A rambling story Donald Trump told to an audience in Pennsylvania on July 15 has raised a red flag with an attorney who served in the late Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in 2008.
In a column for The Hill, California attorney Chris Truax, who has previously acknowledged he has not supported Trump since his first run for the White House, pointed out that the president has spiraled into bouts of "confabulation," which is more concerning than the president's habit of off-the-cuff lying.
As he pointed out, "In older people, confabulation is one of the clearest early signs of dementia. The day you witness someone confabulate is often the day you are forced to admit to yourself that a beloved parent needs help, and that all the little slips and oddities you’ve been seeing can no longer be rationalized away."
To make his point, he noted the July incident where Trump told attendees that his uncle John Trump, who was an instructor at MIT, taught Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, and then relayed to him how "smart" Kaczynski was.
As has been reported, that did not happen because John Trump died in 1985, and Kaczynski never attended MIT.
With that in mind, he said conservatives shouldn't ignore what appears to be Trump's decline.
Calling Trump's boast that he is going to make drug prices go down by “1,000 percent, 600 percent, 500 percent, 1,500 percent," Truax pointed out was mathematically impossible and therefore "total nonsense."
Pointing out he understands that Trump's MAGA base loves their man, he added, "I recognize how hard this must be for them. After the death of a child, watching someone you love and respect struggle with dementia may be one of the worst experiences a person can have, whether it’s a parent or a president," before suggesting, "But when the time comes, it’s something that must be faced squarely. That goes double when we are talking about the president."
Admitting that many would back a dementia diagnosis, he explained Trump "is struggling with mathematical concepts, has vivid 'memories' that are not rooted in reality and has an increasingly foggy grasp of past events that did happen. That’s not a medical diagnosis. These are facts we can see for ourselves and we all know, even those of us who voted for Trump three times, that this can’t be allowed to continue."
Truax acknowledged that Trump's inner circle is too loyal to admit there is a problem, then warned, "Donald Trump is showing all the signs of suffering from dementia. If this were a neighbor, a parent, or a family friend, you would have no trouble seeing it. We should not turn our heads just because it is the president."