Psychologist spots new diagnostic alarm bell in Trump
A prominent psychologist is sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump's increasingly erratic behavior, warning that his fixation on Washington construction projects is a sign of significant mental decline.
Dr. John Gartner, a clinical psychologist and former Johns Hopkins University Medical School professor, told the Daily Beast that Trump's rambling tangents about pet projects — the White House Ballroom, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a planned Triumphal Arch modeled after Paris's Arc de Triomphe — aren't just political theater.
He warned they're clear symptoms that psychologists would use to reach a worrying diagnosis.
"Tangential speech is one of the diagnostic criteria for dementia," Gartner told the Beast.
A Daily Beast analysis found Trump discussed his construction projects on 17 separate occasions between May 1 and June 5 — at Cabinet meetings, Oval Office events, airport press gaggles — regardless of the actual topic at hand. Wisconsin farmers struggling with falling commodity prices got a six-minute detour about the Reflecting Pool, complete with "before and after" pictures.
Gartner ties the obsession directly to Trump's psychology.
"What he's obsessed with is a function of malignant narcissism. He's obsessed with things that reflect glory on him," he said. "He's changing Washington D.C. to Trump D.C."
And he added, "It's only going to go downhill from here."
"If it quacks like a duck, it may actually just be a Democrat hack doctor," White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast, adding that Trump is "the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in American history."
Trump's physician maintains he is in "excellent health" and fully fit for duty, while Trump repeatedly boasts about "acing" cognitive tests as proof of his intelligence — though medical experts note those tests screen for impairment, not IQ.
Gartner, who acknowledges he has not evaluated Trump in person, believes the president has shown signs of frontotemporal dementia for years.
"His dementia is becoming more disorganized and more impulsive," he said. "It's clear that this is someone who is in dramatic neurological decline."