Whether or not you support former President Donald Trump in his bid for reelection, one thing is pretty obvious: he’s not the same firebrand at rallies he was in 2016. He rambles, he repeats himself, and he often forgets where he is and what he’s talking about. This has led to a lot of claims about his health, and some have posited that the former president is suffering from a condition known as sundowning. So what is it?
In layman’s terms, sundowning refers to a person, usually one who suffers from dementia, becoming disoriented in the late afternoon, with the affliction continuing into the night. It can cause a person to be confused, aggressive, anxious or obstinate, per the Mayo Clinic.
A person suffering from sundowning can also be prone to pacing or wandering around aimlessly. Per the Alzheimer’s Society, people can become “intensely distressed, agitated and have hallucinations or delusions.” When talking about Trump, we have some compelling evidence to share on the topic — objectively, of course.
Just yesterday (Oct. 14), Trump was at a town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, and made headlines for his most troubling public behavior yet. It started with a the usual ranting, but then took a turn after two medical emergencies in the crowd, when he just decided he didn’t feel like taking questions anymore.
What did he do instead? He stood on stage for 30 plus minutes and listened to music. He didn’t tell his supporters the town hall was over, or leave the stage. He just stood there. Well, he swayed. Before that, he had trouble answering the few softball questions he got, and eventually said “Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”
According to the Trump campaign, there is no reason for concern, saying that people were so excited to see Trump they were fainting, and that they didn’t wanted to leave because the wanted to hear “more songs from the famous DJT Spotify playlist!”
Boston Globe reporter Kimberly Atkins Stohr used the term “live sundowning” to describe the former president at the event. She said that instead of answering questions, Trump “melted down into this bizarre, inexplicable sort of live sundowning in a way.”
“He clearly did not seem okay,” she added.
Stohr’s opinion is not a lonely one. A simple Google search will reveal that there are many, many people who share this opinion. Eric Schmeltzer, a Los Angeles-based political consultant who worked as press secretary to Rep. Jerry Nadler and former-Gov. Howard Dean, wrote an op-ed in Newsweek called “Dancing Donald Trump Is Clearly in a Steep Decline.”
Schmeltzer talked about how he witnessed both of his grandmothers slip into dementia at the end of their lives, and how doctors have pointed to Trump’s declining speech patterns as signs of potential dementia.
Licensed psychologist Michael J. Salamon wrote to the New York Times that he noticed Trump would switch from one topic to another with no logical connection (a condition called derailment), or that he would struggle to find the right word, and instead use a description (a condition known as circumlocutions).
These conditions “suggest more than just a careless speaking style. His use of words like moron and other youth-like insults also indicates a possible impairment.”
If he is sundowning, as so many people have inferred, then Trump should probably not be running for the highest office in the United States.