Steve Schmidt: Today's G7 meeting proves Trump is in serious decline

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a working session with G7 leaders and outreach partners on international investment partnerships at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, June 16, 2026. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

President Donald Trump is showing signs of serious decline as he approaches his 80th birthday, according to a former presidential aide.

“Vice President Harry Truman was an honest man, but he deceived the country after he had his one and only visit with the 32nd President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Steve Schmidt, who advised President George W. Bush, commented on his podcast on Wednesday. “He knew that Roosevelt was a dying man and he did die on April the 12th, 1945. He was inaugurated for the fourth and final time on January 20th. This matters because Franklin Roosevelt wasn't seen in public every day quite like Donald Trump is. The images of Roosevelt at Yalta are shocking. The war etched onto his face, old before his time, falling apart. The burden of command weighing heavily.”

From there, Schmidt compared Trump to the Roman emperor Nero, who also began to mentally decline during the final years of his reign.

“Look at his decomposition physically,” Schmidt said. “He can barely get out of a chair. He's lost with the European leaders who are redirecting him back into the photo. Does it remind you of anyone? A previous president off-derided by Donald Trump for getting lost in similar photo ops?”

He continued, “Look at Trump's hands. Look at his ankles. The swelling is obviously attributed to a coronary condition. His words slur. He falls asleep. He is poked and prodded by 22 different medical specialists like he's ET at Walter Reed Army Hospital. All of this is to say, J.D. Vance, his fascist understudy, puppet to Peter Thiel, general weirdo and lover of the couch, may soon be commander in chief. We should talk about this more.”

Schmidt is not alone in raising the alarm about Trump’s seeming health decline. Former Tufts University psychiatry professor Dr. Henry Abraham told AlterNet the same thing in May.

“There has been a frightening progression of symptoms,” Abraham explained. “These include grandiosity without moral safeguards, paranoia, impulsivity, vindictiveness, easy misperception of being harmed, moments of omnipotence, uncontrolled rage, and sole control over the use of nuclear weapons in a time of war. As a psychiatrist reviewing these, I can only say Yikes!”

To be clear, the problem is with Trump’s displayed signs of decline and not merely his age.

When President Joe Biden became America’s first octogenarian president in 2022, University of California – San Francisco’s Division of Geriatrics professor Dr. Louise Aronson, a professor told this journalist for Salon at the time.

“There is a legitimate increase in risk of disease, disability, and death with advancing age and that risk varies tremendously among octogenarians depending on their health, opportunities, and function,” Aronson explained. She then added, “to the extent the media focuses on age primarily, they are engaging in ageism. It would be more fair, equitable and ethical to focus more on policy and outcomes, honesty and track record, and so much more.”

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