WHAT WAS "MENTAL ILLNESS?" Is President Trump "mentally ill?"

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2025

Our Blue stars didn't ask: Is the sitting president, Donald J. Trump, afflicted with some (serious) version of (what used to be referred to as) "mental illness?"

You'd almost think that we the people would actually want to know! At present, the children who pose as Blue America's journalists are happily noting the aforementioned gentleman's descent in several polls.

To appearances, the gentleman's behavior has become so disordered that some of his voters are starting to notice! But uh-oh! As our journalists gambol and play, this question goes unasked:

What might such a ("mentally ill") person decide to do if the bottom completely falls out?

Along the way in this vale of tears, two (2) best-selling books have used a certain word in discussing the person in question. One book appeared in 2017. The other appeared three years later:

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Bandy Lee, M.D., M.Div. (ed.). MacMillan, 2017.

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Mary L. Trump, Ph.D. Simon & Schuster, 2020.

The word in question was "dangerous." If the bottom falls out on President Trump, could he place the nation, even the world, in a state of real danger?

You'd almost think we'd want to know that! But if you thought some such thing, you were misjudging the capabilities of the species in question.

At any rate, this very Monday, there he went again! 

Last week, the gentleman ranted, for two consecutive days, about all the human "garbage" he'd spotted in Minnesota. Over the weekend, at a White House Christmas reception, he spent ten (10) minutes inventing wild claims about a terrible bite from a terrible snake in Peru. 

What was the point of that extremely strange story? The president ended up pretending that a book about this terrible bite had become the nation's number one best seller—all because he, President Donald J. Trump, had mentioned the book on Truth Social. 

All self-praise to the glorious Trump! That was the obvious point of the fantasized snake bite story.

That said, the president burned ten minutes away in that lunatic way—at a Christmas reception, no less! And on Monday, there he went again, with a pair of lunatic declarations in which he savaged the memory of a widely admired public figure who had been murdered, over the weekend, by his own disordered son.

It was the "garbage," followed by the snake, then on to the crackpot double denigration of the murdered Rob Reiner and his wife. This followed a steady succession of lunatic behaviors over the past few months, most of which have been disappeared by Blue American "journalists."

In previous weeks, the person in question had dropped tons of poop from an airplane down onto his subjects' heads. He had told the world that the Democratic Party was actually "the party of Satan."

He kept making lunatic claims about a succession of policy matters—lunatic claims he kept repeating after endless public corrections of his ludicrous assertions. Within the past few weeks, he had taken to insulting a stream of female journalists when they asked obvious questions at official press events.

Could there perhaps be room for concern about these strange behaviors? A respected physician, Dr. Vin Gupta, had now offered a public statement alleging "age-related cognitive decline."

Also, a respected psychologist, Dr. John Gartner, had recently cited a second point of concern. Headline included, a report by The Daily Beast started off like this:

We Can See Trump Is in Gross Decline: Psychologist

A top psychologist has warned that 79-year-old Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior likely points toward a personality disorder being rapidly worsened by dementia.

“When people develop dementia, they become the worst versions of themselves,” Dr. John Gartner—a therapist, activist, author, and former professor at Johns Hopkins—told Joanna Coles Sunday on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast.

Gartner has previously shared with the show how he sees the aging president’s verbal gaffes, growing confusion, and frequent memory lapses as “clinical signs of dementia,” which have in turn exacerbated what he believes to be Trump’s underlying “malignant narcissism.”

“Whatever personality issues or problems [people with dementia] have, [those issues] begin to deteriorate and they become even more crude, disorganized, aggressive, confused versions of that personality disorder,” Gartner added. 

So the pair of respected medical specialists had now said.

On Monday, the president's pair of statements were so bizarre that a stream of members of MAGA world had rushed to object to his behavior. On this campus, we turned to the giants of MS NOW, waiting to see their analysis of what had now occurred. 

We might as well have tried to catch the wind! At 9 p.m. on Monday night, Rachel Maddow appeared on our giant screen.

Rightly or wrongly, Maddow has long been accepted as Blue America's resident genius. After accepting the throw from The Weeknight's three co-hosts, she started her weekly program in the familiar way:

MADDOW (2/15/25): And thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Really happy to have you here.

If things look a little bit different tonight, if the lighting seems different, if the background looks a little different, that's because I'm joining you from somewhere I almost never am. I'm in Los Angeles right now. I was here in L.A. last night, we had a big event at the Orpheum Theater in downtown L.A. with some of the people that helped us make my new podcast, Burn Order, which is about the decision to incarcerate Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the people who fought that decision, and the thriller, the investigative thriller, at the heart of that.

"I I I I I I I," our young analysts instantly cried. Skillfully, we calmed them down. The full open went like this:

MADDOW (2/15/25): And thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Really happy to have you here.

If things look a little bit different tonight, if the lighting seems different, if the background looks a little different, that's because I'm joining you from somewhere I almost never am. I'm in Los Angeles right now. I was here in L.A. last night, we had a big event at the Orpheum Theater in downtown L.A. with some of the people that helped us make my new podcast, Burn Order, which is about the decision to incarcerate Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the people who fought that decision, and the thriller, the investigative thriller, at the heart of that.

All six episodes of Burn Order are now out, the whole thing is out, everything's posted, free to listen to the whole series on any podcast app.

Here in L. A., there's a lot going on. There is honestly a lot of shock and anger from all sorts of different people—from people connected to show business and not—shock and anger about the murder of beloved actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife.

I will say also, a lot of just visceral revulsion about President Trump's ghoulish, really ugly, disgusting comments, sneering at Mr. Reiner's death, almost seeming to celebrate his murder.

In L.A., today is also the day that Donald Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to this city fell apart. The federalized National Guard troops were forced to leave L.A. today because of a federal court order, because what Trump did in deploying them here,  according to a judge, was illegal. We're going to have more to come on both of those stories, and much more, tonight.

But I want to start somewhere tonight that is much colder than it is here. Let's start in Minnesota, specifically about fifteen miles southwest of Minneapolis...

By now, the timestamp said 9:02 p.m. For better or worse, we'd now heard everything Maddow was going to say about that day's stunningly strange behavior by the sitting president.

But wait, the true believer will say. As anyone can see, Maddow had seemed to say that we "were going to have more" about the story in question!

And yes, we agree-—that is what she'd seemed to say. But the bizarre new behavior by President Trump was never mentioned again during the rest of the hour.

Maddow never came back to the president's latest disordered behavior—but she had already said more about that disordered behavior than other hosts on MS NOW were going to say that night.

All across the fruited plain, that latest bizarre behavior was being discussed this day. This latest behavior had been so weird that one MAGA stalwart after another had stepped forward to voice concern and disgust about the president's conduct.

Our question:

Is the sitting president "mentally ill" in some potentially dangerous way? Over the weekend, part of the answer had seemed clear to us as we watched him rattle on about that dreadful snake. But Blue America's journalists and academics have made one thing abundantly clear:

Given the limitations of our species, they seem to be unable to see what is right there before them. Or they're simply unwilling to report what they see, given their blind obedience to tribal Storyline and to corporate dicta.

On this campus, we're inclined to pity the man who is (severely) mentally ill. But why on earth would we do that? Also, what happened at 4 p.m. that day, when Nicolle Wallace and three guests did attempt to discuss the president's bizarre behavior in the wake of that double murder?

Is President Trump a public danger? At 4 p.m. that day, Wallace and her guests attempted to tackle a version of that question.

After that, silence prevailed on MS NOW, right on through to midnight. Last week, they disappeared his remarks about "garbage." Now, as the rest of the nation condemned his remarks, they weirdly all disappeared this!

Is President Trump a public danger? Perhaps by decree from the channel's new suits, the obedient children of MS NOW don't seem to be willing to ask!

Tomorrow: The politics of mercy

TUESDAY: We remain stunned by what we saw...

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2025

...and by what wasn't discussed: We remain stunned by what we saw—and by what we didn't see—on MS NOW programs last night.

As of this morning, even Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, is being quoted about the sitting president's bizarre behavior. The release of her surprising remarks is largely a matter of serendipitous timing, but the president has even lost Fuentes, according to this report:

Trump Loses Nick Fuentes Over ‘Evil’ Rob Reiner Remarks

Nick Fuentes, an unabashed admirer of Adolf Hitler, said President Donald Trump went too far — even by his standards — with his “despicable” remarks about Rob Reiner the morning after the famed director and his wife were found stabbed to death.

“This is ugly rhetoric. It is ugly, it is actually evil,” Fuentes said on his show on Monday. “Forget for a moment that we are in a war — someone gets murdered by their son, it’s a horrific tragedy. This is a horrible story, and nobody deserves that. I don’t care what their politics are.”

And so on from there. Summation:

Even the "unabashed Hitler admirers" think Trump is too nutty now! Meanwhile, here's the start of CNN's summary of the year-long series of interviews Vanity Fair conducted with Wiles:

Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles says president ‘has an alcoholic’s personality’ and much more in candid interviews

The White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, delivered a series of unusually candid and at times unflattering assessments of President Donald Trump, his second-term agenda and some of his closest allies in a series of wide-ranging interviews with Vanity Fair published Tuesday.

Across more than 10 interviews, Wiles spoke frankly about working for Trump, saying the president “has an alcoholic’s personality,” despite being known as a teetotaler. She acknowledged the president’s appetite for revenge, conceding many of his second-term actions were driven by a desire for retribution. Wiles suggested Trump was pursuing regime change in Venezuela through his boat-bombing campaign, contradicting official justifications for the strikes. And she described several controversial areas where the president ignored her advice, including on deportations and pardons.

The comments, made in conversations over the past year with author Chris Whipple, are striking both in candor and topic. Wiles—who claimed Tuesday that her words were taken out of context in a “hit piece”—is known inside the White House as a careful operator with few internal detractors, unlike the men who held the job in Trump’s first term. She has retained Trump’s confidence in part by running a functional West Wing that doesn’t attempt to constrain the president’s impulses.

Wiles is universally portrayed as one of the handful of sane ones. As of today, even she is candidly discussing the sitting president's "mental health," according to Whipple's lengthy pair of reports for Vanity Fair.

(For Whipple's part 1, you can just click here. For part 2, just click this.)

We remain stunned by what we saw on MS NOW last night. More to the point, we're stunned by the conduct which went undiscussed on one program after another.

It's as we told you long ago—it's all anthropology now. Putting it a slightly different way:

Our species simply wasn't built for this line of work. 

Over here in Blue America, we're being serviced by the dumbest (and most craven) bunch of mother-frumpers even assembled on earth. We'll extend the story about last night's weirdness in tomorrow morning's report. 

For now, we remain stunned by what we saw—and by what went undiscussed—all through a long and puzzling "cable news" night. Fuentes (and Ann Coulter) now say they're appalled. Over here in Blue America, our stars kept averting their gaze!

WHAT WAS "MENTAL ILLNESS?" Is the sitting president "mentally ill?"

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2025

The dumbness of the cetacean: We've spoken, again and again, about the apparent change in the preferred language.

(We've also cited an obvious fact. We're forced to offer our best impressions about such matters because the people who pose as Blue America's journalists refuse to interview the medical specialists who might actually know what's what.)

The times, they don't seem to be a-changin', but it seems like the language is. For perhaps the ten millionth time, this is what the leading authority says about the question of appropriate—about the language which should be used to discuss the condition(s) once known as "mental illness:"

Mental disorder

A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is also characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior, often in a social context. Such disturbances may occur as single episodes, may be persistent, or may be relapsing–remitting...

[...]

For a mental state to be classified as a disorder, it generally needs to cause dysfunction. Most international clinical documents use the term mental "disorder," while "illness" is also common. It has been noted that using the term "mental" (i.e., of the mind) is not necessarily meant to imply separateness from the brain or body.

The language, it seems to be a-changin'! As you can see in the title which sits atop this lengthy report, this leading authority prefers the newer term, "mental disorder" to the older term, "mental illness."

For reasons which aren't directly explained, the newer term, "mental disorder," now seems to be preferred. Presumably due to issues of stigma, the previous terms—"mental illness," "mentally ill"—now seem to be on the way out.

We've also stressed a second fact. If you have any confidence in the state of medical science, the incidence of certain kinds of "mental disorder" may be surprisingly large. In her 2020 best-seller, Too Much and Never Enough, Mary L. Trump, Ph.D., offered certain facts about the prevalence of the "mental disorder" (antisocial personality disorder) which is colloquially thought of as "sociopathy:"

[S]ociopathy is not rare, afflicting as much as 3 percent of the population. Seventy-five percent of those diagnosed are men. Symptoms of sociopathy include a lack of empathy a facility for lying, an indifference to right and wrong, abusive behavior, and a lack of interest in the rights of others. Having a sociopath as a parent, especially if there is no one else around to mitigate the effects, all but guarantees severe disruption in how children understand themselves, regulate their emotions, and engage with the world.

According to most studies--according to most accounts of those studies—something like five percent of adult men can be diagnosed with what used to be known as "sociopathy." 

For the record, the people who are afflicted that way aren't all Hannibal Lecter! That is to say, a person can be afflicted in the enumerated ways—with "a lack of empathy a facility for lying, an indifference to right and wrong"—without having engaged in mass murder or even in Hollywood cannibalism.

Further disclosure: Mary L. Trump, Ph.D., said in her book that the current president, her uncle, actually is the child of a "high-functioning sociopath." We've also stressed a reported finding of medical science, a finding Mary Trump briefly cites in her book:

"Sociopathy" is, at least in part, a heritable condition. Quoting again from the leading authority (see above):

It has been noted that using the term "mental" (i.e., of the mind) is not necessarily meant to imply separateness from the brain or body.

What used to be known as "mental illness" isn't necessarily separate from the brain or the body! A "mental disorder" can be a biological condition, much like the measles, the flu or the mumps.

Elsewhere, that same authority says this about ASPD: 

Personality disorders are generally believed to be caused by a combination and interaction of genetics and environmental influences...Research into genetic associations in antisocial personality disorder suggests that ASPD has some or even a strong genetic basis.

In short, it sounds like "sociopathy" can be bred in the bone, though we no longer call it that.

All in all, we'd be inclined to put it like this:

People don't choose to be what was once known as "mentally ill." That brings us to what we saw—or to what we failed to see—on MS NOW's programs last night.

On the one hand, we thought we saw a bunch of the dumbest mother-frumpers ever assembled on earth. It could also be thought that we simply saw a collection of the world's most obedient corporate employees.

We say that because, as you already know, the president's behavior yesterday was stunningly disordered—so much so that it brought near-universal condemnation from all points inside MAGA world. 

Even MAGA rose to condemn the president's conduct! As you can see by clicking the links, those condemnations were reported by Mediaite in such reports as these:

Fox News Panel Unanimously Condemns Trump’s Reaction to Rob Reiner’s Killing

Here Are the Fox News Stars Horrified by Trump’s Gloating Post About Rob Reiner’s Murder

Former Trump Adviser Rips President’s ‘Indefensible’ Comments on Rob Reiner

MAGA Actor James Woods Tears Up as He Praises ‘Patriot’ Rob Reiner in Rebuke of ‘Distasteful’ Attacks

On and on the condemnations from inside MAGA world went. Indeed, the lengthy interview with James Woods was conducted by none other than Jesse Watters on Jesse Watters Primetime! 

Even Watters agreed to let the president's conduct be criticized. Only two MAGA stars explicitly refused to condemn. We refer to Speaker Mike Johnson and (of course) to the Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld, who refused to rebuke the president on yesterday's The Five.

All across the MAGA realm, leading figures of that world denounced the president's conduct. For the record, who behaves in the startling way the president behaved yesterday, on two separate occasions?

Who behaves in the way he did? As a mere speculation, might such behavior perhaps emerge from people afflicted with "a lack of empathy a facility for lying, an indifference to right and wrong and a lack of interest in the rights of others?" 

From someone afflicted with those characteristics, perhaps through genetic inheritance?

Is that who might behave in the way the president did? Whatever the answer might be, everyone has heard about how bizarre his conduct was—everyone except viewers in Blue America who watched last evening's MS NOW "cable news" TV shows.

We're going to spend the next few days showing you what was said—and what amazingly wasn't said—on those shows last night. For today, we'll only tell you this:

As we scanned a succession of such shows, it seemed to us that we were watching a succession of profoundly ineducable people.

We Blues! Do we believe that some people are what used to be called "mentally ill?" Do we believe in medical science at all? Whether by the older or the newer name, do we believe in the existence of something once called "mental illness?"

Amazing! All over the MAGA realm, stalwarts condemned the president's inexcusable conduct. All over MS NOW, from Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow on through to the end of the night, Blue America watched its stars discussing everything else.

Melville puzzled over "the whiteness of the whale." Last night, we surveyed the unyielding dumbness which has long been our species' lot.

Dear friends, what is the condition which was once called "mental illness?" At this site, we'll pursue that cetacean all week!

Tomorrow: Could the sitting president be "mentally ill?" Let's start with Deadline: White House

MONDAY: Twenty-five years and two days later...

MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2025

...look where it has us now: President Trump has blamed Rob Reiner for Rob Reiner's brutal death.

In our view, Colby Hall's reaction to this is well worth considering. But for today, we return to an event which was, as of Saturday, exactly 25 years old.

We were skillfully napping, with C-Span strategically on, when we heard a voice orating in the manner shown below. But why was C-Span running that?

Groggily, we posed that question. Within the oration C-Span ran, we include a final ironic remark:

As heard on C-Span this Saturday: 
I've seen America in this campaign, and I like what I see. It's worth fighting for, and that's a fight I'll never stop. As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe, as my father once said, that "No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."

[...]

Now the political struggle is over and we turn again to the unending struggle for the common good of all Americans and for those multitudes around the world who look to us for leadership in the cause of freedom.

In the words of our great hymn, "America, America": "Let us crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea."

And now, my friends, in a phrase I once addressed to others, it's time for me to go.

Thank you, and good night, and God bless America.

Say what? "Defeat might serve as well as victory to let the glory out?" But also, the initial bit of irony:

"It's time for me to go?"

Plainly, the words were those of Candidate Gore, in his December 2000 concession speech, bringing Campaign 2000 to its fateful end. And sure enough:

It had been 25 years, to the day, since that concession came. It came on December 13, 2000, a day we remember fairly well.

As happenstance happened to have it, we ended up spending some time with the former candidate—along with several other college friends—on that very night. We did an early show at the D.C. Improv, then hurried over, in response to a mid-afternoon telephone call, to a prescheduled, large-scale Christmas reception at the vice president's residence.

We shared a joke with the former candidate when that group of college friends huddled for a stretch of time in a private salon. Through the miracle of trans-Atlantic telephone communication, he then shared the joke with President Clinton, who was flying home from Europe and had given him a call. 

One week later, in a receiving line at another massive Christmas reception, President Clinton stopped the proceedings and repeated the joke for all to hear as we paraded by with the friend who had insisted that we go through the receiving line.

"There's a great deal of truth to that joke," President Clinton convincingly said—and sure enough! The president included the joke in his lengthy memoir, My Life, with its language slightly altered. 

And that's not all! Roger Simon's history of that campaign, Divided We Stand: How Al Gore Beat George Bush and Lost the Presidency, ends with an anecdote from Air Force 1 on that very night:

In Simon's book, President Clinton emerges from his private quarters on Air Force 1 and repeats the joke to the travelling press. It was the shot heard round the world!

That joke rang a bell for Clinton and for Gore. To enjoy the joke as President Clinton memorialized it, you can turn to page 934 of My Life (chapter 55) and see how it works for you!

(In that book, President Clinton had words for the Supreme Court decision which, delivered that very day, may have signaled the start of the modern era. "It was an appalling decision," he writes, correctly or otherwise, right there on page 933. "Bush v. Gore will go down in history as one of the worst decisions the Supreme Court ever made...")

We'll let you judge that for yourselves. President Clinton went to law school. We ourselves never did.

At any rate, it had been exactly 25 years since that small group of college friends gathered with Brother Gore on that fateful night. For the record:

At the start of his concession speech, he had offered another self-deprecating bit of irony. As you can see by consulting this link, this is what he said:

Al Gore 2000 Presidential Concession Speech
delivered 13 December 2000

Good evening.

Just moments ago, I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the United States. And I promised him that I wouldn't call him back this time.

I offered to meet with him as soon as possible so that we can start to heal the divisions of the campaign and the contest through which we've just passed.

Maybe you remember the reference there. Also, maybe you don't.

Chris Matthews had a hard time reacting to the graciousness of that concession speech. To this day, some 25 years and two days later, no one has ever asked Chris (a very bright person) to explain his bizarre behavior during that campaign, when he turned on a dime and joined his colleagues in twenty solid months of what never came to be known as "The War Against Gore."

No one has ever asked Chris to explain why he said and did the things he said and did. Also, no one ever will! Admittedly brilliant as we all are, those of us in Blue America have never quite come to understand the way our high-end Blue journalists work, including the way they're trying to whistle past the graveyard with respect to the current president, the one in the White House right now.

In some quarters, Candidate Gore was criticized for conceding that day. Was he supposed to form an army and march on the Supreme Court building? Admittedly brilliant though we Blues are, no one ever quite explained.

At any rate, you see an older culture at work in that concession speech. The candidate who got more votes was willing to say that he had lost, given the rules of the game Today, the candidate who got fewer votes five years ago is still insisting he won!

We especially recall two surprising things the feller said that night. Since we never discuss our conversations with former presidential candidates, those remarks have never gone into anyone's book.

At any rate, the two main fellers swapped a joke over the trans-Atlantic phone that night. Full disclosure:

Brother Gore always had a developed sense of the ironic and the absurd.

He went on to star in an Oscar-winning documentary and to win a Nobel peace prize. Today, a little mutt who calls climate change "a major hoax" is driving the engine at the Fox News Channel, and none of the mutts who gather the dollars from Blue America's corporate orgs are willing to say a single word about that assault on "our democracy."

You can read the full concession speech here. You can watch the videotape simply by clicking this.

As for letting the glory out, here is the candidate's funeral oration when his father, Senator Albert Gore Sr., died in 1998. We read through it again this weekend. We were especially struck by the two highlighted points:

REMARKS BY THE VICE PRESIDENT AT THE FUNERAL OF HIS FATHER, FORMER SENATOR ALBERT GORE, SR.

President and Mrs. Clinton; so many honored guests from our nation and our state. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

My father was the greatest man I ever knew in my life. Most of you know him for his public service and it could be said of him, in the words of Paul, that this man walked worthy of the vocation wherewith he was called.

[...]

Of all the lessons he taught me as a father, perhaps the most powerful was the way he loved my mother. He respected her as an equal, if not more. He was proud of her. But it went way beyond that...

"Perhaps the most powerful was the way he loved my mother?" Young men taught such lessons are extremely fortunate. 

(That same "cable news" star overtly insults women, night after night, on the Fox News Channel. At this point, we Blues aren't even willing to pretend that we object or care about such poison as that.)

The War Against Gore was the next campaign derived from the pointless anger directed at President Clinton. Our major journalists acted in concert for years. Our major historians know what happened, but they damn straight aren't going to tell.

With respect to the younger Gore, we were together on Cape Cod, with a pair of lady friends, when we discovered a wonderful new TV show in June 1969—the new syndicated TV program, Hee Haw! Minnie Pearl was right there on TV! Feller knew all about her.

In response, they said he grew up in a fancy hotel, even at the Ritz! They kept it up for two straight years. On Saturday, we turned to the analysts and barked the command:

Just look where it has us now!

For extra credit only: In his concession speech, feller borrowed from Lincoln's second inaugural!  

We wouldn't have noticed that at the time. We did notice it now!

AMERICAN REVOLUTION(S): We interrupt our planned report...

MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2025

...to describe a cognitive breakdown: We interrupt our planned report to describe a cognitive breakdown.

You won't read about it in the New York Times. You'll read about it only here.

This latest incident strikes us as unmistakable. It occurred early yesterday afternoon, as the president hosted a Christmas reception right there at the White House.

As we've noted, cognitive declines of this type are human tragedies. They can also be quite dangerous, depending on who is in decline.

In this instance, even the folks at Mediaite apparently didn't know what to do with what had seemed to occur:

They published this one report about the president's standard delusional claim that he actually won the 2020 election. Also, they published a second report about an odd remark the president made about his eldest son.

In doing so, these folk were taking a dive—were refusing to discuss the elephant there in the room. And so, when we finally clicked to this report by The Independent, we were surprised when we read the highlighted claim:

Trump offers condolences after Brown, Bondi Beach and Syria killings before rambling White House speech

President Donald Trump offered his condolences following shootings at Brown University, Bondi Beach and in Syria before his unscripted remarks at a Christmas reception at the White House.

The president addressed a room full of supporters for more than 40 minutes Sunday as First Lady Melania Trump stood by his side.

[...]

After addressing the three incidents, the president delved into a lengthy, off-the-cuff rant, and at one [point] discussed venomous snakes for roughly 10 minutes.

Say what? As part of his speech at a Christmas reception, the president "at one [point] discussed venomous snakes for roughly ten minutes?"

That seemed a bit hard to believe. Continuing directly, the Independent offered this summary of the satrap's remarks:

[Continuing directly]
He told the story of a White House physician, Dr. James Jones, who was bitten by a viper while hiking in Peru with former President Barack Obama’s daughters. Jones lost consciousness several times but eventually recovered after months of rehabilitation.

“It’s known for being a rather rough place in terms of physical creatures crawling around,” the 79-year-old president said of the South American nation.

“It’s funny when you talk about snakes and things like that, people find it interesting,” Trump said to a hushed room. “Would anybody like to go to Peru and walk around the forest? No thank you, I’ll say no thank you.”

He acknowledged the snake anecdote was “a terrible Christmas story, but it’s a hell of story.”

Puzzled, we watched C-Span's tape of the 40-minute "off the cuff rant." To watch the full forty minutes, click here. Our assessment would be this:

You won't read about in the Times. Also, Mediaite took a dive on what happened.

But it's hard to believe that anyone can watch what the president did without seeing that a serious problem seems to exist. Let us clue you about some of the peculiar things the sitting president weirdly said.

(We start with a minor warning. The Independent summarized, but didn't fact check, the president's weird remarks.)

It's true! Twenty minutes into his 40-minute address, the president began to discuss Dr. James Jones, who was present at the reception and who is or was part of the White House medical staff. Rather, he began to discuss a self-published book Dr. Jones has written. 

As described by Barnes and Noble, the book in question is this:

Venom and Valor: A White House Physician Assistant's Battle for Survival in the Amazon

Overview
This book is a memoir of a life marked by resilience, hard work, and the strength of family bonds. It tells the story of a man who, despite a difficult childhood filled with poverty, an alcoholic father, and early independence, was shaped by adversity into a dedicated husband, father, and grandfather. Through the love and support of an extraordinary wife, he overcame the odds, finding purpose in service and sacrifice. This journey is a testament to the enduring power of resilience and the values of hard work and commitment.

The book is 132 pages long. It was self-published in November 2024. 

For the record, we would assume that Dr. Jones is a superb physician. As you can see by clicking this link, he was recently named "Physician Associate of the Year" during the annual meeting of a relevant professional association.

Dr. Jones was present at yesterday's event, and the sitting president took it from there. His rumination lasted almost ten minutes. It seems to us that a cognitive problem became unmistakably clear.

The president went on, and then on and on, about a trip Dr. Jones made to Peru in the company of one of the Obamas' daughters. It was on that trip that Dr. Jones was bitten by a venomous snake.

How dangerous was this medical event? We can't tell you that. But this is the way the event was described back in 2018:

PA LTC Jones Practices Protective Medicine at the White House
December 11, 2018

The tables were turned on PA James Jones in Peru’s Amazon jungle in October 2016.

Jones, a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel working in the White House Medical Unit, was on the detail assigned to President Obama’s daughter Malia during a post-high school program in Peru. Forty-five minutes into a hike, he fell into a bush. Jones became unconscious – twice. The team’s Secret Service agents treating him telephoned White House physician Ronny Jackson, M.D., who determined that a pit viper, apparently lying in the bush, bit Jones.

Jones was transported to a hospital in the city of Cusco, where anti-venom serum was administered. He soon recovered.

Was that an accurate account of what happened? We can't tell you that. But as the sitting president rambled on at yesterday's Christmas event, he told an increasingly puzzled audience that Dr. Jones had been unconscious for weeks; that it took him two years to recover; that attending physicians thought he was dead three times; and that he was read his last rites.

"Look how quiet everybody is," the president eventually said as his ghoulish tale kept unspooling. Finally, after endless side trips, he revealed "the purpose of the story:"

Why did the sitting president devote almost ten minutes to this tale? Rather plainly, the purpose was this:

According to the sitting president, Dr. Jones had written the book three years ago. "It was OK," the president said. "It sold about two copies."

How proud Dr. Jones must have been when the president offered that comment! But lordy! The sitting president now said that he himself had mentioned the book, one day earlier, right there on his Truth Social site!

What had happened as a result? We'll let the commander speak:

PRESIDENT TRUMP (12/14/25): I put it out—Ba ba ba ba. ... And his publisher calls him, says, "Doctor, what happened? What's going on?"

The publisher. who doesn't seem to exist, was baffled nonetheless! According to the sitting president, this is the reason why:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They sold one hundred thousand books! It's the number one best-seller! Can you believe it?

It's the number one best-selling book. Can you believe that?

[To Dr. Jones] So now you're a best-selling author. Now he can quit the White House!

AUDIENCE: [Applause]

Politely, some in the gathering applauded. Even at this extremely late date, some of them may been able to "believe that!"

On this campus, we had our doubts. And when we checked the best-seller records at Amazon, this is what we found for the book by Dr. Jones, late yesterday afternoon:

Best Sellers Rank: #1,241,174 in Books...#8,809 in Memoirs

As of late yesterday, it was actually the #1.24 million best-seller! Close enough for the purposes of the American discourse, an entity which has long qualified as an imitation of life.

For the record, we ourselves have long suspected that the president may actually believe the fantastical claims he makes. The press has agreed that they will never seek opinion concerning such matters from experienced and qualified medical specialists.

That said:

At yesterday's Christmas event, the president discussed the little girl and the dreadful snake for roughly ten minutes. After that, he proceeded to his more familiar fantasies, claiming (for example) that if California's elections weren't rigged, he would easily win that state.

As for the president's ten-minute jaunt, "the purpose of the story" had now become clear. He told the story to display his mastery of the cosmos. If he so much as mentions a book which originally sold two copies, that book will become the nation's number one best-seller by the very next day!

In her actual best-selling book, the president's doctorate-wielding psychologist niece described the way the president had been trained, aa a child and then as a youth and a young adult, to think such grandiose thoughts about himself. 

She also listed his many probable "psychopathologies," and she noted that the president's father, her own paternal grandfather, had descended into dementia in the last years of his life.

When she did that, American journalists worked to look the other way. They ignored his niece's troubling assessments, reinventing her as a political pundit instead.

In recent weeks, at least one respected physician and one respected psychologist have been speaking openly about this apparent decline on the part of the sitting president. Yesterday, it seemed to us that the cognitive issue stood up and hollered as the president spoke.

Such decline is always a human tragedy. People don't actually choose to experience such a decline.

That said, the New York Times will avert its gaze from yesterday's bizarre performance. So did Mediaite, and so will everyone else.

As a replacement, the Times will offer this substitute piffle from one of its columnists. Parents are told that this brilliance helps explains the very high tuition fees they're shelling out to Duke!

Thid afternoon: Exactly 25 years ago...

Tomorrow: American Revolution(s)! When General Washington fought!

SUNDAY: There the New York Times goes again!

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2025

Front-page article AWOL: If you're reading the print edition of today's New York Times, it's right there on the front page.

The report was written by Carol Rosenberg. Right there on page A1, the headline on the piece says this:

To Resurrect 'Fort Lee' Name,
Army Enlists Forgotten Soldier

It's sitting right there on page A1. But if you read the Times online, the report is missing from the "Today's Paper" site. You will think you've seen a list of all the front-page reports—but this report had fallen through the cracks, and it has disappeared.

Full disclosure:

There are only five (5) reports on the front page of today's print edition. You'd think a paper like the Times would be able to link to all five on its "Today's Paper" site.

If you thought something like that, you were very wrong. As we noted again just last week, the Times "loses" articles in this way, from its print edition front page, on an amazingly regular basis.

It seems like a very dumb thing to do! To put that dumbness into a larger context, just consider the truly spectacular dumbness Rosenberg is writing about.

We've shown you the headline from today's print editions. Online, Rosenberg's report starts like this, dual headline included:

The Mysterious Life and Afterlife of Private Fitz Lee
For more than a century, this Black soldier from Virginia was remembered by nearly no one. Then this year, someone at the Pentagon found a use for him.

Pvt. Fitz Lee’s life descended into misfortune and misery after he helped rescue fellow American soldiers in Cuba in the late 1800s.

[...]

For more than a century, he was remembered by nearly no one. Private Lee, this Black U.S. Army veteran, was buried beneath a magnolia tree at the military cemetery at Fort Leavenworth in northeast Kansas.

Then this year, someone at the Pentagon found a use for him.

For decades, an Army base in Virginia was named for Robert E. Lee, the defeated Civil War general who had owned slaves. In 2021, a new law mandated the removal of Confederate names from military assets. The base was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams to honor two pioneering Black Army officers who had overcome segregation in the military.

But after returning to office, the Trump administration was determined to rewind history. A law prevented the restoration of Confederate names, so it did it in a most unusual way. The base is now called Fort Lee again and named—officially, anyway—for Fitz Lee.

And yes, that's what they actually did!

The sheer stupidity of this MAGA behavior may seem hard to comprehend. As with Fort Bragg, so too here—they wanted to restore "Fort Lee" as the name of the base, but under terms of a 2021 law, it couldn't be Robert E. Lee.

Solution! They found a different person named Lee, and they've now named the base after him. Adherents of the original name get their preferred name back—but what is supposed to be the reason for this restoration? Have we somehow Made the Name of the Base Great Again?

We humans are built for fantasy realms. As we've noted for the past 27 years, we're built for the stories, and now for the names, we dumbly choose to prefer. 

We also seem to be built for the practice of losing front-page reports in the manner we've described. There are five such reports on today's front page. On the site it calls "Today's Paper," the Times kept track of just four!

(This peculiar practice is quite common. Weirdly, the Times does this all the time!)

AMERICA(S) THE BEAUTIFUL: The focus shifted this morning on Fox!

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2025

"Tampon," the flyweight said: America(s) the Beautiful are in a world of hurt. Just consider what happened, this very morning, in the first ten minutes of Fox & Friends Weekend.

For starters, it's just as we told you. The sprawling Minnesota fraud event was the first topic the friends discussed. As we told you, this event will be pushed within Silo Red. 

Inside our own Silo Blue, the event will be disappeared.

In such ways, two groups of American citizens emerge—dueling group with different ideas of what is happening in the countr(ies) they inhabit. But this morning, what a change!

As the friends discussed this mountain of fraud, the Somali connection was almost completely disappeared. They now tied the whole thing to Governor Walz—to the man who's simply known as "Tampon" on this channel's most-watched "news" programs.

The Somali connection was gone today; Rep. Omar was barely mentioned. That said, the topic stays hot within Silo Red. It was the very first topic the trio of friends chose to discuss this morning. They did so in an exchange which consumed the program's first ten minutes.

So it will continue to go as our giant sprawling nation is transitioned into a pair of warring tribes. Concerning the actual facts which may exist, we'll direct you in two ways:

Now for the rest of the story:

Last Sunday, Rep. Omar appeared on Face the Nation, where she discussed this topic with the program's host, Margaret Brennan. Rep. Omar's appearance followed a stumblebum performance by Scott Bessent, who embarrassed himself with such clownage as this:

BRENNAN (12/7/25): Before I let you go, I want to ask you about this massive fraud out in Minnesota, and the state welfare program has been under federal investigation since all the way back in 2022.

The president told you, though, this week, to look into Somalis who—quote–"ripped off that state for billions of dollars." He said they contribute nothing. What exactly are you investigating?

BESSENT: Well, Margaret, to be clear, the initial fraud that was discovered by the IRS, for which I'm the acting commissioner, it was discovered by IRS Criminal Investigations Unit. This was not an endogenous thing that the state of Minnesota decided. We had to go in and clean up the mess for them, and this is part of the continued cleanup.

A lot of money has been transferred from the individuals who committed this fraud, including those who donated to the governor, donated to Representative Omar and donated to A.G. Ellison.

[...]

BRENNAN: OK, but you have no evidence of that money being used to fuel terrorism, which is what some conservative writers are alleging?

BESSENT: Well, that's why–that's why it's an investigation. We started it last week. We'll see where it goes. But I can tell you that, you know, it's terrible. You know, Representative Omar tried to downplay it, said, oh, it was very - - the – it was very tough to know how this money should – should be used.

She was gaslighting the American people. But, you know, when you come to this country, you got to learn which side of the road to drive on, you got to learn to stop at stop signs, and you got to learn the – not to defraud the American people.

As a spokesperson inside Silo Red, he was still working the Somali / Omar / foreigner / money to terrorists beat. Rep. Omar needs to learn to stop at stop signs, he thoughtfully said, and to stop defrauding the public.

In fact, Bessent himself had been floating the notion that there was some sort of Somali terrorist link to this mountain of fraud. You can see him doing so here.

 Brennan was perhaps too polite to mention that particular fact. But when asked about the general notion, Bessent had nothing but a speculation to offer.

At any rate, as of today, on Fox & Friends Weekend, the Somali framework was gone. Last Sunday, Brennan finally got Bessent to leave, then spoke with Rep. Omar. In this, the initial Q-and-A, Rep. Omar made a statement which was never going to be repeated on the Fox News Channel:

BRENNAN: We have a lot to get to with you, but I want to pick up on where the Treasury Secretary just left off. He alleged that people who were tied to you or your campaign were involved in this broad, brazen scheme to rip off the Minnesota state welfare system. 

Do you want to respond to that? Do you know what he is referring to?

OMAR: I really don't, and I don't think the Secretary himself understands what he's referring to. 

We obviously had people who were able to donate to our campaign that were involved. We sent that money back a couple years ago. And, actually, I was one of the first members of Congress to send a letter to the Secretary of [Agriculture], asking them to look into what I thought was a reprehensible fraud that was occurring within the program.

[...]

BRENNAN: So, do you think, though, that there was a failure by the Democratic state government to police itself? This is a brazen fraudulent activity here.

OMAR: Yes. And that is what I alluded to in my letter that I had sent to the Secretary of Ag, was to see where things were going wrong. How can this amount of money disappear fraudulently without there being alarms being set off?

According to Rep. Omar, she had long since returned those campaign donations. Also, she said she had played an early role in having this fraud investigated. 

Brennan herself had mentioned another fact—these prosecutions had started within the Biden era DOJ. That's another fact which was never going to be mentioned by the messaging agents inside Silo Red. 

Additional information was involved in the New York Times' front-page report about this newly red-hot scandal. In the end, what sorts of facts may emerge from this ongoing event? 

We can't tell you that, but we can tell you this:

Whatever facts may emerge, Red and Blue Americans will be exposed to sifted versions of those facts. That's the way the game is currently played within the "beautiful, for spacious skies" of our own America(s) the Possibly Less Than Beautiful.

This morning, the friends were changing the focus of this topic, with Walz as their new target. This may be a way for Silo Red to steer away from the astounding recent behavior by President Trump, who wants immigrants from places like Sweden and Denmark, not from the "shithole countries" which have sent us "garbage" like Rep. Omar and "her friends."

So he has said, and said and said! With this morning's shifted focus, Silo Red may be trying to avoid future discussion of such behavior by the president. 

Meanwhile, for reasons we haven't seen explained, large parts of Silo Blue have also agreed to pretend that those "shocking" outbursts by President Trump never occurred.

Along the way, we'll also always have the flyweight Watters. 

We know you think we're just making it up when we discuss the way this 47-year-old stumblebum child conducts himself on the air. 

We know that's what a sane person would think. But there he was, just last night, hosting the second most-watched "cable news" program in all of our realm's "cable news."

There he was, and here's what he said. We actually don't make this up:

WATTERS (12/12/25): Granny wants [ICE] agents to quit—and Noem deported! No wonder they're so mad. "Tampon" lit the fuse.

When this flyweight goes on the air, Governor Walz is "Tampon Tim"—or he may simply be "Tampon!" 

Also, citizens of Blue America may be referred to as "Granny." To see what this corporate flyweight was talking about, you can just click here.

That's the way the game is played inside the stunningly low-IQ Silo Red. Inside our famously brilliant Silo Blue, our journalists avert their gaze from this assault on the discourse. 

Over here, inside Silo Blue, our multimillion-dollar stars don't seem to be able to care. We're living now in Silo(es) America—in America(s) Red and Blue!

FRIDAY: "Greasy Savior," the chyron said!

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2025

No Shedding of Cells Left Behind: It fell to Jesse Watters to open the show. It was 5 p.m. sharp in the East. 

Watters is 47 years old. An imitation of life was about to begin. 

We were struck by the way this program started. Yesterday, the most-watched program in American "cable news" started exactly as shown:

WATTERS (12/11/25): Hi, everybody. I'm Jesse Watters, along with Kennedy, Harold Ford Jr., Dana Perino and Lawrence Jones. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is The Five.

Looks like the Democrats' greasy savior has risen to the top of the pack. The New York Times anointing California governor Gavin Newsom as the party's 2028 front-runner...

For the interview piece to which Watters referred, you can just click here. As Watters spoke, the Fox News Channel chyron beneath him was thoughtfully saying this:

GREASY SAVIOR
NYT: NEWSON BECAME THE DEMS' 2028 FRONT-RUNNER

Watters was speaking about Governor Newsom, the Democrats' "Greasy Savior." Before long, Dana Perino was referring to Newsom as "Governor U-Haul." 

At any rate, that was the opening statement of our nation's most-watched "cable news" show. It's a show which frequently traffics in the use of disparaging nicknames. 

As we've long noted, Watters refers to Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.) as "Tampon Tim," or simply as "Tampon." On this, our most-watched "cable news" show, few brain cells ever get left behind.

BREAKING: "Greasy Savior," the silly boy said!

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2025

On the nation's top "cable news" program: What is Red America being told about Minnesota's sprawling fraud scandal?

It's an ongoing topic within Silo Red, even addressed by the president. Over here, within Silo Blue, the topic is being disappeared.

This one of the ways we're being transformed into dueling America(s). That said, what are the facts about this matter, to the extent that the facts may be known?

You're asking an excellent question! But we're headed off for a whirl at the medical mission, and we expect to be off campus for the bulk of the day.

Our rumination on those questions will continue, either tomorrow or Monday. For now, we thought you might like to get a glimpse of the state of our failing nation's failing culture—a glimpse of our flailing nation's institutional IQ.

Yesterday afternoon, we settled in to watch the nation's most-watched "cable news" program. It was 5 p.m. here in the east—time for the start of The Five!

On came a familiar figure. When we return this afternoon, we'll show you the very first thing this silly, sad boy sadly said. 

We'll even report what the chyron said! If you want to check for yourself, you can just click here.

Can a very large modern nation expect to survive the effects of this influential, low-IQ regime? As Springsteen said in "My Hometown," go ahead:

"Take a good look around."

Try to ignore the president's sliding polls. In addition to the ongoing state of play, what sorts of additional decisions / disasters may perhaps / possibly come? 

THURSDAY: What did Senator McCaskill mean?

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2025

And when did she possibly mean it? In yesterday morning's report, we quoted Claire McCaskill saying this about President Trump's endless speech in the Poconos:

"That speech—he's not well. He's not well."

Due in part to our own pre-existing frame of reference, we connected that to the fairly obvious possibility that President Trump is afflicted by some form of (what used to be known as a) "mental illness." 

Yesterday afternoon, as she appeared on Deadline: White House, it seemed that McCaskill might instead be thinking of some sort of cognitive decline—some form of a "mental cognitive problem."

MacCaskill is routinely astute. She spoke as part of a three-way discussion with Nicolle Wallace and John Heilemann. They staged an important discussion, one which should be pursued, with great care, within the pages of the New York Times. 

That said, no such discussion will appear at that location. Blue America's high-end press corps continues to agree that no such discussion—not about possible "mental illness," not about possible cognitive decline—can be permitted with respect to the capabilities, or the afflictions, of high political figures.

According to the rules of the game, you can't discuss the monarch that way. For better or worse, so it goes within Silo Blue even after our recent "No Kings" day!

The Times did publish this recent, mush-mouthed report in which they claimed to quantify something resembling the president's energy level. To our eye, the president has looked extremely unwell in recent weeks, but the Times methodology struck us as unconvincing. That's especially true with respect to what was once conventional wisdom—until quite recently, it seems:

Conventional wisdom until recently:
President Trump did nothing but sit around watching TV during his first term. But ever since the start of his current term, he's been aggressively flooding the zone with revamped dogmas and destructive policy moves.

Is cognitive decline considered a form of "mental illness?" Some sources flatly say no, some others seem to say yes. Presumably, the worst combination of afflictions would saddle a person who was suffering from a serious "personality disorder" with a substantial cognitive decline.

(We're forced to speculate about such possibilities because the journalists upon whom we rely won't conduct careful interviews with experienced medical specialists.)

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but our Blue elites have agreed to abide by a bromide from another day:

Don't ask, don't tell.

A few medical specialists have recently started breaking the rule. Thanks to the weak cognition of the people we're told we should trust, their efforts are likely to gain little purchase.