Several recent statements by Donald Trump raise questions about his mental health. Inconsistencies, conspiracy theories, frontal attacks on Kamala Harris… The state of mental health of the former American president has become a political issue.
Less than two months before the American presidential election, Donald Trump seems entangled in a campaign without ideas, but which does not yet escape him. He even manages to remain popular with Republicans and is not at all distanced in the polls, as Kamala Harris’ supporters had hoped since July. His chances of winning the election are even quite real, even if he is no longer the favorite. The Republican would become, if he were to be elected, the oldest president at the end of his term, at the age of 82.
And it is quite easy to see that several leading American newspapers are now publicly launching the hypothesis that his age is a problem for governing. “He too has mixed up names (like Biden), confused facts and stumbled over his arguments. Mr. Trump’s rambling speeches, his sometimes incoherent statements and his extreme outbursts have raised questions about his own cognitive health, and, according to polls, stimulated doubts among a majority of voters,” highlights the New York Times. Indeed, Donald Trump’s age and health also seem to be a topic for public opinion in the United States. According to thestudy conducted by Marquette University Law School, 57% of Americans think he is too old to govern. In other words, more than one in two Americans believe Donald Trump is unfit to be president of the country.
In recent weeks, some of his media outings, at the very least dubious, are increasingly raising questions and giving another turn to this race for the White House. It must be said that many of his remarks are now raising questions among observers and journalists, concerning his own abilities and in particular his mental health. He appeared relatively confused last week when answering a question about childcare in New York. Enough to revive the debate about his ability to govern the United States for a second time.
Donald Trump was asked about American families struggling to pay for childcare due to the high cost of living in America. The former president gave off-topic answers, particularly about customs duties on imports into the country. The sequence went viral on social media and in newspapers. “Incomprehensible”, “incoherent”, “gibberish”, were the headlines of some American dailies. “He couldn’t formulate a coherent sentence”, lamented Katherine M. Clark, an elected representative from Massachusetts, on X. Donald Trump’s outburst also drew mockery from some Democrats. Because of his comments on childcare, Donald Trump could now be subjected to the same “coherence” test as Joe Biden, particularly because of his age, explains Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a specialist in presidential communications at the Annenberg School of the University of Pennsylvania, in the New York Times.
According to American communications experts, and as reported in the columns of New York Times“he jumps from one topic to another seemingly at random, often confusing listeners in search of a central point, a pattern experts call “tangential thinking,” a sign of confusion that increases with age. And he makes outlandish claims with no basis in fact,” the daily reports. At a rally in Nevada last June, he even got lost in completely incomprehensible rhetoric. Donald Trump insinuated that he was on a sinking boat, wondering whether it was better to be electrocuted in the water or attacked by a shark. “I’m going to get electrocuted every time,” he suggested. “I don’t go near the shark. So we could end it. We’re going to end it for boats.” Almost delusional remarks that raise serious questions about the former president’s health.
It is clear that Donald Trump has made many strange statements and slip-ups in recent weeks, and even months. Last month, he notably suggested that schools were sponsoring transgender surgery, demonstrating an obsession with the “woke threat.” “Your child goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation,” he said. “The school decides what happens to your child,” he also said. After confusing Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi and declaring several times that he had beaten Barack Obama and not Hillary Clinton, he nevertheless considered himself “mentally fit.”
As early as 2019, doctors were warning about Trump’s health.
Is the real estate mogul really “mentally fit”? An element hotly contested by “doctors and other mental health professionals” to Nancy Pelosi, 52nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, since 2019, reveals The Guardian. This collective of health professionals said they were “deeply concerned that there was something seriously wrong” with Donald Trump. “Health was declining,” we can even read. For her part, Nancy Pelosi explains that she “knew of Donald Trump’s mental imbalance.” And adds: “His banging on tables, his tantrums, his lack of respect for our nation’s patriots and his total separation from reality and real events. His repeated and ridiculous insistence that he was the greatest of all time,” were beyond her doubt.
“He continues to be dangerous. If his family and staff truly understood his disregard for basic principles of law and basic rules, and if they had taken into account his personal instability in not winning the election [de 2020]they should have intervened. Whether through willful blindness, money, prestige or greed, they did not – and America has paid a heavy price,” she laments in the columns of The Guardian.
“She showed a massive crowd, but they don’t exist! She’s a cheater”
August 10, 2024, on the social network TruthDonald Trump had claimed that a rally at an American airport to greet Kamala Harris had never existed. “No one was there. Did anyone notice that Kamala cheated at the airport? There was no one on the plane,” he said, in a form of delirium defying all reality. He accused his competitor in particular of having used artificial intelligence for the photos published on social networks that same day. “She showed a massive crowd, but they don’t exist! She’s a cheat, no one was waiting,” he wrote. In reality, the rally had indeed brought together many journalists from different media. The Washington Post indicated that around 15,000 people were present that day. An event widely documented by photos and videos, dismantling Donald Trump’s argument.
“She was Indian through and through and all of a sudden she became a black person”
The 21st Last May, the former President of the United States, still on the social network Truth, stated in a message that Joe Biden had authorized the FBI to assassinate him. “Now we know, for sure, that Joe Biden is a serious threat to democracy,” he wrote. “You know, they just can’t wait to do the unthinkable.” Comments related to the search warrant for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, as part of the search for classified documents in August 2022.
Finally, more recently, on July 31, 2024, he accused Kamala Harris of having “become black” for electoral reasons, during an exchange with African-American journalists in Chicago. “She was Indian through and through and all of a sudden, she changed and she became a black person,” he said. Words “that are divisive and disrespectful,” Kamala Harris insisted on responding. As a reminder, born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Kamala Harris is the first black woman and woman of South Asian origin to aim for the presidency of the United States of America. She defines herself as a “black woman.”