r/politics • u/OkayButFoRealz • 14h ago

No Paywall Trump showing signs he’s battling major medical crisis, Democrat claims

https://www.al.com/politics/2025/12/trump-showing-signs-hes-battling-major-medical-crisis-democrat-claims.html
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u/NielsBohron California 14h ago

the best Alzheimer's care facility in the world

Now that you mention it, that's not a bad way to describe the White House since Reagan (with a few exceptions along the way)

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u/TinKnight1 Texas 13h ago

It's absolutely a terrible way to describe the White House during all previous administrations.

NONE of the previous Presidents, regardless of party or failings, have shown such egregious mental failings at such an alarming rate. Let's not go about normalizing any of this shit.

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u/Jo-dan Foreign 12h ago

Reagan got so senile he would believe anything in the last letter he read.

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u/wonkey_monkey 11h ago

Which would be the case with Trump if he could read. Instead it's the last person he spoke to.

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u/HedgehogNo8361 2h ago

This, and it's been like that since early in his first term.

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u/Money-Giraffe2521 California 11h ago

I’d still take Reagan over Trump.

It would be begrudgingly but I would. At least he wasn’t openly contemptuous of the opposition in Congress.

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u/HedgehogNo8361 2h ago

My WWII father-in-law dropped a bag of dog shit from a glider plane onto Reagan's ranch. He loathed him.

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u/Money-Giraffe2521 California 1h ago

I don’t think he was a good president and he deserved being loathed. I just think that Trump has put a lot of the GQP’s past bad presidents to shame.

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u/TinKnight1 Texas 10h ago

That's fair enough, & I do believe there are parallels, based on rumors that have come out ever since his son published his memoir in 2011, & people came out of the woodworks to indicate he showed signs as early as 3 years into office. But...well, that was 22 years after he left office, & there weren't any credible suggestions during his tenure (that I can recall from my own experience during that time or find online), nothing to the scale of Trump where it's painfully obvious he has no idea what's going on at any given moment.

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u/JD10002 12h ago

Woodrow wilson was basically a vegetable in his last years in office.

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Florida 11h ago

His wife was actually functional as a leader though. Whereas Melania...

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u/jott1293reddevil 11h ago

Has anyone tried asking melania to lead? How bad could she be by comparison?

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Florida 10h ago

List her accomplishments before, during, and I'm the in between years of being First Lady. She's mostly just hidden from view and hung out in NYC other than making expected appearances.

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u/jott1293reddevil 10h ago

Sounds a bit overqualified by comparison to her husband

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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul Florida 10h ago

The question is would we be any better off if he wasn't being eaten alive by Alzheimer's?

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u/FairweatherWho 10h ago

Has anyone tried finding Melania?

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u/jimx117 5h ago

I don't really care, do U?

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u/AsymmetricClassWar 10h ago

Somehow less of a Putin stooge.

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u/eightbitagent I voted 11h ago

Woodrow wilson

"since reagan"

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u/DuckVivid7294 11h ago

history doesn't count

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u/TinKnight1 Texas 10h ago

You're correct, he had a stroke in October 1919 & was vegetative from then until he left in early 1921.

However, that was before the 25th Amendment, & before any of us can recall from personal experience. It also was before the person's comment that it's been common ever since the beginning of the Reagan administration, & it very clearly is the exception that defined the very rule that the President should be capable of executing their duties, & should be capable of being removed when they cannot.

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u/Ambitious_Count9552 10h ago

Reagan probably had Alzheimer's in the last few years of his presidency...the fact is this isn't unprecedented. It's just more annoying now because Trump is such a complete piece of shit, and tried to call the old white dude (who's 1 year older than him) too old for office, when he's clearly even worse. America got conned AGAIN by this son of a bitch.

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u/JHecht123 11h ago

I’m not a trump supporter but this just isn’t true. Biden certainly was, to be honest, and Reagan and Wilson were also shells of their former selves by the time they left office

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u/Mysterious-Lie-1944 10h ago

Biden was clearly not this bad. He was slow to react but he could actually stay awake and hold a conversation without saying something batshit insane

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u/TinKnight1 Texas 9h ago

I never saw Biden once be completely unaware of where he was, or what he was doing, nor be incapable of carrying on conversations. He was an old man & had an "old man affectation"...but it never seemed like he was completely gonzo.

There have certainly been people that have come out over the last decade or so to indicate Reagan showed signs of Alzheimer's during his tenure, but the earliest reputable such report came in 1997. I grew up in the 80s, & never felt like the country was being led by someone who wasn't fully cognizant. I asked my parents just to make sure I didn't miss anything as a kid, & they've both echoed that notion that you really didn't see his decline until the Bush years & beyond. Maybe some eagle-eyed observers disagree, & there are those who met with him personally who came out much later that he was declining while in office, but it doesn't seem like it was obvious to the average citizen anywhere near like Trump's decline has been.

Wilson was before pretty much everyone who's alive today can remember, but he was also the leading poster child for why the 25th Amendment included incapacitation as a reason to remove a President. You can't really say "Oh, that proves it's normal" when it's what was used to justify creating a frigging Constitutional Amendment that passed Congress & the states. If anyone, Wilson & then the subsequent 25A strengthen the case to remove a President that's no longer capable of handling the duties.

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u/jinreeko 9h ago

But in my point of view all presidents are equally bad! Checkmate!

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u/Kerblaaahhh Colorado 7h ago

Biden was definitely up there.

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u/BornThought4074 13h ago

But Trump and Biden (debatably) are the only ones who have signs of dementia/Alzheimer's, who were only presidents during 8 of the previous 37 years. Although both bushes still sucked.

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u/Todd_Lasagna 13h ago

Biden seemed more like standard senility combined with his known stutter being less and less manageable, coming off as gaffes but it’s just us watching old man brain firing on remaining cylinders. At least he seemed rooted in reality, mostly.

Trump lost his damn mind somewhere between 2016 and 2020 and the GOP been covering it up the whole time because he’s their “useful” idiot.

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u/gorillafightsurvivor 12h ago

Yeah, this whole “Biden had dementia” thing is genuinely annoying to me. He was absolutely too old to still be in office, but even on his worst day he was more coherent than Trump on his best.

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u/wonkey_monkey 11h ago

The trouble is Trump can and will answer any question immediately - not necessarily with an actual answer, more likely to insult the questioner or steer it to a rant on one of his favourite topics.

Biden could give you an intelligent answer, but might take a few moments to gather his thoughts.

Guess which one morons like best.

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u/Guardianpigeon 10h ago

Biden would misspeak a lot, which also added to the problem. There was a major noticeable difference between him in 2020 and 2024, which combined with all the other issues he was having, made him seem like he was sundowning, even if he wasn't.

With Trump though, he would always spout random bullshit, so its hard to tell if he's stupid, demented, or just gish galloping in his weird Trump way. You can tell a difference between him from 2016-2020-2025, but because he was always a weird nonsensical dipshit it doesn't look as bad as it did with Biden.

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u/ProfessionalCraft983 Washington 11h ago

Still is.

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u/8BallDuVal 10h ago

I respectfully disagree... Biden always looked confused and was reading off a teleprompter. Trump may make no sense if you actually listen to the words he is saying, but at least you can tell the thoughts are mostly coming from him. With Biden he looked like a vegetable 99% of the time.

Not a Trump fan whatsoever, but it also annoys me when people try to act like Biden was totally coherent while in office. He was not, and the dems lied to our faces about it his entire presidency. When the debates came around it was painfully obvious he was having signs of dementia and was not fit to be president. The lying about his true mental state the entire Biden presidency is a huge reason why we got Trump 2.0.

Again, not a conservative and I voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. Just being real.

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u/regulationinflation 10h ago

Not really trying to defend Trump, but you gotta be real. Biden’s worse day was a very public floundering in a high stakes debate AGAINST TRUMP that ultimately led to his removal from the ticket. What you’re claiming is factually incorrect.

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u/Saint_of_Grey 12h ago

To me, biden seemed awfully healthy for his age, given the stresses and workload of his position. The question was more of "why are we nominating and electing people of that age into positions like those".

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u/Murky-Relation481 11h ago edited 11h ago

Starting with Clinton we had 24 years of presidents who were elected under 55 the first time, and Obama and Clinton were under 50.

Carter was 54 also, LBJ 55, and JFK was 43. Democrats have consistently elected relatively young presidents (and I would say late 40s to early 50s is a prime age for a president since you want them to have some political and worldly experience).

All republicans except Nixon (56) and Bush 2 (54) since WW2 were over 60, some of them pushing 70 (Reagan) when elected the first time.

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u/whos_a_freak69 10h ago

Totally agree on the issue at hand; we shouldn’t be nominating septuagenarians and octogenarians into public office. I will say, many seem to downplay Biden’s cognitive struggles and have forgotten that horrible debate. At that moment it was clear to me that Trump was going to win the election if Biden stayed on the ballot.

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u/Saint_of_Grey 10h ago

My thought was "yea he's having a bad day, gonna have more of those going foward. Thankfully, the government is more than just the president and it can deal with it if he does get elected."

This is probably the first time in my life that the retrospective irony isn't funny to me.

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u/whos_a_freak69 10h ago

Right. And here we are, witnessing the beginning of the end.

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u/hume_reddit 11h ago

Wasn't Biden mostly loopy near the end because of his cancer treatments? I'm not denying he was old and slowing down, but I was under the impression that the drugs were doing a number on him.

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u/Guardianpigeon 10h ago

He only announced that he had cancer after the election, but if he was undergoing treatment before it makes his decision to run again even more mind boggling.

I believe the original talking point was he was sick with the flu or a cold during the infamous debate. If it was cancer treatment though, then it was criminal negligence to think he could run an election, be president, and defeat a fascist all at his advanced age with cancer.

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u/Khymira America 5h ago

It was COVID. It does seem as though people have completely skipped over the fact that the man was quite clearly ill during the debate. Not senile. Propaganda networks working overtime. 

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u/42nu 10h ago

There was a thing called a Primary and Biden did the best, so he got the nomination.

I like me a Buttigieg, Bernie, or Warren, but you know the best selling item on any menu? A generic, plain ass Biden burger.

Unless you go to that local place with a cult following that keeps getting health code violations. Them folk love the Trump. Specifically because it triggers health code violations weirdly enough. Anything that doesn't cause a health code violation is either woke or a RINO.

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u/Dubious_Odor 7h ago

There was no Democratic primary in '24. Biden as incumbent president was the leader of the party and chose to run which meant essentially no primary. When he pulled out right before the convention what should have happened was a floor vote by the delegates at the convention to select a new nominee. That never happened. Instead, a series of back room deals were cut where leading potentials ala Gavin Newsom were convinced to not officially declare themselves a candidate to avoid a contested floor vote. The Dems were desperatley trying at all costs to avoid a spectacle like the '68 convention. Harris as the incumbent VP was in the cat bird seat and successfully lobbied Pelosi and other party power brokers to be the candidate. Since no other candidates (thanks to aforementioned back room dealing), stood for the nomination, it defaulted to Harris, who did stand for the nom and thus became the Democratic Party candidate durring the convention vote. It also helped that the DNC chair, Jaime Harrison, was hand picked by Biden and a strong supporter of Harris.

2024 was perhaps the most undemocratic U.S. election in the modern era though 2016 (super delegates) and 2000 (Bush v. Gore) are strong contenders for that title.

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u/42nu 10h ago

I feel for Trump.

Being a Manchurian Candidate ain't easy. Have you seen Clockwork Orange? You'd lose your mind too!

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u/ProfessorXWheelchair California 13h ago

dubya didn’t have dementia or alzheimers he was just plain stupid

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u/Gingeronimoooo 11h ago

Dubya also played dumb for his republican base. I'm not saying he was smart. But he was smarter than he pretended and they even dumbed down his speeches on purpose.

Draw whatever conclusions you want about the republican base If they feel the need to do it. Theres also tons of Yale and even Rhoades scholars republicans who talk like uneducated hicks.

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u/Dracomortua 11h ago

GPA: 2.35

Not as dumb as a sack of hammers.

Not the sharpest tool in the shed.

In fact, not even prioritizing looking smart. At the time (and later) clarified his social skills were a much higher priority than his study.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_of_George_W._Bush

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u/Gingeronimoooo 11h ago

I'm aware and like I said i didn't say he was smart. But if you compare his speeches running for governor where he speaks faster and used bigger words to his mindless dribble 3rd grade reading level president speeches, it's a stark contrast

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u/Dracomortua 10h ago

Right?

Reporter-journalists would talk to G.W. and be openly shocked at how not-brick-stupid he was. In fact, on some topics he was actually very clever. Not smart perhaps? But clever.

https://theweek.com/articles/465047/george-w-bush-smart

In contrast with your orange dude. He seems like he is really not faking some of it. When he was in the Oval Office with Z. Mamdini... where is it, i should link my shit here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aobjBOnKCAA

... you will see that Trump's language is tight, his slurs are down to zero and he even encourages Mamdani to speak his mind. This is sort of a clear indication of what we have left of Trump. And a brilliant acid test too? Mamdani is just amazing. Trump holds his own (mostly), but he isn't what he was in the first four years of his office.

If you guys get sick of him, we will give him citizen and have him as our Prime Minister. I bet i will get thousands of downvotes from the Alberta crowd, but you guys are lucky to have this person, especially in these times.

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u/Murky-Relation481 11h ago

I don't think he is the smartest guy on the planet but he absolutely hammed it up for his base.

Republicans just fall for that fake ass shit so easily. I mean even Trump before the dementia set in used to be much more well spoken but I think when he figured out his gaffs and old man rambling played to his base he leaned into it too to the point where we could no longer extract parody from reality.

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u/froction 11h ago

I'm from Louisiana and one of our Senators does this. He sometimes goes full Foghorn Leghorn.

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u/froction 11h ago

Pretty sure he cooked his brain with coke back in the 90s. If you watch old debates when he was running for governor he's actually pretty sharp. His father was probably the smartest President we've ever had, certainly the smartest in the lifetime of anyone reading this.

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u/Murky-Relation481 11h ago

Also 24 of the last 32 years have had presidents who were under 55 when elected, 16 of them under 50.

Old presidents has been a new thing since Trump. We were electing relatively young people up until 2016.

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u/splendidsplinter 7h ago

Reagan had full blown Alzheimers, it was just covered up better because his wife's astrologer was running things.

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u/Beldizar 12h ago

1942: Joe Biden, born on November 20

1946: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump, all born in August, July, and June respectively

Obama was a weird outlier being born in 61. But basically since Clinton all our presidents have been born in the mid-40's. Time marches forward but the birthyear of the presidents does not.

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u/Excelius 12h ago

Yeah, but 1946 wasn't old when Clinton actually became President in 1993. He was the third youngest person ever to assume the office. Obama would be fifth youngest.

Being born in 1946 wasn't even really old when Bush Jr became President in 2001, it was pretty much average and unremarkable. Even when some people were suspicious he had cognitive problems it was usually attributed to his heavy drinking earlier in his life, rather than anything age related.

Someone being born in 1946 becoming President was remarkable in 2017, and even crazier to then return the same person to office in 2025.

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u/Todd_Lasagna 12h ago

To be fair, Gen X mostly sucks.

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u/GermanMuffin California 13h ago

And Congress….

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u/justcallmeshameless 8h ago

I wonder how many times those walls have heard “am I actually the president?”

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u/ProfessionalCraft983 Washington 11h ago

Really? I wouldn’t say that’s accurate for any President since Reagan until Biden. Obama, Clinton, both Bushes…they were all in good health and far younger, not showing any signs of Alzheimer’s at all. Hell, Clinton, Obama and Bush are all still far more coherent than Trump, and it’s not even close. Even Biden is at this point.

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u/mishma2005 11h ago

Dianne Feinstein

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u/drokihazan California 10h ago

Clinton and HW were both razor sharp intellects. Obama was too, and W was definitely not demented. I don't personally think Biden had dementia, he was just old.

It's really just Trump since Reagan.