Mental Health Professionals Say Trump Has Dementia

Search for “psychiatrists Trump” or similar and click on the link to Change.org. There you will find a petition signed by more than 70,000 mental health professionals who believe Donald Trump is mentally ill.

The petition states that in the judgment of these professionals, Donald Trump “manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States.”

Trump’s mental illness is the elephant-in-the-room that receives virtually no media coverage but is widely recognized by psychiatrists and others who deal with dementia patients.

Insights from Dr. John Gartner

One of those psychiatrists, Dr. John Gartner, in two recent interviews with Salon.com, assessed Trump’s condition as "Phonemic paraphasias" —the substitution of non-words for words that sound similar. Gartner said this condition is not normally seen until a patient enters the moderate to severe stages of Alzheimer’s.

According to Dr. Gartner, “Some examples of Trump’s non-words: Beneficiaries becomes “benefishes.” Renovations become “renoversh.” Pivotal became “pivobal." Obama became “obamna.” Missiles became “mishiz.” Christmas became “Crissus.” Bipartisan became “bipars.”

“This is a fundamental breakdown in the ability to use language,” says Dr. Gartner. “If you were talking to your father on the phone and he did this you would think he is having a stroke. There is no healthy older person who speaks that way.”

Why Isn’t Trump’s Mental Condition Receiving More Media Attention?

Dr. Gartner explains:

“I've been reaching out to several colleagues who are real experts in this area. They were happy to share observations and diagnostic conclusions about Trump’s severe organic mental decline, privately, but even among colleagues who were once outspoken, there's a new high level of fear, not to mention exhaustion, that we didn’t see before. Each of these experts convinced me they weren’t being paranoid when they believed there was a good chance they would lose their jobs if they went on the record, not to mention other forms of retaliation, especially for those who live in red states.

“I don’t want to say the mainstream media is covering up Trump’s cognitive disability,” Dr. Gartner told Salon, “but they certainly aren’t covering it like the 5-alarm fire it is. The media will show Trump being combative and saying something outrageous and his audience reacting to it — but they are consistently not showing the parts of Trump’s speeches and interviews where his eyes go blank, his jaw goes slack, he looks confused, and slurs words, uses non-words, can't finish a sentence, rambles, perseverates, confabulates and babbles incoherently. 

“That’s what should make the 6 o’clock news. Doesn’t the media have a duty to warn the public that the man who wants the nuclear codes back (not including the ones he probably stole) is publicly displaying unimpeachable evidence of a broken and deteriorating brain?”

According to Dr. Gartner, there is no equivalence to President Biden’s occasional word stumbles and Trump’s word slurs. “Biden’s brain is aging,” says Dr. Garner. Trump’s is dementing.”

Read Dr. Gartner’s full interviews here.

Examining Trump's Deteriorating Mental Condition

Lest anyone think this concern over Trump’s deteriorating mental condition is an election-year ploy, that concern has a history dating back to Trump’s term in the White House.

In October 2017, Dr. Brandy X Lee, a Yale psychiatrist, published “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” a book of essays by numerous mental health professionals assessing the president’s mental aptitude. It was a best-seller.

Later, Congress received a petition signed by 350 other health professionals, warning  that Trump had the “real potential to become ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation.”

We all witnessed live, on TV, Trump inciting January 6 violence. Now Trump is threatening a “blood bath” if he loses this election. It’s well past time to shine a spotlight not just what Trump says, but why he says it.

The Washington Post published an article on its front page (3/19) that raises questions about Trump’s mental health by focusing on Trump’s father’s dementia. Remarkably, the article doesn’t mention the mental health community’s ongoing efforts to raise the red flags. But the Post is influential and hopefully other media will follow the Post’s lead, finally delving into what should be the most defining story of the 2024 presidential election.

Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net