Trump's started tripping over simple words — and it signals 'severe problems': analysis

Donald Trump is showing new signs of cognitive decline, according to health experts who say closer analysis is needed.

Speaking to Slate Magazine, Carolyn Aldwin, an aging researcher at Oregon State University, says there are fresh signs of decline from Trump that may not have been noticed before.

Part of the decline is part of an already clear problem that Trump "has really severe language problems." Aldwin added, "He can’t complete sentences. He wanders off topic. He gets very confused. He clearly has difficulties. How severe those are can really only be established by testing."

Those language problems from Trump were further analyzed by Slate health journalist Anna Gibbs, who says word substitutions for Trump are increasing.

Gibbs wrote, "A particular concern for Aldwin is that he frequently makes something called phonemic paraphasic errors, when a person substitutes a sound or syllable that resembles the intended word.

"For instance, during his Davos speech, Trump said of Venezuela: 'We appreciate all of the cooperation we’ve been giving,' instead of (presumably) “given” — which then seems to lead him to change course into this odd addendum: 'We’ve been giving great cooperation.'

"Could his trouble pronouncing acetaminophen be a phonemic paraphasic error? Maybe, the experts I spoke to said. But it could also be that he didn’t care to learn the word."

Red flags were raised about Trump's ongoing cognitive decline earlier this year, with the president seemingly confirming he was being monitored by doctors.

He wrote on January 2, "The White House Doctors have just reported that I am in ‘PERFECT HEALTH,’ and that I ‘ACED (Meaning, was correct on 100% of the questions asked!), for the third straight time, my Cognitive Examination, something which no other President, or previous Vice President, was willing to take."

The brag raised eyebrows for Dr. Vin Gupta, who told viewers of "Deadline: White House" later Friday that Trump was bragging about passing the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MOCA, which doctors use when they're worried a patient may be displaying signs of "age-related cognitive decline, so-called mild cognitive impairment or early stage dementia."

"This is something that we tend to go through these screening tools whenever we're worried about, say, age-related cognitive decline, so-called mild cognitive impairment, or early-stage dementia, where we worry about memory loss.

"Maybe people are forgetting linear thinking. They lose their train of thought," Gupta said. "So we do something called a MOCA test, Montreal Cognitive Assessment tool, to see is there issues with recall."