Pundits on both sides are having a field day with the release of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury.  Many, including MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, claim it adds to what he and others had been hearing from Trump’s inner circle and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump allies have attacked the book as “fiction” or “garbage,” but most have not challenged specific excerpts.  (Perhaps they believe Wolff  actually does have them on tape whether he does or not.)

No one has enjoyed Wolff’s throwing gasoline on an already dysfunctional West Wing more than I have, but there is one thing I wish was not part of the conversation, attempts to assess Donald Trump’s mental stability.  Last night, there finally emerged a voice of reason.  Dr. Allen Francis, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical College appeared on The Beat with Ari Melber (MSNBC) and urged viewers not to confuse loutish behavior and unenlightened tweets with mental illness.

This was not the first time Dr. Francis raised this point.  In a February 14, 2017 letter to the editor of the New York Times, Francis wrote:

Bad behavior is rarely a sign of mental illness, and the mentally ill behave badly only rarely. Psychiatric name-calling is a misguided way of countering Mr. Trump’s attack on democracy. He can, and should, be appropriately denounced for his ignorance, incompetence, impulsivity and pursuit of dictatorial powers.

In other words, not only is labeling Trump “mentally unstable” inaccurate, it masks the fact that the conman-in-chief is a despicable human being by choice, not due to any biological dysfunction.  He is not losing it.  He is the same Trump he has always been.

So let’s get off the mental instability bandwagon and focus on the damage he is doing to the the nation, the Constitution, the institutions which are the foundation of a democratic society and the rule of law.

POSTSCRIPT: NOW A WARNING?

Some of you may recognize the title of this postscript as a quote by Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) from the film Death Becomes Her.  Last night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Michael Wolff related a conversation he had with his publisher about the size of the first-run of Fire and Fury.  Wolff thought the book was “old news” and would have limited readership.  In his mind, the only contribution he made was to pull together in one place a more detailed and sourced chronicle of what has dribbled out from major news outlets over the past year.  And what every member of the White House press corps already knew was worse than the tidbits which had made the papers and cable news.

If this is true, then Wolff’s book is as much an indictment of the press as it is of the Trump administration.  If, in fact, White House correspondents were aware members of Trump’s own inner circle believed he was unfit for the job of president of the United States, why did they wait for Wolff to fire the first volley and then take the heat?  In the Colbert interview, Wolff responded, “I’m the only person who was willing to say this because I’m the only one who doesn’t have to go back.”  In contrast, members of the White House press corps feared losing future access to Trump and senior administration officials.

Let me get this straight.  You know the center of national power is dysfunctional and you’re more worried about your job than the national interest.  The fourth estate may not be, as Trump calls it, “the enemy of the people,” but failing to pursue stories which are in the national interest doesn’t make it our ally either.  Again, I ask, where are the next Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee, who will risk not just their jobs but everything to ensure the people stay informed?

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP