General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMounting evidence that Trump has Alzheimer's Disease:
Neurocritic is a blog about topics from neuroscience. This post concerns the relationship between Alzheimer's Disease and deteriorating speech-patterns.
https://neurocritic.blogspot.de/2017/02/using-discourse-analysis-to-assess.html
The quantified linguistic features included:
Number of unique words
Non-specific nouns e.g., thing, something, anything
Filler words well, so, basically, actually, literally, um, ah
Low-imageability, high frequency verbs e.g., get, give, go, have, do
...
You know what uranium is, right? It's this thing called nuclear weapons and other things. Like, lots of things are done with uranium, including some bad things. Nobody talks about that. I didn't do anything for Russia. I've done nothing for Russia.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/watch-the-video-that-suggests-trump-is-suffering-from-alzheimers/
At 70 years old, Trump is the oldest person to be elected president. His father Fred was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease six years before his death. According to the Alzheimers Association, age, family history and heredity are the most important risk factors in developing the disease. Most sufferers start to show signs of the illness at age 65.
Remember when Trump forgot which country hed just bombed? When it just slipped his mind to sign a pair of executive orders during an event created for that explicit purpose? When he couldnt locate Rudy Giuliani, who was sitting directly across from him at a media briefing? Those things dont seem like innocuous senior moments.
Trump also seems to exhibit other signs of Alzheimers listed by health organizations. Moodiness, paranoia, belligerence and erratic behavior are all key indicators of the onset of dementia. Trumps inappropriate tweets, his belief that his phones are tapped and his quickness to anger, as described by his staff, all fit the bill.
Jarqui
(10,130 posts)Could be another form of dementia
He could be experiencing TIAs (mini strokes)
Could be something else.
The only one who can shed light on this is a doctor who checks Trump out.
LisaL
(44,974 posts)Jarqui
(10,130 posts)leftyladyfrommo
(18,869 posts)Jarqui
(10,130 posts)leftyladyfrommo
(18,869 posts)I am 70 years old and I can't ever remember a person who was just so plain awful. In every way. I haven't been able to find one positive thing about him. He is equally awful to everyone.
Jarqui
(10,130 posts)Eisenhower or JFK - men who were elected with reverence and respect regardless of party because they were Americans first. And so were the senators who served in those days.
I never thought I'd see the day when a dishonest, ignorant, racist, low life piece of garbage like Trump would be living in the White House and unethical people like Mitch McConnell would be running the senate supporting a pedophile to be elected to that body.
If Ike saw what Trump did with the Russians, he might take his pistol out and shoot him on the spot as a traitor.
The whole thing is surreal. I'm kind of like "what more is there to discuss? Get these treasonous pigs out of this government!"
Katinfl
(158 posts)I can usually find at least one redeeming quality in a person no matter how much I dislike that person. On Trump.......not a thing. I hate everything about him. I did not know I had that much hate in me, but I do. Not proud but cannot help it. That includes his stupid kids and Jared.
disalitervisum
(470 posts)It's not a matter of having hate in your heart, it's a matter of survival. trump and his family fuck people. That's who they are. That's what they do. That's all they do.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Response to lunatica (Reply #25)
leftyladyfrommo This message was self-deleted by its author.
Soxfan58
(3,479 posts)He's just a stupid asshole??
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)Chemisse
(30,816 posts)His speech has degenerated from clips of him when he was younger.
KTM
(1,823 posts)When your head is stuck that far up your ass, circulation has to be an issue.
avebury
(10,952 posts)I would think that any lawsuit that could make it up to the Supreme Court could include an argument that Trump was not competent to sign the bill (heck throw in all the Executive Orders as well). Hang him around the collective necks of the Rethugs.
karynnj
(59,504 posts)The closest is that the 25th amendment which has a method where the cabinet, approved by Congress can remove an incapacitated President. As a person who has never attended even one minute of a law class, but watched the Paperchase, it would seem the Constitution does not give the Supreme Court the job of determining that he is incompetent.
Not to mention, I doubt any such designation, if made, would have any retroactive effects. Obviously, the new President - presumably Pence - could simply reverse the executive orders and there may be one or two somewhere he disagrees with. However, there are a whole set of executive orders that each party almost completely agrees with and the other party disagrees with.
On the tax bill, terrible as it is - nearly every Republican in both Houses voted for their house's bill. What is clear is that ANY Republican, controlling both the House and Senate will likely pass a tax cut bill. Note that GWB passed two - the second in 2003 when we were already fighting two wars - making it the first time we cut taxes as a major war was happening.
While his reckless behavior and his lack of any diplomatic, deal making skills are things that will define his Presidency - competent or not, the tax bill and executive orders are Republican policy.
doodsaq
(120 posts)marylandblue
(12,344 posts)Watch videos of him 20 years ago. He could speak in complete sentences then. He is definitely experiencing cognitive decline. But he was always a jerk.
JohnnyRingo
(18,640 posts)He was doing a good job of winging it without a script and his speeches were what he was known for. Now he's inconsistent at best. His tweets are even worse.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)(assuming you can stand to do so) he doesn't sound as befuddled and incoherent as he does now.
MontanaMama
(23,337 posts)This, IMO, is the story that is being trotted out to pave the way for his getting away with his crimes against the United States. He's demented, therefore he isn't accountable. I'm not buying it.
joshdawg
(2,651 posts)He's more of a crook than nixon and brags about it. His boy Jr. is just as bad, if not worse.
Nah, I'm not buying the early onset either. He's a con man plain and simple, always was and always will be.
Efilroft Sul
(3,581 posts)I reminded people of how Reagan got away with Iran-Contra and how his mental deterioration was used as a defense along with, shucks, he "believed in America." No. A thousand times NO.
Even Bob Woodward got in on the Believe game (note, you can't spell that word without LIE in the middle) in his book, "Veil." Supposedly, Woodward was able to get deathbed access to a lobotomized Bill Casey, former top spook at the CIA. Woodward asked Casey why he directed the agency to go behind the back of Congress as it did in Iran-Contra, and Casey's response was, "I
believed."
Yeah? Well, you're all still accountable for your actions, dammit.
karynnj
(59,504 posts)GHWB was able to claim he heard nothing on the illegal Contra support. When confronted with proof he attended meetings where it was discussed, he claimed that those discussions must have happened when he went to the men's room. Yet it was the economy starting to fail and his raising a tax that were said to lead to his defense - not Iran/Contra. In fact, I do not remember either Clinton or Perot bringing it up. (I tried to read the NYT daily then, but I was a working mother of three kids under 7 - so I could have missed something.) Before he left office, he pardoned 5 people who were indicted because of illegal things they did.
Yet, both Oliver North, who led the effort to arm the Contras after Congress made that illegal, and Elliot Abrams are pundits given platforms to speak. North, who should have gone to jail, is a right wing hero and has been treated as such by Fox News and every outlet to its right. Abrahms writes op-eds and is constantly quoted, especially on the Mid east and Iran -- where is past of being pardoned by GHWB is never included in the footnote. ( When the Boston Globe some time in Obama's first term, quoted Abrahms on something John Kerry said in the SFRC, Kerry's chief of staff responded in a letter by starting that when he is quoted on anything involving Kerry, it should be noted that he got a GHWB pardon to save him from charges stemming from lying to Kerry when Abrahms was called to the SFRC . However, the point is even the MSM quotes him as one of several pundits.
My own view is that unlike Watergate, Monica, or Trump's many illegal actions, Iran/Contra involved covert actions of the United States where US opinion was really mixed - at least on the Contra issue. Even many Democrats would have wanted the US to provide arms and material assistance to the Contras, who were portrayed as fighting communism - rather than as the right wing thugs they were. On the other issues, you could argue that it was the PRESIDENT and his people who were said to have done something wrong -- rather than it being something done in the world in the name of the United States. (I KNOW that watergate actually exposed Nixon illegally using much of the US intelligence and law enforcement, but the way people saw it was only on obstruction of justice to end the investigation.)
With Iran/Contra, I suspect it is the acceptance of covert actions and a rejection of past Congressional limits placed on it. Similarly, remember how there was almost no Congressional support to even investigate the lies that led us into Iraq. One possibility is that there might be enough people on both sides who might not be willing to call those actions illegal - often limiting themselves to saying they are unwise or that they opposed them.
Saviolo
(3,283 posts)He said that we'd start seeing stories about Trump's Alzheimer's showing up in the media, and from people around him, as a way to step out a little more gracefully than a perp walk, and also perhaps as a sympathy ploy:
bdamomma
(63,918 posts)just get the madman out he is risk to himself and others (a lot of others).
getagrip_already
(14,825 posts)He will intentionally engineer a 25th amendment exit for himself. It checks all the boxes for him.
First, he will still be president, albeit without any power or position; Pence will only be "acting president". He can both be president and not president at the same time. Taking credit for whatever he wants and criticizing everything else. He would also likely still be able to bilk the gov for travel and living expenses as well as secret service protection.
Second, he gets to play the victim. This is his favorite role. He will get to play it up to his base and keep his name in the media.
Lastly, the congress won't move to impeach him no matter what muehler comes up with. There will be no need in their mind. Also, being ruled unable to execute his duties is a pretty good legal defense.
All boxes checked and accounted for. If he merely resigns, he gives up everything and gains nothing.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)We know he will do anything, no matter how low or deceptive to save his own skin. Would he do even this? It's possible.
Duppers
(28,125 posts)If he could use dementia as an excuse to avoid prosecution or sentencing, then could the same legal argument not be used to negate all the bills he has signed? That would be a logical conclusion.
getagrip_already
(14,825 posts)the 25th only deals with his ability to execute his duties. It says nothing about his mental state. He could be removed under the 25th and it would have no bearing on anything that happened before.
As for experts. Nope. All it takes is pence and 8 members of the cabinet to sign a simple statement he is unfit to execute his duties. It would then take a 2/3 vote in both houses. And whle there might be debate before the vote, no experts would need to be heard. Hearings would be entirely up the house and senate. They could just move to debate and vote without hearings.
If trump himself pushed for it behind the scenes, there would easily be 2/3 voting to approve the motion to remove his powers and make pence acting president.
Duppers
(28,125 posts)Amendment or otherwise.
I'm talking about indictments, trials, avoiding punishment in courts of law. Laurence Tribe, professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, said TRump could not avoid being prosecuted, could not pardon himself.
Irish_Dem
(47,321 posts)"They were acting on orders."
VOX
(22,976 posts)And act like a goddamned king at the same time. He could even continue those stomach-turning MAGA rallies (like the one hes doing today).
disalitervisum
(470 posts)He and his whole filthy family would leave you to bleed to death if they found you in an auto accident on the highway.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Unless Congress at least questions it, followed by doing something about it, it doesn't matter, does it?
He was elected, even though it was obvious there was something wrong with him mentally.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Alzheimers is just the icing on the cake.
spanone
(135,861 posts)Farmer-Rick
(10,202 posts)Ask any RepubliCON, they'll tell you what a saint Ronnie was. Seems you have to be failing mentally, to be a good little RepubliCON scoundrel.
Irish_Dem
(47,321 posts)all the time when he invaded Iraq.
Graves Disease can cause issues with judgement as does alcohol addiction.
uppityperson
(115,678 posts)However, it's nothing like Alzheimer's or other dementias and is treatable. Been doing that for 15 yrs and am very responsible nurse. Thyroid issues are very common as the glad is acutely sensitive too radia, though Graves and Hashimotos both are autoimmine.
Irish_Dem
(47,321 posts)and cloud judgement.
The mental health community was abuzz when Bush Sr was diagnosed
right around the time he started a war in the mideast.
uppityperson
(115,678 posts)People with UTIs can act bizarrely also. Beware anyone with a bladder.
Irish_Dem
(47,321 posts)and their dog were all diagnosed with Graves Disease at the same time...
But the mental health community had concerns about this diagnosis and starting
a controversial war.
rainin
(3,011 posts)Can a diagnosis of Alzheimers sheild Trump from jail?
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)I don't think he's there yet. You have to pretty obviously messed up for that to work. Trump is still able to function, more or less, and he's still capable of forming specific intent.
rainin
(3,011 posts)can he still be convicted for offenses committed before diagnosis?
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)why he's being punished; in the context of the death penalty it is necessary to restore a person's mental capacity before they can be executed (whether this is done in actual practice is another question). So, theoretically at least, if 45 is eventually reduced to a gibbering, insensate blob of orange lard (more so than now), he probably wouldn't go to prison.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)I would argue we are the sufferers and he is oblivious, another symptom of the problem.
mercuryblues
(14,537 posts)not that phony assed one that says he has the bestest results.
my question is, is the runny nose, slurred speech and going off script, moments of confusion side effects of medication or symptoms of illness.
I think it is a combo of both. A runny nose is common in LBD, the 2nd most common form of dementia, behind Alzheimer. If the wrong medication is given to treat the runny nose it will amplify a few other symptoms, including motor function.
lillypaddle
(9,581 posts)Cicada
(4,533 posts)It looked like his lower dentures came loose in the footage with slurred speech.
But the deterioration of the quality of his language now vs a couple years ago is apparently a symptom of dementia. And he seems to have forgotten that he admitted the Access Hollywood was him.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)Implants, caps, sure. Maybe a bridge somewhere in there. Dentures? Doubtful.
True Blue American
(17,988 posts)With Dental Care today and implants there is no way Trump would have plain false teeth that slipped.
He is showing every sign of Dementia. I have seen it far too often.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)Dentistry is invasive, and his fear of germs would have to factor into it.
I would not be surprised if he had fear of dentistry in general, which would account for the tooth loss in the first place.
Whatever the reason for the dentures, a person as germophobic as #45 would never submit to the pain and invasiveness of dental implants.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)than dentures. However, he's also a germophobe who doesn't like being touched, so he does his own hair to conceal his bald spot instead of hiring a good barber, but the result is a weird orange combover. He wears baggy suits that don't fit well in order to conceal his girth because he doesn't want a tailor to touch him. It figures that he'd get dentures instead of submitting to the much more invasive process of implants. But I wonder where he hides his false teeth at night? Does Melania ever see him without them?
llmart
(15,552 posts)He's extremely wealthy and look at the awful hair. No one who is that wealthy would wear that dead animal on his head. Also, be that obese. If they were extremely vain they would lose the weight, get a better rug and teeth.
My take is that he is in deep doo doo and knows it and has devised the biggest lie yet - that he's got something medically wrong with him to give him an out and let Pence take over before he's ousted along with Pence through legal means.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,829 posts)Trump always has been very vain even though he hasn't anything to be vain about. I'm sure he thinks he looks like a total chick magnet (in his relative youth he cultivated the playboy image); but everything about his appearance is designed to cover up a flaw (baldness, weight, bad teeth, pale skin). The problem is that he tries to manage those things himself - and, just like everything else about him, he thinks he does a great job.
Just walk around in public; you'll see plenty of people with bad hairstyles, makeup, clothes, etc. Probably most of them think they look great.
ProudMNDemocrat
(16,786 posts)She was diagnosed in 1988. Her short term memory was gone, but could remember what took place 40 and 50 years ago. By 1991, she was speaking in gibberish. She could not live on her own any more.
My MIL had been a heavy smoker, had mini strokes, Caratiod artery bypass, etc., which accelerated her disease. She died a week before Christmas 1996 of complications attributed to Alzheimer's.
It is called the "The Long Goodbye" for a reason as it slowly destroys a person' s life to nothing but a shell of what they were.
True Blue American
(17,988 posts)And Stepfather. My MIL decided one DIL was stealing from her. Things no one would want. Money hid everywhere. Paranoia is one of the symptoms. Rage!
ck4829
(35,084 posts)dhol82
(9,353 posts)Irish_Dem
(47,321 posts)But he could have both diagnoses.
Drug addiction and dementia.
JohnnyRingo
(18,640 posts)I watched his speeches, and he had a better grasp of the English language. Now he struggles to find multiple adjectives and needs prepared statements.
For instance, this week he wished an audience a merry Christmas and an "unbelievable holiday". Who says that? Sure, he's making this holiday season unbelievably bad for many, but that's not what he meant.
bucolic_frolic
(43,258 posts)who deals with accountants all the time, Trump is not a numbers guy. He rarely mentions a date.
If they could ask him questions related to history, maybe he'd start confabulating - mixing and blending
decades and time periods together. For example, someone who thinks smartphones were developed
in the 1970s and 2010.
Wwcd
(6,288 posts)They'll prop him up in front of us & make excuses for his flubbs till they have everything they came for.
C_U_L8R
(45,018 posts)True Blue American
(17,988 posts)paleotn
(17,946 posts)that shit gibbon has a fully developed human brain and not just a reptilian brain stem. I lean towards the later.
I have nothing to add.
LiberalBrooke
(527 posts)to start with and even less so after the cognitive decline he clearly is showing. What does that say about the people who voted for him? Oh, and hes a mean racist sexist ass too.
Duppers
(28,125 posts)Me.
(35,454 posts)or is this new behavior. Because from what I read he was never a great person to be around.
Wwcd
(6,288 posts)Trump is without soul nor heart.
As Hillary tried to tell us, " This is who he is"
Me.
(35,454 posts)zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)The real indicator that is setting off alarms for many of us that have lived through this before is his speaking. You can watch older interviews with him that demonstrate larger vocabularies, and the ability to follow the thread of a conversation. The things I see here with trump is that his vocabulary is shrinking, and he tends to repeat phrases. He also tends to wander all over the place. And he says things that are intended to make him seem smart, alert, or informed, when it actually has the opposite effect. IF it is early onset, what is happening here is that he is having trouble remember by the end of a sentence, what he start to say at the beginning. Or what he intended to say next. That's why he repeats the last phrase of a sentence. It give him time to remember. He wanders around because he is "guessing" at what he was talking about, or finds that changing the point deflects away from having to remember what the topic was. Finally, when he is most uncomfortable, that's when he'll make a boast, or some other statement to suggest that he is smarter than he is, or more informed than everyone else. Remember when he took credit for some expression like "priming the pump" or some such thing? That was him trying to appear clever, probably because he was feeling confused.
I am keeping my eye out for the next obvious sign which will be the overuse of pronouns, even if inappropriate. Using expressions like "that thing" or "some stuff", as well as using her when talking about a male.
Me.
(35,454 posts)Thank you...will keep an eye out for pronouns.
Wwcd
(6,288 posts)They'll get what they came for & it won't matter to them if he is ill or about to croak.
They'll dress him up, stand him up haul him out for the photo op & whip out a few tweets.
When his own children fail to step in on his behalf, then his personal issues are irrelevant & after their dirty deeds are done & he faces Mueller's indictments, he'll still go to prison, with or without Alzheimers.
Was he ill when he called up his KKK base?
When he let Putin, years ago, begin the process of destroying our US gov't?
He's still accountable & so is everyone that allowed him to be an assh**e.
Because That is who he is.
I give him no pity nor excuse.
Me.
(35,454 posts)And I want everyone to pay a price from him to his kids, Jared, his cabinet, Ryan, McConnell, Congress, the Con Party, bannon, miller and all those who insist on keeping him in office. They are all culpable, having aided and abetted. The damage is huge in so many ways and the price should match the mountain of crimes against this country.
Wwcd
(6,288 posts)The damage is stunning.
Kaleva
(36,328 posts)Orrex
(63,220 posts)Then I will mock him as no one in the history of western thought has been mocked.
I will compose lengthy verses of iambic pentameter to celebrate the raw hilarity of his demise, highlighting his verbal flubs and his disorientation and his inappropriateness and his stupid fucking cluelessness.
It will be comedy gold unseen in many decades, and I will play it to the hilt.
My mother suffered from dementia before she died.
My grandmother suffered complete loss of faculties due to Alzheimer's before she died.
I welcome those who will scold me for my mockery of our mentally incapacitated presidential usurper, and their scolding will only inspire me to more vicious and unrestrained attacks on the orange asshole in the White House.
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)aeromanKC
(3,326 posts)I want Trump to have full cognitive ability when he realizes that he's ruined both personally and financially after Mueller Time!!
Rollo
(2,559 posts)Although the cause has been determined, unofficially, to be porphyria, a genetic condition the symptoms of which can include mental confusion and seizures. In any case, King George III has been called "The Mad King Who Lost America"... although I think Parliament bore a large part of that folly.
Wwcd
(6,288 posts)You're no doubt correct as to Parliment.
If the strongest link is failing, be sure there's a feeding frenzy going on behind closed doors.
Kaleva
(36,328 posts)SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)LenaBaby61
(6,976 posts)Wrong with him.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)route so that his evil administration and evil GOP congress can remain intact.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,191 posts)All conscious thought occurs in his mammoth ass. Unfortunately, the ass contains very few brain cells.
Meanwhile, the appendage formerly known as "the head" is reduced to spewing crap. Note the odd puckering of the former "mouth" and the flatulent expulsions from it.
Worst case I've ever seen.
Buns_of_Fire, M.D., Summa Cum Laude, Close-Cover-Before-Striking Medical School, 1979
it could be an act. Seems his whole life has been one big act. My mom had Alzheimer's she never talked like he does. I do believe he's talked like that for years. Just mho tho.
VOX
(22,976 posts)When it was parked directly at the base of the ramp.
No question, he has some sort of cognitive impairment going on.
Gothmog
(145,489 posts)Grammy23
(5,810 posts)No idea what medications he takes. Only anecdotal information about what he is like behind the scenes. A lot of legendary information about him, such as being a germaphobe. His dietary habits. His relationship with his other family members and his children. Lots of that kind of information comes from books written about him or included in books written by former wives.
In other words, we often have to guess what is going on with him. Those of us who have had an experience with a close family member with dementia have our suspicions about tRump. Those of us with medical expertise can weigh in. But all of us are operating with limited information.
If tRump has a real examination by a qualified doctor AND the results are revealed, we might get more insight into whether this is a real decline or if it is a manufactured ploy to get his sorry ass out of trouble.
My hunch is he really does have some kind of cognitive decline, because he is not smart enough to pull off faking it. But he still has enough on the ball to know he has to appear normal and tries to cover up his mistakes. Eventually, most people truly having a decline like that will pass the point of even knowing they just made a huge mistake. They will no longer try to cover it and will just go on like nothing happened. When his tooth incident happened the other day, he almost raced out of the room after scribbling his name on the order. So he knows something is wrong. He knows but tries to cover for it.
MyNameGoesHere
(7,638 posts)Syphilis dementia symptoms
Neurosyphilis has four different forms: asymptomatic, meningovascular, tabes dorsalis, and general paresis. In rare instances, active neurosyphilis can mimic Alzheimer's disease. Symptoms of neurosyphilis include, but are not limited to the following: Abnormal gait.
AntiFascist
(12,792 posts)of some medications treating various disorders.
Adenoid_Hynkel
(14,093 posts)and had disappeared from public life in his last decade or so. And confirmed as Alzheimer's.
rockfordfile
(8,704 posts)bathroommonkey76
(3,827 posts)I don't believe this CON-MAN piece of shit has any health problems. Most Americans already know he doesn't have a fuckin soul.
ecstatic
(32,727 posts)When Mueller nails him, he'll suddenly fall ill. The stupid MSM will play into it, reminding us of all the times his speech slurred or he forgot where he was going, etc.
Through his spokesperson, he'll resign peacefully, then ride out into the sunset, but only for a few weeks. All of his illegally obtained assets will be seized by the government as part of the agreement to leave Jr alone. Needless to say, he'll have a miraculous recovery and join Bannon in creating a cable TV channel. And if that doesn't work, he'll become a televangelist and prey on evangelicals.
ancianita
(36,132 posts)XRubicon
(2,212 posts)Nothing more, nothing less.
mchill
(1,018 posts)Swearing in Kirsten Nielsen as DHS Secretary, the photographer, or someone, had to tell him to turn around while the oath delivered, as if his back to the camera? It was odd.
ecstatic
(32,727 posts)and the ability to make new memories. Don't get me wrong, he's obviously had instances where his short term memory seemed bad, but in general, he's able to remember his bullshit controversies/divisive topics quite well (like the NFL crap, etc). Remember the unhinged speech after Charlottesville?
That being said, Trump does appear to have a generalized dementia taking hold, and that is a problem because he also (even before he was old) is an extreme narcissist who creates and believes his own reality. The result is that he is experiencing more and more confusion and difficulty in distinguishing between fiction and reality. He is also having a tougher time managing his response to having his ego bruised. For example, I think the only reason he changed policy on Jerusalem is because he wanted to stick it to Tillerson. That's irrational behavior due to his dementia and narcissism.
July
(4,750 posts)That doesn't negate the fact that he is a lying con artist, a mean asshole, and a dumb fuck.
He was already mentally ill when young, in that he has been a malevolent narcissist perhaps his entire life.
Now he shows signs of some form of dementia, which I've seen up close several times. His speech and his paranoia, along with his rage, are the indicators to me.
I guess it's possible that he could be trying to imitate the New York mobster (forget his name) who walked around NYC in a bathrobe in an attempt to avoid prosecution. But, IMO, Trump is not smart enough to carry that off. He is not clever and lacks the depth of knowledge and self-discipline to make a plausible case for diminished capacity. I wonder if his ego could take it, too.
The other argument against his faking it is that his spawn could then make the case that he is incompetent to handle his affairs and swoop right in to fight with Melania about who controls what. Does anyone believe they are such a united, loving family that that would never happen?
And if he's like the other people I've known who've suffered from dementia, he will give up control KICKING AND SCREAMING. He already lacks self-awareness, and any form of dementia or cognitive decline will only further remove him from reality.
JMO. Wondering when we will know the truth. Hope it's in my lifetime.
disalitervisum
(470 posts)Everything he and his family say is designed to fuck you and benefit themselves. Everything. I can't believe anyone who's lived a day would make any kind of excuse for this piece of shit.
Dalton Mac
(76 posts)It should be on the front page. For at least a week.