Donald Trump’s top aide had a furious response after an MSNBC host questioned the president’s mental health.
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell had called Trump’s cognitive functions into question, speculating that his recent remarks —in which he said he doesn’t know whether it’s his job to uphold the Constitution—“could be a sign of mental illness, or it could be a sign of early-stage dementia in a 78-year-old man.”
“In Donald Trump’s case, stupidity is the most innocent explanation for his ‘I don’t know,’” O’Donnell said on The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell. “But during mental health month, we have a right to consider other possibilities.”
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“Every high school student in America is supposed to know the answer to that question, which is one word: ‘Yes,’” O’Donnell added. “But Donald Trump’s answer was ‘I don’t know’—which could be a sign of mental illness or could be a sign of early-stage dementia."
But White House Communications Director Steven Cheung shot back at the veteran news anchor in a statement to the Daily Beast, accusing O’Donnell of “clearly suffering from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his brain.”
“President Trump aced his cognitive test, meanwhile Joe Biden’s handlers refused to allow him to take one out of fear of what was apparent to the entire world—his mind was severely in decline and lacked the intelligence to lead the country,” Cheung said. “People like Lawrence are complicit in the coverup to hide Biden’s condition, and he knows he’ll have to live the rest of his life reconciling the fact he helped deceive the American people.”
O’Donnell further highlighted Trump’s growing habit of responding “I don’t know” to questions he finds uncomfortable on Wednesday’s edition of The Last Word.
Elsewhere in the segment, O’Donnell referred to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a commentary on the president’s mental health by 37 psychiatrists published during his first term, which claimed Trump’s cognitive faculties could “only go in one direction” as he got older.
But a medical report released by the White House in April countered that Trump was in “excellent health” and showed “no abnormalities” in neurological and cognitive tests.
Trump, meanwhile, bragged to reporters about acing his cognitive test—but appeared unable to recall any of its questions when pressed.
Cheung has made a habit of accusing anyone who criticizes the president of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome”—including The Daily Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles, whom he called a “piece of s--t” who suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome in an unhinged rant.
Coles shot back at Cheung on the Daily Beast Podcast over his recycled insults.
“I wanna recommend, as my medical diagnosis for Steven Cheung, that he buy a thesaurus,” she said. “Get a little more creative.”
Others Cheung has diagnosed with Trump Derangement Syndrome include journalist Bob Woodward of Watergate fame, former Biden Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and author Michael Wolff.
As with Trump, former President Joe Biden similarly dismissed criticisms of his mental decline during an interview with his wife, Jill, on Thursday’s edition of The View.
When host Alyssa Farah Griffin pressed him on claims he suffered a “dramatic decline in cognitive abilities” during his final year in office, the former president dismissed the rumors as “wrong” and said there was “nothing to sustain that.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to MSNBC for comment.
