Donald Trump Jr. Revives Conspiracy Theory Suggesting Biden Has Alzheimer’s Disease

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:33 pm

Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter to revive a conspiracy theory about President Joe Biden’s mental health, suggesting Biden has Alzheimer’s Disease.

“It’s almost like there’s a personal reason Joe Biden is all of a sudden magically focused on Alzheimer’s,” wrote Trump Jr. in response to a piece in Time by Maria Shriver and George Vradenburg, both of whom are involved in Alzheimer’s awareness efforts.

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Shriver and Vradenburg call for the Biden administration to launch an operation akin to Operation Warp Speed, which was used to bolster Covid-19 vaccine research and development, for Alzheimer’s and other dementias. They also suggest that the Biden administration make greater investments in Alzheimer’s research, and rally world leaders to make eliminating Alzheimer’s part of the global agenda.

The suggestion that Biden’s mental health is precarious is unfounded and rooted in foreign propaganda efforts.

Last fall, news outlets reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) withheld intelligence warning of Russian disinformation attacks against Biden to promote “allegations about poor mental health.”

The intelligence bulletin, titled “Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Election,” said American intelligence determined that Russian operatives are sowing disinformation to convince the American electorate that Biden has dementia and would be unfit to serve in office. It also mentioned that Iranian and Chinese media have been raising allegations about President Donald Trump’s mental fitness.

The draft bulletin was submitted to the agency’s legislative and public affairs office for review on July 7. This information was not meant to be public, but internal emails show “it was set to be distributed to federal, state and local law enforcement partners two days later, on July 9,” according to ABC News. DHS Chief of Staff John Gountanis intervened, emails show, requesting to “Please hold on sending this one out until you have a chance to speak to [acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf].” The bulletin was never circulated.

A DHS spokesperson said analysts determined with “high confidence” that “Russian malign influence actors are likely to continue denigrating presidential candidates through allegations of poor mental or physical health to influence the outcome of the 2020 election.” They confirmed it was “delayed” because it did not meet agency standards.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.