Donald Trump Is Not Well

The president has always been unhinged. But lately he seems legitimately demented -- and wants to invade Greenland in a manic fit.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

I suspect when future generations read about this era of US history (to the extent that “reading,” “the US,” and “history” are still things that exist), they will peruse as one of their primary documents the letter that President Donald Trump sent to the Prime Minister of Norway, laying out his justification for his desired invasion of Greenland. They will wonder: How was it possible that American citizens could read this letter and not become very concerned for the psychological fitness of their leader? How was it possible that such an obviously unwell man still enjoyed the backing of his party and a significant minority of the public? How did members of Congress, empowered as they are to force the removal of a president who descends into lunacy, not intervene?

Here is what the letter says:

“Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”

Trump has long struggled with the basics of writing: grammar, capitalization, syntax. A saner nation would have seen this as indicative of something disqualifying for a president: cognitive deficits, perhaps, or simple laziness. He has also consistently failed to tell the truth, and it has long been unclear when he is intentionally lying — as sometimes he surely is — or when he actually seems to believe his own bullshit, or fails to grasp fact and reality. These are, again, deficits that should have disqualified him from the highest office in the land. But Americans are a credulous people famously vulnerable to grifters and scammers and fraudsters. We give ourselves lead poisoning because TikTok meatheads say it’s healthy and natural to drink chemical-laden protein shakes (they taste like chocolate!); we applaud “entrepreneurship” in pyramid schemers, MLM founders, and the stay-at-home girlbosses they profit off of; and we tithe to mansion-dwelling preachers and prosperity gospel televangelists. And so of course we elected to our highest office a reality TV star whose scumminess is apparent to anyone with even one of five senses functioning but who read, to millions of Americans, as just their kind of guy. Of course here we are.

Trump has been unhealthily fixated on the Nobel Peace Prize for years now, belying a deep insecurity and a total lack of inhibition when it comes to revealing it. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace” is simply not a line that a functional person writes down, let alone sends out.

He seems convinced that the Norwegian PM, or perhaps the nation of Denmark, has power over the prize — patently false, but also revealing of a strongman’s worldview, and his own belief that if a person is “in charge,” then that person has or should have total power over everything in his jurisdiction without checks or balances.

He also seems wholly unacquainted with concepts like sovereignty and territory. It’s no surprise that this president does not recognize international law. But he really does seem to think that might makes right — that if the US has the power to take something, then that thing is rightfully ours. This is the kind of antisocial, base world view that preschool teachers work diligently to counter: It’s nice to share with others and they should share back with us; no, William’s toy truck is not yours to take home simply because you are bigger.

The president of the United States is saying that we should be able to take over Greenland because “a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.” But we had boats landing there, also. This is not an absurdist comedy; this is the man with the nuclear codes.

NATO is the most important security alliance that the United States is a part of. It is far from perfect, but it ranks toward the top of the most successful postwar agreements, and it has been an incredibly powerful force for peace, security, stability, and prosperity in America and around the world. Trump’s Greenland ambitions would destroy it. And for what? Revenge for not getting a gold medal he desperately wants? Because we had boats landing there, also?

This is not the behavior of a person who remains tethered to reality.

Donald Trump was an America First isolationist, until he wasn’t. He enjoys spectacle and attention and above all power, and seems to have really enjoyed the spectacle and attention and power that his Venezuela invasion gave him. Threatening to invade Greenland is getting him attention, and is no doubt making him feel powerful by stoking fear among America’s allies and loyal citizens. These threats are upsetting liberals and Europeans, which pleases the many members of Trump’s inner circle whose entire politics boil down to “trigger the libs and Europeans.”

But there does not seem to be any plan or larger strategy at hand. He is threatening to mire US troops in a foreign conflict, blow up America’s most important alliances, and jeopardize the American economy because he never learned how to manage his emotions and now, at nearly 80, his already-low capacity for inhibition has been smoothed down to virtual nonexistence.

This is honestly a difficult thing to understand, because most adults simply do not think or behave like this. We think before we speak. We feel shame and embarrassment when we behave poorly . We understand that sometimes we want things we cannot have. We grasp that generally-applicable rules might sometimes be annoying, but they protect us, too. We realize that reality may not always comport with our beliefs and biases, and we understand that our beliefs and biases mean that sometimes we get stuff wrong — and correcting course is the only upstanding and decent thing to do.

Donald Trump seems to comprehend none of this. And this latest letter demonstrates a divorce from reality — from basic cognition — that should put us squarely in 25th Amendment territory. The evidence at hand points to the conclusion that this man is not well. Republicans may like some of Trump’s policies and politics, and they certainly like his ability to annoy his political opponents, and they love the support of his followers, but there are obligations bigger than winning an election. Everyone around Trump — everyone watching Trump from any corner of the planet — can see that he is descending deeper and deeper into lunacy. Those who are close to him all seem to be angling for a position of more advantageous exploitation — how they can get the thing they want, how they can manipulate him into elevating their importance — because they see a mentally ailing man in a manic fit and they know that someone else’s time is coming. They are the equivalent of the home health aide who gets the dementia patient to sign over her assets and power of attorney, except there are dozens of them handing the patient papers and a pen, the stakes aren’t a life savings but America’s future and the Western world order.

We do not need every Republican to do the right thing here (that’s not going to happen). But we need a few. I have no doubt that many congressional Republicans understand the seriousness of this moment, and can see the extent of the president’s decline. We desperately need them to act on it.

xx Jill