‘…(S)omeone with a big audience pushed a post claiming Trump is on an Alzheimer’s-specific infusion drug, linking it to everything from bruises to sleepiness to “confusion.” Sadly, the post is spreading.
Well, circumstantial click bait evidence doesn’t hold up in court.
On the surface some may seem like they fit. Plus, many people wrongly confuse Alzheimer’s with dementia in general and lump all the symptoms together.

It’s wrong.
It’s naive.
It’s dangerous.
A serious symptom analysis quickly debunks Alzheimer’s.

Trump’s symptoms are consistent with another, less common but more disruptive and, in his case horrific, disorder — Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). There are a couple of subtypes with important distinctions, but his changes in personality and behavior, along with specific language and physical problems, are consistent with FTD variants.

This isn’t guesswork pulled from thin air. This is the conclusion drawn from analysies by hundreds of clinical and research experts in mental health.
❓

What is FTD?
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) refers to a group of disorders caused by progressive nerve cell loss mainly in the brain’s frontal lobes (the areas behind your forehead) and/or its temporal lobes (the regions behind your ears).
Brain regions impaired in FTD are the ones responsible for self-monitoring, impulse control, and reality-checking. The nerve cell damage caused by FTD leads to loss of function in these brain regions, and in bvFTD, the nerve cell loss is most prominent in areas that control conduct, judgment, empathy and foresight.

…Watching Trump is witnessing a malignant narcissist without the brain’s guardrails — judgment, restraint, empathy — leaving an unhinged finger on the big button and a hunger for validation, control and vengeance.
That’s what makes this moment so volatile, and so dangerous.

For years, clinicians and researchers, myself included, have been sounding the alarm on Trump’s malignant narcissism—his grandiosity, paranoia, total lack of empathy, and need for vengeance.
When Bandy Lee published The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump in 2017 — bringing together 27 experts — it wasn’t sensationalism. It was a professional alarm bell. The Duty to Warn organization followed, representing tens of thousands of mental-health professionals.

Back then, most people rolled their eyes. Today, the term “malignant narcissism” (MN) is showing up everywhere: on cable news, in congressional hearings, even late-night comedy…  

But what wasn’t widely understood is how a dementia like FTD alters an already disordered personality.
MN and FTD feed off each other. FTD erodes impulse control, self-monitoring, and reality-testing — the brakes a malignant narcissist desperately needs but never had much of to begin with.
Meanwhile, without the inhibition, the malignant narcissism thrives unchecked: rage, paranoia, reckless decisions. It’s not just additive—it’s synergistic. You’re seeing it in action every day.

FTD on its own is tragic:
Together, they make a uniquely combustible threat.
The grandiosity that once had a shred of calculation now comes out as unfiltered delusion.
The sadism breaks free to wreak vengeance and cruelty on perceived enemies and innocent victims.
This is why you’re suddenly hearing a lot more people talk about Trump’s cognition. The MN made his behavior impossible to ignore; the FTD makes his decline undeniable and frightening.

Now for some action you can use right now:
Knowing the signs breaks the spell.
You move from a stressful “Why the fuck is he saying this!?!” to an objective “Hmmm, another confabulation story.”
Here’s a quick field guide for keeping your sanity, especially when the news cycle gets overwhelming:

1. Confabulation: It’s not lying — it’s filling gaps with invented memories he believes.
   Watch for: highly specific claims that are clearly false.
   Malignant Narcissism twist: the invented memories are usually grandiose ,self-serving, or feeding off a vengeance.
2. Phonemic Paraphasias: Speech sounds scrambled (“Obamna,” “United Shates”).
   Malignant Narcissism twist: he never self-corrects. Instead he blames equipment, pretends it’s intentional, or calls someone “stupid.”
3. Tangential / disorganized speech: Losing the thread, drifting into non sequiturs.
   Malignant Narcissism twist: he reframes it as “the weave,” demands applause, and calls it genius.
4. Impulse-control failures: The frontal lobes can’t filter impulses.
   Malignant Narcissism twist: hostility, threats, public rage, sending sycophants to do his dirty deeds, persecution narratives.

Weirdly, There’s a Silver Lining

As disturbing as the symptoms are, everyone is finally noticing.
It’s no longer theoretical.
It’s happening live in decaying color.
People who ignored the psychological concerns are now asking needed questions.
It’s long overdue. And necessary.
The challenge now is whether the world can survive his decay turned up to eleven.’ (via Frank George PhD)

‘After criticizing media coverage about him aging in office, Trump appeared to be falling asleep during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday.
But that’s hardly the most troubling aspect of his aging.

In the last few weeks, Trump’s insults, tantrums, and threats have exploded.

• To Nancy Cordes, CBS’s White House correspondent, he said: “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? You’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
• About New York Times correspondent Katie Rogers: “third rate … ugly, both inside and out.”
• To Bloomberg White House correspondent Catherine Lucey: “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
• About Democratic lawmakers who told military members to defy illegal orders: guilty of “sedition … punishable by DEATH.”
• About Somali immigrants to the United States: “Garbage” whom “we don’t want in our country.”

What to make of all this?
Trump’s press hack Karoline Leavitt tells reporters to “appreciate the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump on a near-daily basis.”

Sorry, Ms. Leavitt. This goes way beyond frankness and openness. Trump is now saying things nobody in their right mind would say, let alone the president of the United States.
He’s losing control over what he says, descending into angry, venomous, often dangerous territory.

Note how close his language is coming to violence — when he speaks of acts being punishable by death, or human beings as garbage, or someone being ugly inside and out.
The deterioration isn’t due to age alone…

I think older people lose certain inhibitions because they don’t care as much about their reputations as do younger people. In a way, that’s rational. Older people no longer depend on their reputations for the next job or next date or new friend. If a young person says whatever comes into their heads, they have much more to lose, reputation-wise.

But Trump’s outbursts signal something more than the normal declining inhibitions that come with older age. Trump no longer has any filters. He’s becoming impetuous.
This would be worrying about anyone who’s aging. But a filterless president of the United States who says anything that comes into his head poses a unique danger.

What if he gets angry at China, calls up Xi, tells him he’s an asshole, and then orders up a nuclear bomb?
It’s time the media reported on this. It’s time America faced reality. It’s time we demanded that our representatives in Congress take action, before it’s too late.

Invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.’ (via Robert Reich)