Why doctors felt compelled to test Donald Trump for dementia
When Donald Trump went on the Chris Wallace show on Sunday morning and bragged that he’d “aced” a cognitive exam, Wallace quickly pointed out that the questions were extraordinarily easy, and that knowing the answers was nothing to brag about. When Trump pressed the issue, Wallace pointed to questions like having to identify a picture of an elephant.
It turns out Trump opened a can of worms for himself. The questions on this test are clearly intended to screen for dementia or extreme senility, and such a test wouldn’t be given without reason. Congressman Ted Lieu put his finger on what’s wrong here:
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This part of the @realDonaldTrump interview with Chris Wallace is funny. But it shouldn’t be. We need to ask again, why did doctors ask @POTUS to do a test for dementia or memory loss? Was this standard procedure or did doctors see something that caused them to give the test? https://t.co/CfDjXpRPjL
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 19, 2020
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Doctors don’t generally test people for dementia unless they’re displaying potential symptoms of dementia. Either Donald Trump ordered doctors to test him for dementia so he could prove he didn’t have it – which would suggest that he was worried he was going senile – or Trump was displaying symptoms of dementia at the time he was tested. Either way, Trump pretty much just proved he’s in severe cognitive decline.
