Doctor Alarmed by Trump’s Dangerous Health Crisis | The Daily Beast Podcast

I've never encountered a patient as sick as Donald Trump. This really is a perfect storm. We have someone who has. the most dangerous personality disorder a human being can have. And not only dementia, but the worst form of dementia. front or temporal dementia, whose main symptom. is behavioral disinhibition and loss of judgment and empathy. The world can have to a raging, sadistic Ed with no frontal lobes. This is insane. This is not just a garden variety mental illness. This is the sickest individual Iver ver encountered in my career.

and sickest and worked way. I'm Joanna Coles, this is the Daily Beast podcast. Regular observers will notice I'm. not in one of my usual offices and not in my cubby at home. I'm not in the Daily Beast studio. I was running a bit late. from a meeting this morning, and so I've sneaked into a little office. But I hope that you're okay with the background, because we are going to talk about the president's state of mind.

We're going to talk about his state of mind on his 80th birthday. And what are the normal signs of decline once you're hitting 80? You're in your ninth decade. What can we expect? And we're in for a very interesting and somewhat frankly. alarming conversation with who else but. our favorite doctor, Doctor John Gardner. He's a clinical psychologist, a former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins. And he's been studying Donald Trump, who, of course, has been in plain sight.

across all our media for the last 40 years, which is why he's such a good person to study. from the purposes of Doctor John Gartner's point of view. And he brings a singular perspective. Before we get into it, I'm just going to ask you. to subscribe to The Daily Beast if you haven't. We are independent media. We can only bring you conversations like this because of your support. But now let's get into it.

Doctor John Gartner is here. to celebrate the president's 80th birthday. 80th birthday. So, John, you have spent your life studying people as they age. What are the usual signs of. And I hate to use it, but but we all know as we get older, we begin to decline. What are the usual the standard signs of decline. for a man entering his ninth decade?

Well, I think it's very, very important because people talk about this. all the time, about the age of the president. But to separate normal aging. from the signs of dementia, they're not the same. I know lots of people in their 80s and 90s who are incredibly intact. You know, I sometimes mentioned my Aunt Linda. We went we were at a wedding this weekend. My 84 year old aunt went, Linda. Not only did she tear up the dance floor, she won the limbo contest.

She did. Oh. That's impressive. Hips to die. Five. Hips to die by. Right. So? So it's. This is really not about. It's not an aging story. It's a dementia and a mental health story. And it's really important that we keep those things separate. There are people in their 80s. and 90s were perfectly intact and could do a very reasonably good job. I don't think we need to be ageist about this, but. the signs of his mental illness and cognitive decline.

at this point are so blatant that you basically. almost have to be crazy yourself not to see them or brainwashed. We have talked about some of this in his patterns of speech, because his patterns of speech have changed over the years. What are the most alarming signs for those who haven't heard you. on The Daily Beast podcast before? What are the most obvious, alarming signs that freak. you and your colleagues are out?

Well, right now we. are seeing the most dangerous possible combination of the most dangerous. personality disorder that a human being can have malignant narcissism with, not only with dementia, which itself would be. the most horrible combination, but the worst form of dementia. that a leader could have, which is frontotemporal dementia. Frontotemporal dementia creates more behavioral disinhibition, socially inappropriate behavior, loss of manners and decorum,

impulsive, rash or careless actions, early apathy. Loss of empathy. Diminished personal warmth. Well, what it must most recently write in this interview. with this reporter where he walked out. Well, Kristen Welker on NBC's Meet the Press, that's an example of his deteriorating in terms of his ability. to tolerate anything, which is a challenge. either to deal with it cognitively or to deal with it temperamentally.

Right. The fact that he just freaked out. and ended the interview, that was an impulsive, rash action. And I would argue that his attack of Iran was an impulsive, rash action, so that he's now taking actions on the world stage, right, that are impulsive, rash, inappropriate, not thought out, not supported by any advisers. Not. And no one has been informed. No one is in favor of it. He's acting out impulsively in the middle of the night.

with no direction or guardrails whatsoever. And that reinforces his personality disorder, because malignant narcissism, which we've talked about many times in. the show, was derived from Hitler by Erich Fromm. to explain not only Hitler, but leaders like him. And it's narcissism, paranoia. Antisocial personality disorder. So lying and cheating and sadism, his grit. And what Erich Fromm said, and this is really interesting.

because I want to point out that Donald Trump, I know when people say, oh, how can you diagnose from a distance? How do you know he really has mental illness? To me, that's like asking any economist, how can you know that Elon Musk is rich if you haven't actually ordered his taxes? Because at this point the symptoms are so extreme. that they're really actually, I would honestly say that 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. Wow. That this is that he's so many standard deviations away from what.

we would normally consider normal, and that where it's coming to a head. now is in his fantasies of being this military conqueror. He's been comparing himself to Napoleon, to Alexander the Great, to Caesar. Well, what do all these men have in common? Aside from being great men of history? They're all military world conquerors.

And what I am, I believe, is he is setting us up. He is grooming us for nuclear war. He wants to be. 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. He actually gets incredible gratification. from destroying things and hurting people and feeling powerful through that.

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. The he'll even 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 can still he's. still 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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To learn more, go to. Text beast to 511 511. Now as we head towards America 250 the question isn't. what we celebrate, it's what we defend. Text beast of 511 511. Today, text fees may apply. So can you just talk. then a little bit about grandiosity as a symptom of narcissism,

because you mentioned that he sort of comparing himself to Napoleon. and Alexander the Great. That is somewhat alarming, obviously, and I'm using that. in the kind of English understated sense of alarming. But grandiosity actually is a symptom of some kinds of dementia. Correct. Well, it's a symptom of not specifically dementia. It's a symptom of a personality disorder.

And it can be a symptom of managed disorder. Now, I believe he's always had a slightly hypomanic temperament, and he clearly has malignant narcissism. But what Erich Fromm said about malignant narcissism, and this is really interesting, is that it's a character, illogical grandiosity. So when someone has bipolar disorder, for example, if they say they're Jesus, they're in a psychotic state at that moment. and they might be hospitalized, very likely they'd be hospitalized.

But when they come out of the psychotic state, right, they're not going to keep insisting that they're Jesus. It's part of their psychosis. It's a state dependent delusion. But someone like him who has such a severe narcissistic personality disorder, the delusions actually are what we call egocentric, meaning he actually likes the symptom, or. he organizes around it as if it's true, so that his grandiosity is not subject,

is not the result of an acute illness. It's actually who he is. But it's getting worse so that now he thinks that, you know, not only should he win the Nobel. Peace Prize, but he's posted pictures of himself as Jesus. He's posted. And then they asked him to take that down. He posted another picture of himself as Jesus. And then he said that God loves him more than anybody else. And he's. If you look at just his tweets or his tweets, social posts, it's a window into his mind.

Okay, first of all, he's posted 800 times in the last month. in the middle of the night. Okay? That in and of itself is disturbed behavior, which is a combination of his grandiosity from his malignant narcissism. I think some of his hypomanic energy. That's why he's always seems so vital, even though he's losing his mind. Well, he seems or he's asleep, right. So he can come up. We can come on to the sleep in a moment. But but I'm sorry I interrupted you, but it's the flip side of the mania. Yeah, well, it is the is the son downing,

which is that people who don't even have those other disorders. Right, but who have dementia. find themselves sometimes up their sleep wake cycle gets disturbed. So they're up in the middle of the night. and they're sleeping during the day, which is what's happened. He's passed out in front of everyone in the Oval Office now eight times. So and counting. So we have this combination of in the middle of the night, all night. He's posting pictures of himself as Jesus and all these other grandiose images.

And mixed in with that are threats to attack countries. So he announced the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. at 1230 at night, three hours after he posted a picture of himself as Jesus. And there were like ten posts in between. So he's making decisions about peace and war in the middle of the night, with no one there to advise him while he's in the midst of a psychotic episode, he's manically posting pictures of himself as every famous person who ever lived.

And then in that state of mind, announcing decisions about peace and war. So when you lay it out like this, it seems completely obvious. What what can people do around someone like this, and in particular his cabinet or his advisors to manage it, because it seems like it's gone beyond anybody else's control at this point. Well, he's handpicked a cabinet in this administration. of people who will never, ever do that, no matter what the circumstances.

So in the first administration, we had the John Kellys who read our book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump and concluded. that his boss was mentally ill and that he needed to stay on the job. to protect the American people against the president. We don't have anyone left in the administration like that, because he learned he was frustrated by those figures. who acted as a governor over his impulses and crazy ideas. So he he's purged all those people and look to be in the Trump administration.

Your first qualification must be that you're not qualified, right? Look at the person he's just chosen to be, you know, head of national security. And hi, Big Pulte, who has literally not five minutes of experience. in the national security space, not even 15 seconds. Okay. The man has never even lifted a finger or opened a lip. to say anything in this space. He has no experience. That's how Donald Trump likes it. Because if you have experience and expertise, you know that certain.

things are unethical or impossible or illegal or against national policy. If you have someone who's a total stooge and I really mean stooge. in both senses of the word, both a stooge like one of the Three Stooges, like he's. an idiot and a stooge, meaning he'll do whatever Donald Trump says. What you've done is eliminated all the guardrails. So this is what's so scary. We have a demented, evil person who's in a completely confused psychotic state, acting out on issues of war and peace with no external guardrails whatsoever.

You'll eating. French fries at the beach, and you want to take a quick dip in the ocean. So you put a seagull on watch. That's not security, that's catering for the seagull. There's a reason you wouldn't trust a seagull with your fries. Just like there's a reason why. Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting for the people.

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Morgan and Morgan will fight to get their clients the best results, and their fee is free unless they win. For more information you can go to. For the people. Beast. Okay, so. let me push back on one thing, which is that when you hear him. speak from time to time, it doesn't seem like he's got dementia. He seems. I understand your point that his language is less.

Well, it's his language seems much more basic than it used to. And of course, we've had 40 years of watching his language in plain sight. So that's that's not a difficult one, but he does still seem very coherent. at times. Is that possible to be with dementia? Well, what you notice with people. who have dementia is they they come in and out, right? They have good days and bad days. They have good moments and bad moments. So what you're saying to me is there are moments when he can be coherent,

but there's many moments where he's incoherent. And I, you know, I did read this on the last show, but I just want to read it again because this is about war with Iran. He said they agreed to send eight boats two days ago, and then they another two and that was ten boats. And then they gave us a tribute. I don't know, I can't define it exactly what they gave us. I think it was a sign of respect. to any boats of oil, big, big boats going through the strait.

And that's starting tomorrow. A lot of boats. And I would say we're doing really well in the negotiations. But you never know with Iran because, you know, we're negotiating with them. And then we always have to blow them up, whether it's. B-2 bombers or just terminating the deal or. that terrible deal by Barack Hussein Obama, probably the worst deal. we've ever done as a country, one of the dumbest deals we've ever done. But I fortunately terminated it. Otherwise they would have a nuclear weapon.

Then we did the attack with the B-2 bombers and we stopped them. from having nuclear, and now we've had to blow them up again. I think we'll make a deal with them, it's pretty sure, but it's possible we won't. We've had regime change, if you look at it already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed, they're all dead. and the next regime is mostly dead. And the third regime, we're dealing with different people than anyone has ever dealt with before. It's a it's a whole different thing, whole different group. So I would consider that regime change. And frankly, they've been very reasonable.

So I think we've had regime change. You can't do much better. The regime that was really bad, really evil was the first one that was done. The second was one was appointed and they're all dead. Other than that, the one that might have a little life in him. And the third group is more reasonable. Regime change is an imperative. But I think we have regime change automatically. Well, I. agree, I agree, it doesn't sound presidential. Does it sound demented?

Well, for example. Well, yes. The other thing that sounds demented is all of his confabulation. Recently he was talking about the Civil War for no good reason, and he was talking about, you know, it should have been negotiated. And it was it was awful and it was terrible, but it was also beautiful. And then he starts talking about it as if it happened in 1776. And they said they were they almost won the war. They were going to conquer New York. But then they had to go up a hill.

And, you know, Robert E Lee always said, don't fight uphill. Me boys don't fight uphill. But they fought up the hill and they lost. I'm sure. he said that if he'd been president, the Civil War would never have happened, or he would have been able to negotiate it on the first day. So. So let me ask you something else, because I take your point about the language and the weird weave. It's a weave, right? But the weave is he's great at branding, right. So what is really thought disorder? He's calling the weave okay. But that's really a way of trying to explain.

how his thinking is so tangential that the thoughts don't hold together. He's shifting from one idea to another idea. Then he's kind of making up a story about that idea. The third idea, and and it doesn't hang together. and it's not relevant to what's being discussed. He's constantly going off on these tangents that aren't relevant to. what's being discussed. And then from there, having a free associative kind of thought disorder. The other thing is his memory is going, you know, you asked about normal aging,

I think once or twice already in the show, you have to remind me of the name of somebody that I was invoking. Okay, here's I'm 68. I go, you know, the guy, the guy, you know what I mean? And then fortunately, you do. So you fill it in for me, right? That's normal aging. Okay. But as I've pointed out before, when he met with Chuck. Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, he didn't know who came. Jeffries was. He kept saying that Chuck Schumer had brought a really nice man. with him, and he couldn't identify who that man was.

This is someone he's been dealing with for years. Right. He's the number one Democrat in the House. And it wasn't he couldn't come up with his name. He acted as if he'd never seen him before. And this happens over and over again. So unfortunately, the press is saying washing what he's doing. And so we're like stumbling towards the apocalypse. Oh, this is very gloomy on on the day of his 80th birthday, John. So let me just ask you about his visits to Walter Reed hospital. He's just gone for the third time in 13 months.

How significant is that? I mean, he keeps saying, oh, I've passed all these these sort of cognitive tests. I've passed them brilliantly. Nobody passes them better than me. Everybody should be forced to take one of these. How significant is it that he's gone back three times now in a year? It's incredibly significant. And this is where you really do need to get the perspective of doctors. And I'm glad to say that you've been doing that on this show.

So one of the things that I want to do is now start quoting what. some of the other doctors have been saying about this visit to Walter Reed. So Doctor Leslie Dobson, a forensic psychologist, said, look, these tests are a floor, not a ceiling. They are not measures of intelligence, wisdom, fitness for high pressure decision. making or executive functioning under stress. Any cognitively intact, adult, any cognitively intact adult. without moderate or severe neurological impairment. should score at or near the maximum without breaking a sweat.

So of course, first of all, he's lying about it. It's not an IQ test. It doesn't show he's brilliant, right? It just is a test for dementia. But here's the other thing. This is a test we almost never give unless. we're seeing significant signs of cognitive decline. And we're trying to assess. whether somebody needs further testing or whether they are slipping. Now, it does sometimes happen. You mention age. There were people around the age of 80. We might give it to them annually as part of a very thorough workup,

but we don't give it to them repeatedly. So you actually had on this show Doctor Henry David. Abraham, a former professor of psychiatry at Tufts Medical School. I want to read you what he said about that. If you have one mocha, it's like taking your temperature, he said. You don't if it's if the temperature is okay, you don't come back and take it every ten minutes, right? You take another temperature, but if it's not okay, then. you might want to keep taking it to see where it's going.

The way that they have repeated this clinical test is showing cognitive. slippage. We want to see how quickly he's going down. Has he gone off a cliff? We know the behavior is worrisome and that's why they're looking at it. three times. So the other thing that came out of this physical. at Walter Reed was the president had gained there saying 14 pounds. We know he doesn't have a good diet.

Most of the older people I know are losing weight, not gaining weight. I don't know what what the average weight. gain is around this age, but it seems. Isn't it fairly unusual to gain 14 pounds in a year at the age of 80? Because isn't your appetite beginning to decline? Well, as we know, he has a terrible diet and does no exercise, so that's a formula for weight gain. And we also know that he has.

some kind of serious circulatory probably congestive heart failure. Maybe venous insufficiency. But we know he high cholesterol. We know he's a wreck basically from a cardiovascular point of view. And you know and that's why he's got the sort of swollen ankles. And they've. confirmed the white House confirmed he has chronic venous insufficiency. Right. But basically his whole circulatory system is a mess. And he's not well he's not a well man.

He's a sick man physically. And he looks ill and he's starting to look sicker and sicker. He's you know, his energy is down. His voice is raspy. He seems kind of out of it. He doesn't seem to have his usual energy or passion. for things and his passing out, falling asleep on a regular basis. in front of the cameras, no matter how important the situation is. So these are all signs that physically he's in a in terrible shape. And also and this relates to dementia, his whole psychomotor performance.

is deteriorating. So what does that mean. Well he's he has trouble moving his body in space. He has trouble walking a straight line. He has trouble going up and down the stairs. He's showing a wide based gait where he swings his right leg around. like it's a dead weight, which is actually a symptom of frontotemporal dementia. So he's definitely physically in horrible shape, and he's only he's not doing anything to help himself behaviorally.

If somebody, you know, a normal person at this point. might try to start exercising or losing weight, he's not. And of course he's up all night, so he's not getting any sleep. So that's also a risk factor. That bad sleep is actually a risk factor for all kinds of illnesses, as is obesity. So he's he's really pushing his luck. Let's put it that way. Okay. So I wanted to ask you something because in a study published.

last Wednesday in the American Journal of Public Health, it said the group of people. who reported eating the highest amount of ultra processed. foods, which is exactly what we know Donald Trump loves, had a 58 higher. risk of developing dementia. and a 46% increased. risk of developing cognitive impairment. if he were to stop eating, you know, the chick fil A's and the deep fried McDonald's sandwiches.

and the fish sandwiches he eats and the Big Macs and the Quarter Pounders. and the fries, etc.. Would it make a difference at this stage? Can you actually push back time by eating more healthily? No. The nature of dementia is it doesn't get better, it doesn't stay the same. It only gets worse. And and I've been saying that about Donald Trump for the last two years. I've been saying, look at Donald Trump today.

because that's the best. Donald Trump you're ever going to see, because it only goes downhill from here. And lo and behold, every time I'm on a show, he's gotten worse. And I repeat that same expression over and over again. But eventually, at a certain point, the rate of deterioration accelerates. And that's what we're seeing now. Before he looked bad year over year or administration over administration. Now it looks bad week over week. We're seeing each week that he is worse than the week before.

And so that is the nature of the dementia. And then that's actually what I predict is that if he won again, that we would see. not only a cognitive decline but an accelerating cognitive decline. And that's exactly where we are now. And of course, none of this is being reported by the press. You know, one of the lies he's telling that, I think is particularly funny about these cognitive tests, aside from the fact that so it's finally been exposed that, you know, all has to do is like, pick out the lion from the animals and is like that level of difficulty. So yeah, yeah. But those the press is lying.

Those are the easy questions. You know, they're not talking about the harder questions. And this is a direct quote. You know, they told me pick a number, any number. Okay. 203. All right. Well multiply that by nine divided by two. Add on 31,324. Subtract 1292. Sir. Multiply it out one more time by 19. What is the answer? And I got it right.

And everyone. Yay! Because he was at some kind of friendly audience. He got it right. The doctor said, I've been giving this test for 20 years and I've never seen anyone get it right. Well, first of all, it's all a lie. There are no computations on the mocha, but. what I was like with like, just one reporter to do one. That's incredible, Mr. President. Well, what is the answer? We know that he has very disrupted sleeping habits. Can you just explain? Because I'm. sure a lot of viewers and listeners also have disrupted sleeping habits.

And it's one of the. things that keeps us awaken worrying that we can't get to sleep on time. What is the impact on the brain of of a sort of sleep disorder? Well, I guess we all know from our own experience, right? If you get a night where you can't sleep, you're very impaired the next day. Imagine if you were doing that night after night after night. It's it contributes to cognitive decline. and it contributes to loss of impulse control.

Right. You don't have the same reserves. You don't have the same. You're not you're not at your best, right? You're exhausted. Your judgment is poor, your impulse control is poor. And eventually it starts to. If someone has dementia, it starts to further accelerate. their cognitive decline. And after all, we've talked about the fact that with dementia, it doesn't get better. It doesn't say the same, it only gets worse. and the rate of deterioration decline accelerates.

And that's what we're seeing. So his lack of sleep is only contributing to that acceleration. And what about the stress load. of a job like being president? Do you think the fact that the war isn't going well, that he wasn't able. to just have regime change and have the Iranian people rise up, as apparently the Israeli leadership had suggested was going to happen. So so we're stuck in a war where Iran seems to be in a stronger position.

than it was when we started the bombing, that his slush fund has been halted, that he's got to take the name off the Kennedy Center. Did those have an impact, too? Sure. No, absolutely. Stress absolutely also contributes to mental health problems and to dementia. So it's kind of this really we really are almost. in what I would call this really is a perfect storm.

We have someone who has the most dangerous personality disorder. a human being can have, and not only dementia, but the worst form of dementia front or temporal dementia, whose main symptom. is behavioral disinhibition and loss of judgment and empathy. Okay. Which means that he he has no absolutely no internal restraints. And because of his stooge cabinet, no external restraints, and because of the corrupt courts. and our lack of power in Congress, really no external restraints. Basically, the world is now.

captive to a madman, right? The world is now vulnerable to a raging, sadistic Ed with no frontal lobes. This is insane. This is the. And as I've said, this is not just a garden variety mental illness. This is the sickest individual I've ever encountered in my career. And sickest. The worst wave we had. Mary Trump, the president's niece, also a clinical psychologist, on last Sunday,

and she was saying exactly the same thing, that this is just one deranged man. Why do you think, then, so many people like him? Why is he so appealing to people? Why is it that this form of narcissism, malignant narcissism, as you refer to it, is so appealing to, to people? Well, when malignant narcissists take over society,

the way that they do it is by appealing to people's. worst impulses, basically saying, I will be your champion. in taking revenge against the people that we both hate. So that's how they connect people, right? That's how they connect people with a common enemy within. Right? So Hitler did it with the Jews, right? Trump has done it with the immigrants. And I always say immigrants are the new Jews.

They really are his, his Jews. As far as picking an outgroup that's within our society, that's doing. nothing wrong and demonizing them and then organizing. society in a, in a, in a against them, this is how they gain power. And so he also gives them a sense of pride and identity. because he says we are superior and we are dominant, and we will assert our dominance through force, okay.

And we'll show them who's boss. And that's he's repealing to that impulse. in the voters, especially if they feel. downtrodden or disrespected or economically dispossessed. Right. All the more. are they going. to want to take revenge against the people they think have screwed them right, and take some kind of power over them through aggression? So it becomes a kind of blood pact? You know what I mean? That that if this is the person who's going to lead us against our enemies.

to survive, then you don't really care about their manners. You know, he might be a liar, but he's our liar. So there's that firm sense of identification. But what we're seeing is now that he is really screwing everybody in the country. except the billionaires, that people are starting to get the idea. And his poll numbers are getting down to the point where it really is. only the cultist, true believers who are still sticking with him. So he seems to have some sense that being 80.

isn't a great thing for being a president. And he said he wants to focus not on his own birthday, but on the birthday the 250th birthday of of America. Does that show any self-awareness on his behalf? Well, it is all going to be about him. Despite what he might say. It's all going to be about him. You know, the other thing that's so interesting about malignant.

narcissist is the the appeal of destruction for them. If you think about Donald Trump's entire lifetime, it's been one destruction after another. He he says he's a builder, but he's not really a builder. He's a destroyer. You know, every business he's ever had. He's bankrupted, you know, and now he's in the process of bankrupting and destroying the United States. And I think this 250th celebration is such a symbol of that. First, he tore down the east wing of the white House overnight. without even talking to anybody about it.

It just did it. And now we've got this grotesque carny, you know, on the East. lawn with the UFC fighting, and he's he's despoiling it. He's cheapening it. Right. He's it. He gets pleasure from basically debasing all of our institutions, carrying up. the rose garden and replacing it with caring up the Rose garden. Right. Thank you. I forgot about that one. Right. But all of that is it's not an improvement.

It's a destruction of everything that came before him. Right. So he can rebuild it in his own grandiose image. And that's what he wants to do with the reflecting pool. And that's what he wants to do with the Kennedy Center. And that and he wants to rename all the airports and the bridges. and the tunnels after himself. And he wants to, again, the grandiosity. He wants to put his name on the his face, on the money and his signature. on the money, and is the banners hanging from the buildings and, you know, on the park passes on the passports.

He wants us to see him, his face everywhere in this sort of grandiose way. But to do that, everything before him has to be devalued and destroyed. That's why he's saying he's better than Washington. He's better than Lincoln. He's. He's even saying he's better than Jesus. Really? He's better than the Pope. He should be the Pope. So everything that that is not him, right, has to be destroyed and devalued. so that all that's left is he is the world doctor John Gartner.

Once again, you bring us a very sharp perspective on the president. Let's hope we all survive his his birthday. And let's let's hope we survive the 250th celebrations. We don't all get somehow beaten up in the UFC fight. Many thanks for joining us and we'll look forward to having you back soon. Okay. Thanks for having me.

A somewhat. gloomy perspective there from Doctor John. Almost as gloomy as the lighting in this room, actually. Note to self, whenever I think I'm going to get caught up in a meeting and. I might have to dart into a corner office, I should bring my own lighting with me. Anyway, if you have been, thank you very much for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow with David Rothkopf and a big thanks to our production. team, John Romero, Brian Murray, Rachel Pesa, Heather Pissarro and Neil Rosen. The house. Enjoy your Sunday.

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