DIAGNOSIS: Baker quoted the nutcase Jones...

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2026

...disappeared Gupta and Trump: As we start, let's be fair to the New York Times—and to Peter Baker, a highly skilled synthesizer.  In fairness, let's say this:  

The basic premise of Baker's recent front-page report was in fact basically accurate. Also, the situation Baker described could be seen as a (somewhat low-IQ) matter of general interest.  

Baker's lengthy report appeared above the fold, on page 1A, in Tuesday's print editions. As it now appears online, it starts in the manner shown, principal headline included:

Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate

President Trump’s erratic behavior and extreme comments in recent days and weeks have turbocharged the crazy-like-a-fox-or-just-plain-crazy debate that has followed him on the national political stage for a decade.

A series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements capped by his “a whole civilization will die tonight” threat to wipe Iran off the map last week and his head-spinning attack on the “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” pope on Sunday night have left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.

The White House rejected such assessments, saying that Mr. Trump is sharp and keeping his opponents on edge. But the president’s eruptions have raised questions about America’s leadership in a time of war...

Democrats who have long challenged Mr. Trump’s psychological fitness have issued a fresh chorus of calls to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from power for disability. But it is not just a concern voiced by partisans on the left, late-night comics or mental health professionals making long-distance diagnoses. It can be heard now among retired generals, diplomats and foreign officials. And most strikingly, it can be heard now on the political right among onetime allies of the president.  

In fairness, all that was true! The president's behavior, and his unusual comments, had in fact resulted in a series of comments about his "mental health"—about his "psychological fitness." 

It's also true that comments about the president's mental state had come from a wide array of sources—not just from "partisans of the left."  

It was true! Many people had issued challenging remarks about the president's mental state. And Baker seemed to be willing to cite all these comments—even those which came from some of the most disordered voices within the national maelstrom:

Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who recently broke with Mr. Trump, advocated using the 25th Amendment, telling CNN that threatening to destroy Iran’s civilization was “not tough rhetoric, it’s insanity.” Candace Owens, the far-right podcaster, called him “a genocidal lunatic.” Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars, said Mr. Trump “does babble and sounds like the brain’s not doing too hot.”  

Baker was even willing to quote such profoundly marginal figures as Candace Owens and Alex Jones! To appearances, no one was being left behind!   

(In fairness, it can be defended as a matter of general interest when a deranged figure like Alex Jones says some of the things he has recently said. We say that because, however disordered Jones may be, he still has a fairly substantial following. For that reason, it qualifies as a matter of public interest to learn what he has said.)  

Baker quoted a wide array of public figures who had made recent remarks about the president's mental health. That said, there was (at least) one such well-known person the gentleman failed to cite.   

Unlike the nutcase Jones, there was a reasonable chance that the person in question actually knew what she was talking about! We refer to the (current or former) "mental health professional" who had appeared on CNN, where she had offered this:    

BURNETT (2/26/26): You've known him your whole life. Do you actually see a [cognitive] decline?

MARY L. TRUMP: I do, but I think it's important to remember that Donald has never been fit in any capacity. Obviously, what we're dealing with now are age-related cognitive declines. We're dealing with physical issues that the White House tries to cover over.

But this is somebody who for decades now has had serious, undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders, which are only going to worsen, especially given the pressure he's under and given the cognitive and physical declines.  

Sad! Perhaps at the direction of his editors, Baker was willing to quote the nutcase Jones, but he refused to quote Mary Trump!   

In fairness, it's possible to regard Mary Trump as "an interested party," because, of course, she is. An editor might decide to disappear her rather startling assessments for that very reason.  

In fairness, you can imagine that some editor made some such assessment. That said, please notice this:  

Right at the start of his lengthy essay, Baker seems to say that "mental health professionals" (plural) have been making assessments about the president's mental health. NBC's Dr. Vin Gupta would be an obvious example.

(For Mediaite's report, click here. Headline: MS NOW Medical Analyst Dr. Vin Gupta Claims Trump Has ‘All The Signs of Dementia’)

Even though he was willing to quote a manifest nutcase like Alex Jones, Baker failed to quote any such medical specialist in the course of his long overview. Mary Trump's comments were disappeared, but so were Dr. Gupta's.

We regard that as an insulting refusal to serve. So too, we're sorry to say, in the case of Lawrence O'Donnell.   

As we noted yesterday, O'Donnell has done some serious reminiscing in several of his Last Word programs this week. On Wednesday night, he played videotape from the good old days—from the occasional broadcasts, during President Trump's first term, when he would bring Dr. Lance Dodes on the air to assess the president's mental health.   

Dr. Dodes had hardly been reassuring. On Wednesday's Last Word, O'Donnell played tape of Dr. Dodes from January 2021. In the tape O'Donnell played, Dr. Dodes was shown saying this about President Trump     

DR. DODES (1/9/21): A delusional psychopath who has been the same his whole adult life, and who we knew would get worse the more stress he was under, because that's what happens with people with this kind of severe disorder. ...He is going to continue to get worse.  

The fact that he said it doesn't mean it was true. But now, it does seem, to many observers, that president is "getting worse." But O'Donnell no longer interviews specialists like Dr. Dodes—and in the wake of her comments on CNN, we can find no sign that he proceeded to interview Mary Trump.

Baker will tell you what the nutcase Jones has said. O'Donnell will play the videotape of the good old days, when he would, on the rare occasion, interview a medical specialist like Dr. Dodes.

Baker disappeared Mary Trump and Dr. Gupta. O'Donnell failed to say why he no longer conducts interviews of that type.

In each case, it seems to us that we're looking at a failure to serve. At what seems like a very dangerous time, we're looking at an imitation of journalism—at an imitation of life.

Still coming: Much more remains to be said