A.B.O.U.T. Behavior #8 : Fidgeting
For one year, my weekly blog will address recent utterances or actions of Mr. Trump that highlight his severe, under-treated, hyperactive, adult ADHD. I do not intend to comment on his politics or policies, except as directly shaped by ADHD. My observations and analyses do not imply that all people with ADH behave like Mr. Trump, not that ADHD is Mr. Trump’s only mental health issue.
We have grown so accustomed to Mr. Trump’s incessant gesturing, fidgeting, and squirming that now it only becomes noteworthy when absent.
Last weekend Mr. Trump gave a speech just to applaud the assassination of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi. Some critics accused him of making up unverifiable details of the death. Others praised Mr. Trump for being more restrained than usual, in that he spoke in even cadences and completed most of his sentences. While another change in the president’s behavior was equally blatant, very few commented on the marked decrease during the speech, in the frequency of his head shakes, torso twists, pointing and gesturing. He looked like the stiff politicians he had been mimicking the week before.
During the al-Baghdadi speech, as with other past attempts of Mr. Trump to appear presidential, pupillary dilation accompanied his marked reduction in bodily motions, and atypical…
