A leading psychiatrist has raised concerns about former President Donald Trump’s cognitive health, advising that he should seek an immediate neurological evaluation following his appearance at the recent presidential debates. Prof. Richard A. Friedman, the director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, expressed his worries in an editorial published in The Atlantic on Thursday, citing Trump’s speech patterns as a potential sign of cognitive decline.
“Trump’s expressions of those tendencies were alarming,” wrote Friedman. “He displayed some striking if familiar, patterns that are commonly seen among people in cognitive decline.” Friedman pointed specifically to Trump’s repetitive speech, which he argued could indicate more than just a political tactic. The psychiatrist observed that Trump’s tendency to circle back to familiar phrases might reflect a deeper neurological issue.
Friedman illustrated his concern by quoting Trump’s response to a question regarding any regrets following the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. In his reply, Trump appeared to jump from one unrelated topic to another.
“I have said ‘blood bash—bath,'” Trump replied. “It was a different term, and it was a term that related to energy because they have destroyed our energy business. That was where the bloodbath was. Also, on Charlottesville, that story has been, as you would say, debunked. Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Jesse—all of these people, they covered it. If they go an extra sentence, they will see it was perfect.”
Friedman explained that such disjointed speech patterns could indicate an inability to think logically and stay focused. He also noted that Trump’s repetitive speech, or perseverance, might be symptomatic of short-term memory loss.
“People tend to stick to familiar topics over and over when they experience an impairment in cognitive functioning, for instance, in short-term memory,” Friedman wrote. “Given the complexity of the job of being president, short-term memory is a vital skill.” While Friedman did not offer a formal diagnosis and emphasized that he had never personally examined Trump, he strongly recommended a neurological evaluation.
“If 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,” Friedman wrote, adding that conditions such as vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease would not be uncommon for someone of Trump’s age.
Despite these concerns, Friedman acknowledged that various treatments exist to help individuals cope with cognitive decline, though he noted that such conditions could severely impact one’s ability to serve as president.