Ty Cobb did not observe Donald Trump solely through television clips, campaign rallies or late-night social-media posts.

He worked inside Trump’s White House.

He reported directly to the president while representing the administration during Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Now the former White House attorney is making an explosive claim about the man he once served:

“The cognitive decline is real.”

Speaking with journalist Mehdi Hasan in an interview published by Zeteo, Cobb argued that Trump’s behavior has changed significantly between his first and second administrations.

“He’s always been a malignant narcissist,” Cobb said, “but that narcissism now has no frontal lobe restraints.”

The phrase “malignant narcissist” is not presented here as a verified medical diagnosis. Nor has Cobb publicly established that he examined Trump neurologically or obtained access to his private medical records.

But Cobb insisted that the behavioral differences he has observed are too serious to ignore.

He pointed to Trump’s increasingly extreme social-media content, including an artificial video portraying former President Barack Obama being arrested inside the Oval Office.

He also cited a post depicting Trump in a fighter jet dumping excrement over “No Kings” protesters, along with the president’s recent attack on Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

To Cobb, those incidents are not merely offensive political communications.

They are warning signs.

“The kind of things that basically have drained the dignity of the office of the president and demeaned our country around the world,” Cobb said, “those are signals of serious cognitive decline.”

Cobb also focused on the timing of Trump’s online activity.

He referred to the president’s apparent “sundown” and noted that many of his most provocative posts appear between 2 and 4 in the morning. He also pointed to reports and footage of Trump appearing to fall asleep during Cabinet meetings and other public events.

“All of those are indicative of frontal lobe illness,” Cobb claimed.

That conclusion must be treated cautiously.

“Sundowning” is a term commonly associated with confusion or behavioral changes occurring later in the day among some people with dementia. Posting during early-morning hours is not, by itself, evidence of sundowning, dementia or any neurological disorder.

Similarly, appearing to close one’s eyes or fall asleep at a public event could result from fatigue, medication, poor sleep or many other factors. It cannot establish a frontal-lobe condition without a proper medical evaluation.

Clinicians diagnosing cognitive illness typically rely on a detailed history, direct examination, standardized cognitive testing, laboratory studies and, where appropriate, brain imaging.

Cobb did not indicate that he had performed such an assessment.

His testimony is therefore best understood as the alarmed interpretation of a former senior official who interacted directly with Trump—not a confirmed diagnosis.

Still, the questions he raises carry enormous consequences.

The president controls the executive branch, commands the military and makes decisions involving nuclear weapons, economic crises and international conflict. Even credible uncertainty about cognitive capacity demands transparency rather than partisan dismissal.

Trump and his representatives have repeatedly maintained that he is mentally sharp and capable of performing his duties. Nothing in the supplied reporting indicates that a treating physician has diagnosed him with dementia or a frontal-lobe disease.

Trump has responded to Cobb personally rather than medically.

He has called his former lawyer a “real loser,” “one of the worst lawyers in Washington, D.C.” and a “whackjob.” Trump has also claimed that he “hardly knew” Cobb, despite Cobb’s role representing the White House and reporting directly to him during the Mueller investigation.

Those insults do not answer the underlying question.

Has Trump’s behavior materially changed since his first administration?

Cobb believes it has.

His argument rests not on isolated verbal mistakes, which can happen to any public speaker, but on what he describes as an expanding pattern: late-night posting, degrading imagery, diminished restraint, public sleepiness and increasingly erratic attacks.

Critics of Cobb could argue that political hostility has shaped his interpretation. He became a prominent opponent of Trump after leaving the White House and has repeatedly condemned the president’s conduct and threats to democratic institutions.

That history does not make his observations false, but it provides relevant context.

The public also faces a familiar problem.

Political opponents often turn ordinary signs of aging into diagnoses, while allies dismiss genuine concerns as partisan attacks. Neither approach produces a reliable medical judgment.

The proper response would be comprehensive, credible health disclosure from qualified physicians who have examined the president—not viral speculation from supporters or adversaries.

Cobb’s language is deliberately alarming because he believes the danger is immediate.

Trump is no longer simply a private citizen posting disturbing memes. He is president of the United States, and Cobb says the restraints he once observed are disappearing.

There is no public medical proof in the supplied information that Trump has a “frontal lobe illness.”

But a former attorney who worked directly for him has now declared that the change is real.

For the country, the unanswered question is no longer merely whether Trump’s behavior is shocking.

It is whether anyone with access to his actual health information is willing to tell Americans why.