Lawrence: Trump says he has 'very severe problems.' One appears to be declining cognitive ability.

@ArishMell I will reply to some of the issues your thoughtful and detailed post raises.

1. “Cognitive” is a three syllable word. I have posted repeatedly that tRUMP has great difficulty pronouncing words with more than two syllables. This is especially true when he’s reading from a teleprompter and there are videos of him practicing a speech while reading from a teleprompter where he stops and says things like “that’s a very hard word” and makes them remove it. Other times, rather than attempt a multi-syllable word from the teleprompter, he goes off script and starts rambling.

Most adults who are native English speakers wouldn’t have this problem. Certainly nowhere near the degree that he does.

As to the teleprompter issue, certainly part of the problem is his subpar reading ability. This is so bad that during his first misadministration his daily INTEL briefs had to be dumbed down to the point where the briefers had to present the information as picture books like parents use to “read” to pre-schoolers. While I am no longer active duty, I can only surmise that these problems have not resolved and most likely progressed in this, his second misadministration.

He could not comprehend any type of complex graphs or slides that portray more than one simple concept. Briefing him was very frustrating especially since he did not pay attention and would even fall asleep.

Understanding these things helps explain why he is so ignorant of significant facts and issues. To cover these deficiencies he simply confabricates and he cannot stand to be fact checked.

2. You did a good job of describing his lack of executive thinking skills.

3. The military and civilian intelligence officers did in fact strongly advise him not to launch his attacks on Iran. They also pointed out to him and to Hegseth that they had not properly prepared for the aftermath of his initial attack. The tragic results of these failures are what we (especially in the USA, but also you in foreign countries) are now experiencing. One such result is the alienation of our historic & most trusted allies and the “cozying” up to of Russia and now China.

4. I think that they did the Republican “debater” a big favor by giving him less time. All the time in the world doesn’t help one defend the re vera, deliria principis dementis.

@KunsanVeteran Thankyou.

No, whatever his actual problem, it won't improve; but he may be combining a natural denial of that (a common trait, by no means confined to Donald Trump) with his love of power.

@hunkalove A large part of that is that he makes absolutely no effort to prepare for a speech or debate. He simply makes up foolish remarks which he claims are “facts” and keeps repeating them until people get tired of correcting him—“who won the 2020 election,” “they cut it with box cutters,” “Melania made a beautiful speech” (of the Speech his third wife gave at his first inauguration which she plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s speech at her husband’s inauguration). In fairness to Melanoma—most likely tRUMP himself plagiarized it and handed it to her to read.