The report, published by STAT News, includes comments from cognitive experts who analyzed Trump’s speech patterns from 2017 until today. They supposedly noticed “increased tangentiality, shorter sentences, and more repetition” in his recent public speeches.

In a speech earlier this year, former President Trump was mocking President Biden’s ability to walk through sand when he suddenly switched to talking about the old Hollywood icon Cary Grant.

“Somebody said he [Biden] looks great in a bathing suit, right? When he was in the sand and he was having a hard time lifting his feet through the sand, because you know, sand is heavy. They figure three solid ounces per foot. But sand is a little heavy. And he’s sitting in a bathing suit. Look, at 81, do you remember Cary Grant? How good was Cary Grant, right? I don’t think Cary Grant — he was good. I don’t know what happened to movie stars today,” he said at a March rally in Georgia. Trump went on to talk about contemporary actors, Michael Jackson, and border policies before returning to the theme of how Biden looks on the beach.

This shifting from topic to topic, with few connections — a pattern of speech called tangentiality — is one of several disjointed and occasionally incoherent verbal habits that seem to have increased in Trump’s speech in recent years, according to interviews with experts in memory, psychology, and linguistics.

Back in 2017, Trump’s first year in the White House, a STAT analysis showed Trump’s speaking style had deteriorated since the 1980s. Seven years on, now that Trump has the GOP presidential nomination, STAT has repeated the analysis. The experts noted a further reduction in Trump’s linguistic complexity and, while none said they could give a diagnosis without an examination, some said certain shifts in his speaking style are potential indications of cognitive decline.

The article cites several examples of Trump’s verbal missteps, such as when he “confused former president Obama and Biden, and spoke about Nikki Haley when he meant to refer to Nancy Pelosi.”

However, some of the experts dismissed the supposed significance of these errors. "Everyone to some degree has some level of mixing up of names. It's a bit of a red herring,” said clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis.

However, the experts did note some supposedly concerning changes in the former president’s speech patterns, including his Biden/Cary Grant moment. One of the experts pointed to Trump increasingly speaking in absolute terms as an example of his cognitive issues.

Since the end of Trump’s presidency in 2021, Pennebaker’s analysis showed a steep increase in “all-or-nothing thinking,” as indicated by a roughly 60% increase in use of absolute terms like “always,” “never,” and “completely.” This habit, Pennebaker said, can be a sign of depression, which also fits with other changes in Trump’s word choices: His dialogue now has far fewer positive words than previously, and includes more references to negative emotions, especially since his return to civilian life.

Increased all-or-nothing thinking can also be linked to cognitive ability, and such a sharp increase is associated with cognitive decline, said Pennebaker. “Another person who’s all-or–nothing thinking has gone up is Biden,” he added.

Naturally, leftist news organizations have already pounced on the report. The New Republic, The Independent, and The Daily Beast have all published articles referencing the report.

It is worth noting that the experts interviewed for the report were careful to hedge their statements. Michaelis said, “I can’t say for certain there’s cognitive decline. I would need to do a thorough evaluation to make that determination.”

So, why is the media once again bringing up Trump’s mental faculties? Before President Biden bowed out of the race, it made more sense to push this talking point to distract from the fact that Democrats were propping up a man who is clearly not up to the job. Sure, it was dishonest and a bit absurd, but what else were they going to do?

But now that the left no longer has to try conning the public into believing that the president is sharp as a tack, there appears to be no reason for this strategy now that they have a much younger candidate.

Perhaps they believe they can simply employ the same narrative against Trump that the right used against President Biden. They might think they can increase concerns about the former president’s age, which could make people believe he is not fit for the White House.

This is a horrible strategy. Nobody is ever going to believe that Trump’s age is as much of an issue as his former opponent’s. Yes, he’s no spring chicken. But he clearly is in full possession of his mental faculties, a fact that even the lowest of IQs among us can see.