The Press Is Asking Trump the Wrong Questions

As Donald Trump gives increasingly petulant interviews about Canada,  Greenland, and the Panama Canal, a chilling fact is becoming clear: The press itself is helping to nudge his ridiculous, unconstitutional plans toward plausibility simply by taking them at all seriously. That is a mistake on every level.

The president does not have a valid point of view. There are no “both sides” to be considered. Canada is a sovereign nation and an ally. To even think about annexing an unwilling ally is more than Trump’s usual level of sociopathy. It is divorced from all decency and reality. There is no other reasonable position to take.

Trump’s claim that he could take over an entire nation and demote it to a state is not braggadocio or even the ambition of a despot. It is a worrying sign of cognitive impairment and should be treated as such.

The question the press should be asking Trump is not “Why do you want to do this?” or “How would that even work?”

The questions the press, Democrats, and any remaining sane Republicans should be asking, frequently, directly, and to his face, are: “Are you having difficulty understanding the basics of international law?” “Are you having trouble retaining those concepts?” “Are you having cognitive difficulties?”

If Trump is seriously considering this, there is something wrong with him. And the press needs to say it out loud, every time. They also need to be asking it of his staffers and cabinet members.

“President Trump seems to be having trouble keeping our diplomatic relationships with other countries straight. Is he still fit for office?”

“During his first term, the President had at least a basic understanding of the roles of Congress and the Judiciary. He seems to be having repeated problems with that now. Has he had a cognitive checkup recently?”

“The President seems to be having trouble with distorted thinking and extreme mood swings. Has any doctor run a check for adverse side effects from multiple medications?”

And when JD Freaking Vance tries to move that ridiculous ball a little way down the field by claiming that Denmark is not a good ally, he needs to be called out immediately. “The President is fixated on a course of action that is clearly outside his powers. Are you doing him and the nation a disservice by encouraging it? Would you consider it a dereliction of your duties to continue to support the whims of a president who was no longer fit for office?”

The more one hears Trump speak without a script, the clearer it is that he is in some sort of decline. His speech is increasingly slurred. He can’t stick with a thought long enough to turn it into complete sentences. He has wild emotional swings. He doesn’t remember signing a recent, controversial executive order. And, it cannot be emphasized enough, his toddler demands are bolstered by an apparent inability to understand the basics of how his job and our government are supposed to work. That is a problem.

The press has questioned the cognitive fitness of a sitting president before. You may recall that it happened quite recently. If we can ask pointed questions about a president for speaking too quietly during a debate, we can ask them about a president who is screaming about forcibly annexing one of our closest allies.

Trump’s talk about taking over Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal is not a policy proposal. It is a clear indication that there is something demonstrably, terribly wrong. It’s time to address it directly.

Public domain photo via Wikimedia Commons.