March 7, 2025
Dear Interested Readers,
Our Healthcare Is Threatened By “Right-wing Woke”
I wish I was creative enough to have coined the phrase “right-wing woke,” but the honor belongs to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. I knew that he had “hit the nail on the head” when I read it in his column that followed the embarrassing and interminable speech to the nation delivered on Tuesday night by our president who distinguished himself by a total lack of civility. His rambling speech was pathognomonic for a sociopathic level of narcissism “like the world has never seen.”
More distressing to me than the utter lack of civility, the falsehoods that were in almost every paragraph of his very long speech, or the violation of political norms that went on for more than 90 minutes (the longest speech ever delivered to Congress by a president) were the responses of the Republican sycophants that were yucking it up like drunken fraternity pledges in response to his every exaggeration and falsehood. Somewhere (I think it was in the podcast of Ezra Klein) in the commentaries I heard or read after the ordeal was over, the speech was compared to the lengthy rants of Fidel Castro.
If my suggestion that our president’s narcissism is sociopathic concerns you, I would suggest that you click on the link and read the article. Using the terms sociopathic narcissist or narcissistic sociopath to describe someone requires that they meet the diagnostic criteria for both Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). The article gives us a readable discussion of both:
Criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder is “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts,” according to the DSM-5-TR.
Five or more of the following DSM-5-TR criteria need to be present for an official diagnosis.I
- A grandiose sense of self-importance (i.e., exaggerates their achievements and abilities). [He nails that one.]
- A preoccupation with the idea of gaining success, power, love, and physical attractiveness. [Over the top.]
- A belief that they are special or high status and can only be understood by similar people or should only associate with those people (or institutions). [He rarely opens his mouth without referring to how smart, able, or world-class he is. He even implies that he is protected by God.]
- A need for excessive admiration. [Was his speech just another MAGA rally?]
- A sense of entitlement and expectation that others will comply or give them favorable treatment. [He demands loyalty. What happened to Rudi Gulliani?]
- Exploits other people for personal gain. [Check that one with anyone who ever did business with him.]
- Lacks empathy for others. [Ask any Ukrainian or Palastinian]
- Envies others or believes that other people envy them. [He checks that box with Putin]
- Arrogant behaviors and attitude. [No question about this one.]
I rest my case that there is evidence that the president meets all nine criteria for a diagnosis of narcissism. How does he score against the diagnostic criteria for a sociopath, which is called antisocial personality disorder (APD)? Read the criteria for diagnosis, and judge for yourself.
Criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder
Antisocial personality disorder is “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others,” according to the DSM-5-TR. An individual must show at least three of the following diagnostic criteria:
- Repeatedly failing to follow social norms resulting in grounds for arrest. [Don’t forget that he is a convicted felon.]
- Engaging in deceitful actions such as lying, using aliases, and not paying off debts. [There were over 30,000 lies in his first term alone, capped by the big lie denying that he lost the election.]
- Impulsivity and lack of planning ahead. [January 6 was not the work of a strategic genius. How about his on-again-off-again approach to tariffs?]
- Irritability and aggressiveness that lead to physical altercations. [In this category, he is quite proficient. On January 6. 2021 he was able to get a mob to fulfill this criteria by proxy.]
- Reckless lack of concern for the safety of other people. [Ditto on 01-06-2021]
- Chronic irresponsibility that leads to failure to maintain a job, finish school, or keep financial commitments. [He is a notorious cheat in business and has six bankruptcies.]
- Lack of remorse about hurting other people. [He doesn’t seem to care about what his actions ending the work of US AID does to the people of the third world or what happens to the people of Ukraine or Gaza.]
To be diagnosed with APD, the individual must be at least 18 years old and have had evidence of a conduct disorder by age 15. [He was sent to military school at age 13 where he was characterized as a bully.]
The president’s narcissism and the conjecture that he also has sociopathic characteristics have been obvious to many mental health professionals throughout his adult life including his niece Mary Trump who is a clinical psychologist. His possible personality disorder has been the subject of discussion long before now. Just type “Is Trump a narcissistic sociopath” into your browser and see what pops up. What makes the subject politically taboo, is the Goldwater Rule, which is an ethical policy of the American Psychiatric Association that says that it is unethical for psychiatrists to offer opinions on people they haven’t personally examined. I am not a psychiatrist and don’t feel bound by the rule. Based on the ugly polemic I endured Tuesday night, I would say, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks…
Hidden by the chaos, there has been a strategy for the first forty days of Trump’s second term. The objectives were outlined in Project 2025. Trump’s biggest lie of the election season was that he had no idea what Project 2025 was about. I would accept that he had not read it all since it was more than 900 pages long, but he definitely knew the people who wrote it because many of them like Russell Vought, the past and present Director of the Office of Budget and Management (OBM), was a principal author of Project 2025. The strategy to implement Project 2025 has been to “flood the zone.” In his speech, Trump claimed to have done “more” in his first forty days than many prior administrations have done in four years. Of all the things he said, that claim may be the most accurate if you consider the damage he has done over his first six weeks to the position and reputation of our nation at home and around the world.
After I had “finished” this letter, my son who is LICSW at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) which I must fear may be threatened by the implementation of Project 2025, sent me a link to a Project 2025 tracker developed and maintained on Reddit by people who are concerned about the objectives of Project 2025. Looking at the tracker, the project is moving along at a very efficient pace. Check it out.
Since Jeff Bezos blocked the Washington Post’s editorial page from endorsing Kamala Harris, my wife and I have seriously considered canceling our subscription. We were torn between wanting to make a statement and our desire to maintain access to The Post’s talented “opinion” writers. We were further challenged when Bezos contributed a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund.
I continued to resist the temptation to cancel because I enjoyed the writing of Jennifer Rubin, Dana Milbank, Jonathan Capehart, and others. Then Bezos announced it would now advocate “personal liberties and free markets” and not publish opposing viewpoints on those topics, that was almost a bridge too far, but still, I resisted the urge to cancel. Then, last week, I realized that it had been a while since I had seen Jennifer Rubin’s column. I typed into Google “Has Jennifer Rubin left the Washington Post?” In an article from CNN, I read:
A 14-year veteran of the Post’s opinion section, Rubin said she resigned because “the Post, along with most mainstream news outlets, has failed spectacularly at a moment that we most need a robust, aggressive free press.”
“I fear that things are going from bad to worse at The Post,” she added.
Rubin cited numerous controversies, including Bezos blocking the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in October and Amazon, which Bezos founded, making a $1 million donation to Trump’s inaugural fund. She said a major factor in her exit was the Post’s recent refusal to publish a satirical cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes showing Bezos and others on bended knee. Telnaes resigned as a result.
The article reported that she had started a new publication on Substack partnering with Norm Eisen, a former White House “ethics czar” to launch a new publication called The Contrarian. The tagline or motto of the new publication is “Not Owned By Anybody.”
We immediately canceled our Washinton Post subscription. I am somewhat ashamed that about 300,000 people canceled before we did. I then signed up for The Contrarian. What a deal for $7 a month or $70 a year. I took the savings for $70. I was immediately rewarded. Rubin had published her reasons for leaving the Post and then I saw an article by Paul Krugman about the real reasons he had “retired” from the New York Times. My benefits as a subscriber increased even more when I read Rubin’s comments about the president’s speech. I wish that I could write like she does. Here are some highlights.
President in Name Only Donald Trump delivered remarks to a joint session of Congress typical of him—overstuffed, narcissistic, mean-spirited, and deeply dishonest. And boring—not to mention interminable…He insulted Democrats; played authoritarian bully by having the Sergeant-at-Arms performatively throw out Representative Al Green for protesting his fallacies too loudly; claimed the presidency was his; whined about the prosecutions (again!); trumpeted fake numbers; and relentlessly smeared his predecessor. (He also confessed that Elon Musk headed DOGE, thereby blowing his lawyers’ defense that someone else was running it.)
In sum, it was the smallest, lowest speech in modern presidential history. Far more significant than the bombast, bluster, and blatant lies Vladimir Putin’s poodle delivered to Congress and the country Tuesday night was the context in which he delivered them. Trump has brought down the curtain on nearly 80 years of American dominance in the world. To boot, in six weeks he’s gone a long way toward wrecking our economy.
…After Trump’s tantrum in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his inevitable but nevertheless stunning cut-off of military assistance, Trump’s GOP sycophants are left struggling to maintain the lie that this was some spectacular show of American strength. In reality, it hurled us to the sidelines, handed Putin the upper hand, and made us the object of scorn and disgust.
She reviewed the tariffs which are now on hold after the stock market has dropped and most of the gains of the last four months have been lost as we may be heading toward a recession. There is more that you should read. She ends with her usual polish:
In sum, forget the chest-thumping, the bald-faced lies, and the ludicrous self-congratulations you heard tonight. No president has done more to harm our economy and standing in the world. Donald Trump is making China and Russia great again. The U.S., on his watch, is the loser.
The president didn’t say much about healthcare during his speech, although there are growing concerns that there will be substantial damage done to Medicaid, the ACA, Veterans Services, and the National Institutes of Health, so initially, I did not ask ChatGPT about his healthcare lies since he has denied his obvious need to cut spending on these items if he is to keep some members of his base happy as he lowers taxes by several trillion dollars and throws away a lot of money trying to deport millions of undocumented workers whose contributions are critical to our current economy.
I wanted to read what the Bot had to say about all the lies I had heard in the speech. So I asked:
Can you make a list of all the false or questionable claims made in President Trump’s speech to both houses of Congress on March 4, 2025?
ChatGPT said:
In President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on March 4, 2025, several statements have been identified as false or questionable:
- Misrepresentation of Aid to Ukraine: President Trump claimed that the U.S. has provided $350 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. In reality, the U.S. has contributed approximately $120 billion, while European nations have collectively allocated nearly $138 billion.
theguardian.com
- Inaccurate Scholarship Funding: He stated that $45 million was allocated for diversity scholarships in Burma. This figure actually pertains to USAID’s Lincoln Scholarships, which are not specifically designated for diversity programs.
theguardian.com
- Exaggerated Social Security Fraud: The President suggested that millions of deceased individuals receive Social Security payments, referencing beneficiaries aged up to 150 years. However, these figures represent individuals without recorded dates of death, not active recipients.
marketwatch.com
- Misleading Polling Data: He cited outdated and partisan polls to claim that Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction, which does not accurately reflect current public opinion.
theguardian.com
- Overstated Government Fraud Savings: Trump claimed that Elon Musk’s government efficiency initiative identified massive fraudulent payments in Social Security. However, the initiative documented less than $9 billion in savings, not the exaggerated amounts suggested.
theguardian.com
- False Accusation Against a School: He alleged that a Florida middle school secretly transitioned a 13-year-old student without parental consent, despite evidence to the contrary.
theguardian.com
- Misleading Claims About Social Security Beneficiaries: Trump reiterated unproven claims about the Social Security Administration paying benefits to beneficiaries who are 150 years old and above, claims initially shared by Elon Musk via his social-media platform X. Critics, including SSA officials and watchdogs, dispute these assertions.
marketwatch.com
- Exaggerated Claims of Fraudulent Payments: He asserted massive fraudulent payments in Social Security and announced impractical policies like tax deductions for car loans on American-made vehicles and selling citizenship to wealthy foreigners.
time.com
- Misrepresentation of Tariff Policies: He announced imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, which led to retaliatory measures from these countries, causing unrest, including market drops and diplomatic tensions.
politico.com
- Misleading Claims About Egg Prices: Trump criticized former President Biden for inflation and high egg prices, without acknowledging that recent surges were due to bird flu, leading to the deaths of 136 million birds since 2022.
abcnews.go.com
These instances highlight discrepancies between President Trump’s statements and verified information.
By the way, if you scratched your head when the president revealed as an example of waste and woke that we were spending money to make mice transgendered, he was probably more confused than lying. We spend money to make mice “transgenic” not transgender, for medical research.
The list was pretty good but incomplete. Before my question, I had been concerned that the ChatBot was programmed to avoid controversy. The candid answer to my first question gave me courage. I decided to ask the Bot what it surmised about healthcare from what Trump said in his speech. So I asked:
What were the healthcare implications of the president’s speech to Congress on March 4, 2025?
ChatGPT said:
In President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on March 4, 2025, several healthcare-related implications were highlighted:
Proposed Medicaid Cuts: The President’s speech included plans to reduce funding for Medicaid, the federal program providing health coverage to low-income Americans. This proposal prompted immediate reactions from Democratic lawmakers. Notably, Representative Al Green vocally protested during the address, asserting that Trump lacked a mandate to implement such cuts. Green’s interruption led to his removal from the chamber.
Focus on Environmental Toxins and Children’s Health: Trump emphasized a commitment to children’s health by targeting environmental toxins. He tasked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with initiatives aimed at eliminating harmful substances from the environment and food supply. The President stated, “Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply and keep our children healthy and strong.” This initiative reflects a broader strategy to address environmental factors affecting public health.
Impact on Community Health Centers: The proposed Medicaid reductions and potential freezes on federal grants have raised concerns among community health centers. For instance, Mollie Melbourne, CEO of Southwest Community Health Center in Connecticut, attended the address as a guest of Representative Jim Himes. Melbourne highlighted that federal funding constitutes 12% of her organization’s budget, and any cuts could significantly affect their operations, potentially reducing access to care for thousands of low-income patients.
These developments underscore the potential shifts in healthcare policy and funding, with significant implications for Medicaid beneficiaries, children’s health initiatives, and the sustainability of community health services.
He didn’t say much about healthcare, but how can there be progress toward better access, better care, scientific progress, and health equity in an environment as turbulent and chaotic as the one created by the president and his enablers in the cabinet, high administrative positions, and Congress? We are subjected to the bizarre behavior of Elon Musk, an unelected force whose destructive efforts were reflected in much of the president’s claims. I would add that it is likely that based on some of its recent decisions, democracy may not be protected by the Supreme Court. This court may certify his attempts to expand the scope and power of the presidency. If the court’s decisions don’t please him, as the results of the 2020 election didn’t please him, he could defy the decision and create a constitutional crisis that the Republicans in Congress might choose to ignore.
It’s been six weeks of chaos. He may still be accelerating the chaos. I hear that the Department of Education is on life support. Perhaps the president believes that it is the epicenter of progressive “wokeness.” Is “wokeness” a dog whistle for progressive ideas?
I think that much of the progress that we have seen over the last several decades, especially in healthcare, has been rooted in progressive thinking which is self-observant of its biases and past failures. Is that being “woke”? One of my self-observed biases is that the MAGA agenda is the equivalent of “right-wing woke.” President Trump is the prophet and frequently confused and erratic supreme ruler of right-wing woke. He is not done yet, and those of us who care about equity and the economically and socially disadvantaged among us will see challenges over the next four years that may make these first six weeks feel like a walk in the park. The man is dangerous. Gird your loins.
We Have A Lot of Melting To Do
Today’s header reveals the mountain of snow at the edge of the parking area outside our garage that was created by our “plowman” with his “bucket loader.” Since the picture was taken, we have had three days with temps in the high forties and over an inch of steady rain. The mountain has not changed much.
This time of year it is hard for me to believe that in less than a month baseball season begins! The Red Sox won’t be playing in my front yard, but it is almost as hard for me to believe that in six weeks plus or minus a few days the three feet of ice on the lake will melt and I will be out in my kayak.
Daylight savings will be here over the weekend. I hope to take my first bike ride of the season very soon! We are in transition, and I am excited as I anticipate the spring and summer. All that we need to do to get to summer is to have that mountain of snow melt away. I hope that wherever you are it is already spring or that spring is just around the corner.
Be well,
Gene
