A top doctor has sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump’s habit of falling asleep during meetings, saying it could be a sign of something sinister.
Trump, who turns 80 next month, has appeared to nod off during several engagements, most recently at a Memorial Day event at Arlington Cemetery on Monday. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at the George Washington University Hospital, and also cardiologist to the late former Vice President Dick Cheney, has said this could be evidence of a “severe illness.”
“The president has severe daytime somnolence. He falls asleep very often. He’s fallen asleep in the Oval Office on multiple occasions with people talking to him in the Cabinet room, and I was concerned yesterday that he might have fallen asleep at Arlington National Cemetery during Memorial Day observances,” Reiner said on CNN News Central.
He added a warning: “Chronic insomnia is a severe illness. It can result in an increase in risk of dementia, decrease in cognitive effects in older people.”
There has also been increasing speculation about Trump’s mental acuity of late. Last month. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in an interview with Politico that he believes the president “has dementia.” Many medical experts agree that he is showing signs of the disease his father suffered from.
Last month, Democratic Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin pressed the White House physician for a full evaluation of Trump’s cognitive abilities. In a letter to Sean Barbabella, the Navy captain serving as Trump’s official doctor, Raskin argued that Trump’s behavior warrants a “comprehensive cognitive assessment.”
Raskin, who demanded the results be shared publicly, echoed the concerns of professionals and said: “Experts have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline. And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening,” wrote Raskin, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
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