Psychologists have suggested that Donald Trump is displaying a “dead ringer telltale sign” of a rare brain condition, claiming the symptom is becoming “worse and worse”.
Clinical psychologists Dr John Gartner and Dr Harry Segal have voiced concerns about the president’s psychomotor abilities, arguing that the 79 year old is showing clear signs of dementia.
In the latest episode of their Shrinking Trump programme, Dr Gartner said: “Some of the evidence that we’ve been talking about recently has been his psychomotor performance, that we’re seeing a deterioration in his motor performance, which also goes with dementia because with dementia there’s a deterioration of all faculties, all functions.” The news comes shortly after Trump sparked mental health fears after bizarre ‘violent fish’ comments.
He continued: “The language and the verbal dysfunction is what we notice first and also what we notice in terms of his public behaviour, but now his motor performance is starting to get worse and worse.”, as reported by The Mirror.
Frontotemporal dementia
Dr Gartner revealed it’s not just any form of dementia he suspects Trump might be suffering from, but specifically frontotemporal dementia, noting the president has recently been showing a “telltale sign” of this condition..
Frontotemporal dementia is a rare type of dementia that causes problems with behaviour and speech. It affects the front and sides of the brain, and like other forms of dementia, it usually progresses slowly and gets worse over several years.
Dr Gartner explained, “One of the things that one of the neuropsychologists that we were working with last year pointed out that is almost a dead ringer telltale sign of frontotemporal dementia is something they call a wide-based gait, where you have a sort of one of your limbs, one of your legs, you kind of swing it in a semicircle.”
The psychologists then drew attention to Trump’s recent meeting with Vladimir Putin. They presented two videos showing Trump seemingly struggling to walk straight as he moved down a red carpet to greet the Russian president.
“He’s weaving all along the carpet,” Dr Gartner observed. He added: “His right foot is swinging and it’s pushing him to the left. So, as it’s swinging, he’s veering left and then he overcorrects and moves to the other side of the carpet and then it happens again.”
Trump ‘can’t control leg’
He continued, “I mean, if they pulled you over for a DUI and you walked that line, you know, you would fail,” Gartner remarked after showing a sped-up video of Trump walking on the red carpet. Dr Segal confirmed he’d noticed it too.
“It’s very odd, isn’t it? Because it doesn’t look like someone who’s drunk, but he’s drifting back and forth as if again as if he can’t control one of his legs,” Dr Segal noted.
The psychologists presented a second video, not sped up this time, to better illustrate Trump’s foot movements.
“One step at a time, right? ,” Dr Gartner observes.
“You can see it his sort of the leg swings and it moves him sort of one step to the side. And it was step after step after step and then he overcorrects,” he further explained.
Despite mounting worries, the president has been boasting about his cognitive health.
Following his annual physical in April, Trump bragged that he “got the highest mark,” on his cognitive test, although both Dr Segal and Dr Gartner have previously pointed out that this should be easy to achieve.
“President Trump exhibits excellent cognitive and physical health and is fully fit to execute the duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State,” White House physician Dr Barbabella concluded.
“Overall, I felt I was in very good shape,” Trump commented on the results.
“A good heart, a good soul, a very good soul.”
