President Donald Trump speaks with the media as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, October 29, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump had a complete meltdown and lashed out at a reporter this week after he thought he received a question about his health, and now a psychologist has broken down what this behavior exposes about Trump's current condition.
Dr. John Paul Garrison is a clinical and forensic psychologist with a specialty in interpreting body language, who also shares numerous videos online using his professional insights to break down the behavior of notable public figures. In many of these videos, he has focused on Trump's public appearances, pointing out a growing number of signs that he is dealing with potentially significant physical and neurological decline.
In his latest video, he examined the viral footage of Trump blowing up at Reuters White House correspondent Jacob Bogage during a press scrum on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Bogage asked the president if his decision to cancel a midterm rally in Kansas was because he was "sick of traveling," to which Trump exploded in anger, saying he was "sick to ask that question," demanding to know who he worked for and disparaging him for being overweight.
Many observers have since argued that Trump appeared to have misunderstood the question, assuming that Bogage was asking him if he was under the weather, with some further theorizing that this was a sign that his health has become a sore subject.
While discussing the clip, Garrison noted that the footage of Trump lashing out at Bogage exposed two behaviors that were "very telling."
"One is that he fully faced away from the reporter after answering that, and we do that as a way to disconnect," Garrison explained. "He does not want to be facing the reporter and disconnects from him after talking about his health. Second is that when speaking about his health, he said it's 'Good, I think very good.' Now, he doesn't typically use phrases like 'I think,' because it makes it sound weak. So, to respond that way, to me, says that there is some uncertainty there and some uncertainty about how to answer that question."
A short time later in the clip, Garrison noted how Trump corrected himself while saying something similar, further suggesting that his choice of words was telling.
"You notice he even corrected his own language right there. He started to say, 'I think we're going to have a good Tuesday night,' to just being more direct and saying, 'We're going to have a good Tuesday night,'" Garrison explained. "So it's very telling that he was using the phrase 'I think.'"
The immediacy of Trump's explosion at Bogage was also a sign worthy of concern, tying into a lack of emotional control that Garrison has noticed in his behavior recently.
"And you notice the anger is so immediate," he explained. "And this is what we've talked about is that the more challenges he has managing his emotions, the more you're going to see anger, agitation, confusion, frustration. Something like this is going to come out more and more."
