Vascular dementia and Trump

[yardwork]

If something interferes with blood flow to the brain it doesn't get enough oxygen and brain cells die. That leads to vascular dementia.

If you look up the symptoms of vascular dementia they may sound familiar because Trump appears to be exhibiting them.

This is different from the normal slowing down and memory issues associated with aging.

My mom had vascular dementia. It began 25 years before her death with a stroke. Later in her life her dementia accelerated. When she finally passed away - which I considered a blessing as it ended her suffering - she could not walk, was incontinent, and could barely talk or eat.

I'm not a health care professional but I know that Trump is not right in the head. He's had personality disorders all his adult life but this is new. If you listen to him talk he makes no sense. He makes things up. He mixes words together in bizarre ways.

My mom had phases where she was stable for months or years, then she'd have another decline. She could fool people until close to the very end. But the poor judgment and messed up memory started decades earlier.

The media is choosing to ignore this but if Trump has vascular dementia he's going to continue to decline. I think that Vance and the billionaires know this and are just biding their time. Vance will be worse.

Risk factors for vascular dementia per the NIH. Count how many Trump has:

Things that can increase your chances of getting vascular dementia in later life include:

high blood pressure (hypertension)
smoking
an unhealthy diet
high blood cholesterol
lack of exercise
being overweight or obese
diabetes
drinking too much alcohol
atrial fibrillation – a type of irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) – and other types of heart disease
These problems increase the risk of damage to the blood vessels in and around your brain, or cause blood clots to develop inside them.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. Ain't no medbed in the Universe that can repair that.

[leftstreet]

2. I'd like to see his daily Rx list

I think you're right.

There's no known treatment for vascular dementia, other than Alzheimer's drugs and anti-psychotics. But based on his symptoms I'm sure they're trying various things.

[yardwork]

4. Right. We can see many of his risk factors with our own eyes.

He is obese, delights in eating a very poor diet, and doesn't get much exercise. He doesn't drink but has been addicted to Adderall for decades.

We can guess that he has hypertension and high cholesterol. We don't know how well they might be controlled.

[popsdenver]

26. His Rx list doesn't matter that much

when you consider the amount of Adderall he takes, as witnessed by his rants and raves after midnight for hours and hours until dawn.....

[yardwork]

5. I'm very sorry for your loss and the years of stress.

I was my mom's primary caregiver for years. Eventually she had to move to assisted living, but her care still required a lot of my time and energy.

It's a very, very difficult thing for loved ones to manage. The emotional outbursts alone are very hard on caregivers.

[yardwork]

15. I'm so sorry.

I can check a lot of those same boxes.

It's very lonely, embarrassing, impossible to explain to people who don't experience it.

One thing that was frustrating was that mom could fool medical professionals and home health aides into thinking she was fine. She'd make up stories about how she got up every day, cooked breakfast, played bridge with the girls, etc. I'd have to chase the social worker down the hall and say it was all made up, mom never got up, she wasn't eating, bathing, or taking her meds. Then they'd give me side eye like I was the problem. They'd assess her as independent and then I'd get the calls a few weeks later, upset because she was incontinent, hiding her meds, locking home health out and yelling at them to go away, etc. That went on for years until I talked her into moving into assisted living.

[Trueblue Texan]

24. I had many of those experiences when I was in home health...

...yes, the patient could fool you, but you learned pretty quickly to listen to the caregivers and family members. I cannot tell you how many times they followed me to my car desperate to be heard, to tell me the real story and how impossible it was to get their loved one to take care of their basic self care, eating and exercising. The patients could be abusive to their caregivers but saintly in the presence of a health care provider. Before I worked in home health, I always said parenting was the hardest job in the world. After joining the home health field, I knew caregiving for elders and dementia patients was far more difficult than parenting.

Bless you for your patience in caring for your mom. If heaven is real, you should have your place secured for taking care of your mom.

[yardwork]

31. Oh thank you!

I literally teared up reading your post.

Bless you for being a home health provider. That's one of the most difficult jobs in the world. In a just world you and all the other first responders and essential caregivers would be paid very well, and people who want the fun of being CEOs would do it for free.

[JCMach1]

6. For my dad, he slowly lost all social filtering with his dementia

Those early signs we would never see in Trump as he never has had any social filters.

It is a horrible way to go. He was never never 100% not there before he passed, but he was violent,. delusional, incontinent. It got really bad the final 2 years.

[yardwork]

9. I'm very sorry.

It's a hidden issue for many of us who lose loved ones to this illness.

Even our closest friends didn't understand what I was going through or why it wasn't a great idea to drop in and say hi to mom. I'm sure they thought I was being cruel and thoughtless but the chances of things going sideways were great.

[marble falls]

7. I'm not a real doctor and I've never even played one on TV or in the movies. But do you mind if we get a second opinion?

[yardwork]

10. Sure. I'm just sharing my opinion.

[Torchlight]

8. "That boy just ain't right."

First time my FIL and I met, we bonded well with that being the very first thing he said that about the rapist. And dammit, it fit. Perfectly.

[yardwork]

12. Says it all.

[EarthAbides]

13. Medbeds equals stem cells

Last edited Wed Oct 1, 2025, 02:54 PM - Edit history (1)

I am confident that the fascist pig is being infused with stem cells. Whether it works or not, we will see. I also think the whole concept of medbeds involves stem cell treatment. Medbeds sounds a lot more politically correct for ignoramus people then stem cells.

[Maru Kitteh]

45. Oh wow, you may be onto something there. Fundies won't touch stem cells

but medbed infusions . . . . . hmmm So who’s going to sell it to the rubes, and what will Donald’s cut be?

[Blue Owl]

14. I hope Dump's clock is at 11:59:59 -- right at the STROKE of MIDNIGHT

[BaronChocula]

17. Right into a sandtrap

or better yet...

[Grammy23]

16. The thing about tRump is he has always been

A snake and a low life. There is much evidence that he has suffered from several types of mental illnesses for the majority of his life. Being incorrigible and uncontrollable as a kid was what landed him in military school.

What is going on now is we can see and hear changes in him. His language skills have deteriorated and the filters that would stop him from cursing so much are gone. Plus, he is 79 years old and has risk factors that put him likely to develop dementia ….not the least of which is his father’s history of Alzheimer’s and subsequent death from it.

So if we opine that he just might be going into or has entered that long good bye, it is for good reasons. Not just because the old boy has made enough enemies in this world that there are plenty of folks happy to see him suffer. Karma is a bitch ….or so they say.

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. 'The nedia is choosing to ignore' something

that has no official support?

As far as we know, no qualified physician has examined The Felon for vascular dementia. So, what would you have "the media" report?

[ancianita]

21. He has a WH physician who gave a public report of his CVI in his legs, so maybe another is forthcoming because of

what medical experts say they are seeing...

https://as.cornell.edu/news/trumps-abrupt-decision-play-dj-sign-accelerating-cognitive-decline-says-cornell-expert



...and what family say they're seeing.

https://archive.ph/igov1

[Oeditpus Rex]

39. Hey, look at all the reports on The Felon's dementia

"the media" is "choosing to ignore":

https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+cardovascular+dementia&oq=trump+cardovascular+dementia&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTI0MDM2ajBqNKgCAbACAQ&client=ms-android-tmus-us-revc&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8]

[ancianita]

42. Great. Maybe it's gaining traction!

[Oeditpus Rex]

44. Or maybe 'the media' haven't been 'ignoring'

The dateline on the WaPo story is July 22, 2024.

Looks like you and many others have just been missing it and, as usual, castigating the news media for not doing their job. We got a lot of that when I was a newspaper reporter and editor.

[maxsolomon]

27. Can you please stop insisting on Journalistic ethics!

Don't you know it's all a grand conspiracy?

[Oeditpus Rex]

40. Sarcasm? (n.t.)

[yardwork]

32. The media is ignoring and sanewashing Trump's crazy talk.

Watch recent videos or read transcripts. He makes no sense.

The role of journalism is to report the news and they're not doing it.

[Oeditpus Rex]

41. See #39 (n.t.)

[pnwest]

19. I agree with you, having seen my own mother's decline.

It's hard to describe until you notice it - it's very subtle. But trump is beginning to express thoughts and concerns in more simple language. Of course, he still rallies and can fire off a screed in anger, but more and more he's using simpler words and describing things in a broader, more general and basic way.

I was not one to jump on the dementia wagon early on, cause I've seen what I've seen with my mother. But now I see the signs that tell me it's real. And I can tell you he's got maybe two years left of any real understanding of what's going on around him. Maybe less if he's being propped up and supported by meds and sycophants.

What's worrying me, is that he's even more easily manipulated and controlled now. Essentially and even more useful idiot. He's being kept out of the loop on things, and he's being lied to.

Two examples:
He had no idea of the Hegseth military meeting until a few days before.
He asked if what he's seeing on TV in Portland isn't what's really happening.

THAT is what scares me the most. He's not running things. They make him happy by putting him in front of cameras and let him be the big distraction we're all looking at, while people like Stephen Miller are actually running things behind the scenes. And his deepening dementia makes it easier to control and fool him.

[ancianita]

20. Thanks. Yes, the obesity and junk food eating have also led to his chronic venous insufficiency (CVI),

cause swelling in the legs and ankles, aching, cramping, and skin discoloration; which can then lead to insufficient blood circulation and oxygenation above the heart level.

The White House physician saysTrump's condition is not life-threatening, and tests found no evidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), arterial disease, or heart failure. But I've never believed his physicians.

The other thing about old age is that one major "condition" like bad vein circulation can cause a cascade of breakdowns, and then, all of a sudden, that person can become physically and mentally dysfunctional.

[ms liberty]

22. You may well be correct. Whatever it is, he recently has entered - or devolved into - a new stage

That seems blatantly obvious and undeniable, IMO. And as mentioned above, he is almost certainly being manipulated by those closest to him.
Gawd this is such a f*cking mess.

[Kid Berwyn]

23. "Vance will be worse."

Going from US history since 22 November 1963, that's a certainty.

[BigmanPigman]

25. Lawrence O'Donnell mentioned it last night

on his show. It's obvious that the gibberish coming out of tRump's mouth was impossible to discern. He is very ill physically AND mentally.

This is a scary time we are living through. And all because on Nov., 4th, a dozen eggs cost too much (which of course was all Biden's fault).

[ancianita]

43. Mentioned it? Re-watch. It was THE central point of his entire opener!

[Botany]

28. My mother has vascular dementia right now. There really is no cure or treatment.

If it is V. Dementia the tip off is short term memory. Such as asking the same question or saying the
same statement repeatedly over and over short time period such as 5 to 20 minutes.

[yardwork]

33. I hope the best for your mom and your family.

My mom didn't do the repeating things like that but I know of others who did. I guess it depends on which part of the brain is damaged.

[Bluetus]

29. Reading between the lines, one very troubling thing

from the past week, IMHO, was when Trump asked, "am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? My people tell me different. They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place. It looks like terrible.’

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/09/trump-and-his-television/684406/

We know Trump has always been a big consumer of Fox. Fox knows that and they tailor their reporting specifically for Trump. And we also know that Trump staffers work with Fox to put things on the screen they want to put into Trump's limited brain. There is nothing new about that.

But in this case, Trump's question seemed to be sincere. He seemed to really believe Portland is a war zone with fires blazing away at every Starbucks. That would represent an almost unfathomable level of disconnect from reality.

I realize this is all what Trump wants to believe, but I really don't see how it serves Stephen Miller, or whoever is running this shitshow, to have the President say such maniacal things about one of the most peaceful cities in the country. I mean, Trump has been Jonesing to invade a "Dem city". If he had any remaining reasoning power, wouldn't he at least ask about doing CHicago instead of Portland? At least Chicago might be a little believable.

[hedda_foil]

30. A close friend of mine had at least two multi focal strokes in early May.

Concurrent with the strokes, her entire abdominal cavity was septic, with a burst appendix, necrotizing pancreatitis, infected gall bladder and an abdominal thrombosis. Who knows what set what off, but this all went down in one night.

After four months of hospitalization and nine endoscopic necrosectomies to remove her dead pancreas from the inside, and every antibiotic imaginable for the septicemia, she's in a nursing home, with almost no short term memory, almost completely paralyzed on one side, incontinent, and with most of the behaviors you guys have mentioned.

She has no immediate family, so I wound up with her medical power of attorney. It's been a nightmare, as she's refused meds, food and therapy more often than not, but is able to sound perfectly rational for short periods (even though she's confabulating and perseverating like mad). The formal diagnosis isn't vascular dementia yet, but it sounds like that's what it is.

The most positive thing is that I got the nursing home to order a full -psych evaluation, which was able to pick up on all of her cognitive and behavioral problems and detail the areas of her brain that are involved. The neuro-psychologist confirmed that she can't make considered decisions about her well being. Thankfully, we found a cousin in a nearby state who was willing to sign on as her financial power of attorney. Between the two of us, we're barely hanging on. But at least she's not the President!

[yardwork]

35. Oh my. I'm so sorry you're going through that.

She's lucky to have you!

If the physician could order hospice or palliative care she would get a lot of additional resources, all covered by Medicare. That helped enormously in the last year of my mom's life.

[hedda_foil]

38. Thanks so much for your encouragement, yardwork!

She's only 74 and she's stabilized physically, though it was touch and go for months. She really wants to live, so no hospice at this point. Fortunately, she has the assets to pay for 18-24 months of skilled nursing care. Beyond that, Medicaid.

[Srkdqltr]

34. Bless all of you who take care of people like that. My husband has had radiation and chemo along with a lot of other

health problems. His mind seems foggy. I'm having a hard time dealing. He is 87 and im 84. Reading about what you have to cope with is scary to me. I have started planning for what's next.

[yardwork]

36. I hope I didn't scare you or anyone.

I can tell this touched a nerve. A lot of us on DU are dealing with this.

Have you talked with your husband's physicians? Chemo can have side effects.

A ray of hope: my mother in law is 90 and sharp as a tack. Based on your posts here I think you are too! Plenty of people are living healthy lives into their 90s and beyond.

Be well and prosper, friend.

[Srkdqltr]

37. Thank you for sharing. It helps. Docs say its normal but not how to cope as everyone is so different.

Just have to keep going. Listening to others really let's the rest of us to not feel alone.
Thank you again.