Trump is mentally unfit. Why won’t major media say so?

As well as being a would-be dictator, he’s unhinged and incompetent.

I’m one of those people who thought Joe Biden’s debate performance last June was such a 40-car pileup that he earned the criticism he got.

But I wish the media would stop grading on a curve and give Donald Trump that kind of treatment, too. Instead, the media set the bar so low for Trump that it’s underground.

Is Trump suffering from dementia? Is he just a lazy thinker? Is he imprisoned in his own fantasy world? It may be a combination of those things. I’m not diagnosing him. I’m just stating the obvious fact that he’s mentally unfit to be president of the United States.

Let’s put aside the awfulness of his policies and just deal with his approach to the job. We knew he would attack the government’s professional workforce. But his approach has been unhinged. He let an unelected fellow liar buy his way into a co-presidency with $277 million in campaign spending. And that guy has issued bizarre orders that Trump is clueless about.

Elon Musk has demanded that 2 million workers provide him with lists of five accomplishments and has threatened to fire them if they don’t. Other government officials say it’s not mandatory. Here’s how Trump “clarified” the situation last week.

On Monday, he said workers who didn’t respond would get "sort of semi-fired."

Sort of.

On Tuesday, he said: “If you don’t answer, I guess you get fired.”

I guess.

On Wednesday, he said: “Those people are on the bubble, as they say. You know, maybe they’re going to be gone.”

Maybe.

This confused messaging is cruel to the people whose livelihoods it affects, yes. But it’s also incompetent. This guy has the nuclear codes. Sort of. I guess. Maybe.

In lots of other ways, Trump is telling us he’s unfit, and the news media fail in their duty by reporting the embarrassing episodes piecemeal instead of drawing the overall conclusion in prominent stories.

Two weeks ago, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator.” But when asked about it last Thursday, he said, "Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that.” A day later, Trump and Vice President JD Vance ambushed Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, betraying an ally. “This is going to be great television,” Trump said, as if he’s still on “The Apprentice.”

Another example of Trump’s sick behavior was his social media post of an AI-generated video showing “Trump Gaza,” an imaginary resort that would appear if Trump succeeds in his ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population there. The video featured a huge golden statue of Trump – a graven idol in the Holy Land – and also showed Trump and a man who looked like Musk being showered with cash. It. Was. Insane. It was also a one-day story for most media.

Even less attention was paid to Trump posting on the official White House social media account a picture of him wearing a crown along with the words “Long live the king.” It’s the madness of King Don.

There are plenty of other episodes that raise questions about Trump’s grip on reality. Last month, he claimed Sen. Tommy Tuberville once coached quarterback Patrick Mahomes, prompting Mahomes to deny it and say he was unsure if he’d ever met Tuberville. That’s obviously a minor issue, but it’s a major concern if a person who’s detached from reality has the nuclear codes. Sort of. I guess. Maybe.

Another aspect of Trump’s broken brain is his lack of seriousness. That was demonstrated by his “great television” comment in the Oval Office on Friday and by his obsession with the nickname of Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Razin Caine,” Trump said last week. “I liked him right from the beginning. As soon as I heard his name, I said, ‘That's my guy.’”

Trump was similarly fixated on Defense Secretary James Mattis’ nickname, “Mad Dog.” Trump even claimed falsely that he came up with the nickname. A serious president would be talking about projecting naval power or developing drone capabilities, not nicknames.

I don’t know if Trump is getting worse or not. He’s always been a sick person. Decades ago, he pretended to be a “John Miller” or a “John Barron” in phone calls to reporters to pump himself up. Back in 2019, he used a Sharpie to doctor an official government weather map to show a hurricane threatening Alabama when it wasn’t.

Five months ago, he announced to a rally crowd that dead golfer Arnold Palmer had a large penis. The media didn’t make much of it, and he got elected. If any other politician had done that in any other era, it would have been a career-killer.

Of course, Trump’s supporters don’t care about his mental unfitness. Some even like it because it “owns the libs.” The Constitution’s 25th Amendment provides for the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to seek removal of a president who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” But Trump’s Cabinet members wouldn’t have their jobs if he were of sound mind. They benefit from him being bonkers.

Even if cult members and co-conspirators don’t care, rational Americans should. Including those in the news media. Journalists must put it all together and loudly declare the alarming reality: The president is mentally unfit.

You may ask: What good would that do? Everyone has their minds made up already. Well, the truth is more complicated. A lot of Americans – especially those who didn’t vote last year – still think it’s “just politics” and everything will sort itself out in the end.

The news media have a duty to wake up those people, to tell them what’s happening is not normal.

After all, the president acts like a crazy uncle in the corner talking to the furniture. And he has the nuclear codes. Sort of. I guess. Maybe.

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