Trump's Cognitive Decline.

[emailking]

he did make a video about it on X, not an ad though.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The problem with analyzing Trump's communications is that there are so many different ways he fails at speaking (although obviously he usually succeeds in ways that work for his followers) it's hard to nail down exactly what's driving any particular seemingly insane utterance.

For example, Trump has spoken in broken word salad for many years. When he utters something particularly incoherent, is it because:

He just flubbed his delivery, and it's an error anyone might make.

He's ignorant, and and just making something up to cover his ignorance.

He's ignorant, doesn't care about the topic, and assumes no one else does either.

He's has something he wants to say, and is going to force it out, no matter how incoherent it seems, or how much it contradicts reality.

He's so ignorant that he does not understand his own ignorance, and thinks what he says makes sense.

He knows better, but thinks his audience doesn't know better.

He's old, out of shape, and just had a bad day, but there's no underlying dysfunction.

He's taking drugs for other health conditions, and sometimes they impact his speech.

He's suffering from some sort of nervous system disease, and this is a manifestation of it.



I had a long thread about his mental decline in the year and change running up to the 2020 election. It does appear to me that he experienced a significant and obvious decline between 2015-6 and 2019.

As I noted in that thread, he was at his worst in the latter half of 2019, when slurring, aphasia, and apparent myclonic seizures were all very common. Then-President Trump kept a very low profile from late November 2019 to February 2020, after which he campaigned hard for President with none of his prior symptoms.

Myclonic seizures can be the result of nervous system disorders, or a side effect of drug treatments for such disorders.

My best, completely amateur, guess is that Donald Trump does suffer from some such disorder, that he had a treatment regimen that was re-assessed and changed on or around December 2019. Four years on, I would further guess that treatment is no longer as effective, or is having side effects of its own.
 
I watched very little of Donald Trump after the 2020 election (and his subsequent coup attempt), but I've caught some recent campaign appearances. The myclonic seizures appear to be back, though not so strongly as before (watch his shoulders in any extended video of him speaking), and the slurring is coming back, as, apparently, is the aphasia.

If you want some evidence that he has been diagnosed along these lines, and is either soft-pedaling the results, or has not been given the full diagnosis, he said this just a few days ago:

During the Saturday rally, Trump continued the defense of his mental acuity, stating that he will let people know when he “goes bad.”

“I’ll let you know when I go bad,” Trump said. “I really [don’t] think I will be able to tell you because someday we go bad.”

Editing to add: Here he is in Iowa a week ago (I think he's gone bad):

[Harlow]

What's happening here?

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1749638608577761385?s=20

[emailking]

Sollest I think he's saying smallest. Otherwise no clue.

[GoTfan]

What does a powerful death penalty mean? Starship Troopers mini-nuke to the face?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

What's happening here?

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1749638608577761385?s=20

CSPAN has the full video, and a transcript. In context, it is both slightly better and much worse.

Donald Trump doesn't actually use English grammar, particularly when he's in prophet mode, but here's an attempt to turn what he said into sentences:

We have become a drug-infected, crime-ridden nation which is incapable of solving even the smallest problems. The simplest of problems we can no longer solve. We can't do anything. We are an institute and a powerful death penalty, we will put this on. We have to bring in the death penalty, a terrible thing to say. Each dealer is responsible for the death during their lives of 500 people or more. We must institute the death penalty. It's actually an act of kindness. Mothers will never again be forced to watch their children overdosing and hopelessly dying in their arms screaming, "What can I do? My child is dying."

[BlueSwan]

What's happening here?

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1749638608577761385?s=20

"We are an institute in a powerful death penalty".

[emailking]

I guess he's trying to say we must institute a death penalty for drug dealers. Something he's said several times before albeit with coherent language.

[Landslide Lyndon]

He is sounding like some of my elderly clients with mild Alzheimer who tell me increasingly incoherent stories from their youth, 50-60 years ago.

[junior chįmp]

There is no cognitive decline with Trump. He's always been a dumbass. He's just increasing in dumbassery with age

[Joe Republic]

https://twitter.com/BigBlueWaveUSA/status/1749519924559798755?s=20


https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1749633930062418166?s=20

[SInNYC]

Well I'm pretty sure he meant Pelosi, just has Haley on the mind.

Even Obama had a slip of the tongue once when he talked about having campaigned in all 58 states. But sh**t like this is just constant for trump. Even here if he had just slipped once and said Haley one could shrug it off - if you ignore the fact that he's increasingly givering nonsense with every given month - but he repeated Haley's name four separate times. That's not a slip of the tongue, that's when your brain is on autopilot senility.

That wasnt really a substantive error. There were 58 (though I recall it is 57) entities in the primaries, covering states and assorted territories like DC, Guam, etc. There just isnt a good word to characterize what those entities are - 'I visited all 58 delegations' is just as wrong. Of course, Fox made it out like Obama was an idiot who didnt know how many states there were.

But yeah, the problem with calling Trump's speeches a decline is that he started so low that there isnt much room for decline.

[Santander]

Trump is not in decline, he is just exhausted from the legal witch hunts.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump is not in decline, he is just exhausted from the legal witch hunts.

Even if it was legal to hunt witches - which it is not! - Donald Trump isn't doing anything more strenuous than hunting Big Macs from his golf cart.

[Person Man]

What's happening here?

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1749638608577761385?s=20

Did Charlie write his speech?

[Lief 🗽]

He’s completely lost. Unfortunately literally no one loves him so there’s no one to stop this from continuing.
https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1749536277232337013?s=46&t=o2RmfeV6yYJk03d3u...

[courts]

He’s completely lost. Unfortunately literally no one loves him so there’s no one to stop this from continuing.
https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1749536277232337013?s=46&t=o2RmfeV6yYJk03d3u...

it's always projection

[Badger]

Fran Lebowitz said, MANY years ago, "“Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t."

I once thought she was exaggerating. Now though add about four Decades of mental deterioration, and we're starting to see the emperor behind the curtain. He's literally unraveling before our eyes.

And as usual, all this crap about Biden supposedly needing someone to mop the drool off his chin is 100% projection.

[Progressive Pessimist]

What's happening here?

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1749638608577761385?s=20

"We are an institute in a powerful death penalty".

"All your base are belong to us."

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4432317-trump-says-hell-appeal-ridiculous-e-jean-carroll-verdict/

“Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

I know Donald has never been the sharpest crayon in the box, but I think he used to be able to tell the difference between a civil trial in a state court, and a criminal trial in a federal court. For example, all the times during the proceedings when they said "the State of New York" might have been a hint.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

And as usual, all this crap about Biden supposedly needing someone to mop the drool off his chin is 100% projection.

The even more important point which I keep making to my 'moderately liberal, but not very politically engaged' friends to vote is that I trust Biden to have smart, competent, good-intentioned people around him, regardless of what happens with his age.

Biden know's that he doesn't know everything. Trump, well...

[Crumpets]

Trump is not in decline, he is just exhausted from the legal witch hunts.

If legal witch hunts exhaust him, how can we expect him to have the stamina to keep America safe from the cartels, the terrorists, and the deep state cabal all at once?

[Meclazine for Israel]

[Santander]

Trump is not in decline, he is just exhausted from the legal witch hunts.

If legal witch hunts exhaust him, how can we expect him to have the stamina to keep America safe from the cartels, the terrorists, and the deep state cabal all at once?

He obviously cares about his own financial and legal security than the country's problems.

[Crumpets]

Trump is not in decline, he is just exhausted from the legal witch hunts.

If legal witch hunts exhaust him, how can we expect him to have the stamina to keep America safe from the cartels, the terrorists, and the deep state cabal all at once?

He obviously cares about his own financial and legal security than the country's problems.

Touché