Donald Trump’s Concerns About Cognitive Decline Traced To His Father’s Dementia

Trump’s fixation on mental fitness can be traced back to his observations of his father’s deteriorating dementia, a formative period that has had a significant, yet rarely mentioned, impact on his life as it has instilled in him an ever-present fear that he might suffer the same in the future.

In the mid-1990s, Donald Trump invited his extended family to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate. Amidst the lavish gathering, Trump’s father, Fred Trump Sr., was visibly struggling, according to Trump’s niece Mary L. Trump.

At the event, Fred, then in his late 80s, failed to recognize two of his children and approached Trump with a picture of a Cadillac and asked his son’s permission to make the purchase. Mary’s recollection sheds light on Fred Trump Sr.’s battle with dementia, a condition diagnosed several years prior.

In a 1997 interview with Playboy, Trump expressed his anguish at the sight of his father “addled with Alzheimer’s” and pondered the senselessness of life.

As Trump, 77, presently seeks a return to the White House, he has weaponized the issue of cognitive impairment and baselessly alleged that President Joe Biden, 81, suffers from such impairment. This tactic is consistent with Trump’s pattern of attacking adversaries by questioning their mental acuity, while simultaneously boasting about his results on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a basic test used to identify early signs of dementia.

Trump frequently claims to have passed the MoCA twice, but his campaign, through a spokesperson, declined to release his test results or specify when he last took the test.

Former White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) stated in an interview that he administered the test to Trump once in January 2018. In November, Trump released a brief letter from Dr. Bruce Aronwald, a doctor of osteopathy, who attested to Trump’s excellent health and exceptional cognitive exam results, though no further details were provided and Aronwald has refused to comment any further.

While much remains unknown about Alzheimer’s disease, experts suggest an increased risk of inheriting a gene associated with the illness from a parent. Fred’s condition also fueled family conflict and resulted in years of lawsuits that alleged Trump’s exploitation of his father’s dementia to gain control of the family estate. These legal battles brought forth extensive medical records that detailed Fred’s condition.

Mental acuity has become a central issue in the presidential campaign, with a majority of voters expressing concerns about the mental fitness of both Trump and Biden. These concerns have intensified as both candidates have experienced lapses on the campaign trail, with Biden mixing up the names of world leaders and Trump making notable errors, such as confusing individuals and making alarming predictions about potential conflicts.

Trump’s GOP opponent, Nikki Haley, frequently suggested that Trump is suffering from early-stage dementia.

Trump’s experience with his father’s dementia has shaped his perception of the issue, while his strategic use of cognitive impairment allegations against political opponents reflects his approach to gaining an upper hand in the public sphere.