A psychologist and author shared a sobering warning about President Donald Trump on Sunday, noting that the president’s symptoms appear to be as bad as ever.
Dr. John Gartner, a former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, argued on a new episode of “The Daily Beast Podcast” with host Joanna Coles that Trump appears to be grooming the American public to accept the prospect of what could be his most destructive act yet. That is happening at a time when Trump’s symptoms have become so “extreme,” according to Gartner, that the president appears to be the sickest individual that Gartner has ever witnessed.
“In 40 years of clinical practice and almost 30 years of teaching psychiatric residents, I’ve never encountered a patient as sick as Donald Trump,” Gartner said. “He’s so many standard deviations away from what we would normally consider normal, and that it’s coming to a head now is in his fantasies of being this military conqueror.”
Observers have drawn comparisons between Trump and other military conquerors such as Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar throughout Trump’s second term. For instance, Trump wrote on social media in 2025 that “he who saves his country does not violate any law,” an apparent reference to Napoleon. He has also drawn comparisons to Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar in his pursuit of unchecked power
Gartner warned that these actions show Trump is “grooming” the American public for a new kind of military skirmish, one that involves nuclear weapons.
“What I believe, [is that] he is setting us up. He is grooming us for nuclear war,” Gartner said. “He wants to be the person who pushes the button first, because that would put him in history as the most powerfully destructive military leader in human history. And that is what he gets off on because of his sadism.”
Gartner has never medically examined Trump, but has frequently said that the president exhibits signs of dementia. The disinhibition that comes along with dementia also seems to be making Trump’s other mental illnesses worse, like his malignant narcissism and sadism, Gartner has argued.
“He actually gets incredible gratification from destroying things and hurting people and feeling powerful through that,” Gartner said. “As he’s starting to have more and more problems at home, his poll numbers are in the toilet. The economy is in the toilet. He might lose both houses of Congress. If he does, what’s the one power he has that no one can assail? Even if we have both houses of Congress, he will still be the commander in chief, and he’s going to want to exercise that power in a way that makes him feel powerful.”
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