What Does It Mean If Trump Is Presenting Dementia Symptoms?
It would be easy to take this headline and the following remarks as a set up for a punchline. "What, is this a news flash"? You might have a few lines of your own to deliver, so by all means, let it rip. Get it out of your system now so we can move ahead and get serious.
As some of our friends are aware, when I resigned from our political organization 10 years ago, I became a health insurance broker, marketing Medicare Advantage Plans to "over 65s." Soon after I joined Martha in caregiving. In both capacities I had opportunity to use my personal family experience with Parkinson's dementia to specialize in this area, especially the caregiving aspect.
So I educated myself and trained for a new skillset in helping dementia patients and their families. One important responsibility was to be attuned to changes indicating cognitive decline, however subtle, and report them to responsible family members and/or medical professionals.
Not being an immediate family member was an advantage because I had some distance, meaning I wouldn't ignore warning signs or symptoms that the family might because of wishful thinking, or the belief that "they were always this way".
Having this experience I read the excerpts in "Vanity Fair" of Trump's RNC sponsored speech the other day, and also his 20 point "bullet response" to Lester Holt's interview with former AG William Barr, triggered by the release and publicity tour for Barr's new book. . If you think I exaggerate, read the speech in the article.
To Holt, nearly half of Trump's points of attack against Barr concerned "the stolen election". What's interesting is not just the repetition, but that these points are clearly written by him with no editing or help. You can tell because they are barely literate, and poiint toward an obsessive state of mind.
Because of his legal exposure, he is supposed to clear his statements with advisers. Now that he has his new social media platform "Truth Social" (a spectacular failure so far) he appears to be manic and enraged such that he is "blowing all the Stop signs" and not clearing anything. And obviously no one was consulted re: cleaning up the grammar, spelling, coherence, etc. It's an obsessive compulsive tantrum.
"Oh yeah, I've heard this before, when hasn't he been an unhinged rage-ball" I can hear you asking.
But after reading his most recent speech I rethought a few things. Trump called for starting a war between Russia and China by outfitting US fighter jets with Chinese Air Force Insignia and using them to attack Russia.
You did read that correctly. The audience engaged in polite laughter, hoping he was joking of course. But think about the fact that he would say this, in public. Especially now. Especially after months of US intelligence reports that Putin had planned false flag operations to get his war in Ukraine started.
This man was President, and he intends to be President again. Think about your experiences with dementia cases. Does this kind of unfiltered "Id" eruption remind you of someone who has entered into their own disconnected head space, floating in hallucination or delusion?
On the stolen election, I believe we are long past the political issue, as it has become an actual pathological obsession. Most of the leading power brokers in the GOP like Lindsey Graham and Rupert Murdoch who support him have begged him to drop the stolen election, and stick with how Biden is supposedly failing. He won't do it.
One of the symptoms of advancing dementia is paranoia, which often presents as a belief that others are stealing from them. In some cases its because they can't remember where they put things, and compensate by claiming someone else took it. In other cases its hallucinatory imagination of plots and conspiracies against them.
It is why one of the toughest decisions for families of such folks which meets the most resistance is taking away the car keys and the credit cards from someone cognitively impaired. "I'm fine, there's nothing wrong with me". Or, the belief that others are scheming to put them away and take their money.
The speech about how to start war between Russia and China triggered me to rethink this whole issue of his refusal to let go of the stolen election. I think it is more than the "same old same old".
As I said, it's easy to be lazy and just write it off as "a typical Trump money raising grift, or attempts to manipulate his supporters, control the narrative, stay in the news, or build his new platform". "That's just Trump being Trump" is the refrain.
I see it differently. One of the biggest mistakes that we make in dealing with people with dementia is to resent or become angry at the compromised person for their behavioral problems, and rationalize, "he always does that, been doing it for years" writing it off as the old pattern of passive/aggressive behavior, and not wanting to see the visible signs of the disease's progression. I can tell you that while caregiving I saw this all the time. Denial was always a close second to the disease itself in making the situation worse.
It's infinitely worse when the person is a type Alpha personality and has been domineering or high achiever, or a control freak. They react with great anger at any attempt to curtail their "independence", even when it is for their own protection. The paranoia and rage level can be the most difficult part of dementia care, depending on their personalities. Or in other cases trying to get cooperation or compliance with day to day activities.
I watch Trump speeches, read his remarks, and have been following him since the 80's. I see changes underway, which are either progressions of a chronic condition, advanced mental illness, or both. But it's not the same. There is certainly enough family history with the Trumps to consider the possibility of Alzheimers.
Think about the implications of a person running for President, telling an audience of his wealthiest donors his plan for starting a war between Russia and China while we, the US are on the brink of war with Russia, a week after he praised the Russian invasion and then doubled down on it.
71 million people voted for this man and most of them are devout followers. What might he ask them to do in his current state? Might he do something which dwarfs January 6th? Any investigator or security specialist in government, whether the DOJ, DHS, or the White House that is not asking these questions is missing the forest for the trees. And those among us who write off his increasingly violent statements and provocations as "typical" as opposed to sounding a very loud alarm are in the same denial referred to earlier, who are simply afraid of what the future holds if things are as they seem.
