"DELUSIONAL" President Biden was executed!

MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2025 

So says President Trump: On Saturday night, as the midnight hour approached, there he went again.

In this case, the New York Times actually reported the sitting president's presentation. His post appeared on Truth Social on Saturday night as the witching hour drew near.

More accurately, if only colloquially, it was the sitting president's latest crazy presentation. The New York Times was somewhat slow to report what he'd done. But here's the heart of its (remarkably brief) news report about this latest event:

Trump Amplifies Another Outlandish Conspiracy Theory: Biden Is a Robotic Clone

President Trump shared an outlandish conspiracy theory on social media on Saturday night saying former President Joseph R. Biden had been “executed in 2020” and replaced by a robotic clone, the latest example of the president amplifying dark, false material to his millions of followers.

Mr. Trump reposted a fringe rant that another user had made on the president’s social media platform, Truth Social, just after 10 p.m. on Saturday. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the post about Mr. Biden, whom Mr. Trump has targeted for criticism almost daily since the start of his second term.

The president has blamed Mr. Biden for all manner of societal ills and assailed his mental acuity, including with the specious theory that Mr. Biden’s aides used an autopen to enact policies and issue pardons without Mr. Biden’s knowledge. (Mr. Trump has acknowledged that his administration uses the autopen system on occasion.)

Mr. Trump has long had a penchant for sharing debunked or baseless theories online, but his embrace of conspiracies is not limited to social media. He has also elevated false claims inside the White House and surrounded himself with cabinet officials promoting such theories.

That's the way the remarkably brief report started. We don't know why the Times used the term "specious" in the way it did, but let's not wander off track.

Yes, he actually did it! As the midnight hour drew near, the sitting president of the United States— the most powerful person in the world—reposted another "fringe" claim.

We're not sure why the Times used the term "fringe," but here's what the president reposted:

President Biden was executed in 2020. He was then replaced by a clone!

So the sitting president has said, or has at least seemed to say. It's obvious where this takes us:

That figure you saw in that famous debate back in June 2024? That wasn't President Biden at all, according to the powerful person who now sits in the White House. 

That wasn't President Biden at all! That was just a clone! So President Trump has now said. And yes, that's what he reposted on Saturday night. That's what he thereby said.

For journalists, an obvious problem arises in the course of reporting this matter. The question goes like this:

What sort of word should a journalist use to describe this astounding behavior? It isn't the first time Trump has done something like this—but what sorts of words should be used?

As you can see, the Times went with the term "outlandish" in its opening paragraph, and also in its headline. As the body of its short report proceeded, it used a few other terms, including such comically odd understatements as "false" and also "baseless."

Other news orgs chose stronger terms to describe the president's post. Below, you see some of the words which appeared in the headlines as other news orgs struggled to find a way to report what this person has done:

Trump Spreads Bizarre Conspiracy Theory That Biden Was Executed and Replaced by a Robot Clone

Trump Shares Unhinged Conspiracy Theory That Biden Is a Robot Clone 

Trump Amplifies Bonkers Conspiracy Theory That Biden Was ‘Executed’ in 2020 and Replaced By Clones

Mediaite went with "bonkers." Rolling Stone selected "bizarre;" The Daily Beast chose "unhinged."

Comically, Newsweek settled for the kinder-and-gentler "baseless;" USA Today went with "false."  But when Fox News reported what Trump had done, this was the headline that outspoken news org chose:

Trump shares post saying Biden was executed, replaced with clones

Just the facts, some editor said. In its headline and in its report, Fox News simply reported what Trump had (inferentially) said. Fox reported, then let readers decide.

While we're at it, let's add this:

This very morning, as we type, the Washington Post doesn't seem to have reported this latest behavior at all. Nothing to look at, the paper is saying. As in the past, to too now:

Nothing to see here! Just move along!

Various orgs chose various words to describe what this person had done. None of them chose the clinical (and colloquial) term which may take us to the heart of the matter:

Noen of them chose the clinical term in which the sitting president, once again, had advanced a "delusional" statement.

"Delusional!" The word is widely used in colloquial speech, but it's also a clinical term. 

It's right there in the DSM. As the leading authority on such matters notes, there is a clinical diagnosis known as "Delusional disorder." You can start to ponder the syndrome simply by clicking here.

We'll discuss such matters as the week proceeds— and any such clinical disorder is of course a human tragedy.  For today, let's say this:

Like the citizens of a famous realm whose emperor had a new suit of clothes, our major news orgs have worked very hard, for all these years, to avoid seeing what has often seemed to be sitting right there before them.

That avoidance of apparent reality isn't going to change today. Almost surely, it will never change at all. This is the way we humans are wired. This is the way we're built.

That said, we ourselves will spend the week discussing the (clinical) concepts of "Delusion" and "Delusional disorder."  Because there the president went again, this past Saturday night.

Meanwhile, also this:

Over Memorial Day weekend, battling a touch of the labyrinthitis, we headed off tin search of something more interesting that "all this now too much for us."

During our junior year in college, we took Deductive Logic from the late Professor Quine, Philosophy of Science from the late Professor Putnam. Aa far as we've ever known, each man was a thoroughly good and decent person.

Over that weekend, we learned something we'd never known before. We learned that Professors Quine and Putnam had collaborated on this at a later point in time:

Quine–Putnam indispensability argument

The Quine–Putnam indispensability argument is an argument in the philosophy of mathematics for the existence of abstract mathematical objects such as numbers and sets, a position known as mathematical platonism. It was named after the philosophers Willard Van Orman Quine and Hilary Putnam, and is one of the most important arguments in the philosophy of mathematics.

On its face, too funny! At least as described by the leading authority, this is what those highly regarded logicians had done:

In one of the most important arguments in the philosophy of mathematics, they had crested an argument for the existence of numbers! Or so the authority says!

Was that conduct delusional too? Is this just more of the way we humans are wired? Also, does this explain why our failing public discourse has received so little guidance from our greatest logicians and ethicists—from our greatest "philosophers?"

(From an earlier profile on Wikipedia: "A 2009 poll conducted among analytic philosophers named Quine as the fifth most important philosopher of the past two centuries.")

We'll throw those questions in as the week proceeds. For now, let's stick with this:

BREAKING! President Biden was executed in 2020! After he was executed, he was replaced by a clone! 

So said President Trump, last Saturday night. And, as many of those news orgs said:

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

We wonder why that is.

Is something wrong with President Trump? If so, that would of course represent a tragic loss of human capability. The same was true of President Biden's apparent loss of cognitive capacity during his time in the White House, though possibly starting earlier.

Also this:

Is something wrong with the august journalists who still refuse—who are always going to refuse—to investigate or describe what's seems to be right there before them? 

Who still insist, in various ways, that there's nothing to look at there? That we should keep moving along?

Tomorrow: 2 + 2, the sitting president said