Dr. John Gartner, a clinical psychologist and former Johns Hopkins professor, warned on a podcast that 79-year-old Donald Trump may be showing a sign of a serious cognitive problem. Gartner raised his concern during an interview on The Daily Beast Podcast on Sunday.
Gartner pointed to tests and scans the president says he took. “They said they did advanced imaging,” Gartner said. “Okay, well, Trump said not once, not twice, but three times that he had taken cognitive tests. Plural. Okay, so not just a screening exam…They gave him multiple tests. We do not give people multiple cognitive tests unless we suspect there’s a serious cognitive problem.”
He added that scans are rarely routine. “We also never, ever…give someone an MRI unless we suspect or need to rule out a serious problem,” he said. “So, we know his doctors gave him multiple cognitive tests and an MRI. They didn’t say explicitly because of the brain, but we can certainly be sure they scanned his brain. If they’re giving him a neuropsychological battery, they’re scanning his brain.”
Gartner spelled out what a typical doctor would do when faced with these signs. “If Donald Trump were just an ordinary patient and you saw these kinds of serious signs of dementia, a responsible doctor would give him both a neuropsychological battery and an MRI,” he said. “Of course, they’re not telling us why they gave those tests. They’re not telling us the results.”
The comments come after a tense exchange on Air Force One that many journalists and readers found striking. When a reporter pressed him about newly released files tied to Jeffrey Epstein, the president snapped at the reporter and said, “Quiet, piggy.” The clip spread quickly online and added fuel to questions about both his manners and his mental sharpness.
The White House defended the remark, saying the president was being frank and direct. Officials described the reaction as part of his style and urged critics not to make too much of a private moment on a plane. That defense has not calmed everyone. Many news outlets and medical experts have said the moment is one of several that deserve a closer look.
Mr Trump has publicly said he took cognitive tests at Walter Reed and that doctors performed an MRI. That disclosure has raised new questions about why the tests were done and what they showed. Some former White House doctors have pushed back on parts of the timeline or on how the details were shared, saying the public still lacks clear answers.
Gartner told The Daily Beast he is not the only clinician to notice patterns that worry him. He pointed to odd speech, odd gestures, and what he called motor slips as signs that add up. Taken together, he said, the tests and the scan likely mean the doctors were checking for a real medical issue, not running a routine check up.
Featured image via X screengrab
