A prominent former prosecutor who once worked on President Trump’s legal team during his first term is now openly raising doubts about the president’s mental fitness, after breaking with his former employer.
Tyler Cobb, a former Assistant US Attorney, helped steer the legal strategy and messaging around former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. Now, he says the public should be concerned about what he describes as a president acting like a “madman.”
Cobb has previously defended his time in the role as a matter of public service, noting that he worked closely on the administration’s response to the probe for nearly a year. But when Trump sought another term in 2020, Cobb argued that extending the MAGA agenda for a second term would be “disastrous.”
In comments to the iPaper this week, Cobb went further, claiming the president’s “mental condition has deteriorated substantially” during his second term—an allegation Trump has recently rejected, pointing to cognitive tests he says he performed strongly on.
“I took three cognitive tests. Aced all of them, by the way. … I don’t think Obama could pass it,” President Trump boasted to reporters on Friday.
After the 79-year-old’s remarks, critics on social media argued that bragging about clearing basic cognitive screening is less a point of pride and more a sign that questions about acuity have become a political issue.
They also asked the obvious follow-up: if everything is fine, why does the demand for tests keep coming up?
Cobb told the iPaper that, in his view, any cognitive decline is being intensified by an inner circle of loyalists who rarely push back, creating what he described as an increasingly “scary and dystopian” second term.
He also said Trump’s recent attacks—including comments targeted at the pope and the family of slain Rob Reiner—mark a stark shift from the president he observed while serving in the White House era of 2017-2018.
He said: “Speech pathologists and neurologists have noted the deterioration publicly and while I’m not qualified to diagnose it, what I can tell you is that the contrast with even five years ago is striking. The man I observed in the first term was erratic but the man I observe now is erratic without a safety net.”
According to Cobb, the president no longer has senior figures around him who are willing to correct him when he is wrong. Instead, he claims the administration has come to resemble “more of a court than a cabinet,” with top officials “no longer view[ing] their role as trying to assist him in complying with the law.”
“We’re in a real crisis here in the US,” he added, arguing that Trump had turned into a ‘dictator’ whose presidency was ‘destroying our democracy’.
Explaining what he believes makes that especially risky, Cobb said: “Think about that for a moment. Trump aides are being ‘careful’ not to speak truth to power.
“They are being ‘careful’ not to challenge his disconnection with reality and cognitive obsession with believing he has achieved total success when, in fact, his actions have caused oil prices to skyrocket, US allies to fear uncontrolled catastrophe, and the West’s enemies to seize the advantage against us.
“They’re too scared to tell him.”