President Donald Trump and those around him have said that he is healthy for his age, but that obviously hasn’t stopped people from speculating about his health and well-being. After all, Trump is 80 years old. So, it seems like people are always looking for signs that his health could be declining.
Of course, people frequently point to his hand bruising, his apparent tendency to doze off during meetings, and his behavior that, at times, has seemed increasingly unhinged and baffling.
Now, psychologist Dr. John Paul Garrison has added some “neurological symptoms” to the list of signs.
He showed some clips of Trump exhibiting these alleged sympoms.
In his recent video about Trump, Garrison emphasized that everything he shared was his opinion based on what he’s seen of Trump. He has not actually evaluated Trump’s health. But like many others, he’s been observing some possible behavior changes in Trump, which have made him wonder if dementia might be to blame.
When showing a clip from a recent meeting, Garrison urged viewers to pay attention to Trump’s arm because of the alleged “involuntary spasms” that he noticed. He pointed out that this happened multiple times during the meeting and clearly looked “involuntary.”
So what does he think this means? It could be a sign of several different things. “What this could mean is this could be neurodegenerative disease,” Garrison explained. “We could be talking Alzheimer’s, we could be talking Lewy body dementia, you could be talking something like Parkinson’s disease.”
He continued, “This could also come with post-stroke behavior. There can be damage to certain areas of the brain that can cause this, but we are seeing something distinct, and it appears to be involuntary.”
The psychologist has noticed that this appears to happen “very frequently.”
He also shared footage from another press conference to illustrate his point. Reflecting on both clips, Garrison said, “It did appear that there was a distinct right-side spasm. It happened repeatedly over the course of the first meeting as well as the press conference outside.”
In an earlier video, Garrison focused on some of Trump’s speaking habits.
He mentioned that Trump has seemed confused during a lot of his speeches recently, and has seemingly been slurring his words. However, what he chose to focus on in the video from August 19 was the way in which Trump has been repeating himself a lot lately.
He played the clip in which Trump alleged that “young, beautiful girls” have been thanking him for making Washington DC safer. People had a lot of issues with what Trump said during that particular rant, but Garrison chose to focus primarily on the way in which Trump said the same thing repeatedly.
“What concerns me is this is starting to sound like what we refer to as perseveration,” Garrison said. “What perseveration means is basically repeating yourself over and over again…or engaging in a behavior over and over again because the brain is breaking down and you can’t stop it.”
Trump’s unhinged rants have sparked some debates about whether he’s exhibiting signs of dementia or just being himself. Garrison acknowledged that Trump has never really shied away from saying whatever he wants, but he suggested that Trump has been sharing more lately and it might not be intentional. He argued that we seem to be witnessing Trump’s emotions “spill out” even when he doesn’t want that to happen.
“I think that we’re seeing a lowered inhibition,” Garrison stated. “…And I know Trump has never been the most inhibited individual, but there’s some emotions leaking out here that I don’t think are intentional.”
READ NEXT: Trump Gives Example of One of the Questions on His Cognitive Test & Says It’s ‘Not Easy’
