Published Mar 20, 2024

There is "overwhelming" evidence that Donald Trump is suffering from dementia, a leading psychiatrist has claimed, amid speculation about the state of the former president's mental health.

Dr. Lance Dodes, a supervising analyst emeritus of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and retired Harvard Medical School professor, was among those recently quoted by Duty To Warn, which describes itself as an association of mental health professionals concerned about Trump.

"Unlike normal aging, which is characterized by forgetting names or words, Trump repeatedly shows something very different: confusion about reality," he wrote in a statement published on Friday, which referenced Trump's confusing Barack Obama with Joe Biden.

"If he were to become president he would have to be immediately removed from office via the 25th Amendment as dangerously unable to fulfill the responsibilities of office," Dodes, who is also a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, added, citing the 1967 mechanism that allows for a president to be removed due to unfitness.

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Donald Trump speaks to supporters on March 16, 2024, in Vandalia, Ohio. Several mental health professionals have claimed he is showing signs of dementia.

In another statement released at the same time, New York psychologist Suzanne Lachmann said Trump, 77, would "seemingly forget how the sentence began and invent something in the middle" resulting in "an incomprehensible word salad"—a behavior she argued is observed "frequently in patients who have dementia."

Meanwhile, John Gartner, a psychologist and former professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, has defended Biden's forgetfulness as a natural sign of his age, but authored a petition that argues Trump is "showing unmistakable signs strongly suggesting dementia."

He wrote at the start of March that the former president showed "progressive deterioration in memory, thinking, ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills," adding that he felt "an ethical obligation to warn the public, and urge the media to cover this national emergency."

Jason Miller, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign, told Newsweek: "Joe Biden is clearly suffering from cognitive decline and couldn't answer the first five questions of a cognitive test or any other test for that matter.

"President Trump has aced this test twice and is willing to take a third test if Joe Biden sits in the same room and takes it at the same time. In fact, President Trump believes all presidents should take the test."

All three mental health professionals have previously been critical of the former president's mental state. Lachmann was among the proponents of Gartner's petition, while Dodes and Gartner were among the authors of a 2017 book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, which raised concerns about his mental health during his first term.

Other Trump critics have also questioned the former president's mental health. His niece, Mary Trump, has previously claimed that her uncle was cogent in his youth, but was now showing signs of "untreated psychiatric disorders."

The latest concerns come as Biden, Trump's likely presidential rival in November, has faced ongoing questions about his age and mental acuity over a number of public gaffes, which Republicans have used to imply Biden is unfit to continue as president for another term.

Already the oldest U.S. president in history, Biden would turn 82 weeks after election day; and if elected, he would be 86 by the end of his second term. But the president has brushed off queries about his physical and mental health, telling a news conference in February that his "memory is fine" and "I know what the hell I'm doing."

Both he and Trump have been given relatively clean bills of health by their respective physicians. In a November letter, Dr. Bruce Aronwald said Trump's "overall health is excellent" and "his cognitive exams were exceptional."

Trump has boasted about having "aced" cognitive tests on more than one occasion. While speaking to Fox News in January, Trump addressed his Republican rival Nikki Haley's suggestion that his age was affecting cognition by challenging her to compare cognitive tests.

"I think I'm a lot sharper than her," Trump said. "I would do this: I would sit down right now and take an aptitude test, and it would be my result against her result. And she's not gonna win. Not going to even come close to winning."

But as the election nears, it is likely an increasing number of critics of Trump and Biden will speak out against their assuming the presidency for a second time over their supposed cognitive issues.

Update 3/20/24