SUMMARY
The President’s record of erratic and disturbing behavior has long concerned mental health professionals and his own officials
Since he began his presidential campaign in 2015, Trump has had numerous episodes of erratic and disturbing behavior that raised questions of his mental and neurological fitness
Throughout his presidency, physicians and mental health experts repeatedly questioned Trump’s mental acuity and neurological health. These medical professionals have expressed their concerns for the president’s health in books, media appearances, letters to Congress, and letters to the President’s physicians
Moreover, former and current Trump administration officials and allies raised questions about the President’s mental fitness during media appearances, interviews, and in published works.
Trump Tweeted That His ‘Two Greatest Assets Have Been Mental Stability And Being, Like, Really Smart.’ [Twitter, 1/6/18]
Trump Also Claimed That He ‘Would Qualify As Not Smart, But Genius…And A Very Stable Genius At That.’ [Twitter, 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]
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 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.” [The Star, 4/25/18]
January 28, 2020: Trump Thought He Met With Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg “Two Weeks Ago,” When Zuckerberg Had Not Been To The White House Since October 2019. [Twitter, 1/28/20]
February 24, 2018: Trump Claimed Rep. Adam Schiff Was Prank-Called ‘Last Week’ By Russian Pranksters When It Happened 10 Months Prior. According to the 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.” [The 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]
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]
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; Fred Trump 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]
VIDEO: Trump’s ‘Great Memory’ Failed As He Repeatedly Forgot Names, Including Those Of People He Worked With. [Huffington Post, 2/4/19]
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]
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 Could Not Remember National Security Adviser John Bolton’s Name, And Referred To Him 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. [Twitter, 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. [Twitter, 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]
April 2, 2017: Trump Walked Out Of An Executive Order Signing Ceremony After Seeming To Forget To Sign Executive Orders. According to CNN Politics, “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 Alzheimers 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]
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 The President’s 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]
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 He 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]
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]
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.’ [Twitter, 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]
However, Today, Trump’s Speech Patterns Are 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 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]
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]
800 Mental Health Experts Signed A Petition Warning Congress That The Stress Caused By Impeachment Proceedings ‘Would Most Certainly Send Him Into A Seething Rage.’ According to the Independent, “The group's president, Yale University professor Dr Bandy Lee, told The Independent that Mr Trump's decision to respond to an incursion into the US embassy in Baghdad with an airstrike against Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was expected because he opted for the most extreme of the options with which he was presented. Dr Lee noted that more than 800 of her colleagues had signed a petition warning Congress that the stress caused by the impeachment proceedings against him ‘would most certainly send him into a seething rage’ because Mr Trump's ‘fragile, falsely inflated self-image could scarcely withstand such a wound.’ She added that from her perspective as a physician and mental health professional, it would be “inconceivable” for someone who meets full criteria for an involuntary mental health evaluation since long ago, based on dangerousness to others and the self” to be able to retain ‘full command over warmaking powers and nuclear weapons.’” [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 letter 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 letter 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]
Jackson Ran For Office In Texas, Campaigning On His Proximity To The President. According to the New York Times, “‘I just came from the White House,’ Dr. Jackson, the former White House physician, told the small crowd gathered upstairs from the Harley showroom. ‘I’ve been working side by side with the president. I know all the cabinet secretaries. I have their cellphones. I know the chief of staff, the national security adviser. I can pick the phone up and I can call them. They’re all friends of mine.’ Dr. Jackson left the West Wing in December after rising from President Trump’s physician to his unlikely pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs to Trump administration roadkill when he was forced to withdraw his name from consideration amid allegations related to his professional conduct. Now he’s running for Congress in Texas’ 13th District, one of the most conservative in the country, and his argument is simple. In a primary field of 15 anti-immigrant, anti-abortion Republicans, Dr. Jackson is betting his personal connection with the president is enough to win the Republican nomination tantamount to election.” [New York Times, 2/24/20]
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]
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]
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]
Trump Showed ‘Such Mental Instability And Such Great Cognitive Decline As Well As Neurological Signs.’ According to Yahoo News, “‘None of them are catastrophically alarming the way the signs have been with Donald Trump. I think there needs to be a measure of proportion here. On the one hand, we have such mental instability and such great cognitive decline as well as neurological signs that show imminent risk to the entire human civilization, compared with some gaffes perhaps. If we’re not addressing the former, why are we even talking about the latter?’ To be sure, one reason the topic of Biden’s mental capacity has become an issue in the campaign is that he has often struggled to express himself at campaign events and debates. But Biden, who has struggled with a stutter since childhood, has been prone to bouts of inarticulateness for decades.” [Yahoo News, 3/5/20]
Psychologist Lynne Meyer: Biden Digresses And Gets Tangential, Trump Doesn’t 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’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]
Corker: The President Has Not Yet Been Able To Demonstrate The Stability Nor Some Of The Competence That He Needs 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]
Senator 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]
Former Senator Tom 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]
Omarosa 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]
Omarosa 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]