Donald Trump’s speaking style has deteriorated over recent years in certain ways which are potential indications of cognitive decline, experts say.
Speaking to Stat, experts in memory, psychology, and linguistics noted a decline in the former president’s verbal complexity since 2017 which has also been coupled with a rise in disjointed and sometimes incoherent speech patterns. While there may be several benign explanations for the changes, others are more alarming.
A previous Stat analysis during Trump’s first year in the White House found his speaking style had declined since the 1980s. The outlet has now repeated the analysis, asking four experts to review four clips of Trump’s recent speeches and to compare them with speeches he gave in 2017.
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Several pointed out that the now-78-year-old Trump’s 2024 speeches used more short sentences, repetition, and muddled word order, and the use of “extended digressions.” The experts said the changes could be attributed to causes including mood changes, natural aging, or the “beginnings of a cognitive condition like Alzheimer’s disease,” according to Stat.
Ben Michaelis, a clinical psychologist who has done cognitive assessments for New York’s Supreme Court, played down the significance of instances of when Trump mixes up names, like when he confused Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley during a speech in January.
The most significant change since 2017, according to Michaelis, is the increase in Trump’s digressions and speeches which don’t remain focused on a single topic. Michaelis said he couldn’t offer a formal diagnosis, but said the Republican nominee’s speaking style is a concern. “There’s reasonable evidence suggestive of forms of dementia,” he said. “The reduction in complexity of sentences and vocabulary does lead you to a certain picture of cognitive diminishment.”
Michaelis also flagged Trump using words in the incorrect order and even inventing words as possible signs of cognitive issues which can come from aging or certain conditions like Alzheimer’s.
Andrew Budson, a neurology professor at Boston University, said Trump’s tendency to veer off-script is likely to do with the frontal lobe—the region of the brain most often affected by aging. He said the habit of jumping around in conversation might reflect poor sleep, ADHD, or possibly be a sign of approaching Alzheimer’s. “There are absolutely changes that are occurring, without any doubt,” he told Stat.
James Pennebaker, a social psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, carried out another analysis for the outlet based on the transcripts of 35 interviews Trump gave from 2015 through 2024. Using statistical software to analyse Trump’s word use, Pennebaker found an increase in “all-or-nothing thinking” since the end of his presidency in 2021—a habit which can be a sign of depression or cognitive decline, he said. Pennebaker claimed that President Joe Biden’s all-or-nothing thinking has also “gone up.”
Since 2020, Trump has also increasingly spoken about the past, Pennebaker found. He also remarked on Trump’s speeches’ score in a linguistic metric of analytical thinking, saying the former president—who tends to use simple words and sentences—is much lower than most presidential candidates. While those seeking the White House are generally in the 60 to 70 range, Pennebaker said, Trump’s speeches range from 10 to 24.
“I can’t tell you how staggering this is,” Pennebaker told Stat. “He does not think in a complex way at all.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.
