Donald Trump’s niece, the clinical psychologist and bestselling author Mary Trump, has expressed concern over what she sees as “similarities” between the 79-year-old president’s increasingly erratic behavior and that of his father, Fred Trump, who suffered from Alzheimer’s before passing away in 1999 at the age of 93. This comparison has stirred up questions about the physical and mental health of the president.
“I think the most important thing to know about Donald’s health is that this is a person who has had very serious, severe psychiatric disorders that have gone undiagnosed and they have worsened because they’ve never been treated,” Mary Trump said. “So much of what we’re seeing is the result of those undiagnosed, untreated psychiatric disorders. On top of that … there are clearly some physical health issues, and often it seems that … it’s not just that he’s forgetting things. He doesn’t seem to be oriented to space and time or place and time.”
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Although Mary Trump clarifies she is not a neuropsychologist, she noted her personal experience with her grandfather’s decline as a reference point. “The best frame of reference is, as you said, my experience with my grandfather and I do see similarities again. That occasional confusion, ‘where am I, who’s around me,’ the forgetting of people who were right in front of him.”
She shared a revealing observation about her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s, adding, “The least important people in his life were the people he forgot first. So you could sort of gauge your importance to him by how quickly he forgot you or how long it took for him to forget you.” According to her, her grandfather’s inability to remember her grandmother, despite their 60-year marriage, was particularly striking. “He ended up forgetting my grandmother. He never forgot Donald. So that was always fascinating to me.”
Mary Trump was speaking on the Court of History podcast, which is hosted by Sidney Blumenthal, a former Clinton aide, and Princeton historian Sean Wilentz.
As an author, Mary Trump has written three bestselling books since her uncle became president, including “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” (2020), “The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal” (2021), and “Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir” (2024).
Reflecting further on the similarities and differences between Donald Trump and her grandfather, Mary Trump continued, “I think that there are a few differences. My grandfather was a sociopath. He was a born sociopath. He was not made one. And Donald’s psychology is much more complex, and a lot of what we’re seeing now isn’t new. It’s actually just previous conditions that are worsening and just becoming more obvious to people who haven’t been paying attention.”
She further pondered whether Trump’s behavior could be linked to psychiatric disorders, dementia, or another physical ailment. “So I think that sort of complicates our sense of, ‘Is this the psychiatric disorders? Is this some kind of dementia? Does he have Alzheimer’s?’” she said, noting that it may be impossible to know for sure.
Mary Trump added, “I sort of believe that we’re at the point it doesn’t matter. We know it’s very, very bad. It’s only going to get worse, as everything does with him, whether it’s his outrageous cruelty, incompetence, vindictiveness.”
As the oldest man ever to take the presidential oath, Trump’s physical and mental health has been under scrutiny, just as his predecessor Joe Biden faced similar questions during his tenure. Even before Trump exhibited signs of physical deterioration and took a rare week out of the public eye, his erratic behavior had already fueled concerns.
The White House has denied any issues with Trump’s health, and he recently reappeared to dismiss social media rumors that he might be dead or dying. In one public appearance, Trump angrily rejected questions about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, even as victims of the financier and sex offender, a longtime Trump associate, testified on Capitol Hill.
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Mary Trump, however, warned that the United States is “at a particularly dangerous inflection point” regarding her uncle’s health. “The more he understands who he is, what’s happening to him, the more scared he gets, and the more cruel he’s going to become,” she explained, drawing from her experience with her grandfather’s own struggles with dementia. “As with anybody, people who start having dementia, Alzheimer’s, there are moments of insight. They recognize what’s going on, and it’s actually one of the cruelest things about that disease.”
Asked if she saw signs of anger and confusion in her uncle, Mary Trump said: “It’s so hard to say because Donald has always been paranoid and vindictive and angry… I see that in Donald’s eyes sometimes.” She noted moments when Trump’s expression mirrored her grandfather’s confusion, “like a deer in the headlights look. Like, ‘Where am I? Who are these people? I don’t want to be here.’”