US psychiatrists have been discouraged from commenting on the mental health of public figures since the so-called Goldwater rule in the 1970s. To the uncredentialed, however, the American president’s hold on reality seems to be erratic. The dwindling universe of respectable Donald Trump apologists attribute his daily flights of fancy to trolling. He is just winding liberals up, they say. That Pavlovian excuse is wearing thin. As Trump readies a US armada for a Middle Eastern war whose aims he cannot articulate, an honest reckoning of geopolitical risks would place his wayward psychology high up.
That Trump often lies is, in itself, not proof of irrationality. That he is encouraged to believe his own lies is more serious. Many of the US president’s foreign counterparts deal with the Trump challenge by trying to stoke his vanity. Nato’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, depicts Trump as a “Daddy” who is doing the manly things necessary to keep the family safe. Assuming Rutte does not believe his flattery, the aim is to boost Trump’s ego so as to steer his actions. The risk is that such honeyed words only push him deeper into fantasyland. When a leader has an outsized estimate of his own powers, truth-tellers are indispensable. Who are Trump’s truth-tellers?
With Trump’s cabinet, that question is rhetorical. His top appointees outdo each other in praise for their leader. Trump is the greatest president in US history (Pam Bondi, attorney-general); he has created an American golden age (Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary); he has pulled off the most powerful military raid “I would say in world history” (Pete Hegseth, defence secretary, after the Venezuela operation); and so on. These are one notch below saying that Trump can turn back the waves. A good public servant is supposed to give the commander-in-chief a realistic appraisal of his options. Can America be confident of Hegseth’s advice to Trump on Iran?