Psychiatrist flags 'alarming' debate tic — and urges Trump to seek a neurologist

Former President Donald Trump should immediately seek a neurologist after exhibiting a classic and common sign of dementia at the presidential debates on Tuesday, according to a prominent psychiatrist.

Prof. Richard A. Friedman, director of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, argued in an Atlantic editorial Thursday that Trump's rhetorical tendencies would make any mental health expert "very worried."

"Trump’s expressions of those tendencies were alarming," wrote Friedman. "He displayed some striking, if familiar, patterns that are commonly seen among people in cognitive decline."

Friedman's concern stemmed from Trump's repetitive speech pattern. The psychiatrist argued it did not represent a political tactic but a worrying compulsion.

To prove his point, Friedman quoted at length Trump's response to a question as to whether he held any lingering regrets after the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.

"I have said 'blood bash—bath,'" Trump replied. "It was a different term, and it was a term that related to energy, because they have destroyed our energy business. That was where bloodbath was. Also, on Charlottesville, that story has been, as you would say, debunked. Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Jesse—all of these people, they covered it. If they go an extra sentence, they will see it was perfect."

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Friedman explained that such circumstantial and tangential speech can reflect the inability to engage in logical thinking and argued Trump is losing control of his own "tics."

Another such tic, his repetition or perseverance, can be a sign of serious short-term memory loss, Friedman wrote.

"People tend to stick to familiar topics over and over when they experience an impairment in cognitive functioning, for instance, in short-term memory," Friedman wrote. "Given the complexity of the job of being president, short-term memory is a vital skill."

While the psychiatrist made it plain he was offering no diagnosis nor had he examined the former president, Friedman admitted he felt Trump should seek immediate medical attention.

"If a patient presented to me with the verbal incoherence, tangential thinking, and repetitive speech that Trump now regularly demonstrates, I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness," he wrote.

"A condition such as vascular dementia or Alzheimer’s disease would not be out of the ordinary for a 78-year-old.... For those who do have such diseases or conditions, several treatments and services exist to help them and their loved ones cope with their decline. But that does not mean any of them would be qualified to serve as commander in chief."