COGNITION(S): "One man's damaged psyche," he writes!

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2026

But what is he trying to say? In yesterday morning's report, as we rushed off to the medical mission, we may not have quoted enough of David Brooks' latest column. 

The questions we were pursuing included such questions as these:

Is something medically wrong with President Trump? If so, is that a dangerous state of affairs with respect to future possibilities involving the president's judgment?

Also, are Blue America's major journalists and major news orgs prepared to discuss the possibility that something might be medically wrong? Even concerning the possibility which is easier to discuss—the possibility of cognitive decline—our journalists seem to be searching for ways to suggest that a cognitive problem may exist without ever actually saying it.

Today, the Brooks column appears in New York Times print editions. The headline cites an emerging "crackup," and "the unraveling of President Trump's mind" is quickly cited in the column's text. 

What exactly is the columnist saying? As we noted yesterday, here's how the column starts:

The Coming Trump Crackup

Last week Minneapolis’s police chief, Brian O’Hara, said the thing he fears most is the “moment where it all explodes.” I share his worry. If you follow the trajectory of events, it’s pretty clear that we’re headed toward some kind of crackup.

We are in the middle of at least four unravelings: The unraveling of the postwar international order. The unraveling of domestic tranquillity wherever Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents bring down their jackboots. The further unraveling of the democratic order, with attacks on Fed independence and—excuse the pun—trumped-up prosecutions of political opponents. Finally, the unraveling of President Trump’s mind.

Of these four, the unraveling of Trump’s mind is the primary one, leading to all the others. Narcissists sometimes get worse with age, as their remaining inhibitions fall away. The effect is bound to be profound when the narcissist happens to be president of the United States.

Dire thoughts seem to be lurking there. But does the columnist ever say that something may be clinically wrong?

Many people, Blue as well as Red, have come to believe that President Biden suffered some sort of cognitive decline during his term in the White House. Many people have come to believe that various journalists and various news orgs failed to pursue that possible state of affairs until President Biden suffered through that one disastrous debate, and possibly after that.

In the wake of that possible journalistic failure, it may seem odd to think that our journalists are now reluctant to explore the possibility that President Trump may be suffering from some similar type of decline. Beyond that lies a second possibility—the possibility that he was suffering from some clinically diagnosable "personality disorder" in the many long years before that.

Was President Trump afflicted with some significant form of "mental disorder" perhaps from his childhood on? That tragic possibility has been aggressively articulated in a pair of best-selling books.

In keeping with long-standing rules of the guild, that possibility has also been almost completely ignored.

When Brooks writes about "the unraveling of President Trump's mind," is he suggesting the existence of a diagnosable medical problem without flatly saying so? Each person can decide that question for him or herself. But as we've been saying this week, ever so slowly they turn!

It seems to us that our journalists may be trying to suggest that something seems to be medically wrong without simply saying so. As we noted on Wednesday, Colby Hall came out and flatly said it this week, but few others seem willing to follow.

Is something with President Trump in a clinically diagnosable way? Was David Brooks implying as much in his column without simply saying as much?

Yesterday, we cited some of the language Broos employed as he discussed "the unraveling of President Trump’s mind." We didn't include these ruminations, which appear near the end of his column:

I don’t have enough imagination to know where the next crackup will come—through perhaps some domestic, criminal or foreign crisis? Though I was struck by a sentence Robert Kagan wrote in an essay on the effects of Trump’s foreign policy in The Atlantic: “Americans are entering the most dangerous world they have known since World War II, one that will make the Cold War look like child’s play and the post-Cold War world like paradise.”

And no, I don’t think America is headed toward anything like a Rome-style collapse. Our institutions are too strong, and our people, deep down, still have the same democratic values.

But I do know that events are being propelled by one man’s damaged psyche. History does not record many cases in which a power-mad leader careening toward tyranny suddenly regained his senses and became more moderate. On the contrary, the normal course of the disease is toward ever-accelerating deterioration and debauchery.

We'll admit that somewhat odd. First, Brooks quotes Kagan imagining a profoundly dangerous state of affairs. Then he quickly seems to pivot, saying it wouldn't be all that bad!

He also states the obvious:

Events on the current global stage are being "propelled by [President Trump]." He then refers to the president's "damaged psyche:"

Is that a colloquial term? 

(He goes on to talk about "power-mad leaders" moving toward even greater states of "deterioration.")

For now, we leave you with two questions:

What are our journalists trying to say—and why can't they simply say it? 

Also, what does this say about the maturity and the competence of our vaunted national discourse? Putting it another way:

As a matter of basic anthropology, what does it say about us?

Also this: Brooks may be working under rules delivered to him by his editors. He may be trying his best to suggest something which he isn't permitted to say.