Is Donald Trump also losing his mental clarity?

US: Months after targeting his former rival Joe Biden for his advancing age and mental acuity, Donald Trump is now under similar scrutiny for his own mental acuity. According to Timothy O’Brien, author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, the former US president’s manner of delivering public speeches, mistakes and references taken out of context are now the subject of scrutiny.

In an interview with The Guardian, Donald Trump’s biographer underlined that the billionaire politician has been questioned about his repeated mistakes and unusual references in his public speeches. Highlighting the gradual change in Donald Trump’s speech pattern in public, O’Brien said that the 78-year-old is “highly aware” that people have noticed his mistakes in public forums. He also said that Donald Trump’s actions are now a reflection of someone who is “very upset and very desperate” as he tries to offer complex explanations for his bizarre comments.

“The reason he’s giving these complex explanations about his speech patterns now is because he’s very aware that people have found that he’s talking even less intelligibly than he used to. What we’re seeing now is a reflection of someone who is very upset and frustrated,” O’Brien told The Guardian. The biographer believes Trump is trying to hide the changes in his speech patterns with “complex explanations.” Over the past few weeks, Trump has sparked speculation about his cognitive ability with frequent references to Hannibal Lecter, vague words and incomplete thoughts. Trump once talked about dying from an electric shock rather than a shark attack while discussing Electric Boat at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Jennifer Mercieca, author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, has a different opinion. He believes Trump sees his distractions and speech errors as his strengths, and publicly belittles his advisers who advise him to avoid them. “He sees himself as someone without a script, no teleprompts, and a free conversationalist. He seeks inspiration from the crowd. Another aspect of this is that his brain is not well disciplined and it may be that he is unable to sustain a thought and carry it through to its logical conclusion,” The Guardian quoted Mercieca as saying.