Trump's Health (or lack thereof)

Our president is not healthy. Nobody in an official capacity will tell you this, but it has been obvious for some time to anyone who has been paying attention. Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump clearly is suffering from both cognitive and physical maladies. Republicans, who have repeatedly berated Democrats for allegedly covering up the reality of former President Joe Biden's fitness for the job, are now engaged in their own cover-up. Trump, who seems to be aware of his own mortality, is busily creating monuments to himself.

That Trump is suffering from diminished mental capacity is obvious in his daily behavior. He has repeatedly engaged in abnormal activities such as late-night, unhinged posting flurries on Truth Social that have sometimes gone on for hundreds of "truths." Most recently, he spent Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning sending more than 200 "truths." Many of these are reposts of various conspiracy theories or obvious misinformation. By all appearances, Trump accepts fringe ideas posted by obscure accounts, often of foreign origin, as fact.

During his Christmas speech this year, Trump suddenly stopped in mid-sentence to point out that a woman in the audience looked very much like his daughter Ivanka. Trump suggested that he even thought the woman might be Ivanka but that he "didn't want to take a chance." He actually asked the woman to "turn around for the cameras". This was truly bizarre behavior that should obviously call into question Trump's cognitive state.

Trump is obsessed with the same few topics which he constantly brings up regardless of their relevance to the subject at hand. Most of the claims that he compulsively repeats are false. No, Trump has not stopped eight wars. The "Russia, Russia, Russia" allegations are, in fact, based on truth as found by the Republican-led Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Mueller report. Trump did not inherit an economic disaster and has not created the world's greatest economy. The economy that Trump inherited from Biden had been described as the "envy of the world" Tariffs are not paid by other countries, but rather by U.S. consumers. Trump gives every indication that he is out of touch with reality.

Trump is frequently incoherent in his speech. He has never been a great orator, but things have gotten significantly worse. Reporters have repeatedly been accused of "sanewashing" Trump's statements by paraphrasing his barely comprehensible word salads into something that sounds reasonable. An example highlighted by Public Notice's Stephen Robinson involved Trump's Memorial Day "truth" which began, "HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY..." The Washington Post headlined its article about the post as "On Memorial Day, Trump honors fallen soldiers and celebrates political wins".

Trump has also struggled to stay awake in meetings. He has repeatedly been shown on video appearing to be sleeping, even in Cabinet meetings. He is reportedly working shorter days than he did in his first term, which were already short because of his demand for "executive time" each morning. A recent New York Times investigation showed that:

Mr. Trump has fewer public events on his schedule and is traveling domestically much less than he did by this point during his first year in office, in 2017, although he is taking more foreign trips. He also keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to. Most of his public appearances fall between noon and 5 p.m., on average.

The Times also found that whereas Trump's days tended to begin around 10:30 a.m. in 2017, his days now generally begin shortly after noon.

In September, Trump, who famously loves to be the center of media attention, inexplicably disappeared from the public eye three days before the long Labor Day weekend. His absence continued over the weekend until he appeared at his Virginia golf course. But even then, things were far from normal. The media was kept at a distance from him and, uncharacteristically, Trump never ventured over to the press enclosure to exchange words. The fact that Trump spent this time in Washington was itself suspicious. Generally, he departs for Mar-a-Lago any chance he gets.

Over the summer, observers noticed that Trump's ankles appeared to be swollen. Eventually, the White House released a very minimal explanation, saying that Trump suffers from chronic venous insufficiency. This was described as a benign condition. However, there are a number of indications that Trump's condition may be more serious. In October, Trump had a "routine yearly checkup" that was only 6 months after his previous annual checkup. Trump also was administered an MRI for which he was unable to offer an explanation, claiming that it was "routine."

As Garrett Graff pointed out in a recent post, Trump "is stumbling, physically, through more of his events. Since August, he appears to be regularly dragging the right side of his body and struggles to walk in a straight line."

For months, Trump has been attempting to hide bruises on his hands. His right hand is often covered by band-aids or heavily covered in make-up. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has attributed the bruising to the frequent handshaking in which the President engages. However, the bruises don't appear to be on a part of his hand that would be affected by handshakes. Moreover, while that might explain the bruises on his right hand, Trump's left hand is now showing similar signs of something being covered up. A second explanation offered by Leavitt is that the bruising is a “well-known and benign side effect of aspirin therapy." This raises the question as to why Trump is receiving aspirin therapy. This is often prescribed for those with heart disease or at risk for it. The most likely explanation is that Trump is receiving regular IV infusions, though for what is unknown.

Trump has been acting in a manner that suggests that he knows that the end may be near. As I wrote back in October, Trump has repeatedly talked about the unlikelihood that he will go to heaven. For instance, on his flight to Israel that month, Trump told reporters that "I think I’m not heaven-bound...I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven." If nothing else, this suggests that Trump has been giving thought to the afterlife. However, while Trump may not have high hopes for his next stop, he seems determined to establish his legacy in this domain. The White House ballroom to which he has devoted a considerable amount of his attention is clearly meant to be a monument to himself. Trump has already established at least one memorial to himself by renaming the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

Trump has clearly been showing both cognitive and physical decline. It is highly likely that the administration is covering for him and hiding serious problems from the public. The media, which Trump has for the most part successfully intimidated, generally seems uninterested in exploring this topic too deeply. But from unhinged late-night social media rants to bruised hands, there is plenty of evidence that Trump is not well.