Could Donald Trump inherit Alzheimer’s disease from his father? Let’s talk about risks

In January 2026, President Donald Trump then left many baffled He gave a strange reason as to why he felt he would never get Alzheimer’s like his father. When asked who New York Magazine Whether he was afraid he might have dementia as well, he simply ignored the question. “No, I don’t think about it at all,” he announced. “You know why? Because no matter what, my position is whatever.” Ironically, since then, much ado has been made about the president’s cognitive health, including all patients Those annoying rumors that he shit his pantsbesides His tendency to sleep in public placesAnd whether any of these behaviors could be a sign of dementia.

As one can imagine, all this talk about the commander-in-chief and his family history raises a very important question: What is the likelihood of inheriting dementia? Unfortunately, the answer in this case is as muddy and multifaceted as Trump’s answer to the above question. “People think that if their father or aunt or uncle has Alzheimer’s disease, they are doomed. But, no, that’s not true,” Judd Marshall, MD, assistant professor of neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, explained in an article for Harvard Health Publishing. “Although family history increases the overall risk, age usually outweighs it slightly. This means your risk is higher, but not much higher, if you consider absolute numbers.”

According to Marshall, Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, per Johns Hopkins MedicineIt is rarely hereditary. “It can be a quick no or a long no, with further explanation, but the answer is almost always no.” This in turn means that genetic testing is not entirely useful. “It won’t tell you whether you’re going to get sick. It’ll just tell you whether you’re at greater or lower risk,” Marshall explained. Harvard Health Publishing. He stressed that “the presence of the gene indicates that you have a greater risk, but it does not mean that you will develop dementia.”

Unfortunately, according to a 2012 research study published in the journal Scientifica (trans National Library of Medicine), early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, a very rare form of the disease, estimated to account for less than 5% of all Alzheimer’s cases, is actually a hereditary disease, caused by dominant mutations in the APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2 genes. “We know about three genes that can cause early onset Alzheimer’s disease, which is when someone can develop symptoms in their 40s, and there are multiple family members with the disease,” explained cognitive neurologist Anjali N. Patel, in a separate interview with American Medical Association.