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Charlamagne plays clips showing Trump checking every box on the Mayo Clinic's dementia watch list [1]
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Date: 2025-07-23
Trump’s mind. A decade of decline.
In 2015, Trump began campaigning with a disjointed rhetorical style that often saw him fail to complete the same sentence he had started. To most, he appeared a textbook case of ADHD — skipping from subject to subject like an enthusiastic but indecisive child jumbling through a toy chest. However, even in his stop-and-go oratory, most people saw him as mainly compos mentis.
Now, a decade later, his serial misstatement of facts, his inability to pronounce standard English words, and his fogginess on whom he does and doesn’t know seem less a product of political expediency and more a symptom of the dementia that runs in his family and killed his father.
I’m not a psychiatrist, and neither are most of my fellow partisans. But many of us know people who suffer from the mental challenges of aging. And Trump’s behavior looks … familiar.
Charlamagne’s analysis. Trump vs Biden
On Tuesday, during a guest-hosting appearance on the Daily Show. Charlamagne Tha God enumerated many of these psychological fractures to show the hypocrisy of the 79-year-old Trump casting aspersions on the mental acuity of the 82-year-old ex-President Joe Biden. Let’s have a look (video at the bottom).
Charlamagne warms to his task by highlighting the GOP House Oversight Committee’s investigation of an “elite cabal of the wealthy and powerful kept a dark secret from the American public, a secret involving the President himself … that Joe Biden was old” and that he used an autopen. An act that Trump called — in a video from the Oval Office as the bemused Philippine President sat beside him — “the biggest scandal in American history.”
Charlamagne goes on to reassure journalists that if they had flubbed calling out that Biden was a ”senile necrotizing head of state,” they had a chance for redemption. They could point out that Trump was no sharp knife. In fact, Donald was providing evidence he was as mentally sluggish as he had accused Joe of being — maybe worse.
For proof, Charlamagne showed a video of Trump trying to congratulate a sports team at the White House. Note: Donald appeared to be reading a script. If so, it didn’t help.
“You entered the playoffs battered and bruised but not broken. When you ran out the healthy arms, you ran out of really healthy … they had great arms … but they ran out … it’s called sports … it’s called baseball in particular … and pitchers I guess you could say in really particular.
The Mayo Clinic’s list of dementia symptoms
Charlamagne then asks the camera: “Is Trump really losing it as badly as Biden?” He suggests a test:
“Let’s run through this official list. OK, of dementia symptoms from the Mayo Clinic. OK. Now first I want to say that doctors warn it’s unethical to diagnose someone you haven’t actually examined, But I’m not a doctor, OK? So let’s fucking go. All right?
That seems fair. One, Trump has torn up ethical standards for the presidency, so why not other things? Two, Trump is not just the President of American psychiatrists, but of all citizens. Let the citizens form their own opinions based on the evidence they can plainly see.
Symptom #1: Memory loss
Charlamagne gets down to Mayo’s list: “Symptom number one, memory loss, as in: Donald, do you remember you appointed Jerome Powell to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2018?
He plays a clip proving that Trump has forgotten he had anything to do with the appointment to the high-profile and memorable job.
“I was surprised he [Powell] was appointed. I was surprised, frankly, that Biden put him in.”
It’s like watching your kid play the lead in a school play — and seven years later thinking someone else’s kid had. Everyone forgets small stuff. But if you’re blanking on the big things, it’s time for a cognitive check-in.
Symptom #2: Problems with communication and vocabulary
Charlamagne adds his commentary: “Memory loss? Check. OK. He’s stealing Biden’s whole flow, word for word, bar for bar. OK? He continues: “Next symptom, problems with communication and finding the correct words.”
A video of Trump speechifying appears:
“As a linguist, translator, and cryptolagagic [my best guess] technician.”
Symptom #3: Confusion and disorientation
Charlamagne moves on: “All right. What we got next? ‘Confusion and disorientation’.”
Next, a video taken at an airport appears. A reporter asks, “Mr President, do the tariff rates change at all on July 9th? Or do they change on August 1st?” Trump answers:
“What are you talking about?”
Trump campaigned on tariffs. He keeps talking about them. He’s constantly threatening to apply them. And just as often, he postpones the threat. I have trouble keeping up. But even I knew what the reporter was talking about.
Charlamagne then scorns a popular conservative meme to illustrate the genius of their man. “Don’t you get it? Trump’s tariff policy is 5D chess. And all five ‘D’s stand for ‘dementia’.”
Symptom #4: Coordination and movement control
The host moves on to the next symptom, “coordination and movement control.” A quick clip of Trump ‘dancing’ to a gay anthem takes care of that.
Symptom #5: Agitation
Charlamagne continues down the list. “Another prominent symptom of dementia is agitation. Let’s see the cool head of our President.” He plays a video montage.
Trump responding to an inquiry in a TV interview: “Do I have 100%. It’s a stupid question.” On Air Force One: “I think your question is so stupid.” In the Oval Office: “Don’t ever say what you said. That’s a nasty question.” In a press conference: “Scum. They’re bad people. They’re sick.” In the Oval Office: “You are a real — you know, you’re a terrible reporter. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You know you’re so bad. You’re such a bad reporter.”
I would say that ad hominem is a symptom of people who lack the mental capacity to form a sophisticated response — which may also be a symptom of dementia. But if Charlamagne wants to characterize it as agitation, I’ll go along.
Trump’s apologists use the same language as Biden’s
Charlamagne ends, not by excusing Biden, but by pointing out that the ex-President’s defenders and the Trump sycophants who dismiss the current President’s mental deterioration use precisely the same language.
Biden apologist then: “Joe Biden is as sharp as a tack.”
Trump apologist now: “President Trump is as sharp as a tack.” “The President [Biden] is absolutely sharp, fit, on top of his game.”
“President Trump is in top shape. He’s at the top of his game.” ” He [Biden] puts many of us to shame with his energy.” “
“President Trump has shocked the world with his energy.” “ It is hard for us to keep up with this President [Biden], who is constantly, constantly working every day.”
“Hard to keep up with him [Trump] . He is a machine working around the clock every single day.”
The press needs to step up
Charlamagne closes by saying that the media needs to do their jobs, because America is in the hands of a man who lacks the mental makeup to do the job.
“We need journalists to speak truth to power. Because right now our government is like an 86-year-old driving a car and we’re all in the passenger seat.”
Investigative journalism can be hard. People go to great lengths to keep the bad secret. However, in this case the evidence is sitting in plain sight.
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