Trump's 9/11 speech full of 'neurological' red flags: psychologist

On Wednesday, a widely cited psychologist sounded the alarm about “concerning” neurological symptoms President Donald Trump displayed during his 9/11 memorial speech a day earlier. According to Dr. John Garrison, the president’s “struggle with language production” and involuntary physical “glitches” could be signs of a serious medical condition.

Garrison notes that he’s seen ongoing evidence of Trump’s “steep neurological decline,” such as “slurring words, loss of motor control, and a possible seizure.” On Tuesday during his 9/11 speech, the president’s behavior suggested “continued problems with language production.” And as Garrison points out, the speech took place at 10:35 in the morning, when Trump “should be at his absolute freshest.”

To start off, Garrison plays a clip from Trump’s speech in which he speaks in a noticeably halting manner, as if he’s losing his breath every third word or can’t quite get out the sentence. According to Garrison, “For anybody who's seen President Trump speak before, this is highly unusual, this type of halting speech. What we are seeing is a clear struggle with language production.”

As Garrison elaborates, “He seemed to get confused, and then he really struggled to speak. There could be a wide variety of neurological reasons that someone can go through that. We've talked about the fact that he may have had a stroke at some point. We've talked about the possibility of some type of dementia. Parkinson's is also something that can cause these types of issues. But what we are clearly observing is something neurological. Changes like this are extremely significant. If this was just anybody giving a speech who was uncomfortable in front of people and wasn't used to giving speeches, of course, if they have halting speech, that can be a very normal way to give speeches. But it's not normal for President Trump. This is different.”

Garrison then moves on to Trump’s body language, saying, “I want you to look at his motor activity, specifically look at his arm and his torso.” And indeed, as the president stands listening to another speaker, his elbow makes a number of obvious twitches. “What we're noticing is a progression in his involuntary motor activity,” explains Garrison. “There are a number of possible explanations, including myoclonic activity, and there's even focal seizure activity that can cause behavior just like that.”

Over the course of Trump’s second term, there has been growing alarm at his mental and physical decline. Polls show that nearly 60 percent of Americans say he lacks the “mental sharpness” to serve as president, and doctors have regularly pointed to his behavior as evidence of some severe medical condition. These suspicions have not been alleviated by Trump’s unusually frequent hospital visits.

“Trump is continuing to struggle with speech production, and while there are a variety of potential neurological explanations, given all of the other symptoms and problems he's having, all of the possibilities are quite concerning,” says Garrison. “Over the past few months I've heard President Trump struggle in many different ways over many different speeches, but this struggle with language production he's having right here – this type of hesitancy is highly unusual for him… It seems that he's not only struggling with language production, but there seems to be real confusion at times as well.”

Garrison’s conclusion is not optimistic, warning that Trump’s “behavior, his problems, all of these challenges continue to progress. They are continuing to get worse. We continue to observe changes, and that's what's concerning. When you see him struggle to produce a very simple sentence, that is extremely concerning.”