'It's perverse': Psychologist hits media for 'normalizing' Trump & 'pathologizing' Biden

A psychologist Thursday took the media to task for normalizing former President Donald Trump while "pathologizing" President Joe Biden in a misguided attempt at balanced coverage.

"The press edits out the most disordered parts of Trump’s speeches or normalizes his behavior with innocuous euphemistic words, like 'rambling,'" Dr. John Gartner said in an interview with Salon. "The press is pathologizing the normal in the case of Biden and normalizing the pathological in the case of Trump. It’s perverse."

This is not Gartner's first time ringing the alarm bell about Trump's mental faculties as the former president mounts campaign to regain the White House in 2025, Salon notes.

The psychologist offered contributions to the bestselling book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President," and has launched a campaign of his own for medical professionals to diagnose him with dementia.

But on Thursday, Gartner cast his gaze away from the presumptive Republican nominee and toward the members of the media he argues are to blame for propping up the former president.

“Not enough people are sounding the alarm, that based on his behavior, and in my opinion, Donald Trump is dangerously demented," Gartner said. "In fact, we are seeing the opposite among too many in the news media, the political leaders and among the public."

Gartner argues the media has fallen victim to the false equivalence fallacy that equates Trump's mental disorders with President Joe Biden's process of aging.

"This is a tale of two brains," Gartner said. "Biden's brain is aging. Trump's brain is dementing.”

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While Gartner argues all members of the mainstream media need to do better, he casts extra blame on right-wing pundits.

"Trump is literally babbling nonsensically and his followers at these rallies, or interviewers on right-wing media, are nodding their heads in appreciation like he makes sense," said Gartner. "This is deeply disturbing."

Gartner admitted he doesn't understand the decision-making behind the mainstream media coverage of Trump's mental fitness, but shared a few guesses.

"Sometimes I'm very cynical, and I just think that these media outlets are owned by huge corporations that are inherently conservative and right-wing," Gartner said. "Sometimes I just think they're cautious.

"I want to shame the American news media into covering Trump's readily apparent cognitive decline," he concluded. "How much more evidence do we need before the mainstream media starts asking the question: Is Trump showing signs of dementia?"