US President Donald Trump catches a helmet on the day the final steel beam goes into the ballroom, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, November 4, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
A clinical and forensic psychologist flagged what he described as “involuntary” arm and mouth movements during President Donald Trump’s first public appearance since Republicans were routed at the polls.
Dr. John Paul Garrison zeroed in on a moment Wednesday at the White House, where Trump marked the hoisting of the final steel beam for his new ballroom, an event held hours after his party lost control of Congress. While Trump was holding a hard hat, Garrison said, the president’s mouth and arms moved in ways that didn’t appear intentional.
“We’re seeing him engage in some strange behavior in his mouth as well as his arms. All of it appears to be involuntary,” Garrison said in a video analysis.
Garrison said nothing in Trump’s behavior before or after the moment suggested it was deliberate, and listed several possible neurological explanations, including a type of seizure, dementia or effects of a stroke. He also flagged a second moment during Trump’s remarks, saying the president’s eyes blinked and his right arm twitched as he struggled to say the word “terrible.”
The video is the latest in a series of analyses in which the Georgia-based psychologist has pointed to what he sees as signs of Trump’s neurological decline.
After a speech at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston this summer, Garrison said a full-body twitch was consistent with a focal aware seizure, calling it the most concerning footage of the president he had analyzed. He later flagged potential seizure activity during the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas in September, and abrupt twitches during Trump’s address to the United Nations that he said appeared to travel from the president’s right arm to his eyes, mouth and left arm. Last month, he suggested Trump’s garbled speech at a rally in Mobile, Alabama, could point to a possible brain lesion.
Garrison’s analysis is based on video footage, and he opened his latest video by saying it was not a psychological evaluation and reflected only his opinions. Trump has repeatedly dismissed questions about his health, saying he has “aced” three cognitive tests.
Trump spent much of the event touting the ballroom’s columns, chandeliers and 50-foot ceilings. Asked about Vice President JD Vance’s claim that the war in Iran cost Republicans the midterms, Trump said it was “largely true” because the war drove up gas prices, but said he would do it again.