First of all, things are opaque as is obvious because we don't have a word of honesty from the United States government or from the Israeli government. Everything is propaganda morning till night. Also, any statement by Donald Trump contradicts itself by before the end of the sentence.
So, uh he's absolutely impossible to even understand on his own terms, much less on geopolitical terms. So, the situation is very strange, very dangerous. I think probably the most dangerous moment in the world since World War II.
Uh probably even including the Cuban Missile Crisis. I say that with two psychologists, I'll say it. You're not responsible for me.
Maybe you'll regret that you invited me, but I think I think Donald Trump is literally mentally ill to a very serious extent. Um he is from a personality point of view, a malignant narcissist, I think is the right definition. Uh or if you want a more classical diagnosis, dark triad personality, which means that he is personally narcissistic.
Uh he is Machiavellian, which means that in I think psychological terms, that is manipulative, untrustworthy, deceitful. Uh and he is psychopathic, meaning that there is no empathy for how many people he kills or how much damage is done. Um the malignant narcissist definition adds paranoia uh and confabulation to this list.
So, I personally think we're dealing with a uh psychologically deeply debilitated individual who happens to have a lot of power. And according to what one psychologist I was listening to yesterday that I thought made a lot of sense, there's an element of frontotemporal dementia added to this. Uh that you see through the incoherence of the sentences, the drift of thought, and even the confusion of words.
So, that the words don't even end as they begin. There's a lot of uh Oh, what was the definition? What the I'm missing the technical definition.
Sorry, maybe it'll come back to me. But in any event, that there's real signs of dementia on top of what is a lifetime of anti uh personality disorder. A man like this should not be president.
Uh this is the most basic point. He is president because of much deeper problems in the American political system. So, he is a symptom as well as a cause.
Uh you don't elect a person like this in a healthy political system. The American political system is deeply corrupted. The ability of a man like this to have the power that he does to order a war is a profoundly broken uh political order.
It has nothing to do with our constitutional system where only Congress has the ability to declare war. We're so pathetic right now in our politics that the only thing Congress does is vote repeatedly that they don't want to have anything to do with overseeing this war. It's not a choice that they have under the Constitution.
It's a complete abnegation of responsibility. How can the Senate say now in three votes "Don't ask us. It's none of our business.
That's just Mr Trump's business. " That's exactly what the US Senate has said. So, I think that there are very particular circumstances right now.
My own feeling is that Trump has uh actually again, now I'm completely amateur psychologist, but he seems to have deteriorated uh and lost any kind of self-control in the last three or four months. So, there's a degree of impulsivity which is absolutely beyond anything that I've seen before. By the way, this is the second time in a row uh that we have had a president suffering from dementia uh and what's interesting also is that with Biden who was had dementia for the last two years at least of his administration, it was all covered up until he stood there gaping in front of a camera drooling uh to uh all of the American people watching in the debate uh and no one could hide it on camera.
My country's pathetic right now in the political system. It's a show. It's PR.
Anything can get said. There's no planning. There's no systematic review.
There are no checks and balances. There's nothing. And this was true with Biden, but it's much worse with Trump.
Biden was not a nice person. I've known him for about 30 years. He's never was a nice person.
But he was not like Trump with a deeply antisocial personality disorder. And so I just want to say we're dealing with psychology here in the most individual sense. This is denied every moment of public discourse.
It's just amazing. Take what happened in the last 3 days. First, the president said, "I'm going to blow up everything.
I'm going to kill all of you. " That's normal. This Oh, then you have the commentators.
Oh, will he kill everybody? Well, that's an interesting question. Not are we in the hands of a madman?
Nothing like that. Not one commentary says, "That's a little strange for the president of the United States to be talking like that? Talking Sorry, like Adolf Hitler.
No. Not even a mention that this is a little strange. Then 2 days later when he decides he's not going to kill everyone, he says, "Oh, we're close to an agreement.
" And of course, there was no negotiation. Period. But what does the press say?
Oh, well, will Donald Trump be able to get an agreement? Not what a loon. What a liar.
Nothing. It's a complete normalization of something completely abnormal. I've never seen anything like this.
Who's crazier? Trump or us? How can we not be grown-ups and say, "That man's a loon.
Get him out of there before he kills us all. " Nobody says this. Sorry, this is not a partisan statement.
I've hated all our recent presidents. Because they don't make us safe. They don't tell the truth.
But this is something absolutely different what's happening right now. And it's all normalized. And the New York Times story today, all I do these days is write irate letters to the reporters whom I've known for decades and they don't write back.
Because they don't have the dignity to get into a serious discussion on anything. Sometimes, by the way, they write back and they say, "Yeah, I agree with you, Jeff, but higher-ups edit my article. So, that's the main thing.
" That it's complete shutdown of truth at The New York Times, which used to be my go-to place to get just a straight story. It's useless, completely useless right now. But anyway, this story was uh "Yes, will Donald Trump be able to negotiate a deal?
" Without mentioning how weird it is that there were no negotiations. But he said that there were. That's the real story of the last day.
That's the really interesting story. Were there negotiations? The story said, this is David Sanger.
He's an experienced journalist, 40 years. " He says, "Well, Donald Trump didn't tell us who he was negotiating with. " David, come on.
Are you serious? You're going to write that to me? He didn't tell who he was negotiating with?
Maybe, David, he wasn't negotiating with anybody. Maybe he made it up. Can't you ask a question as a grown-up writing for the New York Times, who's been doing this for 40 years?
So, I wrote to David this morning. I will not hear back from David. I've known David for probably 40 years.
Because they don't talk. Because we're in really a crazy land right now, where anything goes. And the whole story is, "Well, what will Donald Trump do next?
" As if this is a spectator sport. Not your life and not my life. I'm more interested, when are they going to take him away?
Before he does more harm to us. When is some grown-up going to say, "This is a very bad idea. " Okay.
So, that's the immediate issue. But the system is more deeply broken. There are no checks on presidential power to launch wars.
And there haven't been for decades, actually. Congress basically doesn't exist when it comes to foreign policy. It basically doesn't exist.
Because we live in a security state. Foreign policy is carried out by the CIA, the National Security Agency, the National Security Council. It's not carried out by anything resembling democratic institutions at all.
You may say, of course, Jeff, I had to come here to learn that. But, it's rather alarming, actually, because it's not only 2003, we're in nonstop wars. Nonstop.
It's not just the Iraq war.
