Speculation about Trump’s mental health, especially armchair diagnoses of dementia, stroke, or other cognitive impairment or illness, has followed him throughout both of his terms. People have been saying this for 10 years now. But everything he’s doing is consistent with his brand/persona.
For example, his writing is grammatically correct, or at the very least, consistent. For example, in January, 2025, he posted on Truth Social:
The whole problem we are having with criminals in our Country was caused by Sleepy Joe Biden and the Radical Left Thugs that surrounded the Resolution Desk in the Oval Office – And, of course, the Illegal Use of the Auto Pen!!! They should be in jail!
There is the characteristic excessive capitalization, but it’s deliberate and consistent. This is key, as someone with cognitive decline would not only exhibit deterioration of quality over time, but inconsistency. As a rule, dementia progressively and steadily gets worse–it’s not a chronic thing–and no drugs can halt it. But Trump’s writing style hasn’t changed. Tweets as far back as 2016-2019 show the hallmark excessive but deliberate use capitalization, tone, em dashes, and correct punctuation (e.g. ‘U.S. versus US’ or ‘D.C. versus DC’) :
Nor has his speech changed much either, characterized by long-windedness and frequent digressions, and a bombastic or assertive style reminiscent of his social media posts. Alternatively, when he seems less engaged, fatigued, or bored–a pattern also noted in Joe Biden–his speech tends to lose coherence and rambles. Such language understandably rubs some people the wrong way and is misinterpreted as evidence of instability or mental decline on his part, even though it’s consistent with his brand and hasn’t changed much, even well before becoming president, like insults directed at his long-time foe Rosie O’donnell, among others.
It is possible he’s experiencing some cognitive decline, as studies show that cognitive ability peaks by mid-adulthood and then gradually declines with age, but this is not enough to say he has dementia, which requires a separate diagnosis by a doctor. A diagnosis means failing what is effectively a greatly simplified IQ test. For Trump, such decline, if any, appears rather gradual given the consistency of his behavior over time, compared to the personality changes that can accompany dementia.
Overall, anyone who asserts confidently that Trump has dementia doesn’t know anything about Trump or dementia, and their other opinions can safely be dismissed, as this reflects poorly on their judgement and critical thinking abilities on presumably other matters, due to partisan biases or intellectual dishonesty. This is not even a partisan issue–it’s not as if I have been the biggest Trump cheerleader, as there are others who fill that role far better–but rather people letting their biases preclude objective analysis.