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Donald Trump ‘hyper-aware’ that he is cognitively slipping, biographer says: 'Reflection of someone who’s very troubled’
A Trump biographer has said that he believes the former president knows well that he is losing his mental footing.
A Trump biographer has claimed that the former president knows well that he is losing his mental footing. After Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race following his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, the former president is now the oldest candidate to run for president.
Biden faced questions over his mental acuity on various occasions, including from Trump. However, now the former president is facing similar questions, and his biographer believes he is “hyper-aware” that he is cognitively slipping.
The biographer believes Trump is trying to come up with “convoluted explanations” for his frequent rants and gaffes. In recent times, Trump has been questioned over his frequent mentions of Hannibal Lecter, garbled words and incomplete thoughts. On some occasions, he has even conflated names of prominent people.
‘What we’re seeing now is a reflection of someone who’s very troubled’
Timothy O’Brien, author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, told The Guardian that he believes Trump knows full well that he has been saying more ludicrous things than ever. “The reason he’s now offering these convoluted explanations of his speech patterns in his public appearances is because he’s hyper-aware that people have noted that he’s making even less sense than he used to,” O’Brien said. “What we’re seeing now is a reflection of someone who’s very troubled and very desperate.”
Jennifer Mercieca, a biographer who wrote Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, provided a different reason behind Trump’s explained rambling. “He’s very good at putting a marketing spin on anything that might be perceived as a negative,” she said.
“He’s had a lot of criticism lately for rambling, for being low energy during his rallies, for failing to read the teleprompter properly, mispronouncing words and so his response is to spin it. He says, ‘I have experts, these friends of mine, unnamed others, who are very impressed with my ability to weave’,” she added.
Trump recently tried to explain why he keeps mentioning Hannibal Lecter, a fictional cannibalistic serial killer. He was apparently making a statement about migrants, claiming the character was “representative of people that are coming into our country.”
Last week, Trump also tried to explain why he tends to venture off topic. “When I do the weave...I’ll talk about nine different things and they all come back brilliantly together,” Trump told a crowd in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Referring to the “weave,” Trump boasted, “Friends of mine that are English professors, they say: ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen’.”
