What accounts for Trump’s increasing craziness of late? His profanity-laden Easter Sunday threat against Iran: “open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell. Praise be to Allah!” His threats minus profanity (“A whole civilization will die tonight…”) His accusations against Pope Leo XIV (“weak on crime,” “catering to the radical left,” “hurting the Catholic Church very badly… If I wasn’t in the White House, he wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”)
This was triggered by the Pope’s mild criticism of Trump’s threats to destroy Iranian civilization as “unacceptable.” And it hurt Trump more than the Pope, particularly among US Catholics (numbering 53 million adults, forming a swing vote that went 56% for Trump in 2024, slipped now to 49%.)
Then there was Trump posting an image of himself as Jesus (or at least a radiant, divine healer), which angered devout Christians as “blasphemy.” And his wandering, incoherent speeches, sudden reversals of policy, statements by retired generals and former Trump aides as well as New York Times’ reporter Peter Baker that Trump is “unbalanced…out of control…clearly insane.”
Lately there have been frequent (but vain) discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment (which provides for removal of an “incapacitated” president but has to be initiated by his Vice President and a majority of his Cabinet.) Also, a recent Economist/YouGov survey showed that 48% believe Trump is suffering from “significant or modest cognitive decline,” though only 35% believe the decline is significant. (I’m one of the 35%)
The poll also showed that 48% think he is too old to serve, 52% think he’s dangerous, 47% corrupt and only 16% steady. And 64% think his threat to destroy a whole civilization is “unacceptable.”
So what’s the best diagnosis? Mary L. Trump, a clinical psychologist and estranged niece of Trump wrote in her book “Too Much and Never Enough” that Trump exhibits traits of “narcissistic personality disorder,” characterized by “grandiosity, a constant need for admiration and lack of empathy.” Putting his name on everything is one symptom.
Also “sociopathic personality disorder,” demonstrated by his insults, lack of remorse, disregard for rules, habitual lying and thinking everything he says is true and what critics say is always wrong.
“Dependent personality disorder” is the need for others to constantly praise him, as his Cabinet does every time it meets.
Finally, I understand that some psychotherapists see signs that Trump is suffering from frontotemporal dementia, a fatal disease caused by deterioration of both the frontal lobe of the brain and the side lobes.
The frontal lobe is the “manager” of a person’s body and mind. Deterioration results in impulsiveness, inappropriate behavior and a person’s becoming suddenly profane, aggressive, losing their social filter or ceasing to care about the consequences of their actions. Deterioration of the three lobes may also affect a person’s gait and ability to remember names.
I’m no psychotherapist or neurologist so I can’t diagnose Trump—and diagnosing without examining a patient is unreliable even for experts. Moreover, it requires an MRI to detect frontotemporal dementia. But Trump definitely displays the symptoms, as he’s demonstrated recently.
Outrages
The Orban Co-Opt-the-Media Strategy
Trump’s Project 2025 (which he denied any knowledge of in 2024) was modeled on Viktor Orban’s 16-year authoritarian rule in Hungary. The good news is that Orban was just defeated in a landslide by a center-right democrat, Peter Magyar, a former member of Orban’s Fidesz Party. It’s more good news that Trump’s latest approval rating is 33% and disapproval, 66%, possibly foretelling a landslide Democratic victory in this year’s mid-term elections.
It’s more good news that Orban conceded defeat. Trump matches Orban’s pattern of trying to rig elections (Orban regularly banned rival candidates from running and used his allies’ 85 percent control of Hungary’s media to advance his cause and stifle competing voices). But the bad news is that Trump is not one to ever concede error.
Trump is still copying Orban’s methods, practicing rampant corruption, which is not yet a top tier issue in the US (though it deserves to be), but was in Hungary.
Trump is also trying to dominate the media. He denounces the independent press as “enemies of the people,” lying constantly so that citizens are confused about what the truth is, suing unfriendly outlets, using the Federal Communications Commission to threaten withholding licenses of TV stations—and, recently, favoring friendly oligarchs’ “capturing” of formerly independent TV networks.
The chief friendly oligarch is David Ellison, son of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, a longtime supporter of Trump’s. David Ellison, owner of Skydance Media, first bought Paramount (owner of CBS, MTV, Paramount Pictures, Nikelodeon, Showtime and three foreign channels) for $8 billion, guaranteed by his father. Trump’s FCC agreed to the merger only after CBS paid $16 million to settle a Trump lawsuit over editing of a “Sixty Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, and agreeing to pay $20 million in public service announcements for causes favored by Trump, and pledging millions more in a contribution to Trump’s presidential library project.
David Ellison hired Bari Weiss, editor of the online startup The Free Press (which Paramount purchased for $150 million) as the first-ever Editor-In-Chief of CBS News. Her leadership has been characterized by more conservative on-air contributors and editorial decisions. She canceled a “Sixty Minutes” report on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison housing immigrants deported from the US. Previous CBS stars John Dickerson and Anderson Cooper have left the network. When she was introduced to Trump, she kissed him on both cheeks, not the behavior of a non-partisan journalist.
Ellison also announced the cancellation of The Late Show, ostensibly for “financial reasons” though its host, Stephen Colbert, has been the top-rated late-night comedian nine straight years. The cancellation followed Colbert’s on-air mockery of the $16 million “Sixty Minutes” settlement but was also triggered by Colbert’s nightly biting criticism of Trump.
Then, this year, David Ellison out-bid Netflix ($111 billion to $82.7 billion) to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery, owner of CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures and major sports channels. In parallel to Orban’s “media capture,” Trump will have allies at Fox News, the top-rated cable news channel; the CBS broadcast network and CNN, now (but not for long) the top independent cable news network.
Trump played a significant role in the Warner Brothers deal, criticizing the Netflix offer and praising the Ellisons’ (David’s father guaranteed his son’s bid and held a celebratory dinner for Trump the day shareholders approved the deal.)
David Ellison has publicly promised to maintain CNN’s independence, but he is known to have assured Trump he will implement “sweeping changes” to counter charges of bias at the channel. Pete Hegseth, a critic of CNN’s coverage of the Iran war, remarked “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
Pentagon Purges
Pentagon Pete Hegseth, one of the most controversial of Trump’s Cabinet members, has sacked at least thirty high-ranking military officers and civilian Defense Department civilians for what are widely deemed ideological or even prejudicial reasons.
First to go were the highly-decorated black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr, and Adm Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the US Navy—their dismissals widely judged to be based on their race and gender rather than their service. Hegseth relieved two other high-ranking black officers and six other women.
Hegseth has been on a campaign to end “diversity, equity and inclusion” and “wokeness” in the military and replace it with what he calls “the warrior ethic.” He closed down all offices working on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and dismissed or transferred their employees, numbering in the thousands.
He forced about 1,000 transsexuals to either “self-separate” from the services or be fired. He announced that “trans is out at DoD,” and railed against “social engineering,” resulting in removal of Pride flags from military installations, cancellation of Pride Month observances, and dismissal of leaders who supported LGBTU inclusion.
Hegseth also fired Admiral Alvin Holsey, commander of US Southern Command, who is black and led Task Force One Navy, designed to combat racism and bias. Hegseth and Holsey also clashed over killing survivors of attacks on alleged “drug boats” in the Caribbean. Hegseth ordered US ships to “kill them all,” referring to the survivors. They also clashed over plans to return the Panama Canal to US ownership, and Hegseth suspected Holsey of leaking sensitive information.
On that score, Hegseth was a participant in the discussion on Signal, an insecure message site that mistakenly included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic. In the exchange, Goldberg disclosed, Hegseth revealed the timing of a US air attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen, the weapons to be used and the targets to be attacked. He repeated the same information to his wife and brother, his personal lawyer, and several other persons with no security clearances or connection to the operation.
Hegseth said that none of the information he disclosed was classified, a patent lie that the DoD Inspector General and several Congressional committees investigated as an unauthorized disclosure of defense secrets. Hegseth was heavily criticized but not punished. Also on the conversation, Hegseth and Vice President CD Vance expressed “loathing” for European allies and called them “pathetic freeloaders.”
As a Fox News commentator during Trump’s first term, Hegseth persuaded Trump to reverse the convictions of two soldiers convicted of murdering captured enemy combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan and to restore the rank of a Navy SEAL who posed for a photo with the body of an ISIS captive he was accused of killing. Hegseth said the three were not “war criminals,” but “warriors.” The intervention on behalf of the SEAL, Eddie Gallagher, led to the resignation of Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer who argued it undermined the rule of law in the Navy.
Hegseth served in the Army National Guard for 20 years, winning two Bronze Stars for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He left military service when colleagues criticized his “Crusader” tattoos—on a bicep, “Deus Volt” (“God Wills It,” a rallying cry of the First Crusade.) Hegseth claimed it was merely a symbol of his Christian faith, but officials said it had been adopted by far right and white supremacist groups. The other tattoo is a large Jerusalem Cross on his chest surrounded by four smaller crosses. Hegseth says it was “a historic Christian” symbol, but investigators asserted it was used by extremist groups to denote militant Christianity.
He has demonstrated militant Christianity himself during the Iran war. At a Pentagon worship service, he asked congregants to pray for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy…in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.” On another occasion, he read from Psalm 18: “I thrust them through so they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet.” And he prayed that God would “break the teeth” of US enemies in Iran.
Pope Leo XIV has criticized Hegseth on at least three occasions, saying “this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war.” He also said that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them,” specifically noting that God ignores those “whose hands are full of blood.” He also told reporters that the Gospel was being “misused” by Washington leaders to provide cover for “reckless actions” and the loss of innocent life.
Hegseth has been criticized by Democrats and other commentators as “the least qualified Secretary of Defense in history” because he has never directed an enterprise anywhere near as large as the US military—in fact, his largest was less than 50 people and budgets of $15 million (both of which were publicity successes but financial failures), whereas the DoD is the largest enterprise in the world, with 3.5 million personnel and a budget of $1.05 trillion.
Trump, as you might imagine, constantly praises Hegseth’s performance and loyalty, but as you also might imagine, his praise has shifted to claiming that Hegseth was the first top official to propose the war, positioning him to take the blame if the war is unsuccessful.
Trump did have a comparatively sane news conference following the random shooter’s scary disruption of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. But he also used the opportunity to champion his White House ballroom project, claiming it is essential for security. Trump takes no responsibility for the political violence that has become far too common. Indeed, he often blames the media. Trump said he had intended to lay into the media with a scathing speech at the dinner. We shall see if his rare conciliatory tone at the impromptu press conference will prevail, or if he uses the planned tirade speech when the event is rescheduled. To be continued….
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