It’s time to state the obvious: The President of the United States is deranged.

I don’t mean he’s merely idiosyncratic, nor do I say this as a political jab. I mean that Donald J. Trump literally is mentally ill.

Okay, I’m no doctor, but you don’t need a doctorate in mental disorders to see that his behavior in public and on Twitter is beyond abnormal – it’s psychotic. As we’ve seen, he routinely plunges into prolonged fits of petty paranoia; he succumbs to delusions of imperialist grandeur; he spouts ridiculous right-wing rumors as facts and denies that actual facts are true; and he is pathologically addicted to lying, bizarrely repeating his most blatant fabrications even after they’ve been totally debunked.

A sane, temperamentally-balanced President – possessing all the power and majesty that America’s supreme office conveys – doesn’t get into demeaning public snits with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger; doesn’t feel a constant need to puff himself up with ridiculously false claims, such as his frantic insistence that the crowd at his inaugural celebration was the largest ever; doesn’t rage rabidly at media outlets that displease him, blasting them as “enemies of the people;” and doesn’t unleash a furious, all-out attack on Barack Obama just because some radio talk-show screwball made a proof-free claim that the former president had wiretapped Trump’s campaign.

These are not mere eccentricities, not just Trump being Trump – it’s obvious that the guy is not well and is unable to handle the stress of being president. Indeed, his flaky behavior suggests he’s on the brink of a personal breakdown, and his ever-more-frequent retreats to his posh Florida golf resort tells us he doesn’t even want to do the job. His loved ones and his party should intervene – for his sake and for America’s. But they won’t. So, will we?

“Trumpism At Its Best, Straight Up,” The New York Times, March 3, 2017.

“Pause This Presidency!” The New York Times, March 6, 2017.

“The Power of Disruption,” The New York Times, February 13, 2017.