Psychologist Dr. John Gartner has warned that President Donald Trump’s “rate of deterioration is accelerating”—with “disturbing” ramifications for the world.
The former professor at Johns Hopkins University told The Daily Beast Podcast in a livestream on Monday that Trump, 79, has been “showing signs of frontotemporal dementia since 2019.”
Gartner said Trump’s deterioration is now accelerating so quickly that he is “not the same man he was four weeks ago,” even as the president wages a war with Iran.
“What is most disturbing for the world is that people with frontotemporal dementia lose all judgment, all inhibition, all ability to inhibit their behavior, and they become disinhibited and aggressive,” he told host Joanna Coles, the Daily Beast’s chief content officer.
The psychologist pointed to the expletive-laden Truth Social tirade Trump sent off on Easter morning, in which he threatened to hit civilian infrastructure in Iran, a potential war crime.
“Open the F----n’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” he wrote, bizarrely adding, “Praise be to Allah.”
Gartner said the post “shows the interaction” of frontotemporal dementia with malignant narcissism, a rare and severe personality disorder marked by paranoia, antisocial personality disorder, and sadism that he claimed Trump has exhibited his whole life.
“My fear is that Donald Trump is getting off on this. He is getting sadistic pleasure from scaring the world and blowing things up,” Gartner said.
“He’s a raging id with no frontal lobes and no guardrails.”
Gartner noted that Trump has long written foul-mouthed and vindictive social media posts, but “the difference” is that he has started becoming “more coarse and more abrasive.”
He cited the president’s repeated outbursts at female reporters, like his infamous “Quiet, piggy” remark, as well as his constant swearing.
“Now instead of just saying liars and losers, he’s using the word ‘f---,’” he said. “Just that level of cursing is so unpresidential. It’s just showing how he’s losing all the internal controls and he’s more like an out-of-control mental patient—only here is somebody who has the nuclear button.”
Trump called former president Joe Biden “mentally re---ded” twice during his Monday press briefing. He also suffered one of his routine sleeping fits during the same briefing, appearing unable to keep his eyes open.
Gartner explained that frontotemporal dementia is primarily a “behavioral problem,” rather than a “memory problem,” though he noted that Trump is indeed having “memory deficits.”
Gartner is the second medical expert to suggest that Trump is suffering from dementia in the wake of his crazed post.
MS NOW medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta wrote on X Sunday, “Erratic. Can’t finish sentences. Often confused. Illogical train of thought. Word finding difficulties. Developing and worsening gradually over time,” Gupta wrote. “The President is exhibiting all the signs of dementia.”
Gupta previously reflected on the president’s family history of age-related dementia and claimed that he was seeing a “trend line” that “seems like it’s getting worse,” after Trump confused Greenland for Iceland and appeared to forget he is president during his visit to Davos in January.
Trump’s father died in 1999 at the age of 93 from pneumonia that was complicated by Alzheimer’s disease. He had also been previously diagnosed with dementia.
The connection has also been made by Trump’s own niece, Mary Trump, who told The Daily Beast Podcast in November that there are times she looks at Trump and sees her grandfather.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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