By Daniel Nardini

It is more than distressing to see a loved one who no longer remembers places, events and people in their lives. It is even more distressing when someone you love cannot even remember the names of loved ones around them all the time, and no less sad that they pretend they remember when they clearly do not. It is heart braking to see this happening. Some days a person affected with cognitive decline will seem almost as if they were their old selves, and some days they will seem almost like vegetables. I saw this happen with my beloved uncle Axel. As he got older his memory faded ever more, and it seemed like he struggled to find the words and thoughts of what he was talking about. My wife and I were heartbroken to see this, but we loved him no matter what and did our best to make him happy in his last days.

Now imagine this with a president-elect who will be taking the reigns of power for the next four years. The whole nation had seen how cognitive decline has affected our current U.S. President Joe Biden. It was a terrible thing to see how he could not debate on that fateful day of June 27th. It reminded me of my uncle Axel. Although Donald Trump seemed somewhat better on that day, I saw he was no less suffering from cognitive decline as well. In the last three months alone I had noticed a greater decline in his ability to speak, remember facts and people, and slurring his words. From everything I see now Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. In too many ways he reminds me of the last years of the administration of Ronald Reagan. Years later, Ronald Reagan Jr., Reagan’s Sr. son, said that his father was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Back then, I could see how Reagan Sr.’s speeches began to really fall off and his actions at press conferences seemed like that of a man not all there. Towards the end of his administration, Reagan’s staff and inner circle did everything they could to keep the public from knowing how far Reagan’s cognitive decline had gone.

It is questionable how competent Trump will be going into his second term as president. In this, I could not feel more sorry for him. It breaks my heart that Trump the man will be subjected to pressures, emergencies, and having to make split decisions in the single highest office in the United States. The way I see it this will not end pretty. The way I see it, Trump is a figurehead of people who want power, wealth and connections in the new Trump government and in the Republican Party. We are seeing too many people who are putting their own aggrandizement and that of party loyalty over country. They simply try to impress and flatter Trump to get positions they are not necessarily qualified for. This seems to be happening all up and down the ranks of the Republican Party, and as Trump’s ability to do anything to run the country declines those people around him and in the Republican Party will run everything in his name. This has already happened in the Biden administration, and it will happen in the Trump administration. This is the great tragedy; Trump will be blamed for what he did not do. Other people will be making the fateful decisions that will affect this nation. It reminds me all too much of what happened to my uncle Axel—members of his family were making decisions for him whether he liked it or not. Now we will see this on a national scale. Heaven help us all!