We are in a catastrophic mess, and Donald Trump is at the center of it. What I’ve been observing — and what a disturbing report from Richard Engel at NBC News now appears to validate — is that the President of the United States is no longer capable of making a functional decision, let alone sustaining one once it’s been made.
Here’s what Engel reported: a senior negotiator directly involved in mediating talks between the U.S. and Iran expressed deep frustration after Trump had a copy of the latest negotiation proposal in his hands — a proposal that may have been close to forming the basis of a deal — and instead ordered last night’s strikes on Iran. The negotiator’s words were blunt: Trump “has the deal in his hands now.” And he attacked anyway.
This isn’t just recklessness or even just MAGA level stupidity. This is the behavior of a man who is cognitively and psychologically incapable of following through on a coherent strategy. Mental health professionals and psychiatrists in independent media have increasingly pointed toward prefrontal dementia as a likely explanation for what we’re watching. Combined with what appears to be malignant narcissism — and an obsessive, pathological need to win — Trump has reached a point where he can’t recognize an agreement even when it’s sitting right in front of him. So he keeps escalating. He keeps undermining deals and ordering strikes because his damaged mind can no longer distinguish between winning and losing.
The consequences of this are not abstract. People are dying. Our soldiers are being put in harm’s way based on impulsive, contradictory orders from a non-functioning commander-in-chief. This war could end in an hour, or it could drag on for years — and right now, that outcome depends almost entirely on the deteriorating mental state of one sociopath.
