The News You Need on Friday, May 15th, 2026.
Trump stumbles in Beijing and while he's away, doctors encourage an intervention about the president's health. Get all the news you need from The Horton-Kaiser Report.
Trump’s Mental Decline is Alarming, Says One of the 36 Doctors Recommending an Intervention
The Independent
Scott: What’s the single most undercovered political story in the US media today?
That’s easy. It’s the mental health and physical condition of Donald Trump, a man who has achieved unchecked power of the sort that none of his predecessors wielded.
While huge journalistic resources are squandered in the reporting of he said-she said partisan squabbles of no long term significance, this issue is hugely significant. And most US editors appear to feel it can only be discussed in the he said-she said format with all the contributions coming from political figures whose motives are suspect, and who possess no professional foundations to offer any judgment on Trump’s mental and physical well being.
But the signs that something’s wrong have never been clearer than right now, nor more consequential for Americans and humanity in general.
Just before he hopped on Air Force One for his flight to China to meet President Xi Jinping, Trump posted a couple of memes on his Truth Social account. One was an AI-generated image of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi swimming in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the water full of effluent and rubbish. Above, it read: “Dumacrats Love Sewage”. The other was an AI image of the Democratic governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, tucking into a giant burger, a slice of greasy pizza and a bucket of fried chicken. “JB is too busy to keep Chicago safe,” it said.
When Trump isn’t sharing delusional AI imagery of those he dislikes, he is pitching himself as the messiah (remember the AI-generated image of himself as Jesus last month?) and, in between raging on social media throughout the night, he’s mixing up his words or even appearing to nod off during televised briefings during the day.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult not to focus on the stony-faced expressions of Cabinet members and aides standing behind Trump as he rambles incoherently through meetings. Who hasn’t watched them and wondered what is happening behind those poker faces as they watch their commander-in-chief lose his thread in real time? This reached fever pitch on Tuesday during his fumbled explanation of the Iran deal, insisting, for instance, that a blockade was holding even as all evidence and intelligence reports confirmed the exact opposite. As retired US Navy Rear Admiral openly remarked, this was all the proof we needed that Trump was finally living with Alice in wonderland…
While this wasn’t a diagnosis per se, they based their conclusions, they say, on “voluminous evidence from the historical record of the president’s bizarre and impulsive behaviour, rambling digressions, factual confusions, unexplained sudden changes of course in strategic matters, both national and international, and his deeply impaired judgement.”
An accompanying statement concluded that the most worrisome examples were his outbursts of what was termed “extreme, seemingly uncontrollable rage”, such as his multiple threats to destroy Iran. Lee told The Independent that Trump’s grandiose, wishful fantasies and images “are signs of a psychotic spiral … A desperate attempt to counteract the total helplessness one feels when one is losing one’s mind.”
Lee said Trump exhibits delusions of grandeur. “He will not accept limits and his expectations will always exceed reality’s ability to meet them. Hence, we have the perfect setup for a catastrophic, rageful, uncontainable explosion.”
Imogen: It seems as though concern for senile rulers’ health is routine in modern life.
I’ve been following Trump’s health news for a while. I’ve also been cautious of said news for a while because we can’t know what is really going on with the president’s health. But the evidence is stacking up, and it is looking increasingly likely like Trump’s health is rapidly declining.
Many psychiatrists adhere to the “Goldwater Rule”, which discourages diagnosing public figures without personally examining them, and the doctors added that they did not take their statement lightly. While they admit that Trump was not examined face-to-face and is not a patient of any member of the group, their statement notes “objectively observable signs of serious medical concern”.
Last summer, bruises on the president’s hands went viral. Easily explained by his “wobbly walking.” And the fact he “meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other president in history,” as Karoline Leavitt has repeatedly stated. By December 2025, the same bruise was almost always visible and often poorly covered by makeup.
For months, videos have circulated of Trump appearing to sleep during various public engagements, many of which held in his own home. Then on Tuesday, after he appeared to sleep during an event on maternal health—which was weird enough on its own—the White House responded.
“He was blinking, you absolute moron,” is the official line.
Since the beginning of Trump II, even the most sophisticated news consumers have felt overwhelmed by a daily tsunami of fearful developments.
Charles: Whenever I’ve read Scott Horton on Bluesky, I was the best educated person in the room that day. This is because he’s not only a great lawyer and fine journalist, he’s also the most assiduous consumer of media who I’ve ever met.
This means that when you get the news you need from us, you’ll get the benefit of his reading of newspapers in Italy, France, Germany, Russia and many other places.
Get the news you need from Scott and I, free for two weeks.
