{"id":314987,"date":"2025-08-03T16:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/314987\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:31:10","slug":"he-has-trouble-completing-a-thought-bizarre-public-appearances-again-cast-doubt-on-trumps-mental-acuity-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/314987\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He has trouble completing a thought\u2019: bizarre public appearances again cast doubt on Trump\u2019s mental acuity | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s frequently bizarre public appearances, which this month have seen the president claim, wrongly, that his uncle knew the Unabomber and rant unprompted about windmills on his recent trip to the UK, have once again raised questions about his mental acuity, experts say.<\/p>\n

For more than a year Trump, 79, has exhibited odd behavior at campaign events, in interviews, in his spontaneous remarks and at press conferences. The president repeatedly drifts off topic, including during a cabinet meeting this month when he spent 15 minutes talking about decorating, and appears to misremember simple facts about his government and his life.<\/p>\n

During his presidency, Joe Biden<\/a> was subjected to intense speculation over his mental acuity \u2013 including from Trump. After Biden\u2019s disastrous debate performance<\/a> in June 2024, when he repeatedly struggled to maintain his train of thought, scrutiny over Biden\u2019s fitness eventually led to him not running for re-election.<\/p>\n

Trump, however, has largely been saved the same examination, despite examples of confusion and unusual behavior that have continued throughout his second term and were on full display on his recent trip to the UK.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend Trump, during a meeting with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, abruptly switched from discussing immigration to saying this: \u201cThe other thing I say to Europe: \u200bwe\u2019ve \u2013 we will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States\u200b. They\u2019re killing us. They\u2019re killing the beauty of our scenery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump proceeded to speak, non-stop and unprompted, for two minutes<\/a> about windmills, claiming without evidence that they drive whales \u201cloco\u201d and that wind energy \u201ckills the birds\u201d (the proportion of birds killed by turbines is tiny<\/a> compared with the amount killed by domestic cats and from flying into power lines).<\/p>\n

The abrupt changes in conversation are an example of Trump \u201cdigressing without thinking \u2013 he\u2019ll just switch topics without self-regulation, without having a coherent narrative\u201d, said Harry Segal, a senior lecturer in the psychology department at Cornell University and in the psychiatry department at Weill Cornell Medicine.<\/p>\n

For years, Trump has batted away questions about his mental acuity, describing himself as a \u201cstable genius\u201d and bragging about \u201cacing\u201d exams \u2013 later revealed to be very simple tests<\/a> \u2013 which check for early signs of dementia.<\/p>\n

But Democrats have begun to more aggressively question the president\u2019s fitness, including<\/a> Jasmine Crockett, the representative from Texas, and<\/a> California\u2019s governor, Gavin Newsom, and this week alone offered multiple examples of Trump exhibiting odd conduct.<\/p>\n

Asked about the famine in Gaza on Sunday<\/a>, Trump seemed unable to remember the aid the US has given to Gaza, and forget that others had also contributed.<\/p>\n

Trump claimed the US gave $60m \u201ctwo weeks ago\u201d. He added: \u201c\u200bYou really at least want to have somebody say thank you. No other country gave anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody acknowledged it, nobody talks about it and it makes you feel a little bad when you do that and you know you have other countries not giving anything, none of the European countries \u200bby the way gave \u2013 I mean nobody gave but us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump seemed to not realize or remember that other countries have given money to Gaza \u2013 the UK announced<\/a> a \u00a360m ($80m) package in July, and the European Union has allocated<\/a> \u20ac170m ($195m) in aid. And the Guardian could not find any record of the US giving $60m to Gaza two weeks ago. In June, the US state department approved a $30m grant to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a group backed by Israeli and US interests which has been criticized by Democrats as \u201cconnected to deadly violence against starving people seeking food in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond to questions about Trump\u2019s claimed $60m donation.<\/p>\n

Segal said another characteristic of Trump\u2019s questionable mental acuity is confabulation. \u201cIt\u2019s where he takes an idea or something that\u2019s happened and he adds to it things that have not happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump launched into a monologue about windmills when he met European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on 27 July 2025. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein\/Reuters<\/p>\n

A high-profile example came in mid-July, when Trump claimed<\/a> his uncle, the late professor John Trump, had taught Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, at MIT.<\/p>\n

Trump recalled: \u201cI said: \u2018What kind of a student was he, Uncle John? Dr John Trump.\u2019 I said: \u2018What kind of a student?\u2019 And then he said: \u2018Seriously, good.\u2019 He said: \u2018He\u2019d correct \u2013 he\u2019d go around correcting everybody.\u2019 But it didn\u2019t work out too well for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is: that cannot possibly be true. First, Trump\u2019s uncle died in 1985, and Kaczynski was only publicly identified as the Unabomber in 1996. Second, Kaczynski did not study at MIT.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story makes no sense whatsoever, but it\u2019s told in a very warm, reflective way, as if he\u2019s remembering it,\u201d Segal said. \u201cThis level of thinking really has been deteriorating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the confabulation, there have been times when Trump seems unable to focus. During the 2024 campaign there was the bizarre sight of Trump spending 40 minutes swaying to music onstage<\/a> after a medical emergency at one of his campaign rallies. Trump\u2019s rambling speeches during his campaign \u2013 he would frequently drift between topics in a technique he described as \u201cthe weave\u201d \u2013 also drew scrutiny.<\/p>\n

The White House removed official transcripts of Trump\u2019s remarks from its website in May, claiming it was part of an effort to \u201cmaintain consistency\u201d. It is worth reading Trump\u2019s remarks in full, however, to get a sense of how the president speaks on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of July, Trump was asked, \u201cWhat is the next campaign promise that you plan to fulfill to the American people?\u201d He then rambled about meeting foreign leaders and removing regulations, adding<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I got rid of \u2013 just one I got rid of the other night, you buy a house, they have a faucet in the house, Joe, and the faucet the water doesn\u2019t come out. They have a restrictor. You can\u2019t \u2013 in areas where you have so much water they don\u2019t know what to do with it. Uh, you have a shower head the shower doesn\u2019t uh, the shower doesn\u2019t, you think it\u2019s not working. It is working. The water\u2019s dripping out and that\u2019s no good for me. I like this hair lace and [sic] \u2013 I like that hair nice and wet. Takes you \u2013 you have to stand in the shower for 20 minutes before you get the soap out of your hair. And I put a, a thing \u2013 and it sounds funny but it\u2019s really not. It\u2019s horrible. And uh, when you wash your hands, you turn on the faucet, no water comes out. You\u2019re washing whole \u2013 water barely comes out it\u2019s ridi \u2013 this was done by crazy people. And I wor \u2013 wrote it all off and got it approved in Congress so that they can\u2019t just change it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cAny fair-minded mental-health expert would be very worried about Donald Trump\u2019s performance,\u201d Richard A Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, wrote<\/a> in the Atlantic, after a stumbling performance from Trump in his debate against Kamala Harris last September.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf a patient presented to me with the verbal incoherence, tangential thinking, and repetitive speech that Trump now regularly demonstrates, I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a recent cabinet meeting<\/a> called to discuss the flooding tragedy in Texas, the war in Ukraine and Gaza, the bombing of Iran, and global tariffs, Trump went on a 13-minute monologue about how he had decorated the cabinet meeting room.<\/p>\n

After talking about paintings which he said he had personally selected from \u201cthe vaults\u201d, Trump said. \u201cLook at those frames, you know, I\u2019m a frame person, sometimes I like frames more than I like the pictures,\u201d and added he had overseen the cleaning of some china.<\/p>\n

As department heads, including the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, waited to be dismissed so they could go and do their jobs, Trump continued:<\/p>\n

\n

Here we put out \u2013 you know these, these lamps have been very important actually, whether people love them or not but they\u2019re if you see pictures like Pearl Harbor or Tora! Tora! Tora!, you see movies about the White House where wars are being discussed, oftentimes they\u2019ll show those lamps or something like those lamps, something that looks like them. Probably not the reals, because I don\u2019t think they\u2019re allowed to \u2013 this is a very important room, this is a sacred room, and I don\u2019t think they made movies from here.<\/p>\n

You never know what they do. But they were missing, er, medallions. See the medallions on top? They had a chain going into the ceiling. And I said: \u2018You can\u2019t do that. You have to have a medallion.\u2019 They said, \u2018What\u2019s a medallion?\u2019 I said: \u2018I\u2019ll show you.\u2019 And then we got some beautiful medallions, and you see them, they were put up there, makes the lamps look [inaudible] so we did these changes.<\/p>\n

And when you think of it, the cost was almost nothing. We also painted the room a nice color, beige color, and it\u2019s been really something. The only question is, will I gold-leaf the corners? You could maybe tell me. My cabinet could take a vote. You see the top-line moldings, and the only question is do you go and leaf it? Because you can\u2019t paint it, if you paint it it won\u2019t look good because they\u2019ve never found a paint that looks like gold. You see that in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Er, they\u2019ve tried for years and years. Somebody could become very wealthy, but they\u2019ve never found a paint that looks like gold. So painting is easy but it won\u2019t look right.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The White House pushes back aggressively on the issue of Trump\u2019s mental fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Guardian is a left-wing mouthpiece that should be embarrassed to pass off deranged resistance leftists as \u2018experts\u2019. Anyone pathetic enough to defend Biden\u2019s mental state \u2013 while being labeled as unethical by their peers \u2013 has zero credibility. President Trump\u2019s mental sharpness is second to none and he is working around the clock to secure amazing deals for the American people,\u201d said White House spokesperson Liz Huston.<\/p>\n

So do his political allies. \u201cAs President Trump\u2019s former personal physician, former physician to the president, and White House physician for 14 years across three administrations, I can tell you unequivocally: President Donald J Trump is the healthiest president this nation has ever seen. I continue to consult with his current physician and medical team at the White House and still spend significant time with the president. He is mentally and physically sharper than ever before,\u201d said congressman Ronny Jackson.<\/p>\n

In April, Trump\u2019s White House physician, Dr Sean Barbabella, wrote that the president \u201cexhibits excellent cognitive and physical health and is fully fit to execute the duties of the commander-in-chief and head of state\u201d. He said Trump was assessed for cognitive function, which was normal.<\/p>\n

That report hasn\u2019t stopped people from questioning Trump\u2019s mental acuity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we see are the classic signs of dementia, which is gross deterioration from someone\u2019s baseline and function,\u201d John Gartner, a psychologist and author who spent 28 years as an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, said in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go back and look at film from the 1980s, [Trump] actually was extremely articulate. He was still a jerk, but he was able to express himself in polished paragraphs, and now he really has trouble completing a thought and that is a huge deterioration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gartner, who during Trump\u2019s first term co-founded Duty to Warn<\/a>, a group of mental health professionals who believed Trump had the personality disorder malignant narcissism, warned: \u201cI predicted before the election that he would probably fall off the cliff before the end of his term. And at the rate he is deteriorating, you know \u2026 we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the point is that it\u2019s going to get worse. That\u2019s my prediction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s frequently bizarre public appearances, which this month have seen the president claim, wrongly, that his uncle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-314987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114965793043848230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}