President Donald Trump made the rather alarming admission about suffering from some “very severe problems” with his health, and now, a psychologist has weighed in with evidence for what some of those problems could be.
Trump’s comments came during a Rose Garden event at the White House on Thursday, while he was discussing his lifelong abstention from things like alcohol and smoking, claiming that it had spared him from the health problems that his friends have begun to struggle with in their old age.
“But if you don’t drink, or if you don’t take drugs, or if you don’t smoke, there’s no problem,” Trump said. “I have other problems. I have some very severe problems. But those are not one of them. I don’t want to add them to the list.”
The comment sparked considerable alarm, given the mounting public concern about Trump’s declining health and fitness for office. While the White House has publicly disclosed some health conditions that the president struggles with, it has also frequently shut down rumors about his health and insisted that he is in good condition for his age.
Dr. John Paul Garrison is a clinical and forensic psychologist with a specialty in body language, who also makes a series of YouTube videos in which he uses his professional insights to examine the behavior of public figures. Many of his recent videos have concerned Trump, with Garrison suggesting that the president is suffering a severe decline, possibly accelerated by a stroke.
Based on Trump’s “severe problems” comment, Garrison examined some of his recent public appearances for evidence of what these issues might be, but also noted that the admission itself seemed to be the result of his recent issues with impulsivity. Shortly after making the comments, Trump already appeared to be “backpedaling,” suggesting that he knew that he had said something he should not have. This loss of impulse control, Garrison has noted in the past, is consistent with certain forms of cognitive decline.
“As I’ve said on many videos recently, he is impulsive,” Garrison explained. “He makes statements without thinking. And this is one of the rare times he’s really talking about himself and providing information that people don’t already have. So, immediately upon reflecting on it, when he took just a second to think about what he just said, now he’s starting to backpedal.”
While backpedaling, Trump also started to compliment members of the media, something he has very rarely done, preferring to attack them as “fake news.” In that instance, while he was feeling vulnerable, Garrison suggested that this change in approach suggested that there was some truth to what he admitted.
“Another thing that I want you to pay attention to is how wide open his arms are when he said that. That does suggest, right now, as he’s talking about this, he is very open,” Garrison added. “He is very vulnerable as he’s talking about this. And as I said, this was an impulsive decision to state this.”
Moving on to footage from another event where Trump received an honor from firefighters, Garrison highlighted more of his “unusual behaviors,” including his continuing struggles with involuntary spasms. Several times throughout this event, the president seemed to suffer from minor and “more significant” spasms, including one where he seemed to jerk backwards. Garrison also spotted a potential tell from Trump signaling when he suffers a spasm.
“Now, this behavior may just be a coincidence, but I have noticed it a number of times before there is a significant spasm,” Garrison said. “Sometimes he does look out and look at cameras, or there may be somebody he’s looking at off camera. But this look right here, I’ve seen a number of times before he has a noticeable spasm.”