During a recent interview with New York Magazine, President Donald Trump had “an unfortunately timed” memory lapse when struggling to remember the name of a disease perhaps best known for memory loss, The Daily Beast reported Monday.
In the interview, Trump addressed mounting questions about his health, which have increased as the president continues to be spotted in public with swollen ankles and bruised hands. His increased instances of rambling during speeches, along with his MRI scan last year that has yet to be fully explained have also raised concerns among critics.
Trump remained defiant, however, touting his father’s good health in his later years as evidence of his own. He did, however, note that his father, Fred Trump, did have one health condition.
“He had one problem. At a certain age, about 86, 87, he started getting… what do they call it?” Trump told New York Magazine.
“Alzheimer’s,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt interjected.
“Like an Alzheimer’s thing,” Trump said. “Well, I don’t have it.”
The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s affects nearly 7 million Americans and is the fifth-leading cause of death in the nation. A brain disorder, among the most frequent symptoms of Alzheimer’s is memory loss.
Fred Trump died in 1999 at the age of 93, and had reportedly suffered from Alzheimer’s since the early 1990s.
When asked by New York Magazine whether he thought about Alzheimer’s, Trump said he didn’t.
“No, I don’t think about it at all. You know why?” Trump said. “Because whatever it is, my attitude is whatever.”
Trump’s mental health was again called into question last week after he penned an explosive letter to the Norwegian prime minister, a letter in which he proclaimed to “no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace” after not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and in spite of the prize being awarded by a private Norwegian entity and not the Norwegian government.
“Whatever people's views on Trump's broader politics, these are the words of a man who is having some sort of serious mental breakdown,” argued British columnist and political commentator Dan Hodges last week.