Trump insider said he ‘legit has PTSD’ because he watches shooting video on repeat. Here’s what experts say

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump’s behavior in recent weeks has reportedly raised concerns in his camp that he could be suffering from PTSD, as he is said to be replaying the clip of the assassination attempt “over and over again.” “He’s been watching that seven-second clip of how close he was to getting shot right in the head — over and over and over again,” a Republican close to the Trump campaign told Vanity Fairlast week. Rather than PTSD, one top expert said that Trump’s habit for rewatching the moment he was shot is more likely a sign of the former president’s “narcissism.” Trump punches his fist into the air after surviving an assassination attempt “If he is going back and watching this – and this is my opinion – he’s not watching this in the vein of PTSD, he’s watching this in a vein of ‘look at this event that happened to me, I took a bullet for democracy’,” Dr Seth Norrholm, a PTSD specialist and director of the neuroscience center for anxiety, stress and trauma at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, told The Independent. Trump was bundled away by Secret Service after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania Norrholm explained that he would expect a victim of an assassination attempt to feel “an extreme level of fear” and that there would be a “reflexive or biological urge to preserve the self to survive.” “What’s a little different in this situation is you’re talking about someone with an extreme level of narcissism,” he said. “That’s probably a strategy to cope, to figure out why this happened and what meaning it has for them - they’re really grappling with how to respond.” Kramer added: “We know that individuals who have experienced significant stress like this can have trouble concentrating, their memory might be affected.” That said, she added: “Most people who have experienced a traumatic event don’t keep talking about it in order to get sympathy and support from others – rather they are actively trying to cope with the stress they’ve experienced.” The Independent has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.