'Extreme self-centeredness': NYT flooded with angry letters about Trump's fitness to serve

The New York Times has been flooded with angry letters from readers warning former President Donald Trump's rhetoric and behavior render him unfit to serve as commander in chief, a new editorial shows.

The Times published Tuesday a slew of letters to the editor in which readers condemn Trump's description of Vice President Kamala Harris as "mentally disabled" as both racist and unhinged.

"Trump is trying to send a not-so-subtle subliminal message about people of color being 'less than,' and, therefore 'less deserving,' than whites," wrote Dave Schraeger of New Jersey. "Trump has demonstrated time and again that he is unfit to serve as president."

Schraeger is just one of several readers who raise fears about the Republican presidential nominee's fitness to serve a second term in the White House, and they cite a wide swath of Times coverage in their arguments.

John G. Williams, of Pennsylvania, also focused on Trump's claim that Harris was "mentally impaired" but took a more succinct and less subtle jab at the former president.

"By most measures Vice President Harris won the presidential debate against Mr. Trump," Williams wrote. "What does that say about Mr. Trump’s mental acuity?"

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Nor was Williams the lone reader to raise concerns about Trump's mental capacities.

Larry Sandberg, a psychiatry professor at Weill Cornell Medical Center and contributor to the bestselling book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," urged voters to cast ballots based on more than their policy positions.

"He displays poor judgment, impulsivity, extreme self-centeredness, a vulnerability to being manipulated and an attraction to autocrats," Sandberg wrote. "He also blatantly shows waning cognitive capacities. In a sane world, all of this would be disqualifying."

Sandberg argued Trump attacked Harris' mental fitness to project upon his opponent the reality of his own cognitive circumstances.

"Trump is distorting reality for public consumption and manipulation," Sandberg wrote. "I urge the public to listen to experts who are addressing an existential threat to our democracy and the world."

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Times reader and Maryland resident Bryan Fichter began his letter with a lengthy quotation from Trump's response to a Chrysler plant worker's question about the future of autoworkers' jobs in Michigan:

“So pretty much, as we’ve been saying — and what I want to do is, I want to be able to — look your business," Trump replied. "Years ago in this area, I was honored as the Man of the Year. Was maybe 20 years ago, and the fake news heard about it. They said, ‘It never happened. It never happened.’ And I didn’t know who it was. It was a group that honored me as Man of the Year. The fakers back there — see the fake news — but they said, they said, Oh. And they looked at it, you know, they said it never happened. But I said, ‘I swear to you, it happened. It did happen.’"

Fichter reported he was shocked by Trump's response and urged the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets to report more thoroughly and frequently on the former president's cognitive condition.

"The level of incoherence and repetitive speech in Mr. Trump’s answer, given his age and family history, should be profoundly concerning, yet his mental state remains the Thing That Must Not Be Named of the 2024 campaign as far as corporate media are concerned," Fichter wrote.

"Continue to ignore the elephant in the room if you like, but the elephant isn’t going anywhere. Mr. Trump is in bad shape."