This is a concept that has been bouncing around my head for quite a while, and to be honest, I’ve thought about writing about it but I wasn’t sure how exactly to go about it. Here goes.
We have this strange situation, largely driven by media coverage, that the worst and biggest problems are the ones least deserving of attention, especially if they are happening over an extended period of time. Many in the greater mainstream media cover Trump in this way.
Because I am older and stuck in my ways, I still watch network evening news, even though it’s largely just my wife and me complaining about what news is being shared and what is being ignored. We watch ABC News because they often seem to be the best, and also because these days it’s either them or NBC. I ain’t watching CBS News, not after Cancel Culture Grifter Bari Weiss was handed the keys to the Network of Murrow and Cronkite.
On ABC News, their general coverage of Trump’s various messes has been decent, but still concerning. Often, the latest If It Bleeds It Leads story leads the evening, and they seem to love the latest story about a rich white guy killing his wife and being put on trial. One thing that is curiously absent is the very real fact that the president of the United States is openly losing his mind.
It is true that the DC media has taken some notice. This Wall Street Journal article is one example. But the very real fact that the leader of the free world goes on late-night social media posting binges just isn’t getting the coverage it deserves.
Despite the lack of coverage, the general public is picking up on the fact that we have a madman-in-decline running the show.
'Fewer than half US adults believe Trump now has the mental acuity or physical health to be an effective president, according to a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll from last month.'Trump should come clean about his all-too-obvious decline | Margaret Sullivanwww.theguardian.com/commentisfre…
— Jasper Barry (@jasperbarry.bsky.social) 2026-05-30T16:31:37.357Z
Many of the Advanced Politics Knowers for years have used one simple statement to brush off concerns about Trump’s behavior: That’s just Trump being Trump. However, that’s just crazy thinking! “That’s just how he is” has never been a great defense for poor behavior.
Instead of reporting on it, many in the media have treated it as something to ignore and perhaps even normalize. But, come on, if this were a Democratic president, would we really see this? Why is Trump getting a pass? Is it because he’s been doing this for so long that the media just ignores it because it’s been going on so long?
I have another theory, and that is the elite are still not able to fully confront his madness. The elite thinkers were constantly declaring various moments in his first term where Trump didn’t seem completely as “the day Trump became president,” only for Trump to do something stupid or crazy within 24 hours that completely ruined this line of thinking. There was next to no reason for anyone who observed Trump for the decades before this to expect such a thing, but it seemed very difficult for the American establishment to accept the idea that the Glorious Glory of the Glorious American System had enabled a moronic goon to take over.
I would imagine there was also a lot of adherence to the Conventional Wisdom that the progressives and anyone to the left of Chuck Schumer are the real crazy dummies, and besides, have you heard the “ums” in AOC’s one video? Every Trump Truth Social post strikes another blow to this Sacred Dogma, so it’s best to just ignore it.
In any event, his insane missives from the sewers of his mind, which are showing no sign of letting up this weekend, given his crying baby rants about his “State Fair” falling apart because the C-list music acts he tried to recruit are pulling out. He also whined about a court telling him to remove his name off the Kennedy Center, so he blabbered like a wronged adolescent about how the Center totally sucks anyway, so who cares if he is not part of it.
That this is going on, from the President of the United States, should be a much bigger story, but I guess for a lot of our media, the truth is difficult to face.
The last word goes to Dan Smith.
