Donald Trump is not showing signs of dementia but is 'proudly ignorant' on many issues, Tucker Carlson claimed in an interview released this week, pushing back on questions about the 79-year-old US president's fitness for office while delivering one of the more backhanded endorsements Trump has received from a former ally.
Trump has facedpersistent scrutiny over his mental and physical healthsince returning to the White House in 2025 at the age of 79. His meandering rally speeches, public gaffes and increasingly combative appearances have fuelled accusations from critics that he is in cognitive decline. Those suspicions have only sharpened since Trump became, once again, theoldest person ever sworn in as US president.
The latest assessment comes from Carlson, the right-wing broadcaster who once ranked among Trump's most reliable media cheerleaders.
Speaking to journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro onThe New York TimespodcastThe Interview, Carlson insisted that talk of dementia was misplaced, even as he painted an unflattering picture of Trump's knowledge and worldview.
'I should say, having spoken to him a lot in this calendar year, I detected no evidence at all of dementia, mental decline,' Carlson told Garcia-Navarro, according to the published audio. 'You hear people say, 'Well, he's gone, you know, soft.' That was not my impression at all.'
Carlson went on to argue that Donald Trump's shortcomings lay elsewhere. In his telling, the president is neither studious nor particularly curious about policy, yet remains sharply attuned to power and to the weaknesses of the people around him.
'Trump is not well-informed on a lot of topics for sure, is proudly ignorant on a lot of topics,' Carlson said. 'But he has kind of remarkable powers of insight into people and power dynamics. Like you don't get to be president by accident. The guy's smart in the ways that matter politically.'
It is a striking formulation: no dementia, but a kind of deliberate, even boastful lack of knowledge, counterbalanced by an instinctive feel for power. Coming from Carlson, it also marks another twist in a relationship that has seen-sawed from fawning praise to open hostility.
The news came after a steady cooling of ties between Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson, who once used his primetime Fox News platform to amplify Trump's grievances and campaign themes.
In the years that followed, Carlson recast himself as a free agent after leaving Fox and building his own media operation, and his public comments on Trump have grown more caustic.
Source: International Business Times UK
