A series of stumbles, verbal gaffes, and public outbursts has intensified scrutiny of President Donald Trump’s physical and cognitive fitness, culminating in fresh alarm from inside the White House itself. Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin reported that multiple senior Trump aides are privately warning the president is “almost literally sleepwalking into a midterm disaster” — a striking assessment from people who work alongside him daily.

A Pattern of Stumbles, Physical and Verbal

The physical dimension of the story sharpened when Trump, 80, arrived at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to attend the 2026 Patriot Games. Driving wind and rain made the descent from his aircraft treacherous, and the president gripped the railing with one hand while struggling to control an umbrella that whipped in the gusts with the other. Journalist Aaron Rupar, sharing video of the arrival captured by local network WKYC, wrote that Trump “still can’t open an umbrella, struggles to get down stairs.” The White House’s own social media account posted an edited clip of the arrival that omitted the shaky descent entirely.

That episode echoed an earlier incident when Trump physically stumbled while descending the stairs of Marine One after attending the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. The president has, on multiple occasions, acknowledged his own caution. During a Rose Garden appearance in May, he told the crowd he walks slowly because “if I ever fall… the fake news… they’re going to have that headline go on for years.” On “The Dan Bongino Show” in February, he said he was “very careful” and not looking to set any records on the stairs. Trump turns 80 on June 14, making him the oldest sitting president in American history — a fact that has amplified every verbal misstep and physical awkward moment into a national conversation.

NATO Gaffes and a Fourth of July ‘Glitch’

The cognitive concerns accelerated sharply at a NATO summit in Turkey, where Trump repeatedly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin,” confused Iran with what he called the “Islamic Republic of Japan,” and tangled nuclear deal acronyms in ways that left allied diplomats visibly unsettled.

During his Fourth of July “Freedom 250” address in Washington, D.C., Trump appeared to labor through the speech, at one point deploying the invented word “immortable.” Viewers of Fox News took to social media to say he had “glitched.” In a separate rambling White House address about alleged election fraud, Trump stumbled over words and delivered disjointed passages, triggering another round of viewer alarm. Those incidents followed a confrontation with NBC News journalist Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” when Trump irately cut off the interview after she pressed him on his claims of election fraud. “You’re crooked, and ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked,” he fumed before removing his microphone, storming off, and crushing it underfoot. Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a Democrat, called the episode a sign that Trump’s “mental decline and erratic behavior is a national security crisis.” New York Times columnist David French wrote that if a family member or corporate chief executive behaved that way, those closest to them would be urgently concerned — and that Trump appeared to be “living in an alternate reality.”

Experts and Former Allies Raise the Alarm

A speech-language pathologist appearing on “The David Pakman Show” identified what the clinician described as “twitches and glitches” in Trump’s recent public appearances, flagging them as potential markers of worsening cognitive decline. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 61% of Americans believe Trump has grown more erratic with age.

A New York Times article headlined “Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate” concluded that Trump’s recent conduct had sparked an unprecedented debate over a sitting president’s mental stability. Times reporter Peter Baker wrote that the situation had raised profound questions about America’s leadership.

Even figures who once supported Trump have added their voices. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has broken with the president, called his threats against Iran “not tough rhetoric, it’s insanity.” Ty Cobb, a former White House lawyer, has described Trump publicly as “a man who is clearly insane.” Those assessments echo arguments made years earlier by a group of 27 mental health professionals assembled in the book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” edited by psychiatrist Bandy Lee.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale leadership scholar who has known Trump for more than three decades and co-authored the book “Trump’s Ten Commandments,” has offered a more complicated assessment. Writing on May 20, Sonnenfeld argued that Trump is no more erratic now than he ever was — that the grandiosity and misrepresentation on display today have deep roots in his character, visible as far back as the mid-1990s. Trump and his allies continue to reject the fitness narrative altogether, insisting the president has repeatedly passed cognitive evaluations.

White House Pushes Back, but Aides Worry Privately

The gap between the White House’s public posture and the private concerns of Trump’s own staff has become one of the most striking aspects of the story. Griffin’s reporting that senior aides are circulating fears about the president’s trajectory — tied directly to anxiety about the approaching midterm elections — signals a level of internal unease that has rarely been publicly acknowledged in this administration. On social media, Trump has continued posting what critics describe as manic conspiracy theories and personal attacks on adversaries, a pattern that has itself become part of the fitness debate.