I would like to start by requesting we keep this discussion based on facts and reasonable inferences. Let’s try to analyze the available evidence and avoid partisan debates if we can. I’m only interested in discussing whether it’s reasonable to believe that Trump is showing symptoms of dementia, not what should be done if he is.
OK… To my untrained eye, it appears that Trump’s verbal skills have declined noticeably from just a few years ago. During the Republican primary debates, I think the majority of his sentences held to a fairly coherent Subject-Verb-Object format, and he had the ability to deliver sharp verbal jabs at times. He may have been repetitive, and he may have said things that were not factually accurate, but he stayed in the ballpark of recognized syntax and grammar. This seems no longer to be the case. It seems (again to my untrained eye, and admittedly I haven’t done a rigorous analysis) that his sentences have become less and less coherent and more belligerent. His calls to Fox are louder and more wandering, often leaving the Fox anchors embarrassed.
In addition, he increasingly seems to be unable to recognize fairly common words and ideas. Recently, he thought a question about “busing” was referring to simple student transportation, and he mangled a Medal of Honor citation when he got to a line about an attacker jumping out of “a wardrobe”. Trump stopped reading and “corrected” the line to “wearing a wardrobe”. Today, he boasted that the Fourth of July parade would feature brand new Sherman tanks, a type that hasn’t been made since WWII.
More and more, his facial expression seems fixed and mask-like, and he walks with a strained, clumsy gait. When he stands, his arms are rigid at his side. I haven’t even seen his trademark thumbs-up in a while.
Some guy on Twitter who goes by “Tom Joseph” has been talking about this. I can’t vouch for this Twitter user, but he has collected some interesting images and made some points that don’t seem crazy. Joseph argues that Trump is showing symptoms of something called “frontotemporal dementia”. He believes that Ivanka is glued to his side because she’s his caregiver, trying futilely to keep his dementia hidden. Here’s a picture Joseph uses to illustrate the point: https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1145134081778364416. Trump’s jutting tongue and Ivanka’s pained expression are jarring.
Joseph also points out that Trump often seems to be wearing something bulky around his lower back, as seen here: https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1144793452686848000. Joseph believes Trump is wearing a back brace to counter the loss of balance due to neurological deterioration.
I don’t know shit about any of this, and maybe this Joseph guy is a crank. But, Trump does seem, to me, to be less and less coherent and stable by the day. Is this due to a progressive neurological disorder, or just the stress of the job on a typical 73-year-old? Or am I just a hopelessly partisan Democrat seeing what I want to see?
What do you think?