Trump supporter-turned-foe shares surprising take on president’s ‘mental decline’ - BERITAJA

Tucker Carlson, erstwhile 1 of Donald Trump‘s strongest media allies, rejected claims that the president is suffering from dementia while offering a harsh appraisal of his attack to knowledge and leadership.

Speaking to Lulu Garcia-Navarro connected The New York Times podcast “The Interview,” Carlson said he has spoken pinch Trump often this twelvemonth and saw nary signs of cognitive decline.

“I should say, having spoken to him a batch successful this almanac year, I detected nary grounds astatine each of dementia, intelligence decline,” Carlson told Garcia-Navarro. “You perceive group say, ‘Well, he’s gone, you know, soft.’ That was not my belief astatine all.”

The comments guidelines retired because Carlson has precocious go 1 of Trump’s sharpest blimpish critics aft years of defending him connected Fox News.

Carlson based on that Trump’s weaknesses are not tied to intelligence diminution but to his deficiency of liking successful argumentation details.

“Trump is not well-informed connected a batch of topics for sure, is proudly ignorant connected a batch of topics,” Carlson said. “But he has benignant of singular powers of penetration into group and powerfulness dynamics. Like you don’t get to beryllium president by accident. The guy’s smart successful the ways that matter politically.”

Carlson’s comments framed Trump arsenic politically instinctive while besides describing him arsenic intentionally uninformed connected galore subjects.

Trump’s hypnotic quality

Carlson besides described what he believes is Trump’s different power complete the group about him.

While discussing Trump’s decision-making and soul circle, Carlson claimed the president has a unusual effect connected those who walk clip pinch him.

“I deliberation it about apt virtually is simply a spell,” Carlson told Garcia-Navarro. “And the effect is to weaken group about him and make them much compliant and much confused. I’ve knowledgeable this myself. You walk a time pinch Trump and you’re successful this benignant of dreamland.”

Carlson compared the acquisition to smoking hash, suggesting Trump’s power comes much from characteristic and affectional power than mentation aliases argumentation expertise.

What others are saying

Carlson’s rejection of the dementia communicative contrasts pinch increasing disapproval from lawmakers, erstwhile friends and governmental opponents questioning Trump’s cognitive fitness.

Representative Jamie Raskin wrote to White House expert Captain Sean Barbabella requesting a afloat neuropsychological information of Trump.

In the letter, Raskin wrote that “experts person many times warned that the President has been exhibiting signs accordant pinch dementia and cognitive decline.”

Raskin pointed to Trump’s comments surrounding the Iran war, including threats to swipe retired “a full civilization” and inflammatory societal media posts made connected Easter morning.

“At a clip erstwhile our state is astatine warfare — particularly erstwhile the warfare was initiated by the President without legislature declaration aliases consent — the American group must beryllium capable to spot that the Commander-in-Chief has the intelligence capacity to discharge the basal duties of his office,” Raskin wrote.

The White House dismissed the request. Spokesperson Davis Ingle responded, “Lightweight Jamie Raskin is simply a stupid person’s thought of a smart person. President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched power and historical accessibility guidelines successful stark opposition to what we saw during the past 4 years erstwhile Democrats for illustration Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden‘s superior intelligence and beingness diminution from the American people.”

Former White House counsel Ty Cobb besides raised concerns during an question and reply pinch MSNBC big Ari Melber.

Cobb said Trump’s “vocabulary has shrunk, he’s resorted to profanity and threats, wholly impulsive — suggestive of the absence of immoderate frontal lobe controls.”

He added that Trump’s diminution had “definitely accelerated” compared to his first word and cited Trump’s late-night Truth Social posts arsenic a imaginable informing sign.

“One of the classical symptoms of Alzheimer’s is the sleep-wake reversal. So we spot these screeds coming retired astatine 4 a.m. and we spot him falling dormant astatine Cabinet meetings astatine mornings and afternoons. That’s a classical denotation of dementia,” Cobb said.

Meanwhile, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene joined much than 50 Democrats successful calling for discussions about the 25th Amendment.

“I deliberation we person to genuinely mobility the intelligence stableness of immoderate president that threatens to swipe retired an full civilization,” Greene said.

What the White House says

The White House has continued to insist Trump remains successful beardown health.

In October 2025, White House expert Captain Sean Barbabella said the president “continues to show fantabulous wide health.”

The management has besides pointed to Trump’s April 2025 beingness introspection astatine Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, which included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test, arsenic grounds of his cognitive fitness.