Psychologist says Trump's latest rally 'consistent with a diagnosis of dementia'

ZeroCool@slrpnk.net to politics @lemmy.world – 602 points –
Psychologist says Trump's latest rally 'consistent with a diagnosis of dementia'
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Republicans would elect a bowl of soup to the presidency if they had to, because then they can rubber stamp a hundred orders a day dismantling government agencies, destroying welfare programs, neutering regulations, and oppressing people of color, women, LGBTQ+, and non-Christians. Trump is the most useful, most idiot useful idiot the world has ever seen.

Republicans would elect a bowl of soup to the presidency if they had to

I guess you forgot Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer's while President.

But it's okay, he forgot too.

But it’s okay, he forgot too.

Dark humor is like food. Not everyone gets it.

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I'm no expert but It seems to me Trump is getting worse fast now.

the patron saint of the right spent most of his presidency with a head full of mush, they don’t care. It’s the same reason the age stuff resonates with Biden only, the right wants useful idiots who will sign off on their fever dreams. A non-functional brain is a virtue to them.

He spent all of his 2nd term with it as well. Oh wait, you were talking about Trump. But you're absolutely right. Mushbrain has never been a deal breaker for them.

Nah, talking about the chimp guy. 2nd term could have had a talking sandwich and have the same results. Having had relatives who went through the same though, I have zero belief that he was in control of his faculties for the entire first term.

I can't help but think a lot of folks are misunderstanding your comment. Maybe they don't realize "he spent all of his 2nd term with it" is referring to Reagan and think you're dissing Obama or something?

Quite probably. Perhaps I should have been more clear. I was relying on people to have an understanding which could have been my mistake LOL. You are absolutely correct though I was referring to Reagan.

I'm sure all the stress caused by the court cases doesn't help. Usually the presidency is the most stressful thing to people, but that's only true if they took the job seriously. Trump did not. Something that effects him is likely far more stressful for the narcissist.

And the prolonged use of drugs, for his entire life, but also specifically during his presidency.

I didn't know he was known for doing drugs. Where did you find this information?

Lots has been coming out about the pharmacy at the white house during Dolt 45.

Mostly amphetamines and opiates.

"The White House Medical Unit dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff," said the report, which was released this month.

The unit also kept records for Schedule II drugs — such as fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine and oxycodone — in the same inventory that housed records for other medications, according to the report, even though federal regulations require them to be kept separate.

Source

It 's been alleged by several people from The Celebrity Apprentice era. This Newsweek article quotes Tom Arnold backing up another guy (Noel Casler) who worked on the show and some of Trump's beauty pageants. They claim that Trump would crush and snort Adderall on set.

There's also a photo from the oval office with Trump near an open drawer with multiple boxes of Sudafed in it. Snopes verifies that the image is legit, but evaluates the claims that the presence of the Sudafed is evidence of drug abuse as false.

Personally, I am not sure that I think the pic of the Sudefed is really evidence of drug abuse but I do think Snopes may have missed a beat on this one. Snopes claims that the particular formulation in the boxes uses phenylephrine rather than pseudoephedrine. Phenylephrine will not give you a high. However, as a someone with chronic sinus problems, I have been taking Sudefed when I need it for decades. When the phenylephrine formulations were first released they never worked for me at all. I was always able to get the same medicine with pseudoephedrine, though. I just had to get it from the pharmacist since they don't sell it over the counter and require ID.

The packaging for both formulation look the same, just the ingredient list is different. The images I've seen of the boxes in the drawer have never been clear enough to say which formulation is in the drawer.

Minor correction - the Sudafed in the drawer pic is from Trump Tower (Snopes confirms it).

May be helpful if you were looking to do a timeline - this was probably years before he was in the WH.

Allegedly insider(s) at the Whitehouse during his term have claimed that the medical staff kept a smorgasbord of stimulants readily available for easy access. Prescription drugs like Adderall.

Honestly haven't looked at the reliability of the claims. I believe they were allegedly staffers and medical personnel who made these claims IIRC, but I don't know if anyone actually went on the record.

Its weird they (Trump admin folks) don't even know there's pure dextroamphetamine or the big M available pharmaceutically

You gonna do speed -> do actual speeds

I think that was actually what was alleged. My brain interprets that as Adderal, but there's a range of pharmaceuticals that I really don't know much about so I kind of lump them together.

I'm sure you could find the actual claims on reputable news sites easily, I just don't have time to sift through them atm. I've heard the claim many times

I'm saying it would be on-brand that they even half-ass doing speed. I consider Adderall as 3/4-assing. Very Trump like altho his 2/1-fat-ass 0/1-asses things, 1/2-ass is the max for his ilk

Watching an elderly parent/grandparent go through the down slope of dementia isn't fun.

But a Human Vegetable President is sort of the party dream. Just do a full Weekend at Bernie's with a sitting President and you can get away with whatever you like, then deflect the blame onto a corpse.

Just do a full Weekend at Bernie's

I don't think he can hold it together until November. Just look at how much he's declined this year alone and we're only 3 months in.

It seems like that’s becoming a very real possibility. At this point I’m just waiting for him to go on national tv next week and demand that Obama debate him while dropping the n word.

Trump thinks he’s running against Obama and thinks Nikki Haley was the speaker of the house during 1/6. He is deeply unwell and belongs in a long term care facility.

At this point I’m just waiting for him to go on national tv next week and demand that Obama debate him while drop

Legitimately going to throw a party when he dies.

Trump thinks he’s running against Obama

White house correspondent's dinner 2011 really got to him.

I agree, I think it will soon be impossible for him to keep up even a semblance of appearences. It looks like it's about to collapse completely any time now.

But wait! He was able to name a rhinoceros and do differential calculus! Person woman man camera tv!

He brags about ‘acing’ that test, but here’s the actual test:

The most difficult maths problem is to subtract by 7s.

The answers to the 5 words memory question would never be ‘person woman man camera tv’, because they’re always carefully chosen to not be related in any way, because that would defeat the purpose, since related words are easier to remember. They’d be things like ‘daisy chair monkey water picture’. Even from his very first retelling, he didn’t remember the words, he was just naming things he saw in the room at the time, and he was bragging about passing a test that if you fail, you may be deemed unable to care for yourself.

We know this is the test, because he talks about the rhino part, then says it gets hard from there (eta: in his own words, 3 years ago), and now says almost nobody can pass the rest. And he says the doctors told him he’s one of the only people they’ve seen pass it.

This is himself recounting the story last month, January 2024. (e: Sorry for the Twitter link; I couldn’t find a better one.)

And his cult cheers this shit. It’s utterly bonkers.

e: Link, and another link. And one more.

e2: I couldn’t help but add this. I am so sorry. If it must be in my head, now it’s in yours too.

The answers to the 5 words memory question would never be ‘person woman man camera tv’, because they’re always carefully chosen to not be related in any way, because that would defeat the purpose, since related words are easier to remember. They’d be things like ‘daisy chair monkey water picture’.

Haha mnemonic device go brrrr

Doesn’t matter. He could be comatose and they’d still vote for him.

It's not about who they're voting for.

It's who they've voting against.

And I can legitimately both sides that one. Two party systems are a fucking cancer. It's not democracy. It's Douglas Adams' lizards.

Yeah, honestly all the smearing on Trump will not work if the opposition does not offer anything substantive.

You may need to go see what of substance the 'opposition' (usually not the term for the controlling administration so much as its leading competition) has offered. There's a list, but publicizing that list is where this democratic administration truly has sucked.

Not committing an insurrection is pretty good policy IMO.

As opposed to Biden supporters right? LOL....

You realize that most people voting for Biden are just voting against Trump right?

It's not all fear-voting but it looks that way.

The rules never change:

  1. Vote for the candidate who has the best chance of delivering on policy that helps the most people be objectively happy.

  2. Repeat forever

This means people will vote against Mr Trump and for Mr Biden, but only because Biden offers policy that saves money long-term and offers the most objective happiness as per the UN guidelines, and Trump offers none of that.

As opposed to Biden supporters

I love how you "both sides" this one.

Also, yes: as opposed to [democrats]. The approach to power on both parties is different - if we compare just those two - in that the primary attribute shown by the Republicans is loyalty, as in "conservatives fall in line"; whereas the primary attribute by Democrats is skepticism, as "Democrats fall in love".

Each party has used this to their advantage, but any party can shake up the democrats with their angst simply by offering a candidate that seems better than the absolute shitheel the conservatives offer now. Democrats will jump ship if the candidate evaluates well at the start or middle of the term.

Bidens supporters are critical of him, trumps supporters masturbate in the corner staring at a picture of him and Putin shirtless. We’re not the same.

While I do really hate this guy, and I also assume he isn't mentally fit to manage a Wendy's, never mind being president...we shouldn't be listening to doctors willing to diagnose psychiatric conditions or mental health based on how someone is acting on TV. No doctor can get enough data to make an accurate diagnosis that way.

Yeah, Any doctor thats willing to go on TV and diagnose someone they've never personally met, is a doctor that should be ignored and avoided.

cause no reputable doctor will go on TV and do that shit.

Plenty of reputable doctors will go on TV to discuss illnesses and shit, but they wont diagnose someone like this.

This cat is a PhD doctor, not a medical doctor. I wouldn't listen to any of his diagnosises.

I got this comment in my message replies and i was confused for a solid minute about why you were denigrating a poor cats college efforts before I clicked the link to see the context and realized, oh, yeah.. not meow cat. lol

I mean, what shine the article, it's the hatred. thats as far as possible from any clinical stance.

Yet they have telemedicine, that is tantamount to "how someone is acting on TV", no?

What? Absolutely not. Are you talking to people on your TV? More importantly, are they answering your questions? Have you ever even had a telemedicine appointment?

For Medical marijuana with an M.D. By the way, they now have AI to detect malingering by video. so... if an AI can do it, the doctor could use the tool & get the results as their own. That's what is happening Right Now with AI. People are passing off AI results as their own, and they are generally better. My understanding is AI can get 90% on the LSAT & by next week will probably have the same result or better on the MCAT. [zero passes]

Also consistent with him being a gaping, prolapsed, syphilitic asshole.

For four years libs were screaming about ageism and immediately go back to it when Trump comes around again. Both these guys should be disqualified if the US was in any way a meaningful democracy and not a terminal empire with a useless gerontocracy and corrupt oligarchy.

This article and every one like it have been on repeat since 2016, I dunno how people still have the attention span for "today's Trump insanity" after 8 years. It should be obvious to anyone this has no effect on politics and only makes news orgs money.

Seriously. "Latest rally consistent with dementia," great, so were all of the others.

Word, I’m burned the fuck out on these articles almost as much as the ones that say that Trump is just steps away from prison (tangentially related: fuck MeidasTouch and their ilk)

Wake me up when something actually matters again

I think it's the news media exploiting people's desire for something cathartic in lieu of having any meaningful politics to change anything. US politics right now is like a show/spectacle that people react to from opposite sides. Posting the same fucking articles and memes is like a way to manufacture and participate in a simulation of your individual political views having some significance, outside of any popular politics where they could actually change something. This is clearly the case with Trump too, for all the insane shit he governed like a milquetoast Republican.

anyone over retirement age should be barred from running, and that should not be controversial.

If you got on a plane and the pilot was 80 you'd be a bit worried, and we let these fucks run the most powerful nation ever to exist.

Trump saying Hannibal Lecter is coming across the southern border is batshit crazy

This is basically that South Park episode "Mexican Joker" where all the dumbass border patrol agents think there's a Mexican Joker coming across the border.

Fuck me, this guy is a moron.

We’ve moved from the world of ‘Simpsons already did it’ to the world of ‘South Park already did it’ and that’s a horrible state of affairs

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I hear "[Hannibal Lector] was a nice fellow but that's what's coming into our country right now."

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I'm not defending Trump, but don't statements like these run counter to the Goldwater Rule?

The wiki article you linked has a section on Trump and how it does not break the rule. So I would say, based on the evidence you presented, no it doesn’t.

Lol, they have an entire section on Trump. That's how crazy the guy is.

That section does not describe how it does not break the Goldwater Rule. I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion based on what it reads in the section.

It lists specific instances where the rule and commentary on Trump intersect, as well as citing commentators that disagree with the APA about how the Goldwater Rule is applied with Trump.

Except it does. It states that the Goldwater Rule applies to members of the APA only and that the APsaA does not consider it an ethical matter. So it is an ethical guideline of a certain organization so the members of the APsaA are not breaking any rule since it is not part of their organizations ethical guidelines.

We can call Trump nutty all day, but good doctors won't make a diagnosis without seeing the patient. All this does is serve to make the doctor look bad, even if we all suspect his brain looks like Swiss cheese.

He didn't diagnose him, he said his behavior is consistent with a diagnosis of dementia. Stating your informed opinion =/= diagnosing. His rapid decline is obviously some sort of degenerative cognitive illness (aka dementia). Anyone with relevant training/experience can see it at this point

Yeah but you could probably find a psychologist to say that about most people.

I mean I hate trump and I hope he does have dementia but one psychologist's opinion isn't particularly reassuring. Trump has always rambled a lot. If he were forgetting where he is while on camera or whatever that would be a big deal, but we're not there yet obviously.

He's been, literally, this is not an exaggeration, forgetting who his opponents are. Regularly. He thinks he's running against Obama. He's brought that up like four times now.

There's a difference between forgetting who you're opponent is, and saying Obama instead of Biden.

Um certain that Trump is very far from our best and brightest, I'm just saying I doubt he's about to forget his own name.

A ton of psychology is done through telehealth now. If you are spewing madness on TV, radio, and social media all damn day it's a pretty decent sample set for analysis.

Yeah but still... a diagnosis is usually made after an interview and tests where appropriate.

That's why they're using a phrase like "is consistent with dementia" rather than "is dementia"

Yeah, that little bit of phrasing is doing a lot of work.

That said, as a layman, at what point is the vast corpus of data that is his assorted interviews, statements, appearances, etc on TV enough to call it? I'm curious how much more a one-on-one with a therapist could reveal. Obviously, there's a persona that is prominent any time a camera is on, but if the camera is on all the time, when is it just his base personality?

I don't think really any amount of this particular form of data is enough to be confident in an opinion.

As an analogy, I might be obese and have chest pain, but without scans and tests no doctor is going to say I have ischaemic cardiovascular disease.

Does a 77yo who mixes up names have dementia? Is it just diminished cognitive abilities due to age, combined with stress? Does it really matter?

IMO, any self-respecting psychologist would avoid paying an opinion without having a chance to interview a co-operative patient.

That makes sense, and I feel like that's a good rule for 99.99% of people. Trump introduces one unusual facet and one that I don't know enough about:

  1. He's on camera all the time. His media presence is more than that of most of humanity, including those that do it professionally. Both being filmed and participating. Sure, a doctor needs scans to do things, but what is the test for this kind of thing and can the answers be derived from his very prominent existence?

  2. How does a therapist handle a non-cooperative patient? Let's say the court order's therapy. What does the poor bastard who works with him have to do to accomplish their task?

In practice, there's not a huge emphasis on diagnosis.

As in, if grandma is buying a 12 pack of toilet paper every week when she does her shopping, it doesn't really matter whether you classify it as dementia or forgetfulness, you just need to figure out the best way to minimise the harm and give her the best quality of life moving forward.

Most mental health diagnoses are the same. Even if you get a clinical diagnosis of "bi-polar" the treatment options are similar to most other mental health problems and you just work through them until you find a good one.

Similarly courts don't care about diagnosis. They might get a psychiatrist to assess whether someone is fit to stand trial, but that's a measurement of cognitive function rather than diagnosing the reason for cognitive impairment.

It's ok we already went down this road the first time around with yet another doctor that said essentially the same thing except it wasn't dementia it was narcissistic personality disorder.

As you probably know from history, we elected him anyway. This doctors statement will quickly be ignored as well after some hand wringing about how wrong it is for them to have said anything and we'll elect him again because propaganda is a hell of a drug...

His puppeteers are salivating though.

It’s an important factor though - the end of Reagan’s presidency included lots of speculation about who was making decisions as he deteriorated. Whether you like the guy’s policies or not, you should “get what you paid for” rather than policy be decided by an unelected advisor or family member

If Congress hadn't been purchased by the same people who would be making decisions for a demented president, they could invoke the amendment to replace him with the VP.

But that might be pure projection, if you take into account what one psychologist said on Saturday.

Yeah, so one random guy claims something? Bullshit article.

I hate trump beyond and can't wait for him to die already, the world will be hetter for it, but that doesn't change that these fluff articles are nonsense.

Media be like..."Biden is showing his age, people are afraid he's too hold...quick, let's switch the focus on Trump's mental stability..."

yeah it's an attempt to muddy the waters

the fundamental problem for neither biden or trump isn't actually dementia. the problem is the slow speaking and slurred speech from Biden.

trump says things quickly and confidently. he talks nonsense, but it's the tone and emotion behind it that people get. he also is willing to say crazy things that work as one-liners

  • we gotta take back our country from crooked joe biden
  • i got more votes than any president in the history of our nation
  • millions and millions and billions and billions
  • i will be dictator for a day
  • fake news media
  • etc..

what happens? he ends up on the news, everybody sees his face and talks about him and he's on everyone's mind. it's a tried and true strategy for him

biden unfortunately just doesn't have the mental acuity to compete. i personally think biden is still lucid, it's just that he's slow and doesn't speak with the same confidence that trump does. this, along with other factors, is gonna kill him in november. i think we're slowly inching towards another 4 years of Trump