DIAGNOSIS: We don't know what we're talking about!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2026

Neither do Baker's dozens: We start today with a restatement of our own general assumptions:  

First, we assume that Mary L. Trump is probably right when she says that her uncle, the sitting president, is involved in an obvious cognitive decline.  

(We regard that as a tragic event on the personal huma level. We regard it as a dangerous state of affairs, given the uncle's vast power.) 

Second, we assume that Mary Trump is probably right when she describes her uncle as "somebody who for decades now has had serious, undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders." In that remark, Mary Trump is saying that her uncle has long been afflicted by various forms of "mental illness." 

(For ourselves, we regard a serous "mental illness" as an illness. We think that (serious) "mental illness" is a personal tragedy. We don't think that some such assessment should be treated as the ultimate insult.)

Finally, we assume that Mary Trump is probably right when she says that her uncle's untreated psychiatric disorders "are only going to worsen." 

(We assume that that assessment is probably accurate. Under the circumstances, we regard that as an extremely dangerous state of affairs.)

We're inclined to assume that Mary Trump, a doctorate-holding clinical therapist, is right in those three assessments. Now for the rest of the story: 

Because we ourselves aren't medical specialists, we don't have the slightest idea what we're talking about! 

We're offering our best assessments concerning these matters, but those best assessments can only take us so far. Our best assessments may be accurate—obviously, we think they are—but in the normal course of events, we'd want to hear from experienced medical specialists about these profoundly important matters. 

We'd like to hear from (carefully selected) medical specialists. We don't need to hear from the dozens of loudmouths Peter Baker chose to quote in yesterday's thumb-sucker piece. 

Baker's essay appeared above the fold on the front page of yesterday's New York Times. As we noted yesterday, it appears online beneath this dual headline:  

Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate
As the president threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as “lunatic” and “clearly insane."

Those are wonderfully eye-catching headlines. Someone has described the president as "lunatic"—even as "clearly insane!" 

Those are thrilling assertions. The obvious problem is this:

“Lunatic” and “clearly insane" aren't clinical terms. They're the kinds of colloquial comments people tend to throw out, often as insults, at a dangerous time such as this. 

The second problem obtains: 

None of the many people Baker quotes is a medical specialist! Instead, he has quoted Ty Cobb, a high-ranking Washington lawyer, along with such political luminaries as these:  

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.”

Jones and Owens and Greene oh my! He has quoted such giants as these! 

He has also quoted Megyn Kelly, and he has quoted Tucker Carlson. Also, he has quoted such major Democratic office holders as these:

Democrats have pressed the point in recent days. Mr. Trump is “an extremely sick person” (Senator Chuck Schumer of New York), “unhinged” and “out of control” (Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York) or, more bluntly, “batshit crazy” (Representative Ted Lieu of California). Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, wrote the White House physician requesting an evaluation, noting “signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline” and “increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening” tantrums. 

Rep. Lieu has said the president is "batshit crazy!" For better or worse, Baker chose to quote him.  

(All four Dems may be fully sincere. But none is a medical specialist!)

There's more to be said about the long list of people Baker quotes in his front-page piece. For today, we'll leave it at this:   

Baker doesn't quite a single medical specialist at any point in his piece! Indeed, in the most interesting part of his lengthy piece, the childish journo says this:   

Mr. Trump’s stability has been a recurring issue since he first sought the presidency in 2016. Numerous psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have weighed in with their own opinions even without the opportunity to evaluate him. John F. Kelly, his longest serving White House chief of staff in the first term, even bought a book by 27 of those specialists called “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” in an effort to understand his boss and came to the conclusion that he was mentally ill.  

Did General Kelly really conclude that the president is "mentally ill?" It's a remarkable claim—and it goes weirdly unsourced, although the claim seems to track back to The Divider, the book Baker co-authored with Susan Glasser in 2022.

More on that tomorrow! For today, please understand this: 

Baker doesn't quote any of the 27 "psychiatrists and other mental health professionals" who contributed to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. (In that book's second edition, the number jumped to 37.)

Baker doesn't quote any of those medical specialists. Instead, he attributes a somewhat fuzzy claim to General Kelly—and though General Kelly is widely admired as a person of high integrity, let's all understand this:

General Kelly isn't a medical specialist! In the end, he doesn't know what he's actually talking about, any more than we do! 

Baker had 28 different people he could have quoted at that point in his lengthy front-page piece. For whatever reason, he skipped the 27 mental health professionals, choosing instead to state the alleged view of the one person who isn't a medical specialist!  

He quoted every nut he could find, not excusing Alex Jones. He didn't quote a single person who is a medical specialist!

We'll continue from here tomorrow. For ourselves, we're inclined to regard this essay as the latest disgrace. But also, we regard it as a major bit of anthropology—as the latest example of the way we humans seem to be wired to function.

Tomorrow: Possible diagnoses

Still coming: The Paul Reiser joke from way back when:

"Are we here to play some golf? Or are we just gonna f*ck around?"