Full Frontal

​There’s just been an inundating barrage from Trump the past couple of weeks, even more than usual, which is saying a lot.  I almost didn’t know what to write about  for the other day, there was just too much.  (And Trump wanting to put his name on Penn Station and Dulles Airport almost didn’t make the list.)  And interestingly, there’s somewhat of an explanation of it. 

That comes from that psychologist I quote all the time, Dr. John Gartner from Johns Hopkins.  It’s very interesting – and is the sort of thing no reporter would be expected to know.  But a medical professional who deals with dementia would.  Which is why news shows should have actual medical experts on to discuss Trump’s dementia.

The article started out with a basic way that an expert can make proper observations about dementia from afar.

“The main way to diagnose dementia is that we see a deterioration from someone’s own baseline in these four areas: language, memory, behavior, and psychomotor performance,” Dr. Gartner said.  “He’s deteriorated since his last administration noticeably, but now we’re seeing deterioration almost week over week. The rate of decline is accelerating.”

And it’s that specific acceleration that gave a clue to Gartner about what appeared to be happening with Trump.  For starters, what Dr. Gartner said (after seeing a mass of screwed up statements in recent weeks, like mixing up Iceland and Greenland, going on a long tangent at the Davos economic summit on how the 2020 elections were rigged ) was --

“The high-pressure job can also accelerate cognitive dysfunction.”

What Gartner said next, though, was the most interesting.  While it’s one thing that doctors should not diagnose Trump merely based on his family history or jumping to any conclusions around his health, these increased problems (including plummeting polls down to 38%) have made medical experts consider "the wider state of his health" as Trump attacks Venezuela, kidnaps the country’s president, threatens military takeovers in Greenland, adds his name to the Kennedy Center,  defends the murders by ICE of two U.S. citizens, and much, more.  Including, most recently, posting a pathetically racist video of President and Mrs. Obama.  And so, what Gartner said this points to, most importantly, is –

"While this form [of cognitive dysfunction] does not produce the same level of memory decay as Alzheimer’s, it does produce tremendous disinhibition of behavior -- because it’s the frontal lobes that are the brakes of the brain. So that’s what inhibits us from acting out. 

“Part of his brain [appears to be] deteriorating disproportionately so he’s losing the brakes, and this is someone who was always impulsive and always acted out aggressively… Whilst he’s becoming confused about what’s happening, he’s also” – and this is the fascinating part to me, coming from an expert who understands these things – “becoming aggressively disinhibited to act in impulsive and erratic ways.” 

While most people look at dementia as dealing with memory or stumbling with words, or impacting one’s physical movement, here’s an expert saying that what it also can do is affect the part of the brain that controls our impulsive behaviors.  And when that part of the brain deteriorates, so too does that part of the brain that protects a person from acting overly impulsively.

I wouldn’t know that.  Reporters wouldn’t know that.  Medical experts know that.  And so, when they see this barrage of crazy, impulsive behavior, it’s not just Trump acting his usual impulsive self – Trump being Trump --  but the avalanche of impulsive acts we’ve been seeing lately suggests (to medical experts) it appears to be his dementia worsening.

It’s one thing for someone in the general public to presume that – it’s another thing entirely to hear a medical explanation from an expert on how it works.

The deterioration of the part of the brain that inhibits improper, impulsive actions turns out to be a feature of dementia.  And the more the dementia worsens, the more improper, impulsive actions will occur.

And dementia is degenerative.

The White House efforts to blame an unnamed, and likely fictitious “low level White House staffer” who supposedly chose to post a virulently racist video of President Obama and his wife appearing to be apes under Trump’s name is ludicrous.  Not only have we not be told of any staffer being fired or even reprimanded for doing something so repugnant that even Trump was convinced to delete the post – but Trump has not apologized for it…and when given the chance, just walked away from reporters.

It was presumed that Trump posting the video was because of his life-long racism, dating back (publicly at least) to when he took out a full-page ad in the New York Times that called for the death penalty during the trial of the (later exonerated) Central Park 5.  And no doubt it was his deep racism that was at the foundation of what he approved of.  But it now seems possible, from what Dr.  John Gartner says, that it was Trump’s worsening dementia, deteriorating the frontal lobes of his brain, that weakened his inhibition and allowed him to act impulsively and erratically on his bottom instincts. 

On this and so much else lately.