--- title: "Psychiatrist Says Trump’s Speech Patterns at Debate Were Cause for Alarm" description: "An expert psychiatrist is sounding the alarm in the wake of Donald Trump's bizarre presidential debate performance against Kamala Harris. \"Tuesday’s presidential debate was, among other things, an excellent real-world test of the candidates’ cognitive fitness,\" Richard A. Friedman, a psychiatry professor at Cornell Weill Medical College in New York, wrote in The Atlantic, \"and any […]" date: "2024-09-13" modified: "2024-09-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/psychiatrist-donald-trump-speech-debate" categories: - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "Cognition" - "donald trump" - "politics" - "speech" --- # Psychiatrist Says Trump’s Speech Patterns at Debate Were Cause for Alarm ![Donald Trump's strange speaking patterns during his debate against Kamala Harris are cause for concern, a psychiatrist explains.]() *\Image: Win McNamee / Getty\* An expert psychiatrist is sounding the alarm in the wake of Donald Trump's bizarre presidential debate performance against Kamala Harris. "Tuesday’s presidential debate was, among other things, an excellent real-world test of the candidates’ cognitive fitness," Richard A. Friedman, a psychiatry professor at Cornell Weill Medical College in New York, [wrote for *The Atlantic*](), "and any fair-minded mental-health expert would be very worried about Donald Trump’s performance." As Friedman notes, Trump's repeated insistence that he's far [more mentally well]() than his onetime nemesis Joe Biden relied heavily on the kinds of [mental status exams]() that are built to detect severe cognitive dysfunction and are, per the expert's assessment, "quite easy to pass." Many involve simply asking subjects the date, to spell words backwards, or to write a complete sentence — all setting bars far lower than a live 90-minute performance broadcast to the entire voting public. Acknowledging that he is not "offering any specific medical diagnoses" and has never examined either Trump or Harris, the psychiatrist said he watched the debate with keen attention on the candidates' vocabulary and logical coherence. While the 60-year-old vice president "certainly exhibited some rigidity and repetition," his judgment is that her performance seemed normal. The 78-year-old Trump's, on the other hand, was "alarming." "Much of the time," Friedman wrote, "following Trump’s train of thought was difficult, if not impossible." To be fair, this has to an extent always been the case with this candidate. His rhetorical style has long been considered "[unique]()" by linguistic standards, and transcribing his "[incoherent]()" speeches has been [extremely difficult]() since long before his current rival became her party's nominee. Still, the Trump on display during this week's debate is a far cry from the vitriolic sharpshooter we saw [irradiate Marco Rubio]() and [loom over Hillary Clinton]() in 2016. In response to moderator David Muir's question about his statements about the January 6, 2021 insurrection, for instance, Trump rambled about "[blood baths]()," [Charlottesville](), and the [US-Mexico border](), taking his tried-and-true evasion tactics to dizzying and often confusing new heights. "Circumstantial and tangential speech can indicate a fundamental problem with an underlying cognitive process, such as logical and goal-oriented thinking," the psychiatrist explained. "Did Trump realize that his answer was neither germane to the question nor logical?" In the mental health world, this sort of repetition of concepts and terms is known as "[perseverance]()," and it can be linked to a host of disorders ranging from Parkinson's to schizophrenia that may result in a lack of cognitive clarity, Friedman noted. "If a patient presented to me with the verbal incoherence, tangential thinking, and repetitive speech that Trump now regularly demonstrates," the psychiatrist continued, "I would almost certainly refer them for a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness." While he can't diagnose Trump with anything because he's not the larger-than-life mogul's doctor, Friedman pointed out that for a man who's almost 80, dementia or Alzheimer's are not at all uncommon. "Only careful medical examination can establish whether someone indeed has a diagnosable illness," he concluded. "imply observing Trump, or anyone else, from afar is not enough." **More on Trump's debate flop:** [*Truth Social Stock Crashes to All-Time Low After Trump's Train Wreck Debate Performance*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()