Enfeeblementia: The Public Decay of a World Leader

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The other day I was looking for a single word to encapsulate the conspicuous decline in the mental acuity and physical stamina and condition of Donald Trump.  I wanted to try and come up with a concise synthesis of his deterioration which is occurring right before our eyes.  I finally arrived at the word "enfeebled" as an adjective for Trump in his present state, a snapshot of the man currently in charge of the world's  most powerful nation.  

The thing that got me off on the tangent of Trump's overall unwell-being was the release of the recent Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll which provided insight into how he was being viewed by the general public, and some of those poll results were alarming.  The current results of that highly respected national poll highlighted findings such as:  

• 59% of respondents said that Trump does not have the mental sharpness that it takes to lead the country;
• 55% of respondents said that Trump is not in good enough physical health to serve as President; 
• 54% said they do not regard Trump as a strong leader;  and,
• 67% said they do not believe that Trump considers important decisions carefully.

(Note:  The above poll was conducted on-line between April 24-28, 2026.   2,560 US adults participated nationwide.  The margin of error is 2.2 percentage points.)

Those poll results indicate that a majority of Americans recognize that Donald Trump, who will be eighty next month, is not the man, physically or mentally, that he was once.   Our abilities diminish as we get older - always have, always will.  Time is bringing Donald Trump down, enfeebling him, just as it slowly erodes the vitality and life from all of us.

When I finally settled on the word "enfeebled" to capture the essence of Donald Trump's current physical and mental state, I had the audacity to think that I might have coined a new term, but a quick review of the dictionary and current literature disabused me of that notion.  The word is so common in fact, that The Atlantic magazine had used it last December 9th in the title of an article about Trump by David A. Graham:  "The Enfeebling of the President."  (So much for my own vain attempt at originality!)

The list of Trump's infirmities is concerning and expanding.  He falls asleep at meetings and was recently captured by press cameras seemingly dozing at a Cabinet meeting, footage of which appeared on television.  Clearly not a "presidential look" or a quality to be valued in an important world leader.

But some might argue that Trump is at his best when he is snoozing, and that it is when he is awake that his infirmities are most noticeable.   His inability to stay on topic when he is speaking is almost the stuff of legend.  He'll start out on one subject and drift into another and then another, going wherever his obviously wandering mind takes him.   Trump's verbal and mental meandering is so obvious that even he has picked up on it - and he refers to his stream of gibberish as "the weave."

Trump has obvious issues with impulse control, posting rants or making unfiltered statements on things as far-ranging as insulting someone's physical appearance to threatening the destruction of an entire civilization.  The man who had an immigrant mother and two immigrant wives is quick to display strong animus toward certain groups of immigrants, particularly those from poor nations and those who are not caucasian.  And his proclivity for insults and name-calling is constantly at-the-ready and strongly resembles that found in a schoolyard culture.  Trump has a particular disdain for female reporters and recently addressed one as "Piggy," and called another a "horror show" after telling her that her question was "stupid."

His body is old, and press cameras are constantly catching new bruising and swelling.   Trump's body and ours age by the day on the downward spiral that captures us all in our declining years, making a few vain attempts to stay afloat as we circle the ever-present drain of death.

I'm less than two years younger than Donald Trump and I still have enough presence of mind to know that my enfeeblements are real and accumulating by the day.  When I get to the point that I can no longer recognize or admit my declining physical condition and mental acuity, enfeeblementia will have set in.  I won't know when that hits me.

But even as I am today, somewhere short of enfeeblementia (I hope), I would still have no business being the face of the United States or standing anywhere near the nuclear codes.

There is a point in life where it's time to sit down and shut up - and maybe put it all in a blog that nobody reads!