I CALL BULLSH$T!!! Sleep Apnea? No!!! Mania? NO!!! Are These Desperate Distractions To Protect Demented Donald?

A Physician Claims Trump May Have Sleep Apnea AND Mania. They're Each Wrong. Both? Together? I Call BULLSH$T!!!

Dec 29, 2025

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Here’s what makes my job harder than it needs to be: when professionals who should know better, make spur of the moment, unfounded claims.

I was going to write about JD Vance and the meaning of “White,” but it got benched.

Why?

Because I saw an interview pop up on my phone where someone was claiming Trump suffers from sleep apnea AND mania, because he gets sleepy and talked fast during his off the rails speech on TV the other night.

Well, off the cuff comments aren’t usually enough for me, but the guy was wearing a lab coat, so it must be true. Or not.

The response of my readers to my previous need to set the record straight has been amazing. I can’t thank you enough! It has helped me get evidence-based facts out to thousands of readers. And, thanks to your help, it’s been picked up by other Substack writers and “influencers” on social media platforms.

The message that we’re losing our nation to a demented narcissist and his sycophants needs to be heard on every platform, in every way possible. And while the facts are increasingly being heard, we need to also get rid of the noise so it doesn’t dilute the message.

You know, when I first heard the interview with that doc, I thought it was an intentional diversion! Yes, that’s how crazy it is. I thought he was throwing a couple disorders out there to distract people from all the Malignant Narcissism and “Dementia” (FTD) symptoms that I, hundreds of my colleagues, and many others have been warning about for years. But as I listened more carefully, I’ve concluded that he’s truly concerned, he just should’ve quit while he was having a positive effect.

I’m frustrated that I have to say this, but these situations cause damage and I need your help. It really makes a difference if you like, share and restack this post.

Also, in this situation you can seriously help by becoming a paid or free subscriber. It really helps spread the truth.

✅ Wake Up. Reality’s Calling.

Here’s the reality:

Trump’s symptoms don’t align with Sleep Apnea and they don’t align with Mania.

On the surface some may seem like they fit.

They don’t.

They don’t work alone.

They definitely don’t work together.

✅ WTF?!?

Explaining Trump’s behaviors as sleep apnea and mania doesn’t clarify or help anything.

In Trump’s case, it doesn’t fit to argue both sleep apnea and mania. Sleep apnea can worsen bipolar disorder over time, not as a singular event, and it does not usually produce simultaneous daytime somnolence (sleepiness) and mania. Sleep loss could trigger mania if it produces reduced need for sleep without fatigue, not when it produces tiredness.

When someone is nodding off during the day, that points strongly toward sleep debt, not an active manic state.

Either one alone also does not fit. The first question then is obviously, well, which is it? They describe opposite physiological and behavioral states, and the cluster of symptoms don’t match either one.

Before going further let me make something clear. I’m not a sleep-medicine specialist. Writing about sleep apnea was not on my bingo card, as they say. But, in this situation, you don’t need subspecialty credentials to do first-pass pattern matching. But it is critical for me to be an objective critical thinker with appropriate situational expertise, and to be willing to change my mind in the face of better evidence. In the present situation, a good-faith review of established symptoms is enough to see where the arguments break down.

✅ It’s Not Sleep Apnea!

Sleep apnea refers to a clinical problem with sleep-related breathing. It involves repeated airway obstruction during sleep, leading to fragmented sleep and chronic fatigue. People with untreated apnea are persistently tired. Their cognitive world narrows. Over time, their output drops. Errors increase.

They don’t accelerate, they degrade.

That’s a key point.

Sleep apnea explains sleepiness. It could, by itself, be a contributor to nodding off, needing naps, feeling foggy, and having less mental endurance. What it does not explain, at all, is escalating behavioral intensity, confabulations, paraphasia, and disinhibition. It also doesn’t explain being up at night vomiting out a hundred or more tweets.

Sleep deprivation — whether from apnea, insomnia, or lifestyle — follows the same basic pattern. Fatigue simplifies behavior. People conserve energy. They withdraw. Judgment may suffer, irritability can increase, and impulse control can weaken slightly, as it generally does with tiredness, but the overall direction is downward, not outward.

To those trying to cover for Trump, the apnea explanation is attractive. It normalizes what’s being observed, but upon closer inspection it can’t account for it.

BTW, There may be a reason for Trump’s nodding off that fits well with his other symptoms of Malignant Narcissism.

✅ It’s Also Not Mania

Now contrast that with mania.

Here, I’ll start by saying that in addition to my overall Psychology/Neuroscience background, I’ve specifically taught courses on Abnormal and Clinical Psychology at the undergraduate and graduate levels. I’ve witnessed it clinically. I’m comfortable in this space. Besides, this one’s pretty easy to refute.

I’ve combined Mania and Hypomania for ease of discussion. The easiest way to differentiate them is to say that Manic episodes are more severe than Hypomanic episodes. They’re both overt, chronic and represent significant behavioral changes. Here’s a brief description from my handy-dandy Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th Ed. (DSM-5)*:

“A distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood and abnormally and persistently increased activity or energy, lasting at least 4 consecutive days (Hypomania, 1 week for Mania) and present most of the day, nearly every day.” Also, it should be severe enough to cause marked impairment.

Mania is absolutely not a single fast speech on television. It’s a longer term disorder, typically seen as a part of Bipolar I or Bipolar II disorder, both of which include depression, although to different degrees.

Crucially, mania involves a decreased need for sleep without fatigue. That phrase matters. People in manic states don’t just sleep less; they feel rested despite sleeping less. They certainly don’t nod off during the day.

Fast speech alone, and in just one speech, is not sufficient. People often speak quickly when they’re anxious, urgent, performing, selling, or trying to hold attention. Political rhetoric is full of it. But, pressured speech in mania is persistent, cross-situational, difficult to interrupt, and embedded in a broader dysregulated mood/energy state. Speed tells you almost nothing.

Also, it is possible, but unlikely, to experience Mania without associated depressive episodes. As far as I can tell, and I’ve never heard it mentioned, with Trump, there’s no evidence of clinically significant depression.

It seems easy then to eliminate Mania/Bipolar I or II.

✅ Sleep Apnea AND Mania?!?

Here’s the crux, and this is where the argument collapses under its own weight.

Sleep apnea is a condition of hypoactivation. Mania is a condition of hyperactivation without fatigue. One produces reduced capacity; the other produces excessive drive. They don’t stick together. They contradict one another.

You can’t simultaneously argue that he’s speaking faster and he’s sleepy at the same time because of a combined sleep apnea that shows up as fatigue and overrules his mania. It doesn’t make any sense and it’s not consistent with other observable behaviors.

Late nights and daytime naps are not necessarily symptoms. Millions of people, including writers, musicians, physicians, students, work late, think late, and nap when they can. Heck, I’m often writing substack posts into the wee hours of the night.

Similarly, fast speech in a high-stakes appearance is not, by itself, a clinically significant event. To be pathological, as implied, requires duration, clustering, and the appearance of specific, functional criteria.

✅ The Bottom Line

Here’s the clean bottom line, stated plainly.

Sleep Apnea

Over the past day, as I’ve been reading and thinking about sleep apnea, it doesn’t fit. Period. His nodding off is, in general, not unusual for someone his age. Doing so during a televised meeting is “unique”, but as some level, I don’t think he cares. I also think his tweeting incessantly in the middle of the night easily explains his daytime tiredness.

Mania

I watched his speech carefully two more times (my head hurts). I tried hard to view it as a symptom of a broader mania. If it was, I’d say so right here, right now. But it’s not.

Here’s a more reasoned conclusion based on a lengthy history of his behavior, patterns, and symptoms:

His speech was an eighteen minute rehash of confabulations and fantasies. He appeared to be reading with a bit of pressure as he went through many of his base’s grievances. Nothing more.

This is not an uninformed personal opinion. It’s differential reasoning. It involves carefully thinking through and distinguishing between similar options or concepts by focusing on their unique attributes.

I liken it to peeling back the layers of an onion to get to the core.

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