For the sake of argument, imagine that your neighbor chooses, against expert advice, to shun health department and community regulations: he or she burns piles of leaves even though a burn ban is in effect, he or she uses prohibited pesticides on weeds, and, astoundingly, he or she plays solitaire Russian Roulette as an entertainment for the local kiddies. This renegade neighbor has everyone talking. Oh, wow, what a zany character. An over-the-top foe of political and legal appropriateness, this screwball neighbor keeps the local authorities at arm’s-length by employing a gang of attorneys and professional enablers. As this out-of-control scofflaw often says, “It is what it is.” Apparently, no civil or criminal commandment can curb this neighbor’s uncontrolled behavior.
Furthermore, as absurd as it may seem, this impervious neighbor has come under suspicion for playing a part in the deaths of thousands of people by failing to control the sickness emanating from his or her illegal fur farm operation, from which a virulent virus has spread to the surrounding community. When questioned about the appalling tragedy, he or she gives a big smile and the two-thumbs-up gesture, saying, “It is what it is.”
Not very subtle, am I? I apologize. Yes, the buffoon I describe is indeed Trump.
To the point, though, a person may be involuntarily committed when symptoms of a mental illness or substance use disorder deteriorate to the extent of endangering himself or herself or others. Is it too off-the-rails an idea to suggest that Trump fits the description of someone who is a danger to himself and to others? One need not employ an investigative commission to conclude that the orange man is, at the very least, a clear and present danger, not just to himself but to all of us, the whole world. In fact, results of a German website poll as reported on Fox News in January of 2020 placed Trump at the top of the list of threats to world peace, easily trumping Kim Jong Un, Ali Khamenei, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping.
Benito Mussolini and Captain Ahab are the two figures who most remind me of Trump. Il Duce, the dictator, wore an invincible pride and hubris that Trump mirrors. And Captain Ahab was so fully self-involved that he was willing to risk the lives of his crew to fulfill his revenge on the white whale. Melville’s Moby Dick was on the reading list during my undergraduate studies, and my professor’s lecture on solipsism still stays with me, that notion that one’s self is all that can be known to exist. Like a black hole, a solipsist incorporates everything and everyone around him for his or her private use. He is the star. Everyone else serves in a supporting role. If he kills everyone around him but still gets what he wants, so be it. It is what it is.
The underlying question remains: is our president really mentally ill? That question is for the mental health community to analyze. Regardless, of their conclusion, it is easy to conclude that the grandest liar in the history of US presidents, the Captain Ahab of America, is a clear and present danger to himself and all the rest of us.