HALIFAX—Maybe it’s time for someone to take a real look at United States President Donald Trump’s mental health.

And I don’t mean by a White House doctor who says the president is in such great shape that he could live until the age of 200.

The examination should be conducted by a team of mental health experts interested in medical facts, not facetious glad-handing for the president.

Trump should have no problem with submitting to such a review. He has constantly insinuated that former president Joe Biden has lost his “mental acuity” and urged him to submit to such an examination. 

Why an independent review of Trump’s own mental acuity now, especially since he’s had acuity tests in the past? Let’s start with the most recent thing: Trump’s latest performance at the United Nations.  

The self-styled leader of the Western World used a meandering, hour-long speech to attack, insult, and belittle just about everyone in attendance; calling out the UN itself as a failed initiative.  

At the same time, he shamelessly congratulated himself for being the world leader who understood the big issues.

Trump’s lecture came down to his claim that while America was the “hottest” country in the world—whatever that might mean—European countries were “going to hell.” They were destroying their countries through uncontrolled migration, and falling for the green “hoax” of climate change.

According to Trump, what the world needs is more closed borders; more use of coal, oil and gas; and no windmills. The rest of the planet needs to be more like Trump’s America, where the motto is “drill, baby, drill,” and keep out the murderers, drug dealers, and rapists.

The bottom line? The speech in which Trump said he was “right about everything” was widely panned. Here is how CNN described it: “Trump litters UN speech with false claims about climate, inflation, and world peace.”

Garden-variety political mendacity, or a disconnect from reality?  

Consider this. While at the UN, the escalator Trump and his wife were riding came to a stop. When he began his speech, the teleprompter malfunctioned. And as the president spoke, the sound system failed.  

Trump’s response? He claimed that he was the victim of “triple sabotage” and declared that the people responsible should be “arrested.” The Secret Service has been tasked to investigate Trump’s theory.  

The president’s dubious judgment has not only been on display at the UN. Trump recently urged his Attorney General Pam Bondi to criminally charge several of his perceived political enemies: Senator Adam Schiff, former FBI director James Comey, and New York Attorney-General Letitia James.

Here is the reality. One of the foundations of U.S. democracy is the firewall between the executive and judicial branches of government. Prosecutions must never be political—at least in real democracies. 

By blatantly encouraging Bondi to do his vengeful bidding, Trump is exhibiting either a profound misunderstanding of the need for the separation of politics and justice, or contempt for it. The only other president to have used the power of government against his rivals was Richard Nixon. His “enemies list” paved the road to his impeachment.

Abusing his power to punish his rivals is not the only instance where Trump has demonstrated traits dangerous for for the country. Free speech is the rock upon which the rest of American democracy rests.  

Despite that, Trump recently attempted to have a late-night comic he sees as an enemy removed from the airwaves.

Despite Trump’s use of his Federal Communications Commissioner to threaten ABC, Jimmy Kimmel was only briefly taken off the air.  

The president failed, partially because his intervention was so outrageous. But no one should forget that during this controversy, Trump declared that it is “really illegal” for journalists to give negative coverage to his administration. 

Some of Trump’s poor decisions have been life-and-death matters. The president has authorized—and in a way glorified—his decision to simply blow up boats from South America “suspected” of smuggling drugs into the U.S. Colombia President Gustavo Petro has called sending missiles into speedboats an “act of tyranny.”    

“Why launch a missile when you could simply stop the boat and arrest the crew?” Petro said. “That’s what one would call murder.”

It is possible that all of Trump’s lies, eccentricities, and dubious policies, are simply the result of a malignant narcissist’s ego. But there is another possibility and it was raised by health-care professionals in a letter to The New York Times just before the presidential election. 

In that letter, 200 healthcare professionals agreed that Trump was exhibiting symptoms consistent with frontotemporal dementia.

“Overall, he shows a shocking decline in verbal fluency from his previous baseline. He was once highly articulate, with a sophisticated vocabulary. He spoke in polished paragraphs. Now his vocabulary is impoverished, he often has difficulty finishing a thought, sentence, or even a word. Typical of dementia patients, he perseverates and over uses superlatives and filler words.” 

Trump has also shown signs that the Dementia Care Society associates with advanced dementia.  

While it is normal to forget names and dates, it is a different matter to begin confusing people and generations. Trump recently confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi, thought he was running against Obama, and claimed that his late father was born in Germany. It was his grandfather. Author Michael Wolf has reported that Trump frequently has problems recognizing old friends. 

None of this proves that Trump has dementia. But it more than suggests that it would be a good idea to take an impartial look at his mental health.  

If there is even a chance that the most powerful man in the world has dementia, that needs to be put to rest as false, or confirmed.  

Everything depends on it. 

Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist.

The Hill Times    

 

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