A psychologist is raising new concerns about Donald Trump’s speech, judgment and relentless social-media activity, claiming that the president’s recent behavior resembles a “manic-like state” and could indicate neurological impairment.

Dr. John Garrison presented his analysis in a YouTube video after reviewing excerpts from a Fox News interview and Trump’s extraordinary weekend posting spree.

Garrison pointed to tangled sentences, an unusual vocal sound, the apparent appearance of Trump’s pupils and repeated posts involving territorial expansion and renaming geographical locations.

“We are seeing serious issues with language with President Trump,” Garrison said.

His conclusions are alarming—but they carry a crucial limitation. Garrison did not report personally examining Trump, reviewing his medical records or conducting neurological testing. Video clips and social-media posts cannot, by themselves, establish that someone has dementia, mania, a brain injury or any other medical condition.

The White House has maintained that Trump is healthy and has rejected speculation about neurological problems.

“Going down like a rocket”

Garrison began with a clip in which Trump predicted that oil prices were “going to go down like a rocket.”

The psychologist interpreted the unusual comparison as a possible example of two familiar expressions becoming combined. Rockets normally go up, while prices are commonly said to fall “like a rock.”

Garrison characterized the phrase as a speech-planning problem and argued that Trump appeared to have difficulty organizing language.

He also replayed a brief, abrupt sound made by the president, describing it as an involuntary vocalization that he considered relatively new.

“The pathways that deal with language are disrupted,” Garrison asserted.

That claim represents his interpretation of a short media clip. Verbal slips, mixed expressions and unusual sounds can arise for numerous reasons—including fatigue, distraction or ordinary speaking errors—and cannot establish neurological disease without a proper clinical evaluation.

A tangled midterm message

Garrison next examined Trump’s comments about campaigning for Republican candidates in the midterm elections.

“I’m going to campaign like I did for myself,” Trump said, before delivering a confusing sequence about whether voters believed he was “on” and whether they would go out to vote.

Garrison said the passage was incoherent and argued that Trump appeared unable to recognize that his words had become difficult to follow.

“He cannot organize his thoughts,” the psychologist said. “He gets confused and he believes what he’s saying is coherent.”

The passage was undeniably convoluted. Whether it reflects an underlying medical problem, however, cannot be determined from the clip alone.

Public officials can legitimately be scrutinized for their ability to communicate clearly, particularly when they exercise enormous power. But political concerns about coherence are not equivalent to a medical diagnosis.

Claims about Trump’s pupils

Garrison also focused on Trump’s eyes during the brightly lit interview.

He said the president’s pupils appeared dilated despite studio lights that would normally cause pupils to constrict. He then discussed possible explanations, including medications, stimulants or neurological impairment.

“Dilated pupils like this can be from a wide variety of reasons,” Garrison acknowledged.

This portion of the analysis is particularly uncertain. Camera exposure, video compression, shadows, image resolution and the precise direction of lighting can affect how pupils appear onscreen.

Even an accurate observation that someone’s pupils are dilated would not reveal the cause. A clinician would need to examine the patient, consider medications and other substances, compare both eyes and evaluate additional neurological signs.

Nothing in the supplied report establishes that Trump uses stimulants or takes medication for Parkinson’s disease, seizures or incontinence.

Those possibilities should therefore not be presented as known facts.

Seven posts about “New America”

Garrison’s strongest concerns centered on Trump’s weekend activity on Truth Social.

The president reportedly shared dozens of AI-generated images and repeated territorial fantasies involving American ownership, geographical expansion and renamed landmarks.

Among them were multiple posts promoting the idea of changing New Mexico’s name to “New America.” Garrison said Trump posted about that idea seven times within approximately one hour.

He characterized the repetition as possible “perseveration”—the persistent repetition of an idea or behavior—and connected it with grandiosity and poor judgment.

“The obsession with and the perseveration on everything being his or being America’s is only growing by the day,” Garrison said.

He described the overall spree as resembling “outright mania” and argued that Trump appeared unable to move beyond the idea of expansion.

But strange, repetitive or provocative social-media behavior is not sufficient to diagnose a manic episode. Such posting may be deliberate political performance, trolling, impulsivity, staff-assisted content distribution or a combination of factors unavailable to outside observers.

Behavior can be questioned without remote diagnosis

Garrison concluded that Trump was demonstrating increasing confusion, language difficulties, obsessiveness and grandiosity.

He also suggested that impaired insight could prevent Trump from recognizing excessive behavior.

Those are grave claims about an 80-year-old president entrusted with military authority, economic policy and the nuclear arsenal. They deserve careful attention—but also careful evidence.

Trump’s public conduct can be evaluated directly. Voters can judge whether his statements make sense, whether his repeated territorial posts are responsible and whether his online activity reflects the priorities they expect from a president.

What cannot responsibly be concluded from these materials alone is that he has a particular neurological or psychiatric disorder.

Garrison has sounded an alarm. Establishing whether that alarm reflects illness, political behavior or something else would require what viral clips cannot provide: an independent, comprehensive medical examination.