Psychologist Mary Trump, the president's niece and author of the 2020 bestselling family memoir Too Much and Never Enough, has suggested that her uncle's recent preoccupation with his hairstyle could echo the behavior of his father, Fred Trump, who developed a fixation on wigs and hair dye as his Alzheimer's disease progressed.

Speaking on The Dean Obeidallah Show, Mary Trump addressed President Donald Trump's widely discussed new hairdo, which has drawn online ridicule and spawned theories that he is wearing a new wig. The remarks come amid heightened public scrutiny of presidential candidates' age and cognitive fitness, a recurring theme throughout the 2024 election cycle.

After comparing her uncle to Hermey, the aspiring dentist from the classic animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Mary Trump drew a direct parallel to her grandfather, the president's late father, Fred Trump Sr., who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and died in 1999 at age 93. She recalled that Fred Trump became similarly consumed with his appearance — particularly his hair — as the disease took hold.

"What's really interesting about it to me is that my grandfather had a receding hairline from the time he was a teenager," Mary Trump explained. "He was always very self-conscious about it, but you know he wasn't bald. He just had a receding hairline. He still had a decent amount of hair when he was in his 80s, but then he got Alzheimer's, and suddenly he wanted more hair."

Host Dean Obeidallah noted that President Trump has just turned 80, approaching the age at which his father's Alzheimer's symptoms became pronounced. Mary Trump, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, recalled that Fred Trump's condition was marked by him acquiring "a very ill-fitting toupee."

"My family, especially Donald, found this absolutely embarrassing," she said. "My grandfather would dye it, and then he would dye it for his mustache to match."

As Fred Trump's Alzheimer's progressed, Mary Trump said, "he would leave the dye on too long, so he would end up with a magenta mustache."

"Oh, the horrors. They literally would stop bringing my grandfather out in public, and now here's Donald, potentially," with a similarly conspicuous hairpiece, she remarked.

Mary Trump said she was uncertain about the exact nature of the president's new look. "I don't know if it was really a wig or what," she said. "I don't know if it's hair in a can or what, but suddenly he's being all obsessed about his hair, kind of like his dad."