Donald Trump Health Fears: Psychologist Warns 'Extreme' Symptoms Risk Nuclear War

Donald Trump's mental state is so 'extreme' that it could drive him to seek nuclear war in order to feel powerful, a US psychologist has claimed in a stark warning that has reignited debate over the President's fitness for office. Speaking on The Daily Beast's podcast, Dr John Gartner, a former assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, said Trump was 'the sickest person' he has encountered in his four decades in clinical practice.

concerns and speculation about Trump's mental health have bubbled away for years, often dismissed by his allies as partisan attacks and medical overreach. This latest intervention comes after a fresh round of media appearances by Gartner, who has long argued that Trump displays signs of dementia and severe personality pathology, despite never having examined him. His claims sit directly at odds with official White House medical reports issued during Trump's presidency, which repeatedly described him as being in 'excellent health.'

Psychologist Calls Donald Trump 'The Sickest' Patient He's Seen

Gartner did not hold back when describing his assessment of Trump's behaviour and public persona.

'In 40 years of clinical practice and almost 30 years of teaching psychiatric residents, I've never encountered a patient as sick as Donald Trump,' he told host Joanna Coles. He argued that the President is 'so many standard deviations away from what we would normally consider normal' and suggested that Trump's fantasies of being a 'military conqueror' are now coming to a head.

To recall, Gartner has for several years claimed that Trump shows symptoms consistent with frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative brain condition that can affect judgement, impulse control and language. He has said that since 2019 Trump's speeches, digressions and public rambling have strengthened his view, adding that stress and sleep deprivation could intensify any existing condition. None of these claims has been clinically confirmed, and Gartner acknowledges he has not conducted a personal medical evaluation of Trump.

In his latest remarks, Gartner went a step further, tying his psychological reading of Trump directly to the risk of armed conflict. He suggested that as Trump faces political setbacks and reputational damage, he might look increasingly to the powers of the presidency's commander-in-chief role as a way to restore his sense of dominance.

'What I believe is that he is setting us up. He is grooming us for nuclear war,' Gartner said. 'He wants to be the person who pushes the button first, because that would put him in history as the most destructively powerful military leader in human history.'

He went on to claim that Trump derives 'gratification from destroying things and hurting people and feeling powerful through that,' arguing that this pattern sits at the heart of his fears.

Donald Trump, Power And The Nuclear Button

Gartner's theory rests on a broader reading of Trump's political circumstances. He pointed to Trump's domestic difficulties while in office sliding poll numbers, economic struggles and the threat of losing control of both houses of Congress as the kind of pressure that, in his view, could push Trump toward drastic action.

'As he's starting to have more and more problems at home, his poll numbers are in the toilet. The economy is in the toilet. He might lose both houses of Congress,' Gartner said. 'If he does, what's the one power he has that no one can challenge? Even if we have both houses of Congress, he will still be the commander in chief, and he's going to want to use that power in a way that makes him feel powerful.'

The implication is bleak but clear. In Gartner's telling, the nuclear arsenal is not simply a strategic deterrent but a potential instrument of personal validation for a man he believes is psychologically driven to seek destructive grandiosity. It is an argument that blends clinical language with a distinctly political warning, and it will sound alarmist to many ears.

Nothing in Gartner's characterisation has been accepted by official channels. During Trump's presidency, the White House repeatedly brushed aside suggestions of cognitive decline or psychiatric instability. Following a high-profile visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Navy Capt Sean Barbabella, the physician to the president at the time, reported that Trump remained in 'excellent health.'

The written summary of that examination said Trump exhibited 'strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function.' It also disclosed that he scored 30 out of 30 on a standard cognitive assessment. Trump has often brandished that perfect score in interviews and rallies as proof of his mental sharpness, to the point of turning a routine screening tool into a political badge of honour.

Critics of that approach note that the Montreal Cognitive Assessment is designed to pick up signs of impairment, not to gauge intelligence or suitability for high office. Put bluntly, passing it shows you are not obviously impaired; it does not confer genius status or certify psychological stability.

The spectacle of psychiatrists and psychologists publicly dissecting Trump's mind from afar has itself become a running controversy. Professional guidelines in the United States generally discourage offering diagnostic opinions on public figures without examining them, and Trump's defenders argue that Gartner and others are weaponising their credentials to pursue a political agenda.

Gartner insists the opposite. He has repeatedly argued that when mental health professionals believe a leader poses a danger, they have a duty to speak out, even without a formal doctor–patient relationship. Whether that is a brave act of whistleblowing or an ethical overreach depends, as ever with Trump, on where you are already standing.

No independent medical body has verified Gartner's claims about dementia or any other psychiatric condition, and Trump's most recent official health reports remain favourable. Until more concrete evidence emerges, both his dire warnings and the emphatic reassurances from Trump's camp will have to be treated with a degree of caution rather than certainty.