Donald Trump’s apparent mental decline during his scandal-plagued second term in the White House is bringing out his most dangerous traits, his niece has warned.
“It goes without saying that Donald is a terrible leader, but one of the things that makes him a dangerous person is his incredible insecurities,” Mary Trump, the daughter of the president’s late brother Fred Trump Jr., said in a video uploaded to her YouTube channel on Monday.
“As time went on, he seemed to become more and more insecure,” she continued. “It seemed like the more stuff he got – money, power, chaos – the more insecure and fearful he became.”
Mary Trump says her uncle’s
As evidence, she pointed to the president’s renaming of the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace earlier this month.
“Perhaps renaming the Peace Institute after himself would make the Nobel committee think that Donald actually cares about peace, but he doesn’t,” she added, referring to the president’s bitter disappointment earlier this year when he failed to win what is perhaps the most coveted prize on earth.
People are increasingly wary of the president’s increasingly erratic public appearances. /Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Mary Trump is not the only one to express concerns about the aging president’s mental health since taking office for a second time in January.
Amid a growing list of public missteps – including regularly confusing the names of countries, opponents and foreign leaders; vicious and unprovoked verbal attacks on journalists; falling asleep during key meetings; and repetitive and sometimes incoherent speeches – there are growing concerns that the 79-year-old leader is simply not up to the job.
Clinical psychologists previously shared with The Daily Beast that these and other gaffes likely represent “clinical signs of dementia,” which in turn exacerbates an underlying malignant personality disorder.
“No matter what character issue or problem [people with dementia] Dr. John Gartner, a former psychology professor at Johns Hopkins University, told The Daily Beast podcast in November.
Mary Trump echoed that sentiment, saying she believed the president was suffering from the same symptoms his late father, Fred Trump Sr., suffered in his later years.
“Sometimes I look at him and it’s like I see my grandfather,” she said. “I saw the same confused look. I noticed that he didn’t always seem to be oriented to time and place.”
“His short-term memory appears to be deteriorating,” she continued, adding that the president’s impulse-control difficulties, for which he has long been criticized, appear to be “worsening as well.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
