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Psychologist reveals 'neurological' cause of Trump’s on-camera 'microsleep'

President Donald Trump is often caught on video dozing during meetings, but one widely cited medical expert argues it's not merely because he’s tired. According to psychologist John Garrison, these “microsleeps” are yet another sign of Trump’s “significant neurological decline.”

Garrison was reacting to footage during an Oval Office meeting with Susan Dell of Dell computers, during which Trump appeared to doze off. “I believe what's happening are microsleeps,” explains Garrison. “And this is a little bit different than just sleeping at his desk. Microsleeps can be very quick. You can go from wakefulness to sleep back to awake and alert very quickly with microsleeps.” In the video, a dozing Trump suddenly opens his eyes with a look of alarm, prompting Garrison to suggest, “There's a little bit of confusion, and he may not even know that he's falling asleep.” Noting that Trump transitions quickly between wakefulness and sleep, Garrison elaborates, “The systems that regulate arousal with wakefulness and sleep can be affected by neurological disorders.” The culprits, warns Garrison, could be “dementia” or “some sort of brain injury.”

He also points to what may be “neurological” issues causing Trump’s difficulty with paying attention. As Garrison notes, as soon as Trump stops focusing on Dell and what is being discussed, “he seems to fall asleep almost immediately. We've seen this meeting after meeting after meeting.” According to Garrison, while there are a variety of reasons attention can fluctuate, based on Trump’s history, yet again, “dementia” or “brain injury” could be the culprit. The president’s “mild coordination issues” and “challenges in social cues,” says Garrison, bolster such a diagnosis. “As soon as anybody starts talking,” explains Garrison, “he's unable to sustain attention. And attention is more than just looking at somebody's face. It's a complex process, and we see for people that have neurological challenges or neurodegenerative diseases that attention becomes very, very difficult.” As the video continues, Trump’s slurred language supports this assessment.

Here Garrison shifts to a video of Trump at a rally with retired baseball player Roger Clements, noting that the president displays a number of issues that have persisted for months but have begun to “progress” and “get worse.” As Garrison points out, “First, you're going to see his right arm spasm at the elbow, which appears to be a myoclonic jerk. These are involuntary and can be neurological in origin. And then you're going to see it spread to his left arm, which has a very different motion. His left hand remains limp while his left arm seems to spasm as well.” From there, Trump appears to have difficulty controlling the motion of his left hand, “and after that,” notes Garrison, “we see a brief spasm from his trunk, which makes sense because these share pathways.”

For months, says Garrison, Trump has displayed these “glitches” and other symptoms, and they appear to be getting “worse.” In Garrison’s estimation, the conclusion is clear: the president’s “neurological challenges” keep stacking up.

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New signs Trump struggles with 'dementia' or stroke unmasked by expert

On Thursday, a widely cited psychologist suggested that new videos of President Donald Trump reveal symptoms of dementia, stroke, or another serious condition. According to Dr. John Garrison, not only does Trump display signs of “neurological illness,” but his symptoms are getting worse.

Garrison begins by reviewing a clip of Trump meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as the latter disembarks from his flight. Suddenly a plane does a loud flyover, eliciting a noticeable wince from Trump. “It is obvious that he's uncomfortable,” says Garrison, “But the question that's being overlooked by most people is, why is he uncomfortable?” According to Garrison, neurodegenerative disease manifests itself with clear behavior changes over time, and this is an example, as Trump typically enjoys and applauds such occurrences, and has even spoken previously about how much he loves noise. But as Garrison notes, “What we've seen over the past few months is he is getting extremely sensitive to sound. And we see this with dementia. We see this after strokes sometimes.”

To emphasize his point, Garrison plays a previous recording of Trump enthusiastically watching a flyover, saying, “I have seen President Trump react to so many situations like this, and I have never seen him react like that. So, to me, this is very clear evidence that something is going on.” What’s also telling, he asserts, is Xi’s reaction. “He essentially has no reaction,” while Trump winces painfully. “I don't think that he has the neurological ability to tolerate it anymore,” says Garrison. “We see this with dementia all the time. People with Alzheimer's type dementia, for example. They get very agitated by loud sounds.”

From there Garrison moves on to footage from the arrival ceremony, noting that on a 65-degree day, Trump is the only one dressed for extremely cold weather, wearing a heavy coat and gloves. “Just someone being cold or sensitive to cold obviously does not necessarily indicate some sort of neurological illness,” admits Garrison. “But given everything else we've talked about, everything else we're looking at, I think it's at least worth pointing out that temperature regulation, perception of temperature, the ability to perceive hot and cold appropriately can be affected when someone has dementia, when someone has had a stroke, depending on where there's been injury in the brain. So, while his apparent sensitivity to cold is not, in isolation, going to say that he has some sort of neurological illness, given everything else we're looking at, it's at least worth pointing out.”

From there, Garrison notes that Trump appears to “struggle with motor coordination,” explaining that “he’s looking down to make sure he's walking straight” and fails to course correct when he bumps into Melania. “He appears to be attempting to walk straight, but he just can't,” says Garrison. “I think that there's a lot of motor coordination issues right now.” Moving on to the next recording, Garrison spots more health red flags while Trump speaks with the press. “His breathing is heavy,” says Garrison. “He seems like he's struggling to make eye contact. It's just very peculiar. As you can hear, he's almost having a hard time catching his breath.”

This is far from the first time someone has suggested that the president may have a neurological condition. According to his niece, psychologist Mary Trump, “Alzheimer’s runs in my family. I sometimes see similarities between Donald and my grandfather, Fred Trump, who developed Alzheimer’s sometime in his late seventies or early eighties, which is to say when he was around Donald’s age.” She made this claim in early September, telling a story about how she once saw her declining grandfather have a moment of panic in which he didn’t seem to know what was going on. “I’m beginning to see that look in Donald’s eyes sometimes,” she concluded.

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Trump biographer says his biggest problem is worse than dementia

President Donald Trump's behavior can only be understood as the actions of a mental "child," and according to his one-time biographer, his biggest problem driving this behavior is worse and more fundamental than dementia.

Michael Wolff is a longtime author and reporter who has extensively covered Trump's political career, including several books about his chaotic first term in the White House. In the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," he reacted to the recent news surrounding the president's efforts to take over and rename the Kennedy Center. A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Trump's name could not, in any way, be added to the building without congressional approval.

In response, Trump lashed out on Truth Social, dubiously claiming that the center was in disrepair for years before his takeover, leading some to predict that he might have it demolished in retaliation. Wolff, for his part, said that this reaction was Trump in a nutshell.

"This is Trump... this is, 'if I don't get what I want, I take my marbles home,'" Wolff said. "The petulance here, the crybaby nature of this, this phenomenal lack of, well, maturity, of course. But this is all Richie Rich behavior. It's remarkable. And so the National Orchestra has no home. There's nowhere for people to play on a large stage in Washington. It's just incredible. The foremost art center. And also, the other thing is that it's a memorial to a slain president... So the fundamental logic of this, the logic that there is... a thriving art center that reflects well on the nation's capital, that has been named after the slain president. Nevertheless, Trump can wave it away and demand that it be remade in his own image."

He added: "I'm pretty well grounded in what's inside Trump's head, but this is even a leap for me to understand... except it is the baby thing. You can't understand it because it is like a child."

Co-host Joanna Coles concurred with that assessment and also questioned whether or not Trump is getting worse in that regard. She specifically noted the commentary from the president's own neice, Mary L. Trump, a psychologist who has frequently observed that her uncle appears to be descending into dementia, just as his father did later in life.

Wolff, conversely, suggested that the "truer explanation" for this behavior is much simpler.

"Yes, it's very possible, but I think that almost gives him an out," Wolff said. "That's an explanation, and the truer explanation is he's a f—— asshole, you know, and he doesn't care. So it's rage, it's petulance and it's 'I can do anything I want.' So that's not dementia, that's Donald Trump, okay? That's not dementia, that's Donald Trump. I don't know which is worse, actually. A president with dementia or Donald Trump doing Donald Trump."

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Trump’s changing speech ignites new dementia warning from Lawrence O’Donnell

MS NOW host Lawrence O'Donnell gave a detailed account of President Donald Trump's recent speaking style and, as a result, issued another warning that minor verbal slips may indicate dementia more than the president's usual exaggerations and rambling speeches.

On the Wednesday episode of The Last Word, O'Donnell returned to a question which he stated that he had first put forward nine years earlier, namely, how Americans would be able to detect the signs of dementia in someone whose public statements were already often difficult to follow?

"This is how we will know," O'Donnell said, recalling his earlier social media post.

"We will catch these seemingly small slips in his lying process, in his speaking process," he added.

He argued that the important comparison was with Trump's earlier public appearances, including statements the president would not have made several years ago. He said those changes, rather than Trump's familiar habit of saying provocative things, were what interested him most now.

O'Donnell's remarks followed Trump's Wednesday campaign rally in San Antonio, Texas, where the president told a meandering story about first lady Melania Trump correcting his pronunciation of "vegan."

Trump raised the subject while mocking Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, whom he criticized for his eating habits during a campaign speech four weeks before midterms.

"My wife told me, sir, do me a favor," Trump said, before recounting the supposed correction.

The president then appeared to switch pronouns while describing the exchange, referring to "he" before returning to references to Melania.

"I like steak," Trump told the audience, adding that his wife had sent her greetings.

The anecdote became part of O'Donnell's latest argument that apparent changes in Trump's speech deserve closer examination. He questioned Trump's mental state and drew attention to his authority over the nation's nuclear arsenal.

He previously asked similar questions while discussing Trump's controversial comments about Los Angeles and San Diego during a Nebraska rally.

Trump had suggested that attacks on the cities could be "a very small price to pay" in reference to Iran threats. The White House subsequently responded to the backlash, saying that Trump was talking about the consequences of failing to prevent Iran from threatening American cities.

O'Donnell said Trump's remarks were difficult to interpret whether heard aloud or read in a transcript. He speculated that Trump "may be sliding down a dementia curve every day."

His latest comments also reflect an argument he has made repeatedly, which is that the president's long history of exaggeration and false claims can make it harder to recognize meaningful changes in his behavior.

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Trump’s latest 'glitches' suggest 'dementia' and 'decline': psychologist

During a string of recent events, President Donald Trump displayed “highly concerning behavior” in which he was “slurring his words,” “having word-finding issues,” and struggling with other problems “that appear to suggest that he is in significant decline.” This is according to the widely cited psychologist Dr. John Garrison, who warns “it appears that this has been getting dramatically worse over the past year.”

Garrison begins by looking at a recent rally in South Carolina, in which Trump opens with a slurred “nnn-ank you.” According to Garrison, “He's having a hard time enunciating, and that is concerning neurologically because it could be post-stroke behavior. It could be suggesting some degree of dementia, Alzheimer's type dementia, Lewy body dementia. There's all sorts of concerning behaviors that we're seeing that are in line with a variety of neurological concerns.”

“I do want to acknowledge that people do trip over their words,” Garrison admits. “But he does this constantly. We are hearing a distinct change in how he communicates.”

As Trump continues talking, his elbow makes a sudden sharp movement. Garrison zooms in on this, saying, “You may already be noticing there's his arm twitching again. We're going to see a lot more of that today, but he does this constantly when he's at the podium. His right elbow is just constantly twitching.”

Later in the rally, Trump turns to one of his favorite targets, Hillary Clinton. As he attempts to rail against his old nemesis, Garrison notes, “There were a number of issues. One is that he was struggling to remember Clinton's name. His teleprompter probably says Hillary, but you're going to see him close his eyes when he tries to remember the name Clinton. He is struggling there and then he can't say it directly afterwards because I don't think he can remember it right then. We're seeing these kinds of neurological glitches over and over.”

Next, Garrison shows clips from the Freedom 250 Grand Prix event in Washington D.C., saying, “He was having significant problems with spasms, with involuntary spasms[.] The amount of control he's losing is getting more substantial.” In one segment, as Trump nervously prepares for an interview, Garrison asserts that “he looks uncomfortable. You can see on his face that he looks uncomfortable. He's breathing through his teeth in a very unusual way… he looks more uncomfortable here than he normally does.” As Garrison explains, “You're seeing more discomfort from situations like this because I think he gets overwhelmed, which is not something we used to see. And this is what we see when people have neurological deficits. They get overwhelmed more easily. Loud noises can be more distracting. They have a much harder time focusing. So, situations like this that didn't used to be distressing can become very distressing.”

Finally, Garrison shares footage from Trump’s latest Rose Garden event. First, the former notes that the latter “does not use his right hand as much as he used to. There are times where I think that there seems to be some distinct weakness in his right hand.” He says this is frequently accompanied by right arm spasms. Then as another speaker takes the podium, Trump’s right arm makes a very noticeable, seemingly involuntary twitch.

“You could very clearly see it again right there,” says Garrison, “And the reason this happens when he's standing by listening to people is, I believe, because he dislikes having to sit and listen to people. And when he's agitated, he's more likely to have these types of spasms. Sometimes when people are more intensely emotional, then we are going to see more loss of control like this.”

As the speaker continues, so do Trump’s tics. “You're seeing spasms all over the place,” says Garrison. “It doesn't matter where he is. They are constant and they are noticeable. We're also seeing problems with verbal fluency. We're seeing him get confused. We're seeing him slur his words. There are so many challenges we're seeing over and over and over again.”

According to Garrison, “If you're not paying close attention, it's very easy not to notice this, but there is clearly something going on. I've suggested it seems like there was some kind of medical event about a year ago and there's been a decline since then. It may also be that we're dealing with a progressive neurodegenerative disease.”

What’s more, Garrison notes that Trump is making fewer public appearances, which leads him to conclude, “We might start to see a trend. He might start speaking publicly less. We might start seeing less of him because these issues are going to become so difficult to control.”

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Pathologist says this strange Trump act may be sign of dementia: video

On Wednesday, a bizarre incident in which President Donald Trump appeared to awkwardly steal a pair of scissors after a ribbon-cutting ceremony went viral as viewers accused the commander-in-chief of theft. But according to pathologist Hilary Shae — who specializes in neurological rehabilitation — 80-year-old Trump’s little larceny may not mean he’s a kleptomaniac, but could be a sign of serious cognitive decline.

“It seems like Donald Trump has become a little bit of a kleptomaniac recently,” said Shae in a video posted Thursday night. “But quite honestly, it actually looks more like a sign of dementia.”

She began by noting information revealed by the new tell-all book Regime Change, which exposed a slew of the Trump administration’s backroom secrets. In it, says Shae, the authors “talked about the fact that Donald Trump would take things from the hallways and put them in his room. He would go in and take things from Melania's room and put them in his room. And they made it sound like it was a competition, but quite honestly, I'm not sure that's what it was. And then there's this clip of him taking scissors from the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.”

As Shae explains, while this could easily look like kleptomania, people with dementia often develop what looks like kleptomania without having the actual disorder in the psychiatric sense of the word.

“Instead,” she says, “the stealing is usually a symptom of changes in the brain affecting memory, judgment, impulse control, or the ability to recognize ownership. Within the memory impairment, this person may genuinely believe that an item belongs to them or may forget that they already owned something similar, and so they think that it's theirs and they put something in their own pocket or purse just with the intention of taking it.”

This, she says, can be a sign of “executive dysfunction” in which “damage to the frontal lobes can impair planning and judgment and inhibition, and that can make it harder to resist an impulse or recognize that an action is inappropriate, like pocketing a pair of scissors on a live broadcast. There can also be difficulty with understanding ownership, not just from a memory sense. So, not the ‘I think it's mine,’ but sometimes just the concept of what is mine versus someone else's can become blurred. There is no real ownership at some point.”

Shae explains that this sort of activity is often associated with what is called “behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.” As she elaborates, “Because this condition causes loss of inhibition, causes impulsivity, compulsive behaviors, and poor judgment, someone with frontotemporal dementia may really become this stereotype of a kleptomaniac.”

It may also be caused by Alzheimer's disease, which is commonly associated with memory issues. And if the president is experiencing visual hallucinations and delusions in addition to his light-fingered behavior, Shae suggests it may be symptomatic of Lewy body dementia.

“So I do not think that Donald Trump is actually, psychiatrically speaking, suffering from kleptomania,” she concludes. “I do believe it is just one more sign and symptom of dementia.”

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Trump’s reaction to Lindsey Graham accidentally exposed his own dementia fears

President Donald Trump touched on an odd theory while talking about the passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham, as noted by reporter Jim Acosta, and in doing so, might have unwittingly exposed his own fears about descending into dementia.

Acosta, who previously served for many years as CNN's chief White House correspondent, appeared on the latest edition of the "Fast Politics" podcast hosted by commentator and writer Molly Jong-Fast. During the wide-ranging conversation, the pair touched on Graham's surprise death and Trump's reaction to it, with Acosta noting that it brought out the president's long-held fascination with the so-called "race-horse theory."

“His father died just about at the same age," Trump said about Graham in an interview with Newsmax. "You know, I’m a believer in the racehorse theory, you know. If you have problems, you have problems.”

Racehorse theory, in the context of humans, is a scientifically unfounded idea about the quality of genes from one's parents determining one's quality as a person. Speaking about Trump's fixation on the idea, Jong-Fast summed it up as "you are the same as your parents, and so how you die will be the same as how your parents die."

A medical examiner's report found that Graham appeared to have died from an aortic rupture. While racehorse theory is not an accepted idea in legitimate scientific circles, it is accepted that family medical histories can indicate which conditions people are at a higher risk of developing. Graham's father died of a heart attack when he was 68, just three years younger than the senator was.

Talking about the "truly insane" idea of racehorse theory further, Jong-Fast noted that her "favorite part" of the situation was applying it to Trump himself, which might inadvertently reveal his own fear about his family history of cognitive decline.

"My favorite part of the story is that, like, Donald Trump's parents both had dementia, right," Jong-Fast said.

"Right, and his father was a son of a b——," Acosta responded. "There's that too."

Despite the pair's assertions, publicly available information does not indicate that Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, suffered from dementia at any point. His father, however, famously suffered from Alzheimer's Disease and severe cognitive decline throughout the final decade of his life. This key piece of family medical history has often been cited, as the president has also appeared to deteriorate cognitively over the last 10 years, though he and his staff have strongly denied any and all claims that he is suffering from cognitive decline.

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Pathologist says Trump made 'big mistake' that exposes signs of dementia: video

President Donald Trump made a "big mistake" during a recent media appearance, with a professional pathologist revealing the signs of dementia and decline that he accidentally exposed.

Trump this week made an appearance on Usha Vance's web series, "Storytime with the Second Lady," which was noted by many for his odd comments about John F. Kennedy being the most handsome past president. The president made that comment as he flipped through the children's picture book, Presidents Play, by Jonathon Pliska and John Hutton.

Beyond the strange comments, however, Trump may have made another "big mistake" during the appearance, according to speech-language pathologist Hilary Shae. Shae specializes in concussion recovery and creates political content in which she offers professional insights into signs of Trump's cognitive and physical decline.

"Donald Trump went on Usha Vance's show, and that turned out to be a big mistake for him," Shae said in one of her latest videos. " Because he demonstrated signs and symptoms of dementia in both the speech and language aspect, as well as the motor-functioning aspect."

On the physical side, Shae used slowed-down footage from the appearance to demonstrate Trump having a difficult time grabbing the book he paged through, as well as the awkward "external rotation" of his shoulder when he turned to grab it from a stack of other books. She noted how his strange method of grabbing the book, using all four fingers and leaving out his thumb, was "actually quite informative from a neurological perspective," as this sort of behavior in dementia patients signals "a problem with motor planning, hand shaping or sensory motor integration."

Shae explained that dementia patients can struggle with "pre-shaping," which refers to the brain's process of preparing movements before we make them, such as when you reach for something to grab it. These struggles might result in a patient defaulting to the simplest grip possible, as Trump appeared to do.

Shae also suggested that this was a similar dynamic to what can be seen in some of Trump's public addresses, in which he struggles with properly pronouncing multi-syllabic words. In these instances, he instead tends to verbalize a "much simpler approximation of those words," while also leaning on simpler words as much as he can.

"Donald Trump is showing significant observable signs and symptoms of dementia, and he's got to go," Shae concluded.

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Trump's 'stroke' pathways are now 'crossing the brain': psychologist

On Friday evening, a widely cited psychologist noted a number of “concerning” and “strange” behaviors by President Donald Trump, suggesting that the 80-year-old commander-in-chief is experiencing some form of “neurological decline.” This is according to Dr. John Garrison, who warns that during Trump’s recent appearances on the midterm campaign trail, he exhibited symptoms relating to stroke or some other condition.

Garrison begins by analyzing a video of Trump campaigning at a Texas Peterbilt factory, where he stands by as a speaker introduces him. Suddenly, Trump licks his lips in a provocative manner and runs his hands down the speaker’s shoulders.

“What we just observed ... was both impulsivity as well as a loss of motor control," said Garrison, adding that both "are controlled up here in the front of the brain."

"This is the most complex and most advanced part of our brain, and when people have neurodegenerative diseases, when people have strokes or something similar, it can cause damage up here and it can be difficult to inhibit certain behaviors. Sometimes when people are too excited, we see motor issues spill over into other areas.” And after replaying the clip, Garrison notes, “Right now, he's feeling so excited. He's biting his bottom lip. He feels so enthusiastic about this that he almost can't stop himself.”

In Garrison’s assessment, this could be evidence of “sort of brain injury, a lesion, brain damage.”

From there, as the video continues, Garrison points out a number of spasm “clusters” that have become increasingly frequent. While these issues were once limited to the right side of Trump’s body, now, Garrison notes that you can see the involuntary motions move from right to left, “which means that the dysfunctional pathways are crossing the brain.” Then after the president appears to momentarily lose his balance, he suddenly clenches his hand into a fist before raising it to his face and examining it and rubbing it with the other hand.

“I don't think that was voluntary,” asserts Garrison. “I think his hand closed on its own, and it surprised him because you're going to see right after that happened, he lifted his hand up and actually looks at his hand. I think he's used to some of these other symptoms. I think he's used to the right arm spasm. This one I don't think he's so used to and it caught him off guard.”

From there, Garrison moves on to a clip of an executive order signing in the Oval Office, during which an official is lavishing the president with praise. According to Garrison, Trump – who normally lights up at such talk – appears to be “checking out,” “disoriented,” and on the verge of falling asleep. Suddenly, Trump’s face twists in an expression that Garrison asserts indicates that “he actually can't control the right side of his mouth.”

Garrison closes by analyzing a much-discussed video during which Trump strikes a strange, off-balance stance while speaking with reporters. “If you're looking closely, you can see his right leg does appear stiffer than his left when he's walking,” says Garrison. “The reason for this could be that he's wearing some sort of knee-ankle-foot brace or something similar to that. Some kind of device to help him with unilateral weakness. In other words, weakness on one side of the body.” There could be a variety of reasons for that, explains Garrison. “Sometimes, for example, if someone has a stroke, they need to wear a knee-ankle-foot device in order to help them with coordination with rehabilitation,” he says, noting that it could also involve some other form of “neurological illness or damage.”

Concerns about Trump’s physical and cognitive decline have been raised frequently over the course of his second term, and now Garrison concludes with a warning, asserting, “There seems to be real motor dysfunction with the right side of his body. There seems to be a lot of involuntary behaviors that are happening over and over again… and it does appear to be something distinctly neurological.”

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'Republican rebellion' grows as 'sundowning' Trump spirals: Nobel economist

On Wednesday, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist suggested that President Donald Trump’s “continuing downward spiral into sundowning” is prompting a growing “Republican rebellion.” This is according to Paul Krugman, who warns that as “Mad King Donald” loses support, he’s going to lash out and “punish the nation accordingly.”

Krugman’s assertions follow Trump’s address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, where the president ranted about a “globalist scheme” against AI, declaring the technology is now “here and after officially called superintelligence,” and making other eyebrow-raising proclamations. According to Krugman, “Most reporting on Trump’s speech emphasized either his belligerence — his rejection of global cooperation — or the fact that almost everything he said was a lie. But isn’t the bigger story the fact that the leader of what used to be the world’s most powerful nation — I say ‘used to be’ because America’s power is collapsing before our eyes — has clearly and undeniably lost his mind?”

Because of this, writes Krugman, “Some Republicans are quietly distancing themselves from Trump. A few are even voicing subtle, elliptical criticisms.” He notes that these growing “hints of Republican rebellion are newsworthy” largely because it comes after “years of slavish obedience and flattery” that have been maintained “even though Trump’s deteriorating mental state has been obvious for a long time.” But now, as his decline becomes widely apparent and his popularity and support plummet, Krugman predicts that “there’s a high probability that Trump’s power will be considerably reduced in the aftermath of the November midterms. Polls point to a blue wave that is highly likely to give Democrats control of the House and more likely than not to deliver the Senate. If that blue wave does indeed materialize, I expect that there will be an enormous sigh of relief across the country because it will be a major, if not fatal, setback for Trumpism.”

But, warns Krugman, Trump and his ideology will remain dangerous no matter how the midterms turn out. The economist notes that “Trumpism did not emerge out of thin air,” and that its proponents will not vanish overnight. “We should also recognize that Mad King Donald will still retain a great deal of power even with a Democratic Congress,” writes Krugman. “He won’t feel that he has failed America, he will believe that America has failed him and try to punish the nation accordingly. Thus he will use his remaining power vindictively not just against the victorious Democrats, but also against the American people.” With this in mind, concludes Krugman, “While we may be justified in celebrating if the election goes as predicted in November, don’t take your battle-gear off yet. There is a long road ahead.”

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Family member reveals 'pathological' reason Trump became 'brat and bully'

On Thursday, a family member of President Donald Trump related an anecdote from his youth that she said explains how he grew up to be a “brat and bully.” This is according to his niece, psychologist Mary L. Trump, who while speaking with political columnist David Rothkopf explained the generational trauma that has contributed to the president becoming a “sociopath."

“The problem for all of us right now is that when Donald was very young, my grandmother, his primary caregiver, was essentially absent,” explained Mary Trump. “She was very ill, which left it to my grandfather, who was a sociopath, to care for his five children. At that time, Donald was ignored and left alone. We’re all reaping the damage that was done and never undone. Over time, he became a brat and a bully, and nobody ever reined him in.”

“It’s pathological at this point,” she continued, noting that she’s also troubled by aides and Republicans who have enabled his “temper tantrums.” According to Mary Trump, “There was a time when one could make sense of it from the perspective that these are petty people who need to cling to power or maintain proximity to it. But now that Donald seems more of a liability, their behavior hasn’t changed, suggesting two camps exist: those who are cowardly and afraid and can’t muster a critical mass to stand up against him, and true believers who have drunk the Kool-Aid.”

This prompted Rothkopf to wonder, “We hear the term enabler a lot, but ‘enabler' is too passive. If someone is an enabler of a known sociopath, it’s worse, right?”

“Oh, they’re co-conspirators,” asserted Mary Trump. “They are equally responsible for all of this. You mentioned a known sociopath; he’s doing the damage a sociopath could do. The crimes he has openly committed and acknowledged are known to us. We know how many times he has been in the Epstein Files. We know that he pardons frauds and covers up for pedophiles. As you said, that doesn’t touch the damage he’s inflicting through his crazy policies.”

This isn’t the first time she has suggested that her grandfather contributed to her uncle’s questionable mental health, and has pointed out the similar paths of their decline. “Alzheimer’s runs in my family,” she said in early September. “I sometimes see similarities between Donald and my grandfather, Fred Trump, who developed Alzheimer’s sometime in his late seventies or early eighties, which is to say when he was around Donald’s age.” She added, “What they have in common is that they do not always seem oriented to time and place. The first time I saw this with my grandfather, we were at an event in Brooklyn at which he and my grandmother were being honored … My grandfather was standing next to my uncle Rob when he grabbed Rob’s arm and suddenly looked like a deer in the headlights. I had never seen my grandfather look like that before. He looked terrified, as if he had no idea where he was or who he was with. I’m beginning to see that look in Donald’s eyes sometimes.”

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