'Incapable' Donald Trump Shows 4 Signs Of Dementia, Psychologist Claims
Donald Trump is showing signs of dementia, according to a psychologist.
John D. Gartner, a psychologist from Baltimore specializing in treating borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder and depression, has shared his professional opinion about Trump. According to him, the businessman-turned-politician seemed "very manic" and got all the "energy and charisma" but is allegedly "incapable of doing the job." Gartner, a part-time assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, claimed that he noticed four signs of dementia in the former president, Mirror reported.
First, Trump makes mistakes in his language, so he could have a symptom called "phonemic aphasia," which Garner said is "strongly indicative of dementia." The expert said this happens when the root word is present, but the actual word used doesn't exist for the speaker. For example, Trump allegedly says "Chrissis" or something similar for "Christmas."
(Photo : Getty Images/Alexi J. Rosenfeld)
Additionally, Trump has allegedly manifested semantic aphasias, which pertain to the misuse of specific words. For example, he might say, "You can see the truth in the oranges of the case." According to Gartner, orange is misused in the sentence.
"If you look at videos of Donald Trump speaking in the 1980s, he had a rich vocabulary. He spoke not just in complete sentences but polished paragraphs," Gartner noted. "Now, he can barely complete a sentence. He can barely complete a word. Sometimes, he doesn't use words at all -- he just waves his hands and says sounds: 'whoosh,' 'boom,' 'bang.'"
Gartner also pointed out some issues in Trump's memory. According to the psychologist, mixing two individuals is more than a memory gaffe like how Trump confused Nikki Haley, his opponent in the Republican race for presidential nomination and his former UN Ambassador, with the leader of security at the U.S. Capitol.
"This is not someone who's capable of managing the simplest aspects of life or understanding them, and yet you're talking about having the hardest executive functioning job in the world when he has no executive functioning left? It's insane," Gartner added.
Third, there has been a notable shift in Trump's behavior, according to Gartner. The expert claimed that the "Apprentice" star has become more confused, irritable, paranoid, impulsive and aggressive through the years.
Gartner referenced Trump's behavior during the defamation suit against him by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of raping her in a Manhattan department store in 1996 and defaming her in the mid-2010s when she brought the case against him.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to kick him out of the courtroom for loudly complaining to his legal counsel that the trial was a "witch hunt" and a "con job." He also made at least 42 posts on Truth Social in a matter of an hour, some were screenshots of Carroll's post on social media a decade ago about sex, Huff Post reported.
Finally, the fourth sign Gartner brought up was motor functionality. He said Trump has a "wide-based gait," for the ex-POTUS swings his leg around in semicircles when he walks as if his leg is a "dead weight." He added that Trump's gesture of frequently leaning forward could be a sign of frontotemporal dementia.
In December 2017, Trump sparked dementia concerns when he was spotted drinking water with two hands, which many compared to a small child. A month earlier, he was also seen drinking from a Fiji bottle with two hands. However, a White House spokesman dismissed the speculations, telling the Los Angeles Times, "his throat was dry. There's nothing to it."
Dr. Ford Vox, a brain doctor, who has never examined Trump, said at the time that the U.S. leader had symptoms of predementia. Some of the signs he noticed were Trump contradicting his communication staff and forgetting to sign orders.
"If I were to make a differential diagnosis based on what I have observed, it would include mild cognitive impairment, also known as mild neurocognitive disorder or predementia. About 16[%] of people the president's age fall into this category," Vox wrote.
He added, however, that it's also possible Trump has no dementia or progressing toward it, but "he is definitely behaving as such."
