How some old Trump drawings could lead to Vance becoming the 48th president, by Hal M. Brown

 

“I never wrote a picture in my life,” he said in a rebuttal to the accusations made in The Wall Street Journal as he vehemently denied having anything to do with the Epstein birthday card. I won’t delve into the syntax of this sentence suggesting cognitive decline since this is so obvious.

In fact, Trump does “write” pictures. Some of them have been sold at auction. The signed sketch shown below sold in 2017 for $16,000, according to The New York Times.

One has to assume that those sold at auction had their provenance verified. If this is a basis of Trump’s defense it is weak sauce. If it is all he has, he ain’t got bupkis.

He can’t say he never knew Epstein. He could try to say that it’s impossible to find an unbiased jury since I expect we will see pictures like the one below not just in the UK but all over the place (read article): 

Trump may hope that Rupurt Murdoch settles, folding like others have, trembling at the thought of being taken to court by the Mighty Donald Trump. He very well be underestimating the man that built a media empire and is now worth around $20 billion. Trump is worth about $5 billion. 

I have a feeling Murdoch relishes going up against Trump in court. I think the first order of business for him would be to do everything possible to assure the trial was televised. If he could do this he’d fire any Fox News personalities who tried to take Trump’s side and the trial would have wall to wall coverage on Fox News.

We should remember that Trump got his start with a major leg up from his father. He got $413M from his dad, much from tax dodges (article). Murdoch got his start when he inherited a small newspaper, The News, in 1952 following his father’s death.

Murdoch rightfully can claim that if any one person can claim that they greased the wheels of Trump’s ascendence to the presidency it is Rupurt Murdoch. Nobody can say that without Fox News Trump wouldn’t have been elected twice but their influence can’t be underestimated. If Murdoch cares about how history views him once he’s gone, he may want to be depicted as someone who meant well in supporting Trump, but eventually realized he created a monster and decided to bring him down. He could use this trial to begin the unraveling of Trump’s aura of invincibility.

This could lead to J.D. Vance deciding the time was finally ripe for initiating the 25th Amendment due to Trump’s impossible to plausibly deny dementia.

Vance has every motivation to do this since if successful he would become president. He needs a majority of the Cabinet to turn on Trump and vote to send this to Congress. This is where Vance has leverage. If he became president he could replace any Cabinet member. He could promise to keep enough of them so he’d get the votes he needed. You can bet he will be following national polls carefully.

Then there’s the most difficult part. A two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate is required to remove a president under the 25th Amendment. Assuming all the Democrats voted for removal obviously enough Republicans would have to look to their own futures to gauge the sentiment of the voters. 

Here’s where Elon Musk comes in. If he backs the removal of Trump he can pour massive amounts of money into any candidate’s campaign who will run against a Trump supporting member of Congress. 

J.D. Vance could become the 48th President of the United States.

Trump has normalized a president wearing a red baseball cap. If Vance really want to stick it to Trump he could wear a hat like the one below once he became president.

.

Thanks for reading my Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This post is public so feel free to share it.

Share

Leave a comment

When will it be time for Vance to invoke the 25th Amendment to begin the process of pulling Trump's driver's license? By Hal M. Brown

 .

The RawStory article title is 'Yikes': Ex-Tea Party lawmaker sounds alarm on 'cover-up' of 'Trump's cognition. The lawmaker it’s about is Joe Walsh.

Here’s the excerpt that made me think of my grandfather’s cognitive decline:

"As all of this is playing out, Trump’s health and cognitive fitness are in the spotlight again. White Housephysicians report that he is suffering from chronic venous insufficiency, which has resulted in his unsightly ankle swelling," Walsh wrote Friday. "Not a terribly shocking development for an obese 79-year-old man."

However, he said, "A bigger concern is his cognitive decline."

Drawing attention to a previous allegation Walsh himself made, he added Friday, "As you know, I’ve said there’s a cover-up going on in the White House with respect to Trump’s cognition."

"There was more proof of his decline this week, as Trump publicly questioned why Joe Biden hired Fed Chair Jerome Powell—even though he appointed Powell during his first term. Yikes," Walsh wrote.

My maternal grandfather lived with us all of my life until I went off to college. My parents moved into his and my grandmother’s house when they got married and my family continued to live there. My grandmother died when I was four and I ended up moving into their room which had two full-sized beds. 

My grandfather was a kind man. He was self-effacing, easy going, and rather passive. Prior to retiring he was a salesman in the families men’s clothing store.

His one passion aside from doting on my younger sister and me was dancing at the Y’s senior canteen where he was something of a ladies man.

Aside from liking the ladies after his wife died, he was absolutely nothing like Trump. 

In many ways my grandfather was a surrogate father since my own father worked 6 ½ days a week, left for work before I woke up and came home just in time for a 6 PM dinner. After eating he was too tired to do much more than fall asleep in front of the TV.

My father never got a driver’s license. He took the bus to work. Thinking back, I wonder if he had some kind of phobia about driving.

My grandfather and mother were the drivers in the family and my grandfather sometimes chauffeured my father around on various errands. 

By the time my grandfather began to succumb to dementia I’d already gone off to college but heard the following story which relates to Trump from my mother.

He was driving my father someplace and turned onto a oneway street going in the wrong direction. He drove for a short distance without encountering any other cars but then several cars approached and had to pull around him to avoid a collision. They were honking their horns and gesturing frantically at him.

His reaction was to happily say to my father “they know me, they know me.”

My father got him to pull over and turn around. When they arrived home he told my mother about it. They decided it was time to pull his driver’s license.

Some years later, after my mother died, he moved to Miami, Florida where other relatives had retired and he lived happily into his late eighties.

I assume you figured out the point of this story since it is my title.

When will it be time for Vance to invoke the 25th Amendment and for the process of pulling Trump’s driver’s license to begin so the elderly demented president can retire? Trump can then live out his life in Florida where he can play with his little putter and have people treat him like royalty.

Thanks for reading my Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This post is public so feel free to share it.

Share

Leave a comment

Am I the only anti-Trump shrink who thinks Trump may not have dementia? He may. But he may not. By Hal M. Brown, MSW I was a psychotherapist for 40 years but didn't learn about dementia until I moved to a senior community and saw it in dozens of residents.

 

Sometimes Occam’s razor can have two sides. When it comes to Trump’a increasingly bizarre behavior there are two, not necessarily mutually exclusive, simple explanations. His behavior is certainly consistent with his psychodamics, but how much of it is influenced by dementia? There are those who have jumped on a bandwagon of looking for evidence that he has dementia. They certainly have found it. However, there are other simple explanations for his unhinged behavior. 

This morning Sabrina Haake wrote this in her Substack “Trade chaos wuth a side of dementia”:

Last year we had articles with titles like 'Without any doubt': Experts say Trump shows 'staggering' signs of 'cognitive diminishment' . They didn’t leave any room for doubt. I had my doubts then and despite a chorus of people, some self-described experts and lay people, saying Trump has dementia I am have my doubts.

I am posting this as counterpoint to Sabrina Haake’s Substack and to the argument of Dr. John D. Gartner, founder of Duty to Warn, who she uses an expert source. Gartner, Wiki tells us, specialized in the treatment of borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder and depression. Haake’s other expert source is psychologist Suzanne Lachmann who wrote in Newsweek “Donald Trump Dementia Evidence 'Overwhelming.” Dr. Lachmann, per her website, works with adults and late adolescent patients with conflicts including relationship issues, trauma, struggles with self-esteem, body image, trust, depression and anxiety.

In my practice I worked with adults with a variety of common psychiatric disorders, but have had experience working with those with complex dissociative disorder (multiple personality disorder) and Vietnam combat vets with PTSD. I never treated anyone with dementia, though (as noted below) I did correctly diagnose two patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

I wrote the following on Jan. 3rd, 2025. I have not significantly changed my opinion. 

Most mental health professionals who are saying this are not neurologists, let alone neurologists who specialize in dementia. 
Many mental health professionals are absolutely, positively convinced Trump has dementia. I seem like a lone voice among them saying we need more evidence.

I am not an expert, but because I live in a continuing care retirement community I have seen a lot of people with dementia in all stages.

In my training there was no mention of considering dementia in making a differential diagnosis. In my 40 years of practice I never treated anyone with dementia. I did, however, have three clients who I thought had temporal lobe epilepsy which I knew about having read the book “Seized” by Eve LaPlante. I referred them to a behavioral neurologist who did sleep deprived EEGs with them and it turned out two of the three did have this disorder. When I began practice nobody was conversant about another brain disorder, the autism spectrum. My point is that mental health professionals must be aware that there are sometimes physiological and neurological explanations for behavior. This certainly applies to trying to discern explanations for what seems to be aberrant behavior in Trump. The unanswered question is whether is this behavior psychological, physiological, or a combinaiton of the two.

I have seen the photos and illustrations of Trump’s leaning forward posture countless times as if this was absolute proof of dementia. Lots of people his age stand that way at times.

His word salad could be an indication of mania, not dementia, or it could be, as he claims, a kind of improv which he calls the weave.

Many mental health professionals are digging in on the Trump dementia position. I think this is, in a way, wishful thinking couched in science.

We, meaning shrinks, have all the evidence we need to say Trump is a malignant narcissist, but then perhaps desperate to find more to justify saying Trump is unfit, they added dementia to bolster the argument that he was dangerous. I think mental health professionals need to be more self-critical and open minded in our judgments and not succumb to confirmation bias. It is easy to cherry pick from all the evidence when there’s so much Trump, Trump, Trump just about every hour of the day.

Is anybody keeping track of every bit of Trump’s behavior to find indications that he doesn’t have dementia?

We have ample examples of Trump going on for one or two hours without exhibiting any unambiguous signs of dementia. Much of his extemporaneous sidetracking can just as easily be considered a manifestation of his malignant narcissism as of dementia.

There’s currently a Change.org petition online “Our Diagnostic Impression of Trump is Probable Dementia: For Licensed Professionals Only.”

The petition begins:

We, the undersigned licensed medical and mental health professionals (INCLUDE YOUR ADVANCED DEGREE IN YOUR LAST NAME WITH NO PUNCTUATION) concur: From our years of training and experience, we are convinced that, while a definitive diagnosis would require further testing, Donald Trump is showing unmistakable signs strongly suggesting dementia, based on his public behavior and informant reports that show progressive deterioration in memory, thinking, ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills.

I highlighted the part that jumps out at me. First, the “years of training and experience” should apply to those who were in fields like neurology, particularly behavioral neurology, and neurosciense. It is true that a definitive diagnosis would require testing, however the use of the word “unmistakable” along with “strongly suggesting” shows a bias. Leave that word out and I can accept this sentence.

The petition then goes on to list diagnostic indices in these categories:

1) Decline from baseline

2) Memory:

3) Language

4) Motor:

5) Behavior:

The list reads like someone went over a text on dementia and then found things in Trump’s behavior and managed to make a case that he had this disorder. It wasn’t that long ago that splotches seen on Trump’s hands during the E. Jean Carroll led to rampant speculation that he had syphillis. Even before that the syphillis theory was in the news and no social media. This was from 2017: Trump’s ‘Unhinged’ Behavior Could Be Due To ‘Untreated Syphilis,’ Expert Claims. There is a reasonably good case to be made that Trump might be suffering from some stage of dementia. However, reasonably good isn’t good enough as far as I am concerned.

 

I think the list lacks the scientific rigor necessary to reach a foregone conclusion. This being said, I agree with the conclusion whether or not he has dementia:

This represents a unique danger because of Trump’s pre-existing Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder. As he continues to deteriorate he will become even more erratic, impulsive, paranoid, and aggressive than he already is. A demented malignant narcissist as president of the United States would have unimaginably catastrophic consequences.

Not only is Trump unfit, but he cognitively incapable of carrying out the duties of president. Under normal circumstances, relatives of such a patient would be seeking consultation with experts, and considering long term care, as he continues to deteriorate.

We feel an ethical obligation to warn the public, and urge the media to cover this national emergency.

The media must report objectively on anything that suggests Trump may have a cognitive impairment and bring in true experts from the appropriate fields. We can’t allow another Goldwater Rule fiasco to occur. When there were obvious examples of his being a malignant narcissist and mental health professionals spoke up about this they were debunked by many and accused of breaking some sacrosanct professional rule. 
Anti-Trumpers who make the news warning about the dangers of Trump wielding the power of the presidency have been accused of having a psychiatric disorder the name of which has been used to discredit them. You know what it is: Trump derangement syndrome. We must not feed into this narrative.
When mental health professionals go public about the possiblity that Trump has dementia they must do this by emphasizing that this is a possiblity not a certainty. They must write or speak with gravitas and always allow for the chance that they are wrong. 
Time will be the ultimate decider regarding this since dementia always gets worse. There may come a time during his presidency that his symptoms are so obvious you don’t need to be an expert in dementia to reach this conclusion.
This is when the 25th Amendment becomes a real possibility. Then we will be dealing with J.D. Vance. Nobody has suggested he has dementia.
More of my thoughts on this subject:

If Trump has dementia it might be a kind doctors have never seen. Call it weaveheimers. If not, the weave may be as brilliant as he says it is.

This was in Salon (I’m the clinical social worker in the title): Clinical social worker: “With the Trump Bible, one must consider dementia”

I also wrote I’m not the only mental health professional who says that Trump needs a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness.

—————————————————

Note:

I was one of the first members of Dr. John Gartner’s Duty to Warn group and an early signatory to his petition to remove Trump (Version One) under the 25th Amendment. This was because Trump clearly met the criteria for being a dangerous malignant narcissist, or as the titles of the books edited by psychiatrist Bandy Lee, indicate, that he was a dangerous case.

Trump, newly empowered, has emerged as an even more dangerous case. He is dangerous to democracy and the established social and legal norms which are the bedrock of our society. He has gone from being an exemplar of the Dark Triad to being one of the Dark Tetrad. This has sadism added to psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism of the Dark Triad. I wrote about this here:

When I look at Trump and try to understand him I do so through the lens of psychoanalytic theory. For example “Trump's tweets are a royal road to his unconscious. As usual Trump was up tweeting last night. Psychoanalysts gain insight into someone's unconscious, and the way their mind works by analyzing their dreams. We look at his tweets.”

Can Trump be showing signs of dementia. Of course this is possible. Can we be sure? I don’t think so. Since dementia always gets worse, if he has it, in time we will see it. 

Thanks for reading Hal Brown's Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Read my previous Substacks.

If Trump was told and forgot about what was reported by The Atlantic this could be solid evidence he has dementia, By Hal M. Brown, MSW, Retired psychotherapist.

 

Read my previous Substacks here. They are always free. Please consider subscribing.

Short term memory loss is one of the primary symptoms of early dementia. I’ve been agnostic on what other mental health professionals point to as indications of his having dementia. I see this as possibly being just as plausibly Trump feleing unleashed and more majic than usual when he goes off on a rant.

Read:

Also read this earlier essay:

The June 2016 Article in The Atlantic wasn’t the most alarming early article about how dangerous Trump’s psychopathology was. That would be Dr. John Gartner’s Donald Trump's malignant narcissism is toxic in USA Today published on Mar. 4, 2017. The Atlantic does feature it as their cover story and it doesn’t have a particularly unflattering photo of the preening nacrssist who is so concerned about how he is depicted. See what I wrote about Trump’s obsession with how he looks yesterday.

Here are two other 2017 Atlantic articles, one of them has Trump on it and the other a sinking White House.

The Atlantic has not been kind to Donald Ttump. It is clearly on his shit list.

The the psychologist’s article in the June, 2016 edition wasn’t effusive in praising him. It thought it was rather mild. But it is by a clincial psychologist who did not say he was the most mentally healthy person in the world. I’d be surprised if he didn’t have a copy of the magazine given to him because he was on the cover.

It’s possble this was an early contributor to Trump’s animosity toward the magazine.

(I published a portion of the following yesterday.)

Here’s a summary of the article:

In the 2016 presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump has thrown this year’s contest for President of the United States into a tailspin. A conventional presidential candidate, he’s not.

In June 2016, the Atlantic Monthly ran a front page cover story covering the psychology and mind of Donald Trump. For political scientists, fundamental features of human personality—such as extroversion and narcissism—help shape the distinctive leadership styles of our elected officials and the decisions they make. Dan P. McAdams writes about Trump’s dispositions, cognitive styles, motivations and self-conceptions that comprise his unique psychological makeup.

The Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona has assigned the Atlantic Monthly article for summer reading. Freshman and transfer students have been given a copy of June’s Atlantic Monthly to read up on Trump and other current political events. When school resumes in September, professors will discuss McAdams’s article with students in various courses and at department events.

Read the Atlantic Monthly article here. 

Trump may have just revealed the most compelling evidence that he has early dementia. This happened when he was asked about the number one story of the past two days. 

You have to actually watch this video to understand my suggestion that Trump’s reaction to being asked about the security breach could be strongest indication Trump now has dementia.

Excerpt:

Asked about Monday's story by The Atlantic that top cabinet officials and aides used Signal and texted war plans to a reporter, Trump said, "I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me it's a magazine that's going out of business. I think it's not much of a magazine. But I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what?"

Trump added in his comments that it was the first he was hearing about the alleged sharing of the information.

There aren’t too many plausible explanations why Trump didn’t have a coherent answer. Either none of the officials in on the Signal chat didn’t know that the news had come out that the editor of The Atlantic revealed that he was in on the classified message chain. How could that be possible since it was the main story in the news for two hours? They should know that Trump could have learned about it from watching TV. How could they risk Trump finding out about it not from them but on TV?

Watch that video of Trump. He appears confused. He seems to know nothing about the incident. He launches into an attack against The Atlantic. 

If Trump was told about this or learned about it on TV, or was told about it by an official, and forgot about it, one objectively has to call this short term memory loss. This is a major symptom of dementia.

Even if Trump had no knowledge of the security disaster he was clearly put off balance by the question. Going with this explanation would mean that he jumped to the conclusion that this was fake news because it was reported in The Atlantic. 

If Trump was not the volatile angry person he is and for whatever reason he wasn’t aware of this he would have known that The Atlantic is a credible news source. He would have had the reporter who asked the question carefully explain to him what was reported in the story. 

This would have put Trump in the worse than embarrassing position of having to throw some or all of his national security officials under the bus. He would have to say that they were negligent in not keeping him in the loop and that he would investigate why this top secret information was shared with the editor of The Atlantic.

Everyone so far is talking about other aspects of this story. I suggest we all look at this possibly being this is the strongest evidence to date that he may have dementia.

Read my previous Substacks.