Speculation About Whether Donald Trump Has Dementia Has Been Roiling for Months

The end of President Joe Biden's term in office was characterized in part by a tremendous focus on the speculation that he might have dementia or some other kind of cognitive decline.

Even at the time, though, it was noteworthy that President Trump, who was running against him, would be even older than Biden when he finished his next term in office.

Particularly among groups of people who oppose the president, there are some who think that Trump is showing signs of dementia or some other kind of cognitive decline.

Here's what we know about whether he has dementia or not.

If President Trump has been diagnosed with dementia, that information has not been made publicly available. It seems possible that his administration would try to cover up any sort of cognitive decline, but for now, we don't know for sure whether he has dementia or not.

It is worth noting that Trump's speeches continue to be rather rambling, with some suggesting that they have gotten more so in recent years.

He has also made some misstatements and, at times, seemed to misremember key facts. It's impossible to say for sure whether these are signs of any sort of cognitive decline or simply the mistakes a person makes when they speak frequently in public.

If Trump is experiencing cognitive decline, it's clear that his team has not been able to stop him from speaking in public anyway.

Psychologist Dr. John Gartner told The Daily Beast podcast that shifts in how Trump speaks could also be signs of decline.

“He used to speak with a high level of vocabulary in very polished paragraphs. Now what we see is not only has his vocabulary gone down, but... there are times when he’s really unable to complete a thought,” he said. “Sometimes he’s unable to complete a word.”

Ultimately, though, the question of whether Trump has dementia or not is one that it's tough for the public to answer. There's a reason doctors have to make diagnoses after actually examining the patient. That's the most reliable way to make an accurate diagnosis, but in this case, it's difficult to say whether such a diagnosis would be possible, and whether it would ever be released to the public if it was.

One of the reasons the question of Trump's potential dementia has returned to the forefront is that it appears as though Google has turned off an AI-generated response to the question.

It will answer questions around Biden's cognitive decline, but does not engage in the same prompts around Trump.

According to The Verge, it's possible that Google has done this because it is worried about what Trump's response might be, although we don't know that for sure.

Usually, AI would generate a response that offers both sides of the argument, even though this is a health issue for which there is an objectively correct answer, even if we don't know what it is.