U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump participate in calls to U.S. service members, on Christmas Eve, from the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
When President Donald Trump angrily attacked and ridiculed actor/director Rob Reiner right after his murder, the dominant reaction was outrage. USA Today columnist Rex Huppke, for example, argued that Trump reached a "new low" following a "decade of Trumpian loathsomeness." And some of Trump's critics described Trump's comments as evidence of his poor mental health.
Psychologist Mary Trump, the president's niece and a scathing critic of his politics, often argues that his behavior underscores his mental health issues. And she isn't the only one who is making that point.
In an article published on Christmas Eve Day, The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt examines Trump's first year back in the White House and his "erratic behavior."
"It's true that his second term has been unusual, including in some ways which the president might not appreciate," Gabbatt explains. "That's because Trump, 79, has shown erratic and at times confused behavior throughout 2025, leading to questions about his mental and physical performance. Trump has appeared to fall asleep during some meetings; amid others, he has drifted off-topic, launching into bizarre segues on interior decor or about whales and birds. His public appearances have lacked focus, and he has used speeches to ramble about how Barack Obama walks down stairs, or to invent stories about the Unabomber."
President Trump's "unpredictable behavior" in 2025, Gabbatt observes, "has forced the White House to repeatedly defend Trump's mental acuity, often in hyperbolic terms."
President Trump, for example, claimed that Ted Kaczynski, The Unabomber, was a student in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) class taught by his uncle, John Trump. But Kaczynski never taught at MIT.
"Earlier this year," Gabbatt notes, "Trump mixed up Albania with Armenia when discussing a peace deal involving the latter…. In December alone, he declared Somali immigrants to be 'garbage' and, in a move that shocked even some Republicans, essentially blamed Rob Reiner for his own death…. Throughout the year, the White House has ferociously defended Trump against accusations he is in decline. Yet the questions about Trump, who will turn 80 in June, are unlikely to go away."
Read Adam Gabbatt's full article for The Guardian at this link.