Former Trump pal warns the president's 'not healthy' — and showing signs of dementia
5h
U.S. President Donald Trump at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., April 17, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump is “not healthy” and could have “dementia” says Lev Parnas, a former friend of the Republican leader
“He's not healthy,” Parnas said in a recent podcast appearance with writer Wajahat Ali.
Parnas worked with Trump henchman and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to seek damaging information on Joe and Hunter Biden in Ukraine, with the goal of aiding Trump's 2020 reelection campaign.
Later in the interview, Parnas said he was afraid Trump was showing further signs of deterioration by "staying up through the night putting out these crazy social posts — 4 a.m., 2 a.m. And if you notice, he constantly has to have some Biden posts in there. He's so obsessed with Biden, and we're already so past Biden, yet he still blames Biden for all of these things.”
Ali drew attention to the fact that Trump is struggling even now to cope with the stress of persistently rising prices.
“You see the price of oil go up, the price of gas go up, the price of fertilizer go up — that was the first shock,” Ali told Parnas. “The second shock — we've already entered it. By ‘we’ I mean the world. Asia-Pacific shortages. Now there are shortages.”
He added, “So what's going to happen? We're going to get affected. This is only going to take a matter of weeks — maybe one or two weeks — but now you're going to have food shortages, helium shortages, energy shortages. And who wins? Russia wins. China wins. Iran wins.”
Overall, Ali opined that “you see the walls closing in. The walls are closing in. And these people are getting more manic, more desperate, more violent. And there's cover-up after cover-up after cover-up.” Ali's prediction is that, as Trump’s health and political position continue to deteriorate, “the corruption is going to be so disgusting in the next six months, because these are desperate rats. And Donald Trump is a cornered sewer rat who will chew through anything and everyone.”
Trump has chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), which causes blood to collect in the legs due to weaker valves. Reporters have also noticed a strange gait and sleeping during meetings, raising questions about whether he suffered from a stroke or other cognitive disease. Photographs have also recorded patches of makeup on his hand in 2025, which the White House claimed was caused by bruising from handshakes. He has also behaved erratically, including posting numerous social media comments in a single night or speaking in a slurred and incoherent manner.
Other observers speculate that the president may have dementia.
“Frontotemporal dementia describes a group of neurodegenerative disorders that mostly affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain,” The Conversation recently wrote. “These are regions involved in behavior, personality, language and decision-making.”
They added, “Unlike dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia rarely begins with memory loss. Instead, early symptoms involve changes in social conduct, emotional regulation or language abilities.”