FLASH
Shkruar nga Goffredo Buccini
Arthur Schlesinger Jr. coined the phrase "imperial presidency" in the 1970s, referring to the expansion of executive power that began during the presidency of Richard Nixon, a mechanism that in the MAGA era, according to the author, has taken on even greater proportions...
Who the hell had moved the furniture in his room? Why did the hotel waiters and doormen act as if they didn't speak English? In the spring of 1919, at the Hotel du Prince Murat on Rue de Monceau in Paris, something crucial happened in the mind of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States: the effects of the Spanish flu disrupted his mental balance, dooming him to hallucinations.
The idea that he was surrounded by French spies seriously affected the negotiations for the Versailles Peace Treaty. Later, a stroke, kept secret from Congress and the American public by his wife Edith and personal physician Grayson, left Washington for about a year under what was called a "government of ends." This had serious consequences, including the US's non-membership in the newly formed League of Nations.
A similar trajectory of concealment is reminiscent, more recently, of the efforts to cover up Joe Biden’s mental decline, carried out for at least a year and a half by his wife Jill, son Hunter and, of course, his personal physician Kevin O’Connor. While Biden stumbled and stammered, confused Zelensky with Putin, Mitterrand with Macron, claimed to have spoken in 2021 with Helmut Kohl (who had died four years earlier) and to have discussed Gaza with “the president of Mexico, Al-Sisi” (who is the president of Egypt), his physician continued to certify, until February 2024, that he was fully capable “of fulfilling his duties.” If the 47th president of the United States is now Donald Trump, a significant part of the historical responsibility, according to the author, falls on O’Connor.
-In the past
So how important is the mental balance of the POTUS (President of the United States)? Much, much more than that of any prime minister or head of state in our country. His health is a matter of public concern and affects everyone. The president is, in effect, a kind of emperor pro tempore. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. coined the phrase "imperial presidency" in the 1970s, referring to the expansion of executive power that began during the presidency of Richard Nixon, a mechanism that in the MAGA era, according to the author, has taken on even greater proportions.
It is therefore entirely logical that the shadow of Caligula or Heliogabalus, that is, the ghost of an unstable, despotic, melancholic, cruel or eccentric emperor, haunts the corridors of the White House from time to time. Even as a potential danger, not necessarily present. The examination of the psychological state of the president may also include those who intend to take this position.
Barry Goldwater learned this the hard way when Fact magazine sent a questionnaire to American psychiatrists in 1964. A full 1,189 of the 12,356 contacted said the right-wing candidate against Lyndon Johnson was "unstable," "immature," "cowardly," "psychotic," "mass murderer," "immoral," and even somewhat of a Nazi, as rumors circulated that he had visited Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat. The problem was that none of them had ever examined Goldwater.
The diagnoses were based solely on his public speeches; they were essentially political judgments. Goldwater won the libel case, but lost the presidential election. After that, the American Psychiatric Association adopted the so-called "Goldwater Rule," still in force, which prohibits public diagnoses of political figures who have not been personally examined. A rule that, according to the author, has produced its full effects, protecting Biden yesterday and Trump today, although the latter's behavior has long been the subject of public debate.
The dark shadow of mental illness has not spared even the greatest figures in modern history. Nixon himself admitted that he was "paranoid." He compiled enemy lists of journalists and television hosts and, even before the Watergate scandal, ordered the tapping of aides' phones to uncover the source of leaks about the Cambodia bombings. Was he also an abusive husband? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed that he learned that Nixon's wife, Pat, had ended up in the emergency room after a physical assault in August 1974 and admitted that he had not made the news public. There has never been confirmation, and the family has repeatedly denied it.
On the other hand, Ronald Reagan listened intently to Nancy Reagan's every word. Sometimes too much. In 1984, when asked about gun control, he stammered until Nancy interjected: "We're doing the best we can," a phrase the president repeated word for word. That same fall, a televised debate with Walter Mondale was a tough test. Reagan got through it with the joke that became legendary: "I'm not going to make age an issue in this campaign. I'm not going to take political advantage of my opponent's youth and inexperience." Alzheimer's, which was probably already showing its first signs, was not diagnosed until many years later.
President-Joker
Of course, this long American history serves almost as a prelude to the chaotic present, where the President-Joker, the unpredictable destroyer of alliances, balances and political ethics, has already raised major questions about his mental state. The debate has been present on the Internet since his first term. Commentators and comedians on Saturday Night Live have consulted extensively the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", concluding that Trump suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. One could argue that it was not even necessary to open the manual.
However, Allen Frances, professor emeritus at Duke University, appealed to his 50,000 colleagues who signed a petition early in the Trump administration to override the Goldwater Rule, citing the “higher national interest” and the 25th Amendment, Section 4, which allows for the removal of a president who is unfit to serve. “Being a first-class narcissist does not mean that Trump is mentally ill. Trump is a threat to the United States and the world not because he is clinically insane, but because he is truly terrible,” Frances writes in his book Trump’s America Under the Examination of a Psychiatrist. According to him, Trump is a political problem, not a subject of psychoanalysis. Nevertheless, it remains a serious problem.
-Worrying signs
In 2017, Gary Cohn and Rob Porter, two of his closest aides, competed with each other to remove from the table the executive orders they considered the most dangerous. Trump, fickle as ever, would forget about them within minutes. At the end of the day, Gary Cohn would say: “It’s not what we did for the country; it’s what we stopped Trump from doing.” Then the years pass, the man gets older, and things can get worse. In the second term, he chooses only completely loyal people, unopposed and unhindered.
The question, more than ever, remains relevant today, as social media is flooded overnight with meaningless memes shared on Truth Social by an elderly, sleep-deprived and angry president, with sudden shifts in attitude, insults, ideas of persecution, tariffs and revenge. Mary Trump, the president's niece, claims that her uncle is amoral and mentally compromised. But it could also simply be a matter of family discontent.
However, the author notes that one moment that caused concern was the letter Trump sent to the Norwegian prime minister in January, in which he wrote: "Since your country has decided not to award me the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping eight more wars, I no longer feel compelled to think exclusively about peace."/ Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "Corriere della Sera"
Nuk e kam ditur kurre qe populli Amerikan eshte kaq naiv.