Mental Illness and Civic Responsibility By J.E. Dean

Former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich recently expressed regret that the press is reluctant to report on Donald Trump’s mental decline. Reich is right. We are not reading enough about the President’s state of health in the mainstream media. Because so much depends on the President’s ability to fulfill his duties as President, Americans need to know that their president is healthy and fit for the job.

Much of the press, unfortunately, has become reluctant to write negative things about the President for fear of retribution or a billion-dollar lawsuit. Mainstream media’s reluctance is understandable, even though the constant stream of lawsuits and threats of abusive regulatory actions, such as revoking broadcast licenses, are themselves evidence of what many of us see as the President’s mental instability.

In recent weeks, I have raised the President’s obvious decline with friends and asked them whether they see the same things that I do. For the most part, these conversations confirm that it isn’t Trump Derangement Syndrome or just distaste for the President’s policies that have caused me to conclude that the President, and, more importantly, the United States, is in big trouble. 

To use one of the President’s favorite words, we have a lunatic running the country. I use the term “lunatic” loosely because I am not a psychiatrist. But as Bob Dylan once sang, “You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

An ill and dangerous wind is blowing across America and, because of America’s leadership role in the world, it’s blowing everywhere else as well.

Some of Trump’s antics strike me as crazy but are generally harmless. Yes, I don’t like Trump’s “improvements” to the White House, but those decorations won’t start a war or cause a recession. The only harm caused by much of the “Trump show” is embarrassment—for Trump and the United States.

Unfortunately, other initiatives that the President has launched in his second term are harmful. He has turned the Department of Justice into a personal retribution machine against those he believes have harmed him. 

Trump has also thrown the concept of government ethics into the trash. Federal policy on cryptocurrency, for example, has facilitated the Trump family making billions since he took office in January. Coincidence? Or corruption? 

And what about the President’s posts on his social media platform? Visit there and you will find a video of Trump and OMB director Russ Vought, AI generated, dressed as the grim reaper. Firing federal workers, ending foreign assistance and efforts to fight climate change, and cancelling research grants to elite universities are funny, right? No, they aren’t. I found the grim reaper video disgusting. Only mentally ill people would post such garbage on their social media pages.

I could go on and quote from President Trump’s recent speech before generals and admirals at Quantico last week, reference mental gaffes (such as claiming to end seven wars but not being able to remember the countries involved), and, of course, post videos of the President looking “not well.”

America needs to take a hard look at the man who is our president. Trump may not admit it, but he is supposed to work for the American public. There is a reason there is a group called “No Kings” and serious efforts are underway to end Republican leadership of the House of Representatives.

The government used to encourage us: “If you see something, say something.”  I see a president in serious mental decline. There, I said it. And if you take a close look at the President, what he does, says, and his physical appearance, I think you’ll agree.

The 25th Amendment was passed for a good reason.

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, and other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.