcasm, every time I interchange a name, they say Donald Trump didn’t know this one form that one. I know exactly what the hell I’m doing.” [Twitter – American Bridge, 2/23/24]
Trump Suggested Injecting Disinfectant To Treat COVID. According to NBC News, “President Donald Trump suggested the possibility of an ‘injection’ of disinfectant into a person infected with the coronavirus as a deterrent to the virus during his daily briefing Thursday. […] He added: ‘I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.’ He didn’t specify the kind of disinfectant.” [NBC News, 4/23/20]
October 2023: Trump Told His Supporters Not To Vote. According to the New York Times, “But his recent campaign events have also featured less deliberate stumbles. Mr. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance. On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. Trump wrongfully thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error. It was strikingly similar to a fictional scene that Mr. Trump acted out earlier this month, pretending to be Mr. Biden mistaking Iowa for Idaho and needing an aide to straighten him out. In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has also told supporters not to vote, and claimed to have defeated President Barack Obama in an election. He has praised the collective intellect of an Iranian-backed militant group that has long been an enemy of both Israel and the United States, and repeatedly mispronounced the name of the armed group that rules Gaza.” [New York Times, 10/30/23]
January 2024: Trump Was Mocked For Falsely Claiming Magnets Do Not Work Underwater. According to the Messenger, “Social media users can't stop scratching their heads after watching former President Donald Trump insist at an Iowa rally that dropping magnets in water causes them to stop working. ‘All I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that’s the end of the magnets,’ Trump declared from the podium in Mason City Friday night. He was criticizing a decision by the Navy to use giant magnets to lift elevators by plane onto an aircraft carrier (floating on the water) — instead of using equipment from Midwestern company John Deere. ‘Why didn't they use John Deere? Why didn't they bring in the John Deere people? Do you like John Deere? I like John Deere,’ Trump gushed. Magnets do work underwater. Now social media wags are stuck on a new magnetic political debate.” [Messenger, 1/6/24]
March 16, 2024: Trump Struggled To Read The Teleprompter At His Rally And Blamed The Company, Saying He Would Not Pay Them. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump’s campaign speeches generally swing between scripted remarks and seemingly off-the-cuff digressions. On Saturday, he acknowledged struggling to read the teleprompter as he tried to quote statistics on inflation. ‘Everything is up: Chicken’s up, bread is up and I can’t read this damn teleprompter,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘This sucker is moving around. It’s like reading a moving flag in a 35-mile-an-hour wind.’ Then, Mr. Trump, who before his presidency was known in New York for refusing to pay his bills to a wide range of service providers, joked about not paying the teleprompter company. ‘Then they say Trump’s a bad guy, because I’ll say this: Don’t pay the teleprompter company,’ he said as the crowd laughed. ‘Don’t pay.’” [New York Times, 3/16/24]
May 2024: Trump Appeared To Confuse Taiwan And China. According to Newsweek, “At another point in the rally, Trump appeared to confuse Beijing with Taiwan, the self-governing island that China says it will eventually reunify with the mainland. Trump said: ‘If you take a look at President Xi of China, talking about Beijing—now they've got ships circling, they have planes—they're never doing anything.’” [Newsweek, 5/13/24]
May 2024: Trump Called Jimmy Carter Jimmy Connors. According to Newsweek, “He also accidentally called former President Jimmy Carter ‘Jimmy Connors.’” [Newsweek, 5/13/24]
May 2024: Trump Said He Referred To Himself As A Politician In A Conversation With Frank Sinatra, Who Died 17 Years Before Trump’s First Campaign. According to Newsweek, “And just minutes into the rally, Trump started talking about a ‘very good’ hot dog he had just eaten, before recounting conversations he'd had with famed singers Frank Sinatra and Luciano Pavarotti about food. ‘Frank Sinatra told me a long time ago, 'never eat before you perform.' I said, 'I'm not performing, I'm a politician if you can believe it, I hate to be called a politician,'’ Trump said. Sinatra died in 1998, much before Trump entered politics. After going on a tangent about the upcoming election, Trump returned to the subject of Sinatra and hot dogs. ‘But I just had the best hot dog, so I said, Frank 'I'm sorry'. Now, Pavoratti was a good friend, he didn't have that same, he ate all the time, he didn't care.’” [Newsweek, 5/13/24]
May 2024: Trump Appeared To Freeze For More Than 30 Seconds During His NRA Speech. According to the Independent (UK), “Donald Trump appeared to freeze for more than 30 seconds during a speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas, Texas. The former president — who kept the crowd waiting for more than two hours from the scheduled time of his speech on Saturday — was praising the state of Texas before he suddenly fell silent at the lectern.” [Independent (UK), 5/20/24]
VIDEO: “She’s Got A Son”: Trump Seemed To Forget He Has A Son With Melania. [Guardian, 9/12/19]
April 2, 2019: Trump Falsely Claimed That His Father Was Born In Germany; Even Though He Was Born In New York. According to the Guardian, “Donald Trump has wrongly claimed his father was born in Germany, again, during a press conference with the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. Trump made the claim while criticizing Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, whose country, the president said, ‘was not paying their fair share’ toward the military alliance. ‘I have great respect for Angela and I have great respect for the country,’ said Trump. ‘My father is German, was German, born in a very wonderful place in Germany so I have a very great feeling for Germany.’ Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was born in New York. Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, was born in the German village of Kallstadt.” [Guardian, 4/3/19]
Trump Has Repeatedly Made The False Claim About His Father’s Birthplace. According to the Independent, “It is not the first time Mr Trump has falsely claimed that his father was born in, or lived in Germany. At last year's Nato summit in the Belgian capital of Brussels, he said: ‘I have great respect for Germany. My father is from Germany … Both of my parents are from the EU — despite the fact they don’t treat us well on trade.’ Last July during a trip to Scotland, he also told CBS News: “Don’t forget both of my parents were born in EU sectors — my mother was Scotland, my father was Germany.” In another interview with Fox News Sunday last year, he said: ‘My parents were born in the European Union.’ He added, ‘I love these countries; Germany, Scotland, they are still in there, right?’” [Independent 4/2/19]
PolitiFact Gave Trump’s Claim That His Father Was Born In Germany A “Pants On Fire” Rating. According to PolitiFact, “Donald Trump said his father was born in Germany — even though, as has been reported many times -- Fred Trump was born in New York. It’s unclear why the president keeps repeating it, but it’s wrong. Pants on Fire.” [PolitiFact, 4/4/19]
November 2023: Trump Said New Endorser Randy Fine “Just Came Over From A Party Known As The Democrat Party.” According to Florida Politics, “At an event at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump praised Rep. Randy Fine for flipping his endorsement for President to back Trump. But he mistakenly inferred the lifelong Republican had changed parties to do it. ‘Randy Fine, who just came over from a party known as the Democrat Party,’ Trump said. In reality, Fine has never been a registered Democrat. He had previously endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis for President in 2024 but made headlines when he publicly shifted his support to Trump.” [Florida Politics, 11/10/23]
Randy Fine Was A Lifelong Republican. According to Florida Politics, “At an event at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump praised Rep. Randy Fine for flipping his endorsement for President to back Trump. But he mistakenly inferred the lifelong Republican had changed parties to do it. ‘Randy Fine, who just came over from a party known as the Democrat Party,’ Trump said. In reality, Fine has never been a registered Democrat. He had previously endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis for President in 2024 but made headlines when he publicly shifted his support to Trump.” [Florida Politics, 11/10/23]
October 2023: Trump Called Viktor Orban, The Hungarian Prime Minister, The Leader Of Turkey. According to Politico Europe, “Someone get Donald Trump a map! Less than a week after the former U.S. president confused Hungary and Turkey — calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the leader of Turkey — Trump got Hungary’s borders all wrong. ‘Did anybody ever hear of Viktor Orbán? He’s the head of Hungary. Hungary fronts on both Ukraine and Russia,’ Trump said on Sunday during a rally in Sioux City, Iowa. While this time Trump did match the leader to the correct country, Hungary does not border Russia. The countries are about 1,000 kilometers apart at their closest point. This was not the first time Trump has implied Hungary borders Russia, as he made the same mistake at a rally last week in New Hampshire.” [Politico Europe, 10/30/23]
November 2022: Trump’s Dinner Attendee Jamar Montgomery Said Trump Didn’t Know Who The Senator From Louisiana Was. According to HuffPost, “When former President Donald Trump held a now-infamous dinner last month with Ye, the antisemitic rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and a prominent white nationalist, an unnamed additional guest sat alongside the powerful men. NBC News reported only that the other person in Ye’s group was the parent of a student at Donda Academy, the rapper’s private school in California. But while speaking about the dinner this week, Ye briefly referred to a man named Jamar Montgomery during a livestream with far-right influencer Tim Pool. Ye identified him as a ‘Boeing engineer.’ […] The president would later claim he ‘knew nothing about’ Fuentes. Montgomery also said that after he mentioned his own 2020 U.S. Senate bid in Louisiana, Trump was ‘trying to figure out who the senator in that state was.’” [Huffpost, 12/2/22]
March 6, 2019: Trump Called Tim Cook, The CEO Of Apple, “Tim Apple.” According to the Verge, “Tim Cook is a pretty well-known figure in the business world. I know a lot of people don’t care about computers and that’s fine, but if you’re in the industry or having some sort of professional interaction with him, I have to think people usually know his name going in. And yet, at an American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting today, the president pretty unmistakably called Tim Cook ‘Tim Apple.’” [The Verge, 3/6/19]
VIDEO: Trump’s “Great Memory” Failed As He Repeatedly Forgot Names, Including Those Of People He Worked With. [Huffington Post, 2/4/19]
March 22, 2019: Trump Called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, “Marillyn Lockheed” While Introducing Her At The White House. According to Business Insider, “President Donald Trump mangled the name of a top defense executive while announcing Thursday that the US would soon impose tariffs on imported Chinese goods. He introduced Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, who was there to voice support for the move, as ‘Marillyn Lockheed.’ ‘We have some of our great business leaders — and leaders period — right behind me,’ Trump said at the lectern before asking Hewson to say a few words. ‘I may ask Marillyn Lockheed, the leading women's business executive in this country, according to many,’ Trump said.” [Business Insider, 3/22/18]
Trump Referred To John Bolton, His Then-National Security Advisor, As “Mike.” According to Newsweek, “Names can be hard to remember, and everyone blanks now and again. Taking that to an extreme, President Donald Trump apparently had a tough time recalling the name of his national security adviser, John Bolton. Trump reportedly called him ‘Mike’ sometimes, which, of course, is incorrect. In a New York Times piece detailing Bolton's time in office—and his struggle to find his way in the administration often defined by chaos—journalists Mark Landler and Helene Cooper revealed that the former Bush official had a somewhat distant relationship with the president. ‘Despite being a contemporary of Mr. Trump's, however, Mr. Bolton is not a member of his inner circle,’ read the Times story. ‘He does not have the same relationship with Mr. Trump that he had with Mr. Bush. Sometimes, with aides, the president refers to him as 'Mike Bolton.’” [Newsweek, 1/8/19]
VIDEO: Trump Called House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, “Steve.” According to a tweet from David Mack, “kevin mccarthy finished speaking and trump said ‘thank you, steve’” [Twitter – David Mack, 1/4/19]
VIDEO: Trump Was Confused Over Fire-Hit Town Paradise: “Pleasure, What A Name.” [Guardian, 11/18/18]
VIDEO: At An Event To Honor U.S. Border Patrol, Trump Continuously Referred To Border Patrol (CBP) As The “CBC.” According to a tweet from Matt Shuham, “Trump repeatedly referred to CBP (Customs and Border Protection) as ‘CBC’ today. Twice here:” [Twitter – Matt Shuham, 8/20/18]
April 19, 2017: Trump Forgot House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Name, Referring To Him As “Ron.” According to the Independent, “Donald Trump forgot House Speaker Paul Ryan's name during a speech in Wisconsin, twice referring to him as Ron. Mr Trump was speaking about his ‘Buy American, Hire American’ executive order and veered into addressing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the 28-country military alliance which Mr Trump has called ‘obsolete’ in the past.He appeared to make a joke about how Mr Ryan had a good excuse for not being at the speech in the Speaker of the House's home state, because he was ‘with NATO.’ ‘I said, Ron, you’ve got to get these countries to start paying their bills a little bit more,’ he said, referring to Mr Ryan but calling him by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson's name. Mr Trump added, ‘they’re way, way behind, Ron’ regarding other countries' contributions to NATO.” [Independent, 4/19/17]
The Alzheimer’s Association Listed Forgetting Recently Learned Information As A Common Sign Of The Disease. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, “One of the most common signs of Alzheimer’s disease, especially in the early stage, is forgetting recently learned information. Others include forgetting important dates or events, asking for the same questions over and over, and increasingly needing to rely on memory aids (e.g., reminder notes or electronic devices) or family members for things they used to handle on their own. What's a typical age-related change? Sometimes forgetting names or appointments, but remembering them later.” [Alzheimer’s Association, Accessed 4/14/20]
November 8, 2023: Trump Said, “Kim Jong Un Leads 1.4 Billion People.” According to Newsweek, “Donald Trump is being ridiculed online due to his remarks about North Korea in which he got the country's population size wrong, by some margin. During a campaign stop in Hialeah, Florida, on November 8, the former president—who is running for the 2024 Republican nomination—praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. ‘The press hates it when I say they're (Vladimir Putin and Kim) smart,’ the 77-year-old said. ‘Well what am I supposed to say? They're stupid people?’ ‘Kim Jong Un leads 1.4 billion people and there's no doubt about who the boss is, and they want me to say, 'He's not an intelligent man.' ‘They get very personal when I say that, because they're fake news, that's why.’ After footage of Trump's comments was shared to X—the social network formerly known as Twitter—users noticed the flaw in the figures. ‘The population of North Korea is 25 million,’ commented Ron Shillman.” [Newsweek, 11/9/23]
2021: The Population Of North Korea Was 25 Million. According to Google, “North Korea/Population
25.97 million (2021)” [Google, Accessed 2/9/24]
October 2023: Trump Said Multiple Times That Hungary Bordered Russia. According to Politico Europe, “Someone get Donald Trump a map! Less than a week after the former U.S. president confused Hungary and Turkey — calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the leader of Turkey — Trump got Hungary’s borders all wrong. ‘Did anybody ever hear of Viktor Orbán? He’s the head of Hungary. Hungary fronts on both Ukraine and Russia,’ Trump said on Sunday during a rally in Sioux City, Iowa. While this time Trump did match the leader to the correct country, Hungary does not border Russia. The countries are about 1,000 kilometers apart at their closest point. This was not the first time Trump has implied Hungary borders Russia, as he made the same mistake at a rally last week in New Hampshire.” [Politico Europe, 10/30/23]
October 2023: Trump Said He Was In Sioux Falls, A City In South Dakota, When He Was In Sioux City, Iowa. According to the Des Moines Register, “Before Trump jumped into the meat of his remarks, he made a small gaffe. ‘We’ve done well here in Sioux Falls,’ he said, nodding to Iowa’s neighbor to the northwest in South Dakota. Trump continued thanking Iowa elected officials for their endorsements as certain audience members shouted for him to remember he was in Sioux City. Sen. Brad Zaun, R-District 22, was brought on stage by Trump and spoke about his excitement at being the first person in the country to endorse the former president. When he finished, he quickly pulled Trump in and said something into his ear. Trump turned to the crowd. ‘OK, Sioux City,’ he said before plowing on with the rest of his speech, including encouraging the number of attendees not from Iowa to call their friends who lived in the state and tell them to caucus on Jan. 15.” [Des Moines Register, 10/29/23]
April 2, 2017: Trump Walked Out Of An Executive Order Signing Ceremony After Seeming To Forget To Sign Executive Orders. According to CNN, “President Donald Trump walked out of an executive order signing ceremony Friday -- without actually signing the orders. During the signing ceremony, White House pool reporters asked Trump questions about his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has offered to testify on Russian involvement in the US election in return for immunity from prosecution. The President ignored the questions and moved to another room, only to be followed by Vice President Mike Pence, who picked up the folders containing the two executive orders. Trump later signed the pair of orders aimed at identifying and targeting foreign trade abuses, according to the White House, but behind closed doors.” [CNN, 3/31/17]
The Alzheimer’s Association Listed Difficulty Completing Familiar Tasks As A Sign Of The Disease. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, “People with Alzheimer's often find it hard to complete daily tasks. Sometimes they may have trouble driving to a familiar location, organizing a grocery list or remembering the rules of a favorite game. What's a typical age-related change? Occasionally needing help to use microwave settings or to record a TV show.” [Alzheimer’s Association Accessed 4/14/20]
May 18, 2017: Trump: “There Is No Collusion Between Certainly Myself And My Campaign, But I Can Speak For Myself – And The Russians, Zero.” According to Stat News, “It was the kind of utterance that makes professional transcribers question their career choice: ‘ … there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but I can always speak for myself — and the Russians, zero.’ When President Trump offered that response to a question at a press conference last week, it was the latest example of his tortured syntax, mid-thought changes of subject, and apparent trouble formulating complete sentences, let alone a coherent paragraph, in unscripted speech. He was not always so linguistically challenged. STAT reviewed decades of Trump’s on-air interviews and compared them to Q&A sessions since his inauguration. The differences are striking and unmistakable.” [Stat News, 5/23/17]
December 6, 2017: Trump Slurred His Words In A Public Speech, Sparking Concerns Over His Health. According to CNN, “While President Donald Trump was giving his historic speech Wednesday to announce that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, some on the internet focused on the manner in which he made his statement. Toward the end of the news conference, some on Twitter and Facebook noted that the President's usual speech pattern changed and that he started to slur his words -- and they speculated about what it could mean. The official term for slurred speech is dysarthria, when the muscles you use to speak weaken or you have a hard time completely controlling their use […] CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, said he watched the video closely a few times. ‘There is clearly some abnormalities of his speech,’ he said. ‘You could call it slurring or just a little bit of difficulty forming the words.’” [CNN, 12/6/17]
Trump Mispronounced Nepal As “Nipple” And Jokingly Referred To Bhutan As “Button” In A Briefing Prior To A 2017 Meeting India’s Prime Minister. According to Politico, “Sometimes the foibles have been contained within the White House. In one case, Trump, while studying a briefer’s map of South Asia ahead of a 2017 meeting with India’s prime minister, mispronounced Nepal as ‘nipple’ and laughingly referred to Bhutan as ‘button,’ according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.” [Politico, 2/6/20]
VIDEO: Donald Trump Appeared To Slur His Speech During Israel Remarks. [MSNBC, 12/7/17]
Speech And Language Pathologist Michael De Riesthal: It Seemed Like Trump Was “Working Hard To Speak” And The Issue “Seemed Too Unusual For Something Like That To Be Dry Mouth.” According to CNN, “Michael de Riesthal, a speech and language pathologist, agrees. ‘There was definitely some imprecise progressive change in articulatory precision and slowing of his speech that is not typical in normal speech,’ said de Riesthal, an assistant professor in hearing and speech sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the director of the Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute. ‘The distortion of his articulation, though, is unknown in etiology’ […] De Riesthal said the distortion was particularly noticeable when the President said ‘United States.’ Although Trump has what de Riesthal would characterize as a typical Queens, New York, accent, ‘this was a noticeable change for his speech.’ It could be anything, though, especially since it seemed like he was ‘working hard to speak’ -- as if ‘having a denture fall or some other alternative explanation.’ However, it definitely ‘seemed too unusual for something like that to be dry mouth.’” [CNN, 12/6/17]
April 3, 2019: Trump: “I Hope They Now Go And Take A Look At The Oranges, The Oranges Of The Investigation.” According to the Independent, “Donald Trump repeatedly struggled to say the word ‘origin’ during a White House meeting with the Nato secretary general in which the US president made a number of false claims. Taking questions from reporters while sat alongside Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office, Mr Trump railed against Democrats in congress providing oversight of him and called for an investigation into why the special counsel’s probe into Trump campaign ties with Russia was launched. ‘I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges, the oranges of the investigation, the beginnings of that investigation,’ Mr Trump said. ‘You look at the origin of the investigation, where it started, how it started, who started it, whether it’s McCabe or Comey or a lot of them.’” [Independent, 4/3/19]
VIDEO: Trump Asked Media To Look Into The “Oranges” Of The Mueller Investigation. [Guardian, 4/2/19]
January 8, 2020: Trump: Your Campaign Of Terror, Murder, Mayhem Will Not Be “Tolerided” Any Longer. According to the International Business Times, “Trump's difficulty with public speaking seemed more pronounced than before during his speech Wednesday to the American nation after Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops that caused no casualties. The distress in the way Trump spoke almost seems like he wasn't feeling very well. Was he sick during the Iran speech? Trump's slurring seemed worse than before. He couldn't correctly pronounce ‘tolerated.’ He pronounced this word as ‘toleride.’ Later on, he mispronounced accomplishments’ as ‘accompliment shates.’After the 7:54 mark in the video, Trump’s seems to be trying to keep his mouth open by widening it repeatedly and sticking his tongue out. Throughout the speech, Trump again had difficulty pronouncing the letter ‘S’ clearly. His efforts to do so sounded like a snake's hiss because of the long, drawn-out pronunciation of the letter ‘S.’” [International Business Times, 1/9/20]
VIDEO: Trump Stated That Iran’s “Campaign Of Terror, Murder, Mayhem Will Not Be ‘Tolerided’ Any Longer.” According to a video of Trump’s remarks tweeted by Aaron Rupar, Trump: “Your campaign of terror, murder, mayhem will not be tolerided any longer. It Will” [Twitter – Aaron Rupar, 1/8/20]
In The 1980s And 1990s Trump Spoke Articulately, Did Not Ramble Or Slur His Words. According to Stat News, “In interviews Trump gave in the 1980s and 1990s (with Tom Brokaw, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, Charlie Rose, and others), he spoke articulately, used sophisticated vocabulary, inserted dependent clauses into his sentences without losing his train of thought, and strung together sentences into a polished paragraph, which — and this is no mean feat — would have scanned just fine in print. This was so even when reporters asked tough questions about, for instance, his divorce, his brush with bankruptcy, and why he doesn’t build housing for working-class Americans. Trump fluently peppered his answers with words and phrases such as ‘subsided,’ ‘inclination,’ ‘discredited,’ ‘sparring session,’ and ‘a certain innate intelligence.’ He tossed off well-turned sentences such as, ‘It could have been a contentious route,’ and, “These are the only casinos in the United States that are so rated.” He even offered thoughtful, articulate aphorisms: ‘If you get into what’s missing, you don’t appreciate what you have,’ and, ‘Adversity is a very funny thing.’” [Stat News, 5/23/17]
Trump’s Speech Patterns Became Much Simpler. According to Stat News, “Now, Trump’s vocabulary is simpler. He repeats himself over and over, and lurches from one subject to an unrelated one, as in this answer during an interview with the Associated Press last month: ‘People want the border wall. My base definitely wants the border wall, my base really wants it — you’ve been to many of the rallies. OK, the thing they want more than anything is the wall. My base, which is a big base; I think my base is 45 percent. You know, it’s funny. The Democrats, they have a big advantage in the Electoral College. Big, big, big advantage. … The Electoral College is very difficult for a Republican to win, and I will tell you, the people want to see it. They want to see the wall.’” [Stat News, 5/23/17]
New Problems With Speaking Were Considered A Sign Of Alzheimer’s. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, “People living with Alzheimer's may have trouble following or joining a conversation. They may stop in the middle of a conversation and have no idea how to continue or they may repeat themselves. They may struggle with vocabulary, have trouble naming a familiar object or use the wrong name (e.g., calling a ‘watch’ a ‘hand-clock’). What's a typical age-related change? Sometimes having trouble finding the right word.” [Alzheimer’s Association Accessed 4/14/20]
Slurred Words Can Be A Sign Of Serious Nervous System Disorders. According to CNN, “People can slur their words for any number of reasons. It can be a sign of problems with a nervous system disorder like a brain tumor or a stroke. People who have cerebral palsy or Guillain-Barré Syndrome can struggle with slurring. Multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Lyme disease, Huntington's, Myasthenia gravis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's and Wilson's disease all can cause it.” [CNN, 12/6/17]
Studies Found That Deterioration In Fluency, Complexity, And Vocabulary Could Have Resulted From Cognitive Decline. According to Stat News, “For decades, studies have found that deterioration in the fluency, complexity, and vocabulary level of spontaneous speech can indicate slipping brain function due to normal aging or neurodegenerative disease. STAT and the experts therefore considered only unscripted utterances, not planned speeches and statements, since only the former tap the neural networks that offer a window into brain function. The experts noted clear changes from Trump’s unscripted answers 30 years ago to those in 2017, in some cases stark enough to raise questions about his brain health. They noted, however, that the same sort of linguistic decline can also reflect stress, frustration, anger, or just plain fatigue.” [Stat News, 5/23/17]
The Author Of A Book On “The Apprentice” Said Trump Was Suffering From Severe Memory Loss. According to Salon, “The author of a new book about The Apprentice says Donald Trump is suffering from severe memory loss, with the former president not even recognizing him despite the two having just spent an hour together for an interview. In an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Ramin Setoodeh, co-editor-in chief at Variety, said he did an hour long sit-down interview with Trump while researching for his book, ‘Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass.’ A few months later, Setoodeh met with Trump again, this time at Trump Tower, to discuss his time in the White House. Trump had ‘no recollection of our lengthy interview,’ he said. ‘Donald Trump had severe memory issues,’ Setoodeh said. ‘As the journalist who spent the most time with him, I have to say, he couldn’t remember things. He couldn’t even remember me.’” [Salon, 6/17/24]
January 8, 2020: After A Week Of Heightened Tensions With Iran, The World Mental Health Coalition Made A Statement Urging Congress To Demand Trump Under An Evaluation To Determine His Continued Fitness For Office. According to the Independent, “A group of mental health professionals have warned Congress it must act urgently to demand Donald Trump undergo an evaluation to determine his continued fitness for office after nearly a week of heightened tensions with Iran […] ‘We have been seriously warning about this for some time. The US Congress must act immediately and forcefully without further delay,’ the group said in a statement obtained by The Independent shortly after the president struggled to pronounce words and sniffed repeatedly while delivering a scripted statement on the Iran crisis at the White House. Mr Trump, they said, is ‘psychologically and mentally both dangerous and incapacitated’ and has a presentation that is ‘consistent with a person who, when his falsely inflated self-image is questioned, or when his emotional need for adulation is thwarted, lashes out in an attempt to restore his sense of potency and command over others.’” [Independent, 1/8/20]
January 11, 2018: A Group Of Mental Health Professionals Wrote To The Chief Physician To The President Imploring That He Evaluate The President’s Neurological Health. According to the January 11, 2018 letter to Chief Physician to the President Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, “We are fully aware that you are scheduled to perform a physical examination on President Donald Trump on Friday, January 12th. The White House has stated that the President will not receive any “psychiatric” testing as part of the physical examination you will be conducting. We strongly advise and encourage you to follow standard medical procedures for a physical examination conducted on patients 66 years and older according to Medicare guidelines. As such, your examination should include an evaluation of the 71-year old President’s neurological health, including cognitive and mental health functions. Without performing an evaluation of this kind, President Trump would be receiving care that is inadequate to the standard care regularly administered to millions of Americans covered by Medicare. Equally important, without this evaluation, the American people will not have a clear understanding about the health and well-being of the President, which is essential for Americans to know of any president.” [Letter to the Chief Physician to the President – CNN, 1/11/18]
The Letter Listed Eight Behaviors And Symptoms Exhibited By Trump That Caused Concern For Those Who Signed Onto The Letter. According to the January 11, 2018 letter to Chief Physician to the President Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, “This is especially true at a time of increasing concern over the President’s: • Declining faculties for complex thought, rambling speech, difficulty completing a thought • Episodes of slurred speech • Failure to recognize old friends • Frequent repetition of the same concepts • Decreased fine motor coordination • Difficulties reading, listening and comprehending • Suspect judgment, planning, problem solving and impulse control • Markedly declining vocabulary in recent years, with over reliance on superlatives Your examination should also include a basic dementia screen such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and as thorough a neurological examination as you can perform given your specialty as an internist. Your duty to this patient and the country that employs you as an officer of the United States Navy is to refer your patient to specialist care if any elements of your neurological and psychiatric examination yield pertinent results.” [Letter to the Chief Physician to the President – CNN, 1/11/18]
After Conducting His Medical Exam, Trump’s Physician Claimed He Had ‘Absolutely No Concerns About His Cognitive Ability.’ According to CNN, “Trump's cognitive health was a focus going into Friday's medical exam with Jackson and his team, and the President himself asked the doctor conduct a cognitive test. ‘I have absolutely no concerns about his cognitive ability,’ Jackson said, noting that Trump scored at 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test. Trump regularly ‘speaks his mind,’ Jackson said, and the doctor ‘found no reason whatsoever to think that the President has any issues whatsoever with his thought process.’” [CNN, 1/16/18]
Psychologist Ben Michaelis: There Was A Clear Reduction In Trump’s Linguistic Sophistication. According to Stat News, “Ben Michaelis, a psychologist in New York City, performed cognitive assessments at the behest of the New York Supreme Court and criminal courts and taught the technique at a hospital and university. ‘There are clearly some changes in Trump as a speaker’ since the 1980s, said Michaelis, who does not support Trump, including a ‘clear reduction in linguistic sophistication over time,’ with ‘simpler word choices and sentence structure. … In fairness to Trump, he’s 70, so some decline in his cognitive functioning over time would be expected.’” [Stat News, 5/23/17]
Neuropsychologist Sterling Johnson: Everyday Speech Is Definitely A Way Of Measuring Cognitive Decline And If People Are Noticing A Change In Trump’s Language Agility It’s Meaningful. According to Stat News, “The reason linguistic and cognitive decline often go hand in hand, studies show, is that fluency reflects the performance of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, the seat of higher-order cognitive functions such as working memory, judgment, understanding, and planning, as well as the temporal lobe, which searches for and retrieves the right words from memory. Neurologists therefore use tests of verbal fluency, and especially how it has changed over time, to assess cognitive status. Those tests ask, for instance, how many words beginning with W a patient can list, and how many breeds of dogs he can name, rather than have patients speak spontaneously. The latter ‘is too hard to score,’ said neuropsychologist Sterling Johnson, of the University of Wisconsin, who studies brain function in Alzheimer’s disease. ‘But everyday speech is definitely a way of measuring cognitive decline. If people are noticing [a change in Trump’s language agility], that’s meaningful.’” [Stat News, 5/23/17]
Slurred Words Can Be A Sign Of Serious Nervous System Disorders. According to CNN, “People can slur their words for any number of reasons. It can be a sign of problems with a nervous system disorder like a brain tumor or a stroke. People who have cerebral palsy or Guillain-Barré Syndrome can struggle with slurring. Multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Lyme disease, Huntington's, Myasthenia gravis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's and Wilson's disease all can cause it.” [CNN, 12/6/17]
Trump’s Deteriorating Linguistic Complexity Showed Potential Indications Of Cognitive Decline
An Analysis From STAT Concluded That Trump’s Linguistic Complexity Had Declined Since 2017, A Potential Indication Of Cognitive Decline. According to STAT News, “Back in 2017, Trump’s first year in the White House, a STAT analysis showed Trump’s speaking style had deteriorated since the 1980s. Seven years on, now that Trump has the GOP presidential nomination, STAT has repeated the analysis. The experts noted a further reduction in Trump’s linguistic complexity and, while none said they could give a diagnosis without an examination, some said certain shifts in his speaking style are potential indications of cognitive decline.” [STAT News, 8/7/24]
Trump’s Speech Included Shorter Sentences, Confused Word Order, Repetition, And Extended Digressions. According to STAT News, “Other verbal shifts are more telling. At STAT’s request, four experts reviewed four clips of Trump’s speeches in recent months, and compared them to speeches from 2017. Several noticed Trump’s 2024 speeches included more short sentences, confused word order, and repetition, alongside extended digressions such as Trump’s comments on Biden and Cary Grant, or in another speech, comments on banking abruptly giving way to Trump lamenting the cost of electric cars. These could be attributed to a variety of possible causes, they said, some benign and others more worrisome. They include mood changes, a desire to appeal to certain audiences, natural aging, or the beginnings of a cognitive condition like Alzheimer’s disease.” [STAT News, 8/7/24]
Trump’s Speech Showed A Significant Increase In Absolute Thinking And Focusing On The Past. According to STAT News, “Since the end of Trump’s presidency in 2021, Pennebaker’s analysis showed a steep increase in ‘all-or-nothing thinking,’ as indicated by a roughly 60% increase in use of absolute terms like ‘always,’ ‘never,’ and ‘completely.’ This habit, Pennebaker said, can be a sign of depression, which also fits with other changes in Trump’s word choices: His dialogue now has far fewer positive words than previously, and includes more references to negative emotions, especially since his return to civilian life. Increased all-or-nothing thinking can also be linked to cognitive ability, and such a sharp increase is associated with cognitive decline, said Pennebaker. ‘Another person who’s all-or–nothing thinking has gone up is Biden,’ he added. Another clear trend from his analysis showed that, since 2020, Trump has increasingly spoken about the past, with around a 44% increase in past-focused sentences, and is spending very little time talking about the future. This is particularly striking, said Pennebaker, given that presidential candidates are typically forward-looking and making promises about what they will deliver. It’s something that Vice President Kamala Harris picked up on in her first campaign speech, in which she criticized Trump’s vision as being ‘focused on the past.’” [STAT News, 8/7/24]
Dr. Vox: The President’s Odd Behavior Raises Questions About His Neurology And The Possibility Of An Organic Brain Disorder. According to a Stat News op-ed by Ford Vox, “But having evaluated the chief executive’s remarkable behavior through my clinical lens for almost a year, I do believe he is displaying signs that could indicate a degenerative brain disorder. As the president’s demeanor and unusual decisions raise the potential for military conflict in two regions of the world, the questions surrounding his mental competence have become urgent and demand investigation. Until now, most of the focus has been on the president’s psychology. It’s now time to think of the president’s neurology — and the possibility of an organic brain disorder […] In turning my attention to the president, I see worrisome symptoms that fall into three main categories: problems with language and executive function; problems with social cognition and behavior; and problems with memory, attention, and concentration.” [Ford Vox – Stat News, 12/7/17]
Trump’s Problems With Language And Executive Function Served As A Warning Sign Because Language Is Closely Tied To Cognition. According to a Stat News op-ed by Ford Vox, “Language is closely tied with cognition, and the president’s speech patterns are increasingly repetitive, fragmented, devoid of content, and restricted in vocabulary. Trump’s overuse of superlatives like tremendous, fantastic, and incredible are not merely elements of personal style. These filler words reflect reduced verbal fluency. Full transcripts of the president’s interviews with outlets like the New York Times and Time reveal the extent of his disorganized thought patterns. The problem becomes especially apparent in the transcript format, where his thinking is no longer camouflaged by visual accompaniments to communication like facial expressions and gesticulations […] When Politico published a leaked transcript of the Wall Street Journal’s July interview, we learned that the president’s intellectual curiosity rises to the level of introductory geography: ‘You call places like Malaysia, Indonesia, and you say, you know, how many people do you have? And it’s pretty amazing how many people they have.’ The president made that remark in response to a question about the ideal corporate tax rate, demonstrating the degree to which his thinking drifts.” [Ford Vox – Stat News, 12/7/17]
Ford Vox: Trump’s Reduced Insight, Lack Of Awareness And Impulsivity Suggested A Decline In His Social Cognition. According to a Stat New op-ed by Ford Vox, “Some of the president’s most concerning behaviors suggest a decline in social cognition: reduced insight and awareness into the thoughts and motivations of other people, coupled with symptoms like impulsivity and disinhibition that make him behave rudely and create needless controversy. The decision to fire FBI Director James Comey in the middle of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is an example of an impulsive decision that was greatly damaging to the president himself, assuming he was not actually trying to cover up his own complicity in the matter under investigation. Contradicting his own communications staff by disclosing that the Russia investigation was one reason he fired Comey is an example of disinhibited behavior. Rashly threatening Comey with a recording he did not have is reflective of poor emotional control.” [Ford Vox – Stat News, 12/7/17]
Dr. Vox: Trump’s “Easy Twitter Trigger Finger” Suggested Poor Impulse Control. According to a Stat News op-ed by Ford Vox, “Trump’s easy Twitter trigger finger, most recently retweeting British far-right videos he apparently knew nothing about simply because the social media platform promoted these videos in his feed, reflects poor impulse control. Numerous problematic moments in the Trump presidency, such as his volunteering top secret Israeli intelligence to the Russian ambassador or volunteering that his immigration restrictions were indeed a ‘travel ban,’ reflect an inability to contain himself. We saw this most recently with his inability to make it through a simple White House ceremony honoring Navajo code talkers without making an ethnically derogatory reference to an opposition political figure. The president’s decision to launch into a fight with a Gold Star wife and mother who lost their soldier in Niger is also reflective of impaired social cognition. It could also signal memory decline, since it seemed as though he had not learned from a similar imbroglio during the campaign.”[Ford Vox – Stat News, 12/7/17]
Episodes, Like Many Of Those That Occurred During Trump’s Tenure, May Have Happened Because Of Impaired Frontal Lobe Brain Systems. According to a Stat News op-ed by Ford Vox, “Episodes like these often occur because of impaired frontal lobe brain systems. These typically provide some degree of restraint from saying the first thing that crosses your mind. In a healthy brain, these ideas must make their way through multiple layers of checks and balances that take into account the social propriety and appropriateness of the audience for a given remark. Such frontal impairment often does not stop at troublesome communication, but has physical manifestations such as childlike facial expressions and physical restlessness, both features we see in Trump.” [Ford Vox – Stat News, 12/7/17]
Trump’s Failure To Remember And Pervasive Lying Implicated His Cognitive System. According to a Stat News op-ed by Ford Vox, “The integrity of other primary cognitive domains like memory, attention, and concentration are tied up in all of the problems I mention above. Memory impairment is specifically implicated in episodes like forgetting to sign orders — not once, but twice — that were the purposes of the press events the president was attending. Attention and focus are key to forming memory; the lack of either makes it more likely to forget why one was in a room in the first place. The persistence of fixed beliefs about the crowd size at his inauguration, President Obama having a fraudulent birth certificate, or millions of undocumented people voting for Hillary Clinton suggest either a shocking willingness to lie, which falls into the behavioral dysregulation category, or a memory disorder that hobbles the president with fixed delusions that cannot be swayed by contradictory information. The New York Times opinion section has catalogued an astounding collection of the president’s lies so extensive that such lying implicates the cognitive systems that undergird one’s hold on what has happened in one’s life.” [Ford Vox – Stat News, 12/7/17]
Lee: A Few Stumbled Words Are Not The Same As The Extreme Danger That Result From The Signs Donald Trump Has Shown. According to Yahoo News, “Mental health professionals who have expressed concern over what they see as Donald Trump’s declining faculties say that similar fears about Joe Biden’s are overblown. ‘A few stumbled words are not the same as the extreme danger that result from a list of signs that Donald Trump has shown,’ Bandy Lee, a psychiatrist on the faculty at the Yale School of Medicine, told Yahoo News, ‘and none of them apply to Joe Biden.’ Lee edited a collection of essays written by 27 mental health professionals titled “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” which detailed what the authors see as the risks posed by a leader who they regard as mentally and emotionally unfit for the most powerful office in the world.” [Yahoo News, 3/5/20]
Lee Stated That Biden’s Occasional Gaffes Cannot Be Compared To Trump’s “Mental Instability.” According to Yahoo News, “Yet since Biden’s reemergence as a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Lee has been flooded by requests to assess the former vice president’s string of stumbles in public appearances. In response, she published a piece on Medium correcting what she sees as the false equivalence between Trump’s ‘mental instability’ and Biden’s occasional gaffes. Trump frequently misstates or invents statistics or facts in his speeches, and in remarks last year seemed confused on the birthplace of his own father, saying he was born in Germany. (It was the Bronx.) Biden bungled an appeal for campaign volunteers at a debate last year, and recently shared what appeared to be a false memory of being ‘arrested on the streets of Soweto,’ in South Africa, on his way to visit Nelson Mandela. (He was briefly detained at an airport during an official visit, but not arrested.)” [Yahoo News, 3/5/20]
Psychologist Lynne Meyer: Biden Digresses And Gets Tangential, Trump Does Not Even Seem To Comprehend Reality. According to Yahoo News, “Mental health professionals tend to draw a distinction between Biden’s onstage missteps and what some of them regard as Trump’s propensity to bend reality to his purposes. Biden ‘digresses and gets tangential, that’s not cognitive decline,’ Lynne Meyer, a California psychologist told Yahoo News. ‘Trump’s cognitive decline or problems are that he doesn’t even seem to have comprehension of reality. That’s what it looks like.’ In 2018, Meyer joined more than 70 other mental health professionals in signing a letter to Trump’s then-physician Randy Jackson requesting that the president be given a mental health evaluation. ‘When you see a person that can’t even articulate words, and it doesn’t happen just once and doesn’t remember names — Tim Apple, or whatever,’ Meyer said. ‘I don’t see the same thing with Biden.’” [Yahoo News, 3/5/20]
Trump In An Interview Said His Cognitive Test Results Were “Amazing” Because He Could Recite The Phrase “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.” In Order. According to the New York Times, “Rather than dispensing with the issue, Mr. Trump drew new ridicule this week when he declared it nothing short of ‘amazing’ that he did so well on a test that, among other things, required him to identify an elephant. To demonstrate just how hard he said the test really was, he went on television to recite, over and over, the words that he had been asked to remember in the right order: ‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’” [New York Times, 7/23/20]
Trump Said He Was Able To Recite The Phrase Because “I Have, Like, A Good Memory Because I’m Cognitively There Now.” According to a Rolling Stone transcript of Trump’s remarks, “But then when you go back about 20, 25 minutes later and they say, go back to that question, then I’ll tell you this, go back to that question and repeat them. Can you do it? And you go, person, woman, man, camera, TV. They said, ‘That’s amazing. How did you do that?’ I do it because I have, like, a good memory because I’m cognitively there now.” [Rolling Stone, 7/23/20]
Montreal Cognitive Assessment Was Meant To Detect Signs Of Dementia And Alzheimer’s Disease. According to the New York Times, “The president said on Fox News that he had to remember those words as part of a test that he said demonstrated his mental acuity. But the test, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is meant to detect signs of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or other conditions.” [New York Times, 7/23/20]
One Question Of The Test Was To Identify An Elephant. According to the New York Times, “Rather than dispensing with the issue, Mr. Trump drew new ridicule this week when he declared it nothing short of ‘amazing’ that he did so well on a test that, among other things, required him to identify an elephant. To demonstrate just how hard he said the test really was, he went on television to recite, over and over, the words that he had been asked to remember in the right order: ‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’” [New York Times, 7/23/20]
Trump’s Advisers Worried About His Mental State After He Falsely Tweeted Out That Alabama Was Going To Be Hit By Hurricane Dorian. According to Business Insider, “Sources told Insider the president's advisers are particularly worried about his stubborn refusal to acknowledge that a tweet he sent over the weekend claiming that Alabama was going to be hit by Hurricane Dorian was false. They believe that his frustration is compounded by stress about the 2020 election and the economy's recent downturn. ‘People are used to the president saying things that aren't true, but this Alabama stuff is another story,’ the former official said. ‘This was the president sending out patently false information about a national-emergency situation as it was unfolding.” [Business Insider, 9/16/19]
Trump’s Outbursts About Hurricane Dorian Came As He Railed Against The Media For Fact-Checking His Claim. According to Business Insider, “Trump's latest outbursts on the matter came Friday as he railed against the media for fact-checking him on the claim. Trump also complained that ‘this nonsense has never happened to another President. Four days of corrupt reporting, still without an apology.’ Later Friday, the president posted a misleading video that included a CNN clip from Wednesday, August 28, in which a reporter said the hurricane was threatening several US states, including Alabama. The video then played the reporter saying ‘Alabama’ on loop, cut to a clip of Trump nodding, and then to a doctored clip of CNN's logo superimposed onto a moving truck which careened off the road and caught fire. But Trump's first tweet about Alabama being in Hurricane Dorian's path came on Saturday, by which time weather forecasters had determined that it was not going to be hit.” [Business Insider, 9/16/19]
Former White House Official: His Mood Changes Based On Headlines Or Tweets Causing His Entire Schedule To Get Tossed Out The Window. According to Business Insider, “President Donald Trump's aides and confidants are growing more and more worried about his mental state after days of wild outbursts, erratic behavior, and bizarre fixations. ‘No one knows what to expect from him anymore,’ one former White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations about the president, told Insider. They added: ‘His mood changes from one minute to the next based on some headline or tweet, and the next thing you know his entire schedule gets tossed out the window because he's losing his s---.’” [Business Insider, 9/16/19]
Republican Strategist Close To The White House: Trump Is “Deteriorating In Plain Sight […] You Should Ask A Psychiatrist About That; I'm Not Sure I'm Qualified To Comment.” According to Business Insider, “As of Friday evening, Trump had posted 15 tweets and five maps about Alabama and the storm to try to prove his original tweet was correct, despite the fact that he'd been publicly rebuked by the National Weather Service. He also showed reporters an altered map of the storm's path on Wednesday to defend his claims, a move that may be illegal, according to federal law. ‘He's deteriorating in plain sight,’ one Republican strategist who's in frequent contact with the White House told Insider on Friday. Asked why the president was obsessed with Alabama instead of the states that would actually be affected by the storm, the strategist said, ‘you should ask a psychiatrist about that; I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment.’” [Business Insider, 9/16/19]
Anthony Scaramucci: “I Think The President Is In Severe Mental Decline.” According to Business Insider, “Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, also weighed in on Trump's state of mind on Friday. ‘I think the president is in severe mental decline, and I'm not saying that now because I'm a political adversary or I disavowed him. I'm saying that objectively just looking at what's going on,’ Scaramucci said at the Toronto Global Forum.” [Business Insider, 9/16/19]
2024: Trump’s Advisors Were Worried About Trump’s Public Performances
2024: Trump’s Advisors Were Rattled By Trump Own Public Performances. According to Axios, “Don't buy the public bravado. Former President Trump's advisers are deeply rattled by his meandering, mean and often middling public performances since the failed assassination attempt. They're pleading with him to adopt a new ‘hard-hitting’ stump speech to define Vice President Harris as liberal and weak, advisers tell us. And praying he'll stop the recidivistic pull to simply improvise haphazardly. Why it matters: Trump, who looked and felt like a clear front-runner heading into last month's Republican convention, has fumed, stewed and stumbled in private and public ever since. Advisers are telling him Harris will grow her lead coming out of the Democratic convention, which begins a week from tomorrow — especially if they don't define her better, faster. Then just a week after the convention, it's already Labor Day.” [Axios, 8/11/24]
Corker: “The President Has Not Yet Been Able To Demonstrate The Stability Nor Some Of The Competence That He Needs To Demonstrate.” According to CNBC, “After an event in his home state, the Tennessee Republican said Trump has not shown the “stability” or competence to be ‘successful.’ He noted that the country needs to see Trump succeed. ‘I do think there need to be some radical changes,’ Corker told reporters, according to a video posted by a reporter for Nooga.com. ‘The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful ... And we need for him to be successful. Our nation needs for him to be successful.’” [CNBC, 8/17/17]
Flake: Politicians Doing Nothing In The Face Of Trump’s “Mercurial Behavior” Is “Ahistoric.” According to Business Insider, “Flake, in his speech on the Senate floor announcing his retirement, criticized Trump for his ‘mercurial behavior,’ which he said was ‘ahistoric.’ ‘The notion that one should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong are undermined and as the alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters — the notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided,’ he said.” [Business Insider, 10/27/17]
Coburn: “We Have A Leader Who Has A Personality Disorder.” According to the New York Times, “Even some of the president’s detractors on the right believe that the party base will stick with him because they like his agenda. ‘We have a leader who has a personality disorder,’ said former Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, ‘but he’s done what he actually told the people he was going to do, and they’re not going to abandon him.’” [New York Times, 10/25/17]
In Her Book Unhinged**, Former Presidential Aide Omarosa Manigault Painted A Vivid Contrast Between Trump’s Behavior In The Early 2000s Compared To The President’s Behavior Today.** According to Quartz, “Omarosa’s account paints a vivid contrast between the Trump of the early 2000s and the president today. About taping the first season of The Apprentice in 2003, she writes: Five hours is a long time. Everyone lagged, except for one person—Trump himself. His energy was high and his focus sharp. He engaged on an elevated level and had a full grasp of the rules and parameters of each task. He knew each of our names and performance histories, show by show. He spoke with a wide-ranging vocabulary, made eye contact, and sat still. He analyzed our performance and arguments on the fly. He kept all these balls in the air at the same time, without any sign of fatigue or stress […] The Trump of 2005 would have sought counsel and advice, Omarosa writes, instead of responding impulsively on Twitter to a phone call or revelation on TV. ‘Back then, he could process complex information, differences of opinion, and weigh the consequences,’ she said.” [Quartz, 8/14/18]
Manigault Alleged That Trump’s Memory Was Failing To The Point That He Didn’t Recognize New Hires When They Came Into The Oval Office. According to Quartz, “Trump’s memory is failing, Omarosa alleges, to the point that he doesn’t recognize new hires when they come into the Oval Office. ‘Any time somebody new came in to brief him, he’d get angry and say, ‘Who’s that guy? What’s he want?.’’” [Quartz, 8/14/18]
Manigault Also Claimed That His “Mental Decline Could Not Be Denied.” According to Quartz, “He’s ‘paranoid and irritable,’ she writes, and ‘anything could trigger fits of rage.’ Close advisors were subject to long, rambling phone calls, and subject to screaming tirades if they didn’t deliver what he wanted. As she watched his interview with NBC’s Lester Holt about the firing of FBI director James Comey, she thought: I’d known Donald to exaggerate and boast. He’d told white lies and lies of omission, ignorance, or misunderstanding. He’d bent the truth purposefully to make himself look good. But this was different. It was like he didn’t know what the truth was or couldn’t remember what he’d previously stated as truth. His ‘mental decline could not be denied,’ Omarosa writes, a fact that she believes she recognizes more than others in the White House because she knew him longer.” [Quartz, 8/14/18]
In “A Warning” By Anonymous, The Alleged Senior Official Described Trump As Cruel, Inept, And A Danger To The Nation. According to the Washington Post, “In ‘A Warning’ by Anonymous, obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release, a writer described only as ‘a senior official in the Trump administration’ paints a chilling portrait of the president as cruel, inept and a danger to the nation he was elected to lead. The author — who first captured attention in 2018 as the unidentified author of a New York Times opinion column — describes Trump careening from one self-inflicted crisis to the next, ‘like a twelve-year-old in an air traffic control tower, pushing the buttons of government indiscriminately, indifferent to the planes skidding across the runway and the flights frantically diverting away from the airport.’ The book is an unsparing character study of Trump, from his morality to his intellectual depth, which the author writes is based on his or her observations and experiences. The author claims many other current and former administration officials share his or her views.” [Washington Post, 11/7/19]
The Book Compared The President To “Your Elderly Uncle Running Pantsless Across The Courtyard” Claiming That Senior Officials Would Wake Up “In A Full-Blown Panic.” According to the Washington Post, “The author describes senior officials waking up in the morning ‘in a full-blown panic’ over the wild pronouncements the president had made on Twitter. ‘It’s like showing up at the nursing home at daybreak to find your elderly uncle running pantsless across the courtyard and cursing loudly about the cafeteria food, as worried attendants tried to catch him,’ the author writes. ‘You’re stunned, amused, and embarrassed all at the same time. Only your uncle probably wouldn’t do it every single day, his words aren’t broadcast to the public, and he doesn’t have to lead the US government once he puts his pants on.’” [Washington Post, 11/7/19]
Anonymous: Trump “Stumbles, Slurs, Gets Confused, Is Easily Irritated, And Has Trouble Synthesizing Information, Not Occasionally But With Regularity.” According to the Washington Post, “The author also ruminates about Trump’s fitness for office, describing him as reckless and without full control of his faculties. ‘I am not qualified to diagnose the president’s mental acuity,’ the author writes. ‘All I can tell you is that normal people who spend any time with Donald Trump are uncomfortable by what they witness. He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity. Those who would claim otherwise are lying to themselves or to the country.’” [Washington Post, 11/7/19]
Bob Woodward Book Said Mark Milley “Was Certain That Trump Had Gone Into A Serious Mental Decline In The Aftermath Of The Election, With Trump Now All But Manic, Screaming At Officials And Constructing His Own Alternate Reality.” According to CNN, “Two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, President Donald Trump’s top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons, according to ‘Peril,’ a new book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa. Woodward and Costa write that Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, ‘was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.’” [CNN, 9/14/21]
January 2017: Trump Grabbed Theresa May’s Hand While Walking At The White House. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump’s difficulty traversing stairs and ramps has come up before, most notably in January 2017, when he clutched the hand of Theresa May, then the British prime minister, as they walked at the White House.” [New York Times, 6/14/20]
June 13, 2020: New York Times: Trump “Hesitantly” Walked Down A Ramp At West Point “One Step At A Time.” According to the New York Times, “President Trump faced new questions about his health on Sunday, after videos emerged of him gingerly walking down a ramp at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and having trouble bringing a glass of water to his mouth during a speech there. Mr. Trump — who turned 74 on Sunday, the oldest a U.S. president has been in his first term — was recorded hesitantly descending the ramp one step at a time after he delivered an address to graduating cadets at the New York-based academy on Saturday. The academy’s superintendent, Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, walked alongside him. Mr. Trump sped up slightly for the final three steps, as he got to the bottom.” [New York Times, 6/14/20]
November 2017: VIDEO: Trump Used A Second Hand To Drink A Bottle Of Water. According to a tweet from BuzzFeed News, “Trump pauses his speech to take a sip from a bottle of water” [Twitter – BuzzFeed News, 11/15/17]
June 13, 2020: Trump Struggled To Drink A Glass Of Water At West Point; Used His Left Hand To Push Up The Bottom Of The Glass. According to the New York Times, “Another video circulated of Mr. Trump taking a sip of water from a glass tucked inside his lectern on the dais at West Point. Mr. Trump held the glass with his right hand and brought it to his mouth, but appeared to momentarily have trouble lifting his arm farther. He used his left hand to push the bottom of the glass so that it reached his lips.” [New York Times, 6/14/20]
November 2022: Trump Struggled To Drink Out Of A Water Bottle. According to a video of Donald Trump’s 2024 announcement via Politico at about 6:00, “Full video: Donald Trump announces 2024 presidential run” [Politico, 3/17/23]
VIDEO: Trump Boarded Air Force One With Paper Stuck To His Shoe. According to the Washington Post, “Alas, President Trump made an embarrassing climb into Air Force One on Thursday with what appeared to be some sort of paper product attached to the bottom of his shoe. Video showed him stepping out of a limousine in front of the aircraft at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and start up the staircase with a couple squares of toilet paper or, perhaps, a napkin, billowing in the wind with each step. What about the dozen or so people surrounding him? (Bueller? . . . Bueller?)” [Washington Post, 10/5/18]
Trump Failed To Hold A Public Presidential Campaign Event For Weeks Following Wrapping Up The Republican Nomination. According to the Associated Press, “As President Joe Biden visited five cities in a multiday trip last week, former President Donald Trump was hardly seen in public, spending most of his time in South Florida. Trump has held just a single public campaign event since he locked up the Republican presidential nomination on March 12: a rally in Ohio funded not by his campaign but by backers of a Senate candidate whom he had endorsed. The events page on his campaign website has had nothing listed.” [Associated Press, 3/25/24]
August 12, 2024: Trump Spoke With A Lisp And Slurred Words Throughout The Interview With Musk. According to the Independent, “But something was different about Trump this time. For reasons that haven’t been explained, Trump spent most of the conversation talking with a noticeable lisp, even slurring his speech at times. It was not the first time Trump exhibited difficulties with his speech. There were numerous supercuts of verbal miscues and slurred words compiled by late-night comedians during his time in the White House, but this was no transitory episode. He spent the entire conversation with Musk speaking in a voice that sounded like Sylvester, the lisping cartoon cat of Looney Tunes fame. The Independent texted his campaign’s press secretary to ask if he had recent dental work that would explain the lisp - no reply was recieved.” [Independent, 8/12/24]