Does Trump have some form of dementia?

[cali]

He's incoherent. He can't keep on topic. Just wondering.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027859030

[SamKnause]

1. He never completes a sentence.

He never forms a complete sentence.

When he speaks, it makes very little sense.

He can not stay on topic.

He speaks in sound bites.

He lies.

He insults.

He mocks.

He mimics.

He is a dangerous unhinged buffoon.

I have no respect for anyone who would vote for this man.

They are the problem, not the solution.

[Thor_MN]

23. His sentences are short.

Some have four words. Or two. Small words, but the best words. He has the best words. Trust him, he has the best words, Repeated, small words. In short sentences.

[Nay]

2. He's an incoherent, loudmouthed blatherer, just like most of his followers.

It's not new in politics, but he's certainly an extreme example of how the guy with money can say or do pretty much whatever he wants.

[bemildred]

3. He sounds just like everybody else on Television.

Edit: but louder.

[cali]

4. Nah, he's more incoherent and speaks at a lower grade level

[bemildred]

5. Right, he is the epitome of television, the best at it. nt

[cali]

6. Snorts coffee

Too true

[bemildred]

7. Good idea, my cup is empty.

[Person 2713]

43. Is that now a disease that excuses his behavior and beliefs( which are not new to him)?

No rec

[cali]

44. Honestly?

I'm attempting to encourage a meme that I believe is a very damaging one.

[Surya Gayatri]

8. If you listen to his "public pronouncements" ( they can't be called speeches) from 10-20 years ago,

you notice that there's been a net decrease in coherent content and cogent thought.

Perhaps not dementia, but a definite decline in mental acuity over recent years, yes.

OTOH, there may simply be an increasing lack of general discipline on display. He just doesn't give a damn.

In his delusional dimension, he's already the greatest, so why try to prove anything by making the effort to think?

[Violet_Crumble]

9. I doubt it. He's just evil and incredibly simple....

I know there's different forms of dementia, but my mum has one of the more common forms, and she doesn't do stupid when she's having a bad day. It's more thinking she's somewhere else and that her parents are still alive and not remembering what happened an hour ago even though her recall of things that happened to her fifty years ago is like it happened yesterday. She doesn't really get incoherent but gets confused a lot and goes cranky and quiet because she's so confused.

With Trump, even though I try not to pay attention to him, he's just a product of the ugliest things of American culture (greed, hatred of anyone different or who disagrees, ignorance of the world, turning complex issues into simplistic soundbites) and he's tapping into the hearts and minds of those Americans who want everything to be simple and stupid. So I think it's highly unlikely that dickhead's got dementia, fwiw...

[cali]

12. Hi Violet. This is from a Salon article from a month ago

<snip>
But here’s the thing, the Trump campaign seems to be filled with more than just gaffes. Channeling his inner Sarah Palin, Trump’s rants often seem to lose any connection with reality at all. Take the example of Trump’s interview with the Washington Post editorial board in March. During that exchange one of the editors asked Trump if he would consider using a tactical nuclear weapon against ISIS.

Check out Trump’s reply:

TRUMP: I don’t want to use, I don’t want to start the process of nuclear. Remember the one thing that everybody has said, I’m a counterpuncher. Rubio hit me. Bush hit me. When I said low energy, he’s a low-energy individual, he hit me first. I spent, by the way, he spent 18 million dollars’ worth of negative ads on me. That’s putting [MUFFLED]…

RYAN: This is about ISIS. You would not use a tactical nuclear weapon against ISIS?

TRUMP: I’ll tell you one thing, this is a very good-looking group of people here. Could I just go around so I know who the hell I’m talking to?

We have become so accustomed to these sorts of ramblings that we don’t really register them as anything more than standard nonsensical Trump-speak—a pattern of speech we have seen crop up across the GOP in recent years, most notably in Palin’s gibberish. But I urge you to re-read the exchange above and register the range of nonsense—the lack of basic grammar, the odd syntax, the abrupt shift in topic, the disconnect from reality, the paranoia, and the seeming inability to even grasp the question.

<snip>
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/25/maybe_donald_trump_has_really_lost_his_mind_what_if_the_gop_frontrunner_isnt_crazy_but_simply_not_well/

[Violet_Crumble]

28. Wow. That was an eye-opener for me...

I looked at it that Trump is channeling his inner tea party, but some of that stuff in that article does lend credence to concerns that his craziness is being fuelled by being unwell. Dementia is hereditary and his father had it, so it's possible. And a doctor giving a clean bill of health for someone not in the advanced stages of it doesn't surprise me. My mother's doctor resisted diagnosing her for ages, even though all the symptoms were there and my dad was begging him to stop agreeing with my mum that it was merely a memory problem that comes with age...

btw, nice seeing you again, Cali!

[mainer]

35. Those answers really do sound like dementia

As my father declined due to Alzheimer's, he began to repeat rote phrases over and over again, in response to every question. This is what Trump's doing.

[Cosmocat]

34. SPOT ON

your last paragraph ...

The right, of course, and the media want to put some romantic spin on his voters/followers.

Gee, people just don't understand it, they are just tired, babble, babble, babble.

It is what it is.

The next de evolution in republican politics, pandering to and spurring on the most hateful, selfish and vile components that exist in people.

[bemildred]

10. How Donald Trump Destroyed the Interview

A century-old political institution may have met its match.

The interview is the Niagara that fills the news ocean. A quick check of the front page of the New York Times, a scan of any 30-minute block of CNN, or a few clicks on the POLITICO home page establish it: For generations, the interview has been a linchpin of the Fourth Estate, a way for journalists to assemble the authoritative story of who our leaders are, sort the false from the true, and hold power accountable. Conducted in person, over the phone, via email, and over Skype, the interview has become indispensable to the free press and especially to political journalists, who depend on it to X-ray politicians for the truth.

But in 2016, the interview appears to have met its match: Over the past 12 months of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump has dulled its power with his systematic evasions, contradictions and deceptions, making a general mockery of the form. Thanks to his skills at quibbling, his talent for the nonsequitur, and his willingness to reverse himself inside a single sentence, Trump has figured out how to soften rather than sharpen public discourse every time he is interviewed, blurring it into yet another form of meaningless PR, and—if he continues—destroying a journalistic institution in the process.

The latest example was his most-hyped appearance yet, his one-on-one prime-time interview with Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly. In any normal cycle this meeting would have culminated in a campaign-defining shootout. As an attorney, Kelly brings to her news interrogatories a mindfulness that makes other journalists look slack, something she proved in the first Republican debate when she prompted Trump to overreact by confronting him with his own misogyny. From the starting gun, he undercut it completely. Trump even opened with a lie, when Kelly asked him to confirm what he had conceded to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in April—that retweeting an unflattering photo of Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi had been a “mistake.” Trump denied it—“Actually, I didn’t say it that way,” he said, when of course he had said it exactly that way. Kelly bore down on him, contesting the lie. But from his experience, Trump knows that even tenacious interviewers will give up and move on to the next question if faced with repeated categorical denials. He dug in deeper with that time-sucking ploy of his that occupies the semantic territory between double-talk and filibuster. Kelly moved on, her lawyerly spirit broken by his word-scramble, and the interview degenerated into a soft-focus meeting between frenemies.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/2016-donald-trump-media-journalism-interview-tv-213922

[Surya Gayatri]

11. His demented disgrace of a campaign summed up in a paragraph:

"Thanks to his skills at quibbling, his talent for the nonsequitur, and his willingness to reverse himself inside a single sentence, Trump has figured out how to soften rather than sharpen public discourse every time he is interviewed, blurring it into yet another form of meaningless PR, and—if he continues—destroying a journalistic institution in the process."

[bemildred]

13. People on the internet ought to understand that it is possible to attack the process by disruption,

rather than particpating honestly, eh? The process depends on a certain level of compliance with the rules. Yet with the entitled in the USA today, there is no way to enforce the rules. And the people who sell TV to us could not care less about the interview.

[Surya Gayatri]

17. "The people who sell TV to us" are guilty of foisting this bad, dangerous joke on us

as a legitimate and credible choice for President.

From his first foray on to the political stage, all of his dreadful, disqualifying past should have been put on daily display in the media.

Instead, he was feted, pandered to, and propped up, in order to ensure entertainment value and the resulting revenue stream.

[bemildred]

19. Yes, they are, and they don't care.

That is why Mr Trump commands the interview, he does not fear them, he does not care. He trifles with them and there is nothing they can do about it. And that is his message, and the interviewers play right into it, because they still assume what they are doing is important.

[Surya Gayatri]

24. "He trifles with them and there is nothing they can do about it."

Their craven career self-promotion and money-grubbing has neutered them.

If they dare to cross him or to pull back the curtain, they'll be refused "access" and will become the target of his toilet tongue.

[bemildred]

26. Yep. And that's his message. And the crowd loves it. He's gonna fire them all. nt

[bemildred]

20. Megyn Kelly teases new Trump interview 'very soon,' invites Clinton

Donald Trump's most recent interview with Megyn Kelly might not be his last with the Fox News anchor with whom he infamously feuded for a majority of his presidential campaign.

At the conclusion of "The Kelly File" on Thursday night, which featured an extended version of Trump's earlier meeting with Kelly interspersed with a sit-down of political operatives discussing the merits and shortcomings of the presumptive Republican nominee's responses, Kelly offered a hint as to when her viewers could expect another on-air face-to-face with Trump.

"We hope to interview Mr. Trump again right here on 'The Kelly File' sometime very soon and we hope you’ll join us for that," the host said.

Then she extended a similar offer to Clinton, as all shows generally do.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/megyn-kelly-trump-interview-223643

[Wounded Bear]

45. He has a bit of an inherent advantage...

the interviewer is typically on a time limit. They have to eventually move on. If things get hung up, the interviewer will have his/her producer in their ear screaming, "You're being boring! Move on! Next question!"

Trump knows that, and he has his word salad carefully planned and practiced over years of TV. He knows how to string it out so he doesn't have to really answer any questions.

[bemildred]

47. The interviewers think it's serious, Trump knows it's not, and says so, makes it so.

If you wrestle with a pig, you get muddy. The lesson is not that you should not wrestle the pig, the lesson is you better be prepared to get muddy, because it's coming.

[Matrosov]

14. He's trolling his supporters

To them, it sounds like he's saying a great deal.

[Cooley Hurd]

15. I believe that's a fair question...

One thing's for sure, his use of ad hominem to attack his opponents tells me he's out of real ammo, so to speak.

[beachbum bob]

16. he is a male version of Palin

[lunamagica]

18. I've wondered the same thing

[bemildred]

21. Australian PM Criticizes Rival Who Called Trump ‘Barking Mad’

Turnbull treaded careful on the Trump issue saying such comments are against Australia’s “national interest."

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was labelled “barking mad” by Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten on Friday, a statement which was rebuked by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who stressed the importance of U.S and Australian relations.

After Trump secured enough delegates to win the presidential nomination for the Republican Party, Labor Party leader Bill Shorten claimed Trump’s nomination as the “ultimate victory of celebrity politics … I think Donald Trump's views are just barking mad on some issues," he told Hot 100 radio station.

"Some people in America feel that politics doesn't speak to their lives and Trump is the ultimate protest vote," he said.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Australian-PM-Criticizes-Rival-Who-Called-Trump-Barking-Mad--20160527-0001.html

[Cosmocat]

36. I am so fucking tired of this bullshit spin to romanticize the stupid

"Some people in America feel that politics doesn't speak to their lives and Trump is the ultimate protest vote," he said.

This is some simple ass bullshit trying to romanticize out and out stupid doubled down with hate.

This is akin to saying, "I am so tired of my erectile dysfunction that I am going to run a cheese grater over my cock ..."

[liberal N proud]

22. It wouldn't be the first time the GOP ran someone with dementia

[gordianot]

25. Apparently in Australia there is a controversy over a Politician calling Trump "barking mad".

That works for me even though it is not in the current (DSM) Diagnostic Statistical Manual.

[GarColga]

27. Trump claims he only sleeps 4 hours a night.

If this is true, it could go a long way in explaining his erratic behavior. Back in the 80s I worked for a guy that Trump reminds me of. He bragged about how little sleep he needed. He had horrible mood swings and was very forgetful. I actually worried that sometime he might show up with no pants on. The kind of guy, like Trump, that if he didn't own the company he would have been fired long ago.

[Fast Walker 52]

29. Yes, I think so. Lucky for him, his supporters have the same disease.

[Helen Borg]

30. He does what works!

[Recursion]

31. Yes: he's a sociopathic dickbag

I don't know where that is in DSM IV, but that counts as "crazy" to me...

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

32. I actually think he has a form of Asperger's.

And I'm not suggesting this as a joke. It's serious.

[appalachiablue]

33. A DU poster who has dyslexia has written a couple posts about Trump having

the same kind of brain structure which accounts for shortened statements and lack of grasping complex policy and the big picture. It's also been suggested that Trump might have ADHD, possibly the reason he was sent to military school by his father to try to shape up like other kids. Thom Hartmann mentioned this a while ago I think.

[Botany]

37. Narcissistic personality disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense
of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But
behind this mask of ultraconfidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest
criticism.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/basics/definition/con-20025568

[BainsBane]

38. Narcissistic personality disorder

I'm certain of it.

He is also incoherent. He doesn't prepare for speeches and says whatever enters his head, and most of it is frightening.

[mainer]

39. The end of the American era starts here.

When the uneducated and ignorant masses elect a clearly demented madman for President. Even if Trump commits no disastrous mistakes while in office, he symbolizes the rotting foundations of our country.

[Paladin]

41. Well put.

Trump is the inevitable result of the dumbing down of a sizeable portion of the populace. That's not elitist, it's a clear-eyed interpretation of the sorry state of current affairs. If the Smart People fail to save this country from a disaster like Trump, we probably deserve what happens.

[Javaman]

40. it's called over inflated ego...

when he is never questioned in his entire life about the various bizarre and bad choices he has made, he will always think he is right.

more over...

because he can basically do what he wants with no repercussions, he can speak extemporaneously on any topic without the need to be coherent.

people will continue to yes him to death and cheer him on as if he is the best thing since sliced bread.

this is what gives rise to dictators.

[hobbit709]

42. He fits the definition of demented on several levels.

[truebluegreen]

46. Interesting, and frightening, article.

And for me the most frightening part was this:

Much to the chagrin of the reasonable conservatives who wonder what has happened to their party, it is now often difficult to distinguish Republican rhetoric from the ravings of someone suffering from diminished mental capacity.

Trump may be suffering from dementia; a bigger problem is that half the country seems to be also, though not for medical reasons.