BMJ’s Medical Doctors and Scientists “BET’ over Trump’s Mental Illness: Frontal Dementia or Alzheimer?
Introduction by Gospa News Editorial Staff
Dementia vs. Alzheimer’s Disease: What Is the Difference?
«In summary, dementia is an umbrella term that describes a collection of symptoms (cognitive, functional and behavioral) that are caused by specific diseases» Alzheimer’s Association explains in its official website.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common disease that causes dementia, but Frontotemporal degeneration, Lewy Body disease, Vascular disease can all cause symptoms of dementia.
Not all cognitive decline is considered dementia, dementia must be driven by an underlying progressive neurodegenerative disease.
In the British Medical Journal (now just BMJ) article that we republish the editor in chief Kamran Abbas analyzes the various scientific articles published in relation to the alleged mental illness of American President Donald Trump.
Inside it we have included some links to neurological pathologies associated with both the dual form of Long Covid (from infection or adverse reaction to vaccines) as well as some of the psychiatric and neurological disorders that some international scientific studies published in specialized medical journals have linked to anti-SARS-Cov-2 mRNA genetic sera.
Diagnosing President Trump and treating Alzheimer’s: the complexities of Brain Health
by Kamran Abbasi – originally published by The BMJ
All links to previous Gospa News posts and videos have been added in the aftermath by virtue of the ties with covered topics
Is Donald Trump well? The US president claims that his health is “perfect,” but not judging by his medical history. Given that most national leaders are of a certain age before they gain power, some ill health is inevitable. Illness in leaders is a point of both academic study and unfettered speculation—a prime example being how Winston Churchill’s illnesses affected his decision making.1 Leadership can change the wellbeing of leaders too, as the doctor and politician David Owen has shown in his work on hubris.
Cognitive competence of leaders is harder to get at, and commenting on it has become taboo for health professionals. The General Medical Council advises against it in the UK, and the Goldwater rule also discourages it in the US. But these can’t be absolutes, surely? How many current leaders with their finger on the button of a nuclear arsenal would we subjectively consider to be rational? When society becomes concerned about a leader’s fitness to rule, as is true of Trump (doi:10.1136/bmj.s750),3 how do we proceed?
The proposed cause is a variant of frontotemporal dementia
A clear thinking analysis by David Nicholl and Trish Greenhalgh acknowledges the evident warning signs in Trump’s behaviour. A frequently proposed cause is a variant of frontotemporal dementia, but the authors advise doctors against diagnosing at a distance (doi:10.1136/bmj.s741).4
Trump’s famed cognitive tests, which he ritually declares to have passed with flying colours, fall short of the required full neurological assessment, including a detailed cognitive instrument and a three dimensional weighted MRI of the head. The bigger question is: if tests confirm a form of dementia, what then? Will Trump’s cabinet dethrone him?
Our understanding of dementia and brain health is best described as emerging. Two new publications on Alzheimer’s lend credence to this. A new Cochrane systematic review shows that drugs that eliminate amyloid β from the brain don’t deliver a meaningful clinical benefit (doi:10.1136/bmj.s719)5—findings that align with a previous study published in The BMJ (doi:10.1136/bmj.n156).6 The Cochrane authors go further by proposing that the drugs might be causing net harm.
Complex pathways
The second publication is our state of the art review on advances in the drug treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (doi:10.1136/bmj-2023-078881).7 Nowell and colleagues examine the pathophysiology and mechanisms of action, describing multiple possible pathways leading to a common set of clinical effects.
Build-up of amyloid β is only one of these, and its elimination doesn’t deliver the hoped-for clinical benefits. It’s clear that, similar to cancer, the pathways to disease are more complex than previously hypothesised.
Industry’s answer is to produce me-too drugs, at the most variations on a theme, that deliver small clinical improvements; to seek leniency on new drug approvals; and to focus on biomarkers that might reduce risk.
However, that last approach inevitably runs into the methodological sophistry of targeting surrogate outcomes, as well as sinking into the swamp of overdiagnosis by treating people with early disease that might never manifest clinically.
Alzheimer’s disease is—like President Trump—complex and growing in impact and projected risk
Carol Brayne and Edo Richard consider these publications as they dissect the challenges posed by innovation in Alzheimer’s disease (doi:10.1136/bmj.s788).8 They agree that innovation must embrace a new paradigm that moves Alzheimer’s away from a single protein cascade as the cause. Moreover, they remind us that responding to Alzheimer’s isn’t just a matter of drug treatments or technological innovations.
We need to pay greater attention to the drug effects of those interventions on an ageing public and prioritise population approaches to decrease risk, including smoking cessation and reducing obesity.
The challenge of Alzheimer’s disease is—like President Trump—complex and growing in impact and projected risk, and it must be scrutinised with “clear sighted societal and ethical lenses.” Part of the scrutiny for Trump, and other leaders with the power to cause mass death, must be a constitutional requirement for a regular and full evaluation of brain health, bound to a process that prioritises the public’s wellbeing above a leader’s desire to remain in power.
by Kamran Abbasi – originally published by The BMJ
BMJ 2026; 393 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s823 (Published 30 April 2026) Cite this as: BMJ 2026;393:s823
Follow The BMJ Editor Kamran Abbasi on Instagram @Kamran_abbasi_bmj and The BMJ @the_bmj_
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