(THREAD--24 TWEETS). Donald Trump may actually remember the following event differently from the way it actually happened. This is not exculpatory. It is in fact very disturbing. tinyurl.com/yatc96pc 
1/ I would like suggest that when Trump denies that he actually said: “Take the Haitians out” at the meeting (and of course he actually did say it),
2/ and when he remembers only that the language he used at the meeting was “tough” (nothing more) that this MAY ACTUALLY BE THE WAY HE NOW REMEMBERS IT.
3/ That is exactly what one would expect from someone suffering from dementia.
4/ As I suggested in a thread last night, and in a much longer thread on Jan 8, a FULL understanding of what is going on here surely requires us to include some early onset dementia as a factor. tinyurl.com/ycx52rpw
5/ Trump is and always has been a racist: true. He is a pathological liar: true. But it is also quite clear that he is ALSO suffering from dementia, which involves impairment of short term memory and fabrication (making things up when memory falls short).
6/ In the case of the “shithole” remark yesterday, neither of the behaviors reported below (summarized by Kyle Griffin from the article he retweeted) tinyurl.com/yc8qa4vc
7/ proves that Trump actually remembers the meeting and his remarks in the way Durbin and Graham did (and ALL the reporters in the room did).
8/ If Trump is suffering from early-onset dementia, it is EXPECTED that he would be belligerent. And it is not surprising that Trump would call advisers looking and hoping for support for his remarks.
9/ But it WOULD be notable if (as I believe) Trump was indignant and looking for support for his remarks at least in part because he did not correctly remember what he said in the meeting-- because that is a symptom of dementia.
10/ In fact, it is important to note that human memory (not just Trump’s) is highly fallible, and that it is harder to remember events accurately than we tend to think. Consider the following:
11/ To be perfectly clear: The fact that human memory--all human memory--is highly fallible and subject to well-known distortions is extremely important, but it doesn’t mean that everybody’s memories are equally reliable.
12/ And I am certainly NOT contending that Trump’s short-term memory is no worse at this point than yours or mine.
13/ On the contrary, what I am contending is that Trump’s short-term memory, in particular, is showing some very serious deficits that suggest early-onset dementia.
14/ Take another example:NYT: Trump Once Said the ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape Was Real. Now He’s Not Sure. tinyurl.com/yd6dwk9a
15/ Again, the fact that Trump’s memory lapses are clearly politically motivated--or at least clearly politically connected--at least at some level, doesn’t mean that he is intentionally lying,
16/ because it is certainly possible that he has actually started to BELIEVE that the Access Hollywood tape was doctored.
17/ That is, he may have, in his own mind, stopped remembering that he did say what he of course DID say on the Hollywood Access tape, and that has also FORGOTTEN that he apologized for the remarks at the time.
18/ In fact, It seems to me that this is actually the MOST NATURAL READING of the NYT’s report.
19/ If Trump really is misremembering and fabricating as I’ve suggested, it is disturbing because it’s EXTREMITY suggests that dementia is involved.
20/ And the possibility that dementia is involved is greatly strengthened by other symptoms, like the tendency to repeat certain things over and over, which in Trump’s case is also extreme.
21/ I have drawn attention a couple of times already to an interview Trump gave Michael Schmidt (NYT) on DEC 30 at Mar-a-Lago, where in the space of a 30-minute interview Trump referred to “collusion” 16 times:
22/ We have all repeated ourselves--to some extent at least some of the time. That’s not abnormal. But the degree of repetition in Michael Schmidt’s NYT interview certainly is abnormal.
23/ It’s not that Trump isn’t a racist, or that he isn’t a liar, or that he isn’t a revolting vulgarian. He is all of these things.
24/ But there is something else going on here, and we must focus on it and not lose sight of it because it may be more dangerous than all of the above: we are ALSO in early-onset dementia territory here. THAT’s the point I want to make. END
