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Donald Trump may have early-onset dementia, says CNN commentator

Comments come following President's meandering, angry speech to supporters in Arizona

Caroline Mortimer
Wednesday 23 August 2017 10:38 BST
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Donald Trump attacks critics as rambling Phoenix rally speech descends into public meltdown

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A US political commentator has claimed Donald Trump could be suffering from early onset dementia after he delivered another abuse-laden speech at a rally in Arizona.

During the meandering 77-minute speech in Phoenix, the President attacked the media once again for its “dishonest” portrayal of his response to the death of a woman following a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He said: “The only thing giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news.”

He accused the media “of trying to take away the history and our heritage.”

“I really think they don’t like our country. I really believe that,” he added.

The Republican went onto hint that he would pardon controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty of criminal contempt for racial profiling, threatened to scrap the Nafta trade deal once again and suggested he may shut down the government if Congress refuses to pay for his Mexican border wall.

Now Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist who broke ranks and endorsed Hillary Clinton last year, tweeted the only “possible defensible explanation for Trump’s disgusting, unpresidential, narcissistic behaviour, would be early-onset dementia”.

She called him a “defensive 71-year-old man baby having a disrespectful tantrum over the way he was treated over Charlottesville”.

The fallout from the protest in Charlottesville, in which 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed when an alleged white supremacist drove his car into a group of counter-protesters, is still being felt in the White House after several business leaders distanced themselves from the administration over Mr Trump’s comments.

Mr Trump initially drew criticism for condemning the violence “on many sides”. He later rolled back on the comment, before doubling down on his insistence that "both sides" were to blame in an extraordinary press conference at Trump Tower.

It comes just a day after CNN ran a news segment on whether Mr Trump is mentally ill.

Journalist Brian Stelter said the former businessman’s behaviour was raising some “uncomfortable” questions such as: "Is the President of the United States a racist? Is he suffering from some kind of illness? Is he fit for office?

"And if he is unfit, then what?"

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