{"id":196017,"date":"2026-04-13T21:46:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196017\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T21:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:46:31","slug":"new-york-times-finally-reports-on-concerns-that-trump-is-clearly-insane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/196017\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times finally reports on concerns that Trump is \u2018clearly insane\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three cheers for Peter Baker and the New York Times for finally writing and publishing the article a lot of us have<\/a> been<\/a> calling<\/a> for<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe two cheers. I\u2019ll explain in a bit.<\/p>\n

But first, let\u2019s take a few moments to appreciate the article headlined \u201cTrump\u2019s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate<\/a>\u201d (gift link).<\/p>\n

Its subhead reads: \u201cAs the president threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as \u2018lunatic\u2019 and \u2018clearly insane.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the article, Baker concludes that Trump\u2019s various statements over the past week \u201chave left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power.\u201d<\/p>\n

He writes that \u201cthe president\u2019s eruptions have raised questions about America\u2019s leadership in a time of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

He writes that \u201cnever in modern times has the stability of a president been so publicly and forensically debated \u2014 and with such profound consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

He notes that the concerns about Trump\u2019s mental health are coming not just from \u201cpartisans on the left, late-night comics or mental health professionals\u201d but from \u201cretired generals, diplomats and\u00a0foreign officials,\u201d as well as former staffers and far-right former allies.<\/p>\n

He quotes a wide range of people calling him \u201cclearly insane,<\/a>\u201d \u201can extremely sick person,\u201d<\/a> \u201cunhinged,\u201d \u201cout of control,\u201d<\/a> \u201cbatshit crazy,\u201d<\/a> and \u201ca genocidal lunatic.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Given the extraordinary influence of the New York Times, this article may have been just what the industry was waiting for, opening the floodgates of honest \u2013 and troubling \u2013 reportage about a topic they have spent over a decade sanewashing<\/a> and covering up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or Maybe Not <\/p>\n

Then again, it may amount to little or nothing.<\/p>\n

Case in point: Peter Baker and the New York Times wrote and published a not entirely dissimilar article in October 2024, headlined: \u201cTrump\u2019s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age<\/a>\u201d (gift link). \u00a0In it, Baker wrote that Trump \u201chas seemed confused, forgetful, incoherent or disconnected from reality lately.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t actually use the words \u201cdementia\u201d \u2013 or \u201cinsane\u201d or \u201cbatshit crazy\u201d \u2013 but boy did I get ahead of my skis on that one. \u201cNew York Times opens the media floodgates on stories about Trump\u2019s mental unfitness<\/a>,\u201d I wrote.<\/p>\n

Wrong!<\/p>\n

Instead, it became what newsrooms call a one-and-done. There was no follow-up. Incremental stories made no reference to its conclusions. Within a few days, both inside the New York Times newsroom and out, it was like it had never run.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s my No. 1 concern with this latest article: that it will be quickly forgotten; confined to the ash heap of Washington political journalism.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Peter Baker and the New York Times \u2014 and every other major news organization \u2014 should follow it up with aggressive reporting about what this means to the nation and the world.<\/p>\n

What now? What next?<\/p>\n

As I wrote last week<\/a>, once a news organization acknowledges that the president is \u2013 or even may be \u2013 insane, they are also acknowledging that this is an extremely dangerous situation. That obliges them to start aggressively and constantly reporting on what can be done about it \u2013 even if there appears to be no political will to do so at the moment. It\u2019s an imperative.<\/p>\n

What we also need \u2013 as I begged for shortly before the election, when it really could have done some good \u2013 is a \u201cCronkite moment<\/a>,\u201d where trusted voices in news turn to the camera, or the internet, and declare that Trump is self-evidently unfit for office.<\/p>\n

And in the meantime, every incremental news story about something Trump does or says that is abnormal \u2013 which is almost everything he does or says \u2013 ought to be accompanied by a statement about his mental instability.<\/p>\n

Because that is really what explains Trump. Most immediately, it explains why we\u2019re at war, and why he makes it worse and worse all the time.<\/p>\n

Why are we at war? Who the hell knows?<\/a> He doesn\u2019t think like a normal person.<\/p>\n

Other Things Wrong With the Article<\/p>\n

If I had been Baker\u2019s editor, I would have sent this draft back for revisions, and the article would have had a different headline.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s behavior doesn\u2019t \u201craise\u201d or \u201cturbocharge\u201d a \u201cdebate\u201d. It sounds an alarm. It is a huge and troubling issue.<\/p>\n

I would have asked him not equate the \u201ccrazy-like-a-fox\u201d view with the \u201cjust-plain-crazy\u201d view. Yes, Trump\u2019s defenders make the \u201ccrazy-like-a-fox\u201d argument, but they don\u2019t have the evidence to back it up.<\/p>\n

I would have told him to make it clearer that Trump\u2019s recent appalling behavior \u2013 vowing to destroy a civilization, posting a meme of himself as Jesus \u2013 is extreme, but not out of character.<\/p>\n

I would have suggested he move up the part about Trump posting a meme of himself as\u00a0 Jesus \u2014 performing a miracle, no less! \u2014 and note that it was widely seen as blasphemous as well as demented.<\/p>\n

I would have had him point out that enthusiastically endorsing war crimes is \u2013 in and of itself \u2014 a clear sign of moral derangement.<\/p>\n

I would have recommended he add a paragraph or two about how consistently Trump projects his character defects onto his political enemies.<\/p>\n

I would have asked him to interview some mental health professionals, to better describe Trump\u2019s condition and address what would normally be done about someone with his diagnosis.<\/p>\n

I might even have suggested that in the paragraph about how \u201cTrump\u2019s stability has been a recurring issue since he first sought the presidency in 2016,\u201d he acknowledge that mainstream reporters have historically not been comfortable writing about it.<\/p>\n

And then, yeah, I would have told him: You are not done with this story. This is one of the biggest political stories of all time. It\u2019s your beat now. Own it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three cheers for Peter Baker and the New York Times for finally writing and publishing the article a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-196017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}