Corporate media must stop gaslighting us about Trump’s dementia
This is Sanewashing
I’ve been raising red flags about Donald Trump’s obvious signs of dementia since my April article after I interviewed Dr. John Gartner--a prominent psychologist and the founder of “Duty to Warn.” At the time, Gartner explained that since Trump left office there has been an obvious acceleration in Trump’s cognitive deterioration. One example cited by Gartner was that Trump “now he can't get through a rally without committing one of these” tell-tale signs of dementia, such as saying the incorrect word or “combining or mixing up people and generations.”
But the corporate media ignored Gartner and the 500 licensed mental health professions—including well-respected psychologists—who signed a petition ringing alarm bells that Trump has clear signs of dementia.
In early August, I again wrote about the need for corporate media to cover Trump’s possible dementia after the medical publication “Stat” published an interview with a group of experts in memory, psychology and linguistics who detailed Trump’s cognitive decline. These experts compared Trump’s speeches and public comments over the years since 2020 and found that Trump is increasingly “disjointed” and even “incoherent.”
One of these experts, Ben Michaelis, a clinical psychologist, noted that there is now “a certain picture of cognitive diminishment.” More alarmingly he added, “There’s reasonable evidence suggestive of forms of dementia.” This new report alone should have compelled corporate media to interview these experts so that voters can have a full picture of Trump’s cognitive decline before casting a ballot.
That didn’t happen. Instead, what corporate media--with only a few exceptions--have been engaged in is gaslighting us on Trump’s apparent cognitive decline. Some now call this “sanewashing”— which is the concept that a person (or media outlet in this case) is intentionally misleading us about a person’s sanity. But whatever word you choose, the result is the same: The corporate media refuses to cover this issue with the urgency it demands.
This brings us to Trump’s speech on Thursday before the Economic Club of New York. When Trump was reading from the teleprompter, his energy was unusually low but his comments made sense because he was simply delivering the words written for him. But as Dr. Gartner noted back in April, as soon as Trump deviates from the teleprompter, we see an unmistakable signs of increasing cognitive decline.
One example that has grabbed attention was Trump’s long winded, rambling comment he made in response to a simple question about reducing costs for childcare. Trump began his answer saying, “Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down — you know, I was, somebody — we had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue.” From there, his answer went to places that literally made no sense—such as talking “taxing foreign nations” to “having no deficits within a fairly short period of time.” And periodically he would just insert the word “childcare” when he recalled what the topic was.
Other answers at the event to simple questions also showed the same inability to make sense when not reading from the teleprompter such as on question of deficits where Trump’s mind just jumps from lies to soundbites back to lies. In fact the night before that speech, Trump appeared on Sean Hannity’s show where he peddled a tsunami of lies that were actually more symptoms of Trump being detached from reality.
What was the corporate media coverage of Trump’s economic speech on Thursday? Were they raising alarm bells about Trump’s mental acuity? Nope. Almost all focused on Trump reading from the teleprompter that he would appoint Elon Musk to help streamline government waste. Here are a sample of the headlines:
NBC News: “Trump plugs Elon Musk-backed plan on government spending in speech”
CBS News: “Trump says he'd put Elon Musk at helm of proposed agency "if he has the time"
Washington Post: “Trump backs plan that would give Musk broad role in U.S. policymaking”
Politico: “Trump’s Wall Street pitch: Punishing tariffs, low taxes, ‘explosive’ growth”
NY Times: “Trump Calls for Efficiency Commission Pitched by Elon Musk”
The NY Times is especially aggravating given they spent so much time covering President Biden and questions about his mental capacity beginning back in February with articles titled, “Eight Words and a Verbal Slip Put Biden’s Age Back at the Center of 2024.” And the NY Times was the principal publication that pressured Biden to drop out after the June presidential debate with editorials titled, “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race.”
At least MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Wednesday night--after playing the clip of Trump discussing childcare costs—did state this a man suffering from “pretty obvious mental decline.”
However, others described what Trump said as a “word salad.” That phrase is an example of gaslighting. Instead of addressing the real issue, many corporate media figures simply dismiss the answer as a one off or almost a comical mistake. It’s not with Trump. Again I encourage you to read the history laid out of Trump’s classic signs of dementia flagged by healthcare professionals in my past articles from April and August.
Yet still corporate media outlets refuse to do a deep dive with the mental health professionals who are screaming that Trump’s mental slide is alarming. They should at the very least invite Dr. Gartner or the experts who were interviewed in the article on Trump’s mental decline that appeared in the medical publication, Stat.
Is this simply another case of corporate media executives protecting Trump because he’s good for the bottom line? Do they fear that by raising this issue they will tip the election decidedly to VP Harris meaning the end of the horserace they need to keep people engaged? Are they just pro-Trump executives using their media platforms to protect him?
Unclear. But what is undisputed is that Trump is running for President and if he wins would be commander in chief with absolute immunity. If Trump is truly suffering from dementia or is cognitively impaired, Americans should know about that now before they cast a ballot. However, the corporate media gatekeepers refuse to give voters that information.
Is anyone else worried about the plan for Trump’s « handlers »? Elon is not stupid, nor is Vance or his puppet-master Thiel. Don’t tell me they don’t know what’s going on. I’m sure behind closed doors some of these elites are planning how they’re going to run the country with Trump as nothing more than the front man for the MAGA masses. For me Trump is less worrisome than the shadowy people working behind him in plain sight.
Heather Cox Richardson’s September 5th Letters From an American included Trump’s full response to the child care question. Incoherent gibberish from someone with serious mental decline if not actual dementia.
“Well I would do that. And we’re sitting down. You know I was somebody. We had Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that because—look, child care is child care. It’s—couldn’t, you know, it’s something you have to have it—in this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to—but they’ll get used to it very quickly—and it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have—I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people, but we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about Make America Great Again, we have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation, so we’ll take care of it.”