A recent tweet by US President Donald Trump, in which he commented on his mental health by calling himself a "stable genius," has spurred a strong reaction in Sweden, where Trump's habits and ways habitually make national headlines.
Agnes Wold, a professor of clinical bacteriology at Sahlgrenska akademin at Gothenburg University, offered an unorthodox take on Trump's mental health, Expressen reported.
"Wow! Can we make a guess at late-stage syphilis?" Agnes Wold wrote to her 30,000 followers, linking to Trump's tweet.
Wow! Kan vi gissa på syfilis i sent stadium? https://t.co/Zy9h5hRRFM
— Agnes Wold (@AgnesWold) January 6, 2018
Advanced forms of syphilis can cause damage to the heart, brain and other organs and may even lead to mental conditions not unlike madness.
However, Agnes Wold, the granddaughter of the Nobel prize winner in chemistry Svante Arrhenius, later disclaimed her diagnosis as a joke.
"It was a so-called joke. I do not really think his megalomania is caused by syphilis," Wold tweeted, even though she herself admitted that superiority complex may be one of the symptoms caused by the disease.
Det var ett så kallat skämt. Jag tror inte att hans megalomani är orsakad av syfilis
— Agnes Wold (@AgnesWold) January 6, 2018
Wold's sense of humor was not appreciated by all of her followers, however, as some went on to call her comment "unfortunate of a chief doctor," "infantile" and "shameful."
"We have never seen anything like this. Trump is more written about in the media than any other person or event in the past two years. He is more written about than Swedish party leaders combined, including Prime Minister Stefan Löfven," Ioanna Lokebratt, media analyst at Retriever, said in a press release.
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Lokebratt attributed this obsession to Trump's Twitter habits. With an average of five tweets per day, many of which are intended to provoke, the US President has a clear strategy of drawing attention, which the media is quick to give him.
On January 6, 2018, President Trump responded to reports that questioned his mental stability, following the publication of the exposé "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff, which shared uncomplimentary accounts from Trump's own staff.
….Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 6 января 2018 г.
….to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 6 января 2018 г.
