'Cognitive decline': Clinical psychiatrist recommends 'rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation' for Trump

13 September 2024

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris picked up some major endorsements after her contentious presidential debate with GOP nominee Donald Trump at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center on Tuesday night, September 10 — including pop superstar Taylor Swift and conservative former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who served in the George W. Bush Administration during the 2000s.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and other Trump defenders have been claiming that ABC News' debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis were unfair to Trump, but countless pundits have argued that Republicans attacking the moderators are in denial — and that Harris clearly won the debate.

Much of the debate analysis has focused on Trump and Harris' command of the issues. But Richard A. Friedman, a clinical psychiatry professor, has been analyzing Trump's debate performance from a mental wellbeing standpoint. And Friedman has said that he would recommend a "rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation" based on Trump's performance during that debate.

In an article for The Atlantic, Friedman wrote, "Donald Trump's expressions of those tendencies were alarming. He displayed some striking, if familiar, patterns that are commonly seen among people in cognitive decline."

Friedman noted Trump's "compulsive" repetitions.

"If a patient presented to me with the verbal incoherence, tangential thinking and repetitive speech that Trump now regularly demonstrates," the clinical psychiatry professor wrote in The Atlantic, "I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness. A condition such as vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease would not be out of the ordinary for a 78-year-old."

Friedman added, "Only careful medical examination can establish whether someone indeed has a diagnosable illness — simply observing Trump, or anyone else, from afar is not enough."

The Daily Beast's Sean Craig notes that Friedman isn't the only one who has been weighing in on Trump's mental state.

Craig observes, "MSNBC host Chris Hayes said last week there has not been 'nearly as much discussion about Trump's diminished mental acuity' compared to President Biden's. Trump biographer Timothy O'Brien even told The Guardian he thinks Trump is aware that he's mentally slipping."

Read Richard A. Friedman's full article for The Atlantic at this link (subscription required).

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