Yesterday I watched a bunch of news on CNN (American CNN, through a VPN) with some French friends here in France, who don't really follow US politics on a daily basis, but aren't completely unaware of what’s going on either, at least in general terms.
We watched a clip of a recent Trump speech (in Iowa, I think?) and they turned towards me and one of them said, “he's mad, isn't he?” My friend, who is an MD, meant it in a clinical way. Insane. Psychotic. Certifiable. Whatever word you wish to use. My friend treated my now gone parents whose end of life was sadly unhappy: my mom had alzheimer; my dad, cognitive problems due to other health issues. So he knows how to recognize someone with the onset of dementia. He treats many of them in our village.
I'm sure thousands of doctors in the US probably recognize the same symptoms when they watch Trump on TV. He's now reached the stage where it's blindingly obvious, I think. Why is this "elephant in the room” not mentioned anywhere? Ever? (With the possible exception of Dr Mary Trump, but I don't think people pay much attention to her.)
There's talk of Biden's age, but not Trump's onset of dementia? It's incomprehensible to me why is this not more of an issue. Is it because we've all have had parents suffering from similar problems and we're afraid of “going there"?
I couldn't explain to my friends why this was so, and the conversation moved on to other subjects. But it made me think and prompted me to write this.
Update: As mentioned above, both my parents suffered from cognitive problems. As for me, I’m 69 right now. This diary was not about Trump being a psychopath. He always was. It was specifically about him clearly suffering *now* from the onset of dementia. My guess would be probably not alzheimer (my mom had that so I'd recognize it) but something related to cerebral blood flow (like my dad). I see a lot of similarities, and my friend the local MD thought it was obvious. For all we know, maybe he's already being treated for that. But why on Earth is this — purely in terms of his suitability to run for office — not an issue???