updated 3-31-26
• Trump’s Bizarre Behavior Has a Clinical Name: Disinhibition (Colby Hall, Yahoo News, 1-20-26)
In the wee hours, Trump posted private messages from confused European leaders, publicly criticized the United Kingdom’s national security posture, and shared a fabricated image depicting the United States in control of Greenland, Canada, Venezuela, and Cuba. This was the sitting president of the United States conducting foreign policy online, overnight, as allies scrambled to contain diplomatic fallout from his threats to “take” Greenland.
• Donald Trump's 'dark reason' for unhinged behaviour as chilling warning issued (Julia Banim and Niamh Kirk, Mirror UK, 1-24-26)
POTUS's mental capacity was questioned yet again earlier this week following an extremely awkward speech at the Board of Peace Forum in Davos after he mixed up the countries of Iceland and Greenland, the very country he has so openly expressed wanting "right title and ownership" over. Said the Mirror's US Editor, Christopher Bucktin, "He presents it as if it were an underperforming golf resort he might snap up at auction, a frozen land waiting for the Trump logo."
• Trump’s growing volatility is putting the world on edge (Stephen Collinson, CNN, 2-29-26)
Trump’s fixation with his legacy and his manic efforts to plaster his name everywhere took another twist last week, when it was reported he wanted Dulles International Airport and New York City’s Penn Station renamed after him. The impression of a president concentrating on his own, often erratic goals while being indifferent to the plight of ordinary voters is growing. Trump recently took fresh aim at elections, with America’s top intelligence official Tulsi Gabbard traveling to Georgia to search for evidence to prove his false obsession about fraud in 2020. He raised new concerns last week that he’ll try to fix November’s midterms by demanding the nationalization of voting.
• Reaction to Trump’s Racist Post Shows He Is Not Always Immune to Politics (New York Times, 2-7-26)
Every once in a while, Mr. Trump runs smack into whatever boundary remains and is forced to pull back, offering a glimpse into the country’s tolerance for his behavior. The chaotic White House response to a racist video clip of the Obamas that Mr. Trump posted online was one moment where the administration realized that its usual reactions to criticism — laugh it off, double down, move on — would not work. And while Mr. Trump does not, as a rule, acknowledge wrongdoing — and did not in this case, either — he deleted the clip in the face of widespread outrage in what amounted to a remarkable climbdown.
• Trump’s second term has been rife with bizarre moments – here are seven
(The Guardian, 1-23-26)
From derailing meetings by telling fictional stories about serial killers to Davos, the president has left people confused and concerned.
• ‘The president is unhinged’: Trump’s online behavior grows increasingly odd (Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian, 10-5-25)
The US president’s recent behavior is strange to many, from reposting a false AI video of himself to confusing comments during press conferences It wasn’t the only situation where Trump’s behavior has seemed unusual. Last weekend Trump reposted to Truth Social an AI-generated fake video which promoted “med bed hospitals”. Trump has reposted AI content before, but the difference was that this video showed an AI version of himself speaking.
“Every American will soon receive their own med bed card,” the AI rendering of Trump, apparently seated in the Oval Office, said. “With it, you’ll have guaranteed access to our new hospitals led by the top doctors in the nation, equipped with the most advanced technology in the world.”
Setting aside the fact that the idea of “med beds” is a rightwing conspiracy theory – one version of the theory posits that the government and/or a group of wealthy Americans have access to medical bed-like devices that can cure almost every illness, but are withholding the technology – Trump’s post prompted a number of questions.
Did Trump, 79, believe that the video really showed him announcing med bed hospitals? Does the president think he gave a speech about med beds at the White House? Does he believe that his government is about to send "med bed cards" to every US citizen?
The post was ultimately deleted, but it remains baffling, and the White House's response did little to allay the confusion.
• Hundreds of Thousands of Anonymous Deportees
(Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic, 11-9-25)
Amid the president’s fast-moving deportation campaign, the stories of most people being swept up are missed.
• They Came to the U.S. Legally. Then Trump Stripped Their Status Away.
(video, 41 min., Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, ProPublica,12-10-25)
“Status: Venezuelan,” a new documentary from ProPublica filmmaker Mauricio Rodríguez Pons, follows a family trying to hold on to their legal status as the second Trump administration targets Venezuelans amid an immigration crackdown.
Early signs of trouble, and yet he was re-elected:
• Unthinkable: 50 Moments That Define an Improbable Presidency (Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief, The Atlantic)
• The Deplorable Trump List (American Federation of Teachers, 2016)
• President Trump’s worst offenses (Citizens for Ethics, 10-19-2020) Some of the most consequential categories and instances of corruption we have seen from this president and his administration during his first term.
• Chronicling Trump’s 10 worst abuses of power (CNN, 1-24-21)