Dementia doctor explains what is happening to Trump

Speaker 1: Today we welcome to the program Dr. Elizabeth Landsberg, who is an expert in

dementia

and Alzheimer's disease, as well as a geriatrician. Dr. Liz, it's great to have you. I really appreciate it. Speaker 6: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to teach about

dementia

. Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, listen, let's get started. I think at this point, the two leading presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, have seen a series of very confident and boisterous accusations about their cognition and their state of mind. We are literally talking about a brain worm that Robert F Kennedy Jr also experienced in his early 20s.

And maybe you have something to say about him. Can you give us a brief overview of when we look at people we know primarily through media, television and audio? What are you looking for? What can we and can't necessarily collect? Speaker 6: Well, it's a huge topic. I'll try to be brief. When we talk about whether someone has the capacity for an intervention, the question is

what

is it? As a geriatrician, I'm often asked, do you have financial capacity, you know, in relation to someone who's maybe being financially abused, or do you have medical capacity or can you sign a will?

So if you don't, if you just understand, you know,

what

assets you have, your house and who you would like them to go to. That is called testamentary. Cool. Doctor. You have to understand medical interventions, like, you know, if you have an infection that you like, they want to cut it out. That means you will be in the hospital for a while and won't be able to walk on it. Can you repeat that? Financial matters are more complicated because you have to understand and abstract concepts and reasoning. And basically, I use this as an opportunity to talk to the local public.

And when I have someone who acts strangely and doesn't take care of their bills, either they get angrier than before, or they just, you know, the personality seems different. I then ask the family to ask the person to draw a clock, say 1110, and calculate 25% of $22.50. It seems really simple. But our society is so conditioned that if you sound socially okay, we think you're okay. And I've had several patients where a gentleman was a very successful businessman, but he drank too much and was going through a divorce, and I could see that he wasn't eating. He couldn't take care of the house, he couldn't do the shopping.

He needed care. And the lawyer said, well, you can't have that attention because, you know, the divorce settlement. And that's why they hadn't recognized the other dimension, they needed help. And then I said, no, you have to make sure you take care of it. This happens all the time. So I'm not going to point out and say that Trump, Biden, or RFK have dementia. I'm going to say what I'm looking for. I watch the show and first hear a lot about Trump confusing Obama and Biden. He confused Pelosi and Haley. Those are pretty serious because these are the people who, you know, it's his job to run for president.

And Biden got confused about meat, Iran and coal. You know, that's old age, changes. You know, where you go wrong with names. What I often look for is, oh, the other part that I remember hearing is that Trump was talking about Gettysburg, and he didn't really understand, you know, what was the Battle of Gettysburg for? Speaker 1: And yes, let me remind the audience of that. It was kind of an apparent non-sequitur about Gettysburg mixed with superlatives and hyperbole about, wow, what's up with that kind of stuff in Gettysburg? Yes. Speaker 6: Correct. And so you want the president to be able to deal with complex international situations and be very focused on what he can do best for the United States.

I think, you know, Biden does. He made some stumbles. He's not the most dynamic person out there. He never has been. I look at the function of his programs, you know, that they have brought back the manufacturing that brought NATO together, that they are, you know, working to protect Ukraine. He is looking. I mean, the Middle East is extremely complicated. And Hamas, which got money from Russia, you know, attacked Israel, took hostages and killed 1,100 people on October 7, which is Putin's birthday. So there are a lot of really complicated moves. And what I see the team doing is trying to connect with all the players and with the leaders of the Middle East and prevent the war from spreading.

Speaker 1: Other experts have said generically, as you're pointing out, that some of the things that are publicly noted about Trump concern them more when it comes to ability than what they see from Biden in general. Do you agree with that or not so much? Speaker 6: Well, so what I'm concerned about is not understanding, you know, the context of a historical event like Gettysburg, but also when it was under declaration. So what I'm looking for is function. So the statements are great, as opposed to, you know, I guess it was noted that he had 30,000 lies. So when he has a rally, you know, anything he says may or may not be true.

So there is a type of dementia, related to alcoholism, that is not for him. He has a fabulation where you just make things up. But he was in this statement and they asked him if he had any medication or any reason. He couldn't answer the questions that day and said no. And I've been in depositions as an expert witness, and I know that lawyers follow step by step exactly what you're supposed to say. And right in front of him, he had this, you know, long written statement about how this was a witch hunt, you know, by Biden.

Yes. And he, his lawyer, had to go read the statement. Read the statement. So he didn't understand the context. So it's concerning that if he finds himself in a situation where, you know, there are tense negotiations, he may not be picking up on the signals. The other one, but what's challenging, particularly for Trump, is that, you know, there and I'm not going to make a statement here. I would say that he is someone who should undergo a gero psychological test, which lasts between 4 and 5 hours. Because you have to see a decrease in function from your previous state.

So Rudy Giuliani has an easier option, and I'm actually quite worried about him. You know, here's a man who, in the '90s, took down the mafia. I mean, you have to be at the top of your game to do that. And just a year or two ago, you know, he was giving a presidential press conference at the Four Seasons, a landscaped parking lot. I mean, that's worrying. I really worry about him with these, you know, legal cases where he doesn't quite understand everything that's going on. And when someone doesn't understand the implications of an intervention in this case, the legal issues, then he doesn't have the capacity for that.

Speaker 1: When it comes back to something you said about comparing to a previous baseline. Yes. As a layman, when I look at Trump's speeches from the 2016 campaign and his 2012 television appearances and his 2005 Letterman appearance, the dynamism, the diversity of vocabulary, there is something that seems to have disappeared from the way he speaks. . I can't discern if that would be expected based on his age at these different times, or if there is more to it. What do you think? Speaker 6: Well, there may be a decline, you know, like Biden's, you know, also relative to 20 years ago. So I'm just going to criticize that.

What I will say is that I saw his campaign. Demonstration in Washington, Wisconsin or Michigan. And he would say things like, hey, I only use the teleprompter 8% of the time and 92% of the time I don't. I say, well, what's that about? I mean, a typical candidate wouldn't do it. And the other thing about Trump is that whatever he feels or worries about tends to come out in his speech. And so, one of the tasks of the frontal lobe is to have its reasoning, it has its social filters. So it stops you from saying things you really shouldn't say.

Speaker 1: This is like a kind of inhibition mechanism. Speaker 6: Exactly  correct. So he's lost some of his inhibitions. Speaker 1: Dr. Liz, you said you wanted to mention something about RFK Jr as well because he's not getting as much attention. And when it comes to this kind of thing. What is your impression? Speaker 6: Well, like I said, you know, I look particularly at the function, you know, what did Trump do during his presidency? What did Biden do during his presidency? Although these days I have to say that the media has really made things problematic and, like with Trump, you know, they buried Ivana and her golf course.

And I looked for it. And in New Jersey, a cemetery is exempt from judicial seizure. You know, I talk to someone who watches Fox News all the time. And he says that didn't happen. I was like, no, look. So I think our country is isolated, which is definitely a problem. RFK, he doesn't have, you know, any experience running big things. This whole thing about having a dead worm in your brain is usually psychosis and causes inflammation. And also, you know, he did drugs when he was a kid and he got hepatitis C, which leaves him scarred.

All dementia leaves scars and, for the most part, cannot be cured. You know, it doesn't matter what the DM gurus say. But you can do things to slow the rate at which it will progress. And he, RFK, said in the 2012 deposition that he had long-term and short-term memory loss and that he couldn't work as much. But now he says he's better. So that's not how it works. You understand that it is like a heart attack. You know, you suffer brain damage, whether it's from stroke, Alzheimer's, alcohol or head injuries. Or so yes. Speaker 1: I understand correctly, he is saying that any damage, whatever symptoms he was experiencing at that time, would be some sort of permanent changes in the brain.

Speaker 6: Yes. So hepatitis C inflammation is an inflammatory process throughout the body. It can cause changes in the nerves, brain, especially the liver, and psychosis. It looks like there are some scars, definitely on a part of his brain. And that part will just be marked. I mean, if they treated him with antibiotics, it will prevent him from getting new infections in the brain. Good. So it might be stable, but you know it's not likely. It would be extremely unusual that if he knew that he had cognitive problems and couldn't work hard and earn a living in 2012, he would suddenly be better off.

I mean, now he's also saying that, you know, Ukraine needs to be undeclared. Where does it come from? You know, it's a very strange year. Speaker 1: It's a very strange year, that's for sure. We've been speaking with Dr. Elizabeth Landsberg, an expert in dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Liz, I really appreciate her time and her insights today. Speaker 6: Well, thank you and I appreciate the work you're doing.