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| Is this the writing of a well man? |
Donald Trump's obsession with the Nobel Prize could lead to a destabilizing U.S. invasion of Greenland and should be the "last straw" that finally forces Congress to get Trump under control. That is the assessment of prominent historian, journalist, and author Anne Applebaum.
Raw Story provides an overview of Applebaum's take on Trump's bizarre letter (made public yesterday) to Norway's prime minister in which the president links the country's failure to award him the Nobel Peace Prize to a possible U.S. intervention in the Arctic -- specifically Greenland, the world's largest island, which has roughly two-thirds of its territory inside the Arctic Circle.
The Raw Story account is filed under the headline "Historian: 'Maniacal' Trump's note proves he 'genuinely lives in different reality' Alexander Willis writes:
President Donald Trump sent shockwaves across the globe Monday morning after the text of a letter he’d sent Norway’s prime minister was made public, leading historian Anne Applebaum to conclude that the president “genuinely lives in a different reality” — and demanding GOP lawmakers step in before it’s too late.
Described by Applebaum as being filled with “childish grammar, strange capitalizations" and a “loose grasp of history,” the letter includes an open threat from Trump that his administration would continue to pursue acquiring Greenland, a goal that the president suggested was motivated, in part, by not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
“Yet what matters isn’t the specific phrases, but the overall message: Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction affect him,” Applebaum wrote in a column published Monday in The Atlantic.
“Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government and certainly not the Danish government, determines the winner of that prize. Yet Trump not only blames Norway for failing to give it to him, but is using it as a justification for an invasion of Greenland.”
The language in the above paragraph suggests Applebaum sees Trump as dangerously unwell, an assessment she shares with a number of prominent physicians, especially psychiatrists. We have covered that topic on a number of occasions here at Legal Schnauzer. (See here, here, here, and here.) Our most recent report on Trump's mental health came in April 2025, coinciding with a Soviet-style military parade Trump staged in the streets of Washington, D.C. That post included these chilling introductory paragraphs:
Donald Trump's dream of staging a military parade through the streets of Washington, D.C., might be coming to fruition. How much would such an event set back taxpayers? Early projections are $92 million. And when might this take place? One date being tossed around is June 14, 2025. That just happens to be Trump's 79th birthday, so the parade might serve as Trump's present to himself. It would be fitting, given that about 200 mental-health professors stated in a 2024 letter that the president meets the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic, antisocial, and paranoid personality disorder. These are “all made worse by his intense sadism, which is a symptom of malignant narcissism,” they claim.
Dr. Ava Green wrote about the letter under the headline "Trump accused of ‘malignant narcissism’ – but how accurately can you diagnose someone you’ve never met?" Green is a lecturer in forensic psychology in the School of Health and Psychological Sciences at City St. George's, University of London. Green writes:
Public figures have often been subject to speculation as to whether their behaviour meets a mental health diagnosis. Ahead of the US presidential elections, Donald Trump’s mental fitness has, once again, been called into question. This time, 200 mental health professionals signed an open letter warning the public of Trump’s “malignant narcissism.”
The letter, organised by an anti-Trump political group, argues that Trump poses “an existential threat to democracy” in the US. Citing the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the mental health professionals argue that Trump meets the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic, antisocial and paranoid personality disorder. These are “all made worse by his intense sadism, which is a symptom of malignant narcissism,” they claim.
Malignant narcissism is considered a combination of the above personality disorders, in addition to the sadistic urge to inflict pain towards others while gaining pleasure from doing so. For instance, the letter states: “According to first-hand accounts, Trump watched the violence he unleashed on January 6 for three hours on TV with ‘glee’, watching his favorite parts ‘over and over’ on ‘rewind’.”
Even though Trump has not been formally assessed by a psychologist as having any of the diagnoses put forward in the letter, it argues that it's “easy to see that Trump meets the behavioral criteria for antisocial personality disorder.”
The signatories argue that thousands of hours of media coverage of Trump’s behaviour have demonstrated a lifetime pattern of “failure to conform to social norms and laws, repeated lying, reckless disregard for the safety of others, irritability, impulsivity, irresponsibility and lack of remorse”. Other psychologists have come to similar conclusions.
As for Applebaum, she challenged her readers to consider the possible ramifications of Trump's statements on Greenland. From Raw Story:
Applebaum urged her readers to consider where Trump’s latest threat may lead: a “damaging trade war,” or potentially a full-scale U.S. invasion of Greenland that could result in the deaths of some of the Danish citizens living there. The gravity of Trump’s latest threat, coupled with his bizarre ramblings over a perceived award snub, should be “the last straw,” Applebaum argued.
“The people around Trump could find ways to stop him, as some did in his first term, but they seem too corrupt or too power-hungry to try,” Applebaum wrote.
“That leaves Republicans in Congress as the last barrier. They owe it to the American people, and to the world, to stop Trump from acting out his fantasy in Greenland and doing permanent damage to American interests.”
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