According to a leading authority on rhetoric in America, Donald Trump’s rambling speeches and spontaneous press briefings may be signs of his “cognitive decline.” Trump and his advisers are requesting a congressional investigation of Joe Biden’s mental health during his one-term administration, which coincides with the warning.
There are serious concerns about whether Biden, who is now 82, was qualified to lead the nation because of how much he concealed his abilities.
Trump is currently being questioned about his role as the world’s most powerful man. He was the oldest president to be sworn in at 78 and seven months in January. According to reports, his father, Fred, was diagnosed with dementia in the early 1990s and passed away in 1999 at the age of 93 from pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The president’s communication style may be concerning, according to Dr. Jennifer R. Mercieca, a professor of communication and journalism at Texas A&M University, who spoke to the Daily Beast. “His lack of focus makes it seem as though he’s experiencing cognitive decline, that his brain is not well-disciplined, and he’s unable to maintain a thought and carry it through to a logical conclusion,” she said.
A specialist in speeches and rhetorical tactics, Dr. Mercieca is the author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. Although she is neither a specialist in aging nor a speech pathologist, she claimed to grasp how his speech may easily cause confusion in an audience.
“Trump sees himself as someone who is unscripted and not teleprompter,” she added. “He likes to brand himself as a ‘truthteller’ who can and will say anything that comes to mind. “Unfortunately, that makes his speeches difficult to follow as he digresses from thought to thought—seemingly connecting ideas at random.”
Sean Barbabella, the president’s doctor, performed his yearly physical on April 11 and declared him to be in “excellent health.” “President Trump’s days include participation in multiple meetings, public appearances, press availability, and frequent victories in golf events,” Barbabella said in his report. “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.”
“He digresses into bizarre tangents about golf, about sharks, about his own ‘beautiful’ body.”
The New York Times analyzed Donald Trump’s public appearances over the years and found that he is in a steep cognitive decline. pic.twitter.com/wr18mY3uDl
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) October 9, 2024
The physician also gave Trump a perfect score for his mental health, claiming: “Cognitive function, assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), was normal with a score of 30 out of 30.” However, Trump has startled audiences with abrupt shifts in topic and recurrent assertions and issues throughout recent public appearances.
He keeps bringing up Biden’s supposed cognitive impairment while in the White House, accuses the previous government of being at fault for the country’s problems, and repeatedly returns to his favorite topics, such as the cost of eggs, the threats posed by undocumented immigrants, and DEI. As might be expected, the president congratulated parents for coming and claimed credit for increasing recruiting during a speech on Saturday at the exclusive West Point military college.
Trump did, however, veer off topic during the nearly hour-long speech when he declared that the military should not “host drag shows,” that critical race theory would not be taught, that men participating in women’s sports would no longer be allowed, and that he had been investigated “more than the great, late Alphonse Capone.”
“He digresses into bizarre tangents about golf, about sharks, about his own ‘beautiful’ body.”
The New York Times analyzed Donald Trump’s public appearances over the years and found that he is in a steep cognitive decline. pic.twitter.com/wr18mY3uDl
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) October 9, 2024
Going off on a tangent, he continued: “Alphonse Capone was a monster, he was a very hardened criminal. I went through more investigations than Alphonse Capone, and now I’m talking to you as president, can you believe this?” (This isn’t true—Trump was indicted four times, and Capone was indicted six times).
The president advised graduates not to choose “trophy wives,” which is even stranger. Trump claimed in December that although his digressions might seem illogical, they were “genius.” He said, “I do the weave.” “You know what the weave is? I’ll talk about, like, nine different things that they all come back brilliantly together. And it’s like friends of mine that are like English professors, they say: ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.’”
1/2 “Trump is now predictably unable to go more than a sentence or two without garbling and slurring his words— and, when combined with his extraordinary word salads, are speech difficulties consistent with a diagnosis of dementia,” Dr. David A. Lustighttps://t.co/XopkT32z7f
— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) April 27, 2024
“But the fake news, you know what they say, ‘He rambled.’ It’s not rambling. What you do is you get off a subject to mention another little titbit, then you get back on to the subject, and you go through this and you do it for two hours, and you don’t even mispronounce one word.”
The university professor had “Trump derangement syndrome,” according to a White House official, who insisted: “President Trump is the most accessible and transparent president in history–constantly showing off his impeccable mental and physical health.” The American public, however, doesn’t seem to be persuaded by Trump’s claims of excellent health.
According to a YouGov/Economist survey released last week, 45% of respondents said Trump has been “not at all” or “not very” open about his health. Additionally, according to the survey, 31% of respondents thought Trump’s age and health had a significant impact on his capacity to serve as president.
