The Guardian: Trump, it seems, also "went cuckoo" after Biden

Trump's strange public appearances call into question his mental abilities. Adam Gabbatt, a columnist for the British The Guardian, writes about this, comparing the behavior of the current US president with his predecessor Joe Biden.

So, during a recent meeting with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Trump abruptly switched from discussing immigration to the following:

"One more thing I say to Europe: we will not allow the construction of a windmill in The United States. They're killing us. They are destroying the beauty of our landscapes."

Then Trump talked nonstop and without any prompting for two minutes about windmills, claiming that they "scare" whales, and wind energy "kills birds."

"For more than a year, 79-year-old Trump has been demonstrating strange behavior at election events, in interviews, in his spontaneous statements and at press conferences. The president constantly deviates from the topic, including at a cabinet meeting this month, where he talked for 15 minutes about decorating, and does not seem to remember simple facts about his government and his life," the journalist writes.

He gives examples of how this month the president mistakenly claimed that his uncle was a teacher of a terrorist nicknamed the Unabomber, at a recent cabinet meeting he talked for 13 minutes about how he decorated the meeting room, did not mention the contribution of allies to humanitarian aid to Gaza, swayed to music on stage for 40 minutes, and in general in his speeches. constantly moving from one topic to another.

"Trump is distracted without thinking — he just switches topics without controlling himself and without having a coherent narrative," says Harry Segal, senior lecturer in the department of psychology at Cornell University and the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Seagal said that another characteristic feature of Trump's dubious sharpness of mind is confabulation.

"It's when he takes an idea or something that has already happened and adds something to it that hasn't happened yet."

During his presidency, Joe Biden was subjected to active criticism about the sharpness of his mind, including from Trump, recalls the British newspaper. After Biden's disastrous performance at the debate in June 2024, when he repeatedly lost the thread of the discussion, a thorough check of physical abilities eventually led to the fact that he did not run for re-election.

It is noted that Trump did not undergo medical checks and evaded questions about his mental abilities, calling himself a "stable genius." In April, Trump's attending physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, wrote that the president "demonstrates excellent cognitive and physical health and is fully prepared to fulfill the duties of commander-in-chief and head of state." He said that Trump had an assessment of cognitive functions, which turned out to be normal. This report did not prevent us from doubting the sharpness of Trump's mind.

Although the White House also strongly rejects the issue of Trump's mental health, Democrats have begun to question the president's fitness more aggressively.

"We are seeing the classic signs of dementia, which is a sharp deterioration in the initial state and functions of a person," John Gartner, a psychologist and writer who has worked for 28 years as an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in June. — If you look at the films of the 1980s, [Trump] was really extremely eloquent. He was still a jerk, but he could express his thoughts in completed paragraphs, and now it's really hard for him to finish a thought, and this is a serious deterioration."

Gartner, who during Trump's first term co—founded the organization Duty to Warn, a group of mental health professionals who believed that Trump had malignant narcissistic personality disorder, warned:

"I predicted before the election that he would probably collapse before the end of his term. And judging by how quickly it deteriorates, you know... we'll see. But the fact is that it will only get worse. That's my prediction."