A clinical and forensic psychologist breaking down President Donald Trump’s weekend rally in Tennessee flagged a moment he called “a really wild thing to watch”: Trump told the crowd he could say the stupidest things and they’d clap, and they did.
Dr. John Paul Garrison, known online as “Dr. G” to more than half a million YouTube subscribers, broke down the Clarksville event in a new video. Trump appeared Saturday at the F&M Bank Arena to campaign for Tennessee Republicans, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the GOP nominee for governor, ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
“When you stand up here, it’s just like the love. I could say the stupidest things and you clap,” Trump told the audience, which cheered. “You know, I love you so. That’s true.”
Garrison called it “clapping after a thinly veiled insult, basically saying that they would clap for anything.”
“You notice how at the end he said it’s true because he’s emphasizing the fact there is unconditional loyalty no matter what he says,” Garrison said. “Not surprisingly, he goes on to say that he doesn’t say stupid things, but what this does is this is using authority and dominance, and framing it as humor.”
Garrison also zeroed in on a recurring sideways shift of Trump’s jaw that appeared when the president grew animated, including as he boasted about renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
“Sometimes we see that when people are either on stimulant medication or taking stimulants of some kind,” Garrison said, adding that the movement could also have a neurological cause tied to impaired motor functioning. Garrison has not examined Trump, and the White House has not disclosed that the president takes any stimulant medication.
On nights like Saturday, Garrison said, Trump appeared “more emotionally dysregulated” and “almost manic,” struggling to inhibit his own behavior.
Garrison stressed at the start of his video that his analysis “is not a psychological evaluation of any kind” and reflects his opinions. He isn’t the first mental health professional to raise alarms about Trump’s public behavior, and a former GOP strategist said one Trump rally showed he was fading.
Trump, 80, said after a May exam at Walter Reed that “Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” and his White House physician declared him “fully fit” to serve. In a February Reuters/Ipsos poll, 61% of Americans, including 30% of Republicans, said Trump has “become erratic with age.”
