A former White House lawyer who worked in Donald Trump’s first administration says the president has undergone a “palpable” cognitive decline.
Ty Cobb, who served as White House special counsel, ripped Trump’s almost two-hour-long press conference on Tuesday, where the 79-year-old president was at times incoherent as he declared that “God is very proud” of his first year back in office and once again threatened to seize Greenland.
“I don’t think there’s anybody outside of the United States who believes that Trump is sane,” Cobb, who served under Trump from 2017 to 2018, told Ari Melber on MS NOW’s The Beat.
Melber asked, “Since you’ve worked for him in the White House, when you make that reference to ‘sane,’ do you mean problems with how he approaches things that have long been there, or are you referring to some decline?”
“No, I think there’s been a significant decline,” Cobb replied. “He’s always been driven by narcissism. But I think the dementia and the cognitive decline are palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians.”
When reached for comment, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast in a statement, “Ty Cobb is an eternal stain on the great name he shares with a baseball legend. He should change his name to Ty Loser.”
Trump, the oldest president to take the oath of office, has faced increasing speculation surrounding his cognitive health during his second term, with multiple medical experts suggesting that his decline is readily apparent.
Psychologist Dr. John Gartner previously told The Daily Beast Podcast that he believes Trump is exhibiting a “massive increase” in “clinical signs of dementia,” citing his nonsensical speeches, tendency to change topics mid-sentence, and memory lapses.
Trump’s own niece has said she sees the same symptoms in the president—who regularly struggles to stay awake during official meetings—as those suffered by his late father, Fred Trump Sr., who was diagnosed with dementia toward the end of his life.
The president trailed off mid-sentence and often suddenly switched topics at Tuesday’s press conference as he bragged that the father of Renee Good—who was shot dead by an ICE agent this month—was a “fan” of his, reminisced on childhood memories, and whined about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize.
When a reporter finally got the chance to ask how far he would be willing to go to take Greenland from Denmark, Trump responded, “You’ll find out.”
“Those are not the comments of a rational human being and certainly not presidential at all,” Cobb said. The lawyer also blasted Trump for his “deranged, demented, and insane” letter to the Norwegian prime minister in which he linked his Greenland power grab to not winning the Nobel Prize.
After the president himself blurted out in October that he had undergone an MRI during a physical examination, the White House initially declined to explain why. Eventually, they claimed that it was a “preventative” measure due to his age—a claim medical experts immediately began to question.
