President Biden and and former president Trump agreed to hold two campaign debates — the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC. I don’t think there is a graceful way he can back out of them.

This will be a major test of the state of both candidate’s cognitive condition. Trump has called Biden senile and he presents himself as not just smart, but genius …. and a very stable genius at that!”. (Reference).

When Trump brags abiout his stable genius and attacks Biden as senile this is a case of the Trump pot calling the Biden stainless steel kettle black.

This is from the Mayo Clinic website on sundowning:

The term “sundowning” refers to a state of confusion that occurs in the late afternoon and lasts into the night. Sundowning can cause various behaviors, such as confusion, anxiety, aggression or ignoring directions. Sundowning also can lead to pacing or wandering.

Sundowning isn’t a disease. It’s a group of symptoms that occurs at a specific time of the day. These symptoms may affect people with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. The exact cause of sundowning is not known.

A sundown is often beautiful like the one I shared in this blog that even had locals talking about as partiucarly striking when we spent a weekend on the Pacific coast at Cannon Beach.

If, as many have speculated Donald Trump (see Google search here), is suffering from early dementia no amount of rehearsal will stop him from exhibiting signs of this during a prime time debate. If he doesn’t have dementia all he will have to do to hold his own against Biden, who does not show indications of dementia, is to moderate his malignant narcissism and impulsiveness.

He will have to demonstrate a command of the issues and come up with plausible explanations why he has been calling for revenge against his enemies, most recent his using the phrase “haul out the guillotine” in a fund raisng email (read article).

He will have to clearly state his position on issues like abortion, IVF, and government provided health care so as not to alienate the majority of voters who favor these.

Likewise, he will have to state his position on aid to Ukraine and our membership in NATO.

Hopefully the moderators will ask him whether he still believes the election was stolen and the the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6th are patriots.

If the moderators want “to go there” they could ask him if he denies, as he has claimed, ever having had a sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels or even knowing her.

If they are doing their due diligence the moderators will look over Project 25 and ask him which of the plans laid out by this group he will implement. In particular he should be asked about this:

Project 2025 focuses on packing the next GOP administration with extreme loyalists to former President Donald Trump. 

The plan aims to reinstate Schedule F, a Trump-era executive order that makes federal employees fireable at-will, stripping tens of thousands of employees of civil service protections. Both Trump and others in the conservative movement have said they will clear out the federal government if he is reelected. The project has even set up online trainingsand loyalty tests to narrow down potential hires to those who will commit to follow Trump without question. As Project 2025 senior adviser John McEntee has said, “The number one thing you’re looking for is people that are aligned with the agenda.”

If Trump has dementia and it is worse because of sundowning he will have trouble spouting memorized responses which address the quesiotns asked and the attacks likely to come from President Biden. If he has dementia he will probably veer from topic to topic and say things unrelated to the questions posed by the moderators.

Unlike John Gartner and Harry Segal who podcast about Trump’s dementia (here) I am agnostic.

I want more evidence before I say that I am as certain than other mental health and dementia experts are that he has this devastating disease which is irreversible and always gets worse.The symptoms in the end stage are devastating to the patient and family. For two forms of dementia the life span is 6-8 years from onset (reference). 

While I am not absolutely certain Trump has dementia, I am certain that he meets every criteria for being a malignant narcissist and that the Dark Triad decribes him to a T.

(From Wikipedia) All three dark triad traits are conceptually distinct although empirical evidence shows them to be overlapping. They are associated with a callous–manipulative interpersonal style.

• Narcissism is characterized by grandiosity, pride, egotism, and a lack of empathy.^[10]
• Machiavellianism is characterized by the manipulation and exploitation of others, indifference to morality, lack of empathy, and a strategic focus on self-interest.^[11]
• Psychopathy is characterized by continuous antisocial behavior, impulsivity, selfishness, callous and unemotional traits(CU),^[12] and remorselessness.^[13]

As dementia worsens some people undergo no particular personality changes from their pre-illness self. Others who were mild mannered can become aggressive and others who were aggressive can become mild mannered. If Trump has dementia the only change I see from his prevous personality is that he has gotten more aggressive. If he has dementia and is sundowning during the debates he will present himself as someone who undecided voters hopefully will watch and decide that this is not the kind of person they want to be president.

While many of his cult members like how he behaves hopefully there are many voters who are on the fence who want their president to be “presidential”, that is,  having a bearing or demeanor befitting a president which is dignified and confident without being arrogant.

I wrote about how with the exception of the progressive media most media outlets are not covering examples of Trump’s behavior which suggest he has dementia here.

Addendum:

Trump against a background of Starry Night by van Gogh which I used in part because of the significance that he painted it from his  room where he spent one year in the mental hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. It was actually painted just before dawn. There are no reports that van Gogh had dementia. There has been speculation that he had temporal lobe epilepsy and many other disorders.

You can read this and previous blogs on two websites. One may look better than the other because of how the platforms present the page.

Read on the WordPress Stressline.org

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Read on the Google Blogger platform HalBrown.org This version has a Disquis comment section.