THURSDAY: "Lunatic," the headline says!

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026

Mental illness, conjured as insult: There he went again.

For starters, there's no reason to assume that anything the president said was actually accurate—true. There's no reason to assume that the president actually has a friend who is "very obese" but is also "a brilliant guy"—is also "smart, vicious, wild."

Having offered that disclaimer, here was the president, at the White House, going there once again. He was telling his story about the friend who was forced to pay too much for Ozempic. 

Blue America has pushed back today. We join the president's rambling presentation in progress:

PRESIDENT TRUMP (9/2/26):  ...As an example, the United Kingdom. We had a very, very serious problem. 

United Kingdom would pay ten cents for a pill. And we pay two dollars for the same pill—or for the fat drug, as I say.

You know, a friend of mine—very, very heavy. He's a very obese person. I said, "You're an extremely obese person." But he's a brilliant guy. He's a Wall Street guy. He's a brutal, brutal man, but—smart as hell, but he's got a serious weight problem.

And he called me up, and he's from New York—he's one of the top guys on Wall Street. He's begging me—because I've told the story a couple of times—not to mention his name because I'll destroy his reputation. But he's tough as hell and he's smart, vicious, wild. These are the people you have to deal with when you're president. 

He used to call me Donny, now he calls me president. He'd say, "Donny." Now he calls me "President." I'm shocked he does that, actually. That shows respect.

But he said, "You know, Mr. President, I was in London, and I paid $86 for Ozempic. And in New York, I pay $1,300 for the same thing."

That's a lot! That's a big difference. And I had it checked out—comes from the same factory, it comes from the same place, and then they have some other fat drugs.

I said, "Are you taking this stuff?"

"Yeah."

I said, "It's not working. You look like shit."

I said it's not working. But he got me going...

To watch this ramble in full, click here for the C-Span videotape. Move ahead to the 28-minute mark. We remind you that mental illness is a human tragedy, as is the loss of cognition.

The president rambled on from there, discussing the cost of various drugs here and in other lands. At Raw Story but also at HuffPost, reports criticized the president for his unusual remarks about his extremely obese, vicious friend.

Again, we know of no reason to assume that any such person exists. But from within the world of Blue American commentary, Aaron Rupar offered this reaction to Acyn's shortened, paraphrased text:

I continue to think the fact the president is a lunatic is the biggest story in politics. Your mileage may vary.

In principle, we agree with what Rupar said. We think the fact that the president may be suffering "obvious cognitive decline," layered atop "decades of untreated psychiatric disorders," is the biggest unreported, undiscussed story in the full range of world affairs.   

That said, consider the way Rupar chose to express his assessment. Consider his turn to the use of an insult.  Headline included, Raw Story started like this:   

'Lunatic': Trump's 'obese friend' rant at White House backfires instantly

President Donald Trump detoured into a bizarre rant about an obese "friend" while speaking at a dinner event he was holding at the Rose Garden on Wednesday.

"A friend of mine is a very obese person," said Trump. "I said, you're an extremely obese person. He's begging me not to mention his name because I'll destroy his reputation. He had some fat drugs. I said: it's not working—you look like (expletive)."

The comment triggered both mockery from commenters on social media, and a bit of speculation on who the friend in question was.

"Checking in on Trump's midterm messaging," said the official account for the liberal platform Meidas Touch.

"I continue to think the fact the president is a lunatic is the biggest story in politics. Your mileage may vary," wrote reporter Aaron Rupar.

"Lunatic," Rupar said. Raw Story went full headline.   

For ourselves, we would assume that the president's rambling presentation may fit within the category of "likely cognitive decline."  Rupar selected a word associated with mental illness and threw it out as an insult.

At this site, we've long suggested that a significant "mental illness" is an actual illness. We've long suggested that this would be a more intelligent way to discuss such phenomena.

Given our current state of cultural development, the concept still doesn't play that way in our own Blue American world. We think we Blues would get better results if we played it in accord with the shape of medical science.