President Donald Trump continues to exhibit signs of "a complex and evolving medical situation" that the public does not fully understand, according to a body language expert and clinical psychologist, who said this week that some of these signs appear to indicate that the president is "losing control".

Dr. John Paul Garrison is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist who specializes in interpreting interpreting body language cues, as well as a prolific content creator who applies professional insights to what public figures give away through their behaviors. He has produced numerous videos breaking down Trump's many public appearances, arriving at the general conclusion that the president's cognitive and physical decline has accelerated over the last year, likely worsened by his advanced age. Trump, born in June 1946, was 78 when he was sworn in for his second term in January 2025, making him the oldest person inaugurated as U.S. president.

Like other mental-health professionals who analyze political figures on camera, Garrison reaches his conclusions from public video rather than any in-person evaluation. That kind of remote assessment has long been debated within the mental-health field — the American Psychiatric Association's "Goldwater Rule," adopted in 1973, bars psychiatrists from offering professional opinions about public figures they have not personally examined.

In one of his latest videos, Garrison examined the recent viral clip shared to social media by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, from which many viewers seized upon an odd bulge seemingly visible in Trump's pants as he walked away from the camera, leading to theories that this was physical evidence of the president wearing adult diapers.

Garrison stressed that he did not make these observations to heap "shame or embarrassment" on Trump or anyone else in need of such garments due to "bladder or incontinence issues," but rather to highlight how the president seems to be dealing with a medical issue. Combined with other evidence from the past few months, he suggested that Trump's possible neurological decline could be causing him to lose control of certain bodily functions.

"Needing a medical aid like this can be something as simple as prostate issues. However, over the past several months, we've been seeing significant neurological decline," Garrison explained. "A stroke, for example, can damage the parts of the brain that manage bowel and bladder control. There are other issues like Alzheimer's, for example, that disrupt the communication between the brain and various parts of the body. So, there are a number of neurological reasons that we should be concerned about this."

Speculation about a president's condition is a recurring feature of American politics — Franklin Roosevelt's physical decline and John F. Kennedy's undisclosed ailments were both kept from the public in their time — and the official record on such questions traditionally comes from the White House physician. The results of Trump's most recent annual physical, as released by the White House, described him as being in excellent health.

Garrison also highlighted a moment elsewhere during the same public appearance in which Trump repeatedly used the phrase "young, beautiful girls" to describe women supposedly visiting him at the White House. Aside from the remarks potentially "channeling Jeffrey Epstein" in an uncomfortable way, Garrison explained that this repetition could be a sign of something known as perseveration.

"What perseveration means is basically repeating yourself over and over again because you can't inhibit it, or engaging in a behavior over and over again because the brain is breaking down and you can't stop it," Garrison said. "So, when we're seeing this, we're seeing emotions spill out that I don't think he wants to spill out as well. I think that we're seeing a lowered inhibition. So I think we're seeing perseveration. I also think we're seeing lowered inhibitions. And I know President Trump has never been the most inhibited individual, but there's some emotions leaking out here that I don't think are intentional."