Donald Trump is in a mental health crisis and his physician Dr. Sean Barbabella must call a psychiatrist!

Call a psychiatrist STAT❗

Donald Trump went on a bizarre digital spree on Truth Social, filling his feed with AI-generated images, mock posters, and attacks on critics. The posts featured simulated conflicts with Iran, 2028, election imagery, and edited photos of public figures.

BREAKING: Trump is having a mental health episode on social media right now. Shared on Occupy Democrats social media. 

Trump is in a mental health crisis meltdown, he has been posting insane nonsense, nonstop, all day:

11:16 AM - AI photo of Kaitlan Collins as Dylan Mulvaney
11:43 AM - AI image attacking Bruce Springsteen
3:22 PM - An AI art installation of Trump throwing a ‘Trump 2028’ hat
3:23 PM - Photo of him standing next to a TV with Biden’s final Oval Office address playing
3:23 PM - AI art of him giving his speech at the WHCD
3:23 PM - AI photo of Chris Christie fighting Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler
3:23 PM - AI image attacking Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Stephen Colbert
3:24 PM - Trump 2028 poster that says “give the enemy nightmares.” Nobody is scared of him
3:24 PM - AI image attacking Rosie O’Donnell
3:25 PM - Fake movie poster of him in Star Trek
3:25 PM - Another Trump 2028 poster
3:31 PM - AI poster of the U.S. attacking Kharg Island in Iran
3:31 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker
3:32 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x2
3:33 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x3
3:47 PM - Posts an AI image of an Iranian ship being blown up
4:36 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x4
4:36 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x5
4:37 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x6
4:39 PM - AI image of him cosplaying as a Navy Commander
4:39 PM - AI image of him smoking a cigar wearing a Trump 2028 hat
4:40 PM - AI poster of him with founding fathers
4:41 PM - Poster of himself saying “the man who saved America” which couldn’t be further from the truth
4:41 PM - Weird photo of him standing behind a pillar
4:45 PM - AI image of himself saying “Guardians of the world”
4:47 PM - AI image of American jets saying “Guardian Angels of the world”
4:48 PM - Another AI photo of an Iranian ship being blown up
4:49 PM - AI image of himself saying “Guardians of the world” x2
4:52 PM - AI photo of lightning over the Capitol building saying “panic in DC”
4:53 PM - A photo of himself saying “plan trusted”
4:54 PM - AI image of an eagle and a jet saying “America is back” which certainly isn’t true
4:54 PM - AI photo of a beach saying “Trump’s America” which is ironic given that the image is fake lol
4:55 PM - Photo of him giving a speech
4:56 PM - Photo of himself pointing at members of his cabinet
4:57 PM - AI photo of himself and JFK
4:58 PM - Fake photo of himself wearing a pink Trump 2028 hat
4:59 PM - AI photo of a Trump 2028, mug surrounded by crying people
4:59 PM - Photo of him putting on his Trump 2028 hat at the WHCD
5:00 PM - Posts graph downplaying American casualties in Iran
5:01 PM - AI photo of an air filter between the United States and Canada
5:04 PM - Attacks Republican Senator John Thune
5:04 PM - AI image of him as a doctor
5:16 PM - Fake movie poster of him and George Washington in a time travel movie
He’s insane. 25th Amendment NOW.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans in denail about failed executive leadership

Where is Republican Senator Susan Collins💢❓❓

White House fiascos: Regarding “Europe warns of 'dangerous downward spiral' after Trump threatens tariffs over Greenland,” (Jan. 18): Maine Writer preface here.....Donald Trump is a serial criminal and a constant liar.  He never testifies about anything "under oath".  Europeans know Donald Trump is crazy, so are his cult followers....as per this opinion published in the Houston Chronicle.

Donald Trump informed Norway’s prime minister

Jonas Gahr Støre in a text — that because he did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, he plans to seize Greenland❓ Without a doubt, it is obvious that the golden escalator does not go to the top floor.  Donald Trump has lost his freaking mind. Every news organization in America should be screaming about this❗😱

At this point, Trump could bite the head off a live rat, and it might earn a page 10 mention in major metro papers. As pundits debate the strategic significance of rat eating, MSNBC would run live coverage with commentary. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz would appear on Fox News, decrying the radical left conspiracy to advance its woke, pro-rat agenda. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt would praise the selfless courage of Trump confronting the rat head-on and, much like Jesus, eating it for our sins. Rats 🐀would be, like, “These guys are nuts. Just sit tight for a few months, and we’ll be running the place.”

This isn’t about eating rats. It’s not even about Greenland. Rather, it’s about the elephant in the room: We are in a Freddy Krueger-level national nightmare, and it’s time to wake up. The Cabinet needs to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. The House needs to impeach. The Senate must to convict❗

From Robert Campbell, in Katy Texas

Donald Trump continues to be assessed by medical professionals because his bizarre behavior "cannot be considered normal"

Echo opinion about Donald Trump's mental health and his deteriorating cognitive symptoms published in the News-Press, a Florida newspaper. 

An urgent need to understand Trump's mentality | Opinion

Do his characteristics indicate a mental disorder, and if so, how serious is it? by Morton Tavel, MD

Almost everyone understands that Donald Trump displays thought processes that cannot be considered normal. 

(For example, Donald Trump said he did not know the person who he pardoned❗"I do not know the man I pardoned," was made by Donald Trump in a November 2025 interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes regarding his pardon of cryptocurrency tycoon Changpeng Zhao (also known as "CZ").   In fact, Zhao, the founder of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, pleaded guilty in 2023, to violating anti-money laundering laws and served a four-month prison sentence. U.S. government prosecutors stated that he had caused significant harm to U.S. national security by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars through his platform.)

Simple failings such as incessant lying, oversensitive responses to humor, and exaggeration of self-worth, all raise the question whether these characteristics indicate a mental disorder, and if so, how serious is it?

For these answers, we can seek the opinions of recognized mental health experts, i.e. psychiatrists and psychologists. An excellent source of this information can be found in the book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” which presents the opinions of 27 nationally recognized psychiatrists and psychologists, edited by Brandy X. Lee, M.D. forensic psychiatrist, published in 2017, and later updated in 2024 under a new name, “The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” later increased to include the opinions of 40 such professionals. Also, from a closer perspective, Trump’s own niece, Mary Trump, a credentialed clinical psychologist, emphatically presented parallel conclusions in her book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”

Although a previous psychiatric doctrine prevented the publication of opinions about subjects not personally examined by the experts (the “Goldwater Rule”), this restriction has now been lifted in view of the widespread public knowledge already available about Trump’s statements and behavior. 

Explaining this recent decision, the“the physician, to whom life-and-death situations are entrusted, is expected to know when it is appropriate to act, and only in an emergency should a physician breach the trust of confidentiality and intervene without consent. We believe that such an emergency now exists.”

Following is a summary of these experts’ opinions:

First: All contributors opined that Trump is seriously mentally deranged, primarily considered to be a “psychopathic personality disorder,” often termed “toxic narcissism.” Adding further to his impairment, they expressed the strong likelihood that he is manifesting an early form of dementia (Alzheimer’s Disease). After careful study of his many statements and behavior, they concluded that he shows a mental decline greater than that of normal aging, further asserting that often this condition advances by an average 15% to 20% within one year, and 50% will develop into full-scale dementia over the next four years.

In order to quantify the seriousness of Trump’s mental disorder, the psychiatrists used a “psychopathic check list,” generally used to grade the severity of impairments, which was applied to evaluate Trump.

This assessment included a wide variety of factors such as egocentricity, pathological lying, lack of remorse or guilt, lack of empathy, impulsiveness, sexual infidelity, and several others. As a frame of reference, the average score for someone in the general population is 5, with an average for felons in a maximum-security prison setting, 22. A score of 30 or more places one into serious mental disorder, and Trump was found to exceed this level by the experts, falling in the range of 34. The authors concluded that “Trump’s is a life destined to inflict harm and suffering on others. With the support of thousands of studies on his condition, we have to warn that Donald Trump, because of his hard-wired and immutable traits, is more dangerous than even his harshest critics exclaim.”

Perhaps the most revealing statement about Trump can be found in a chapter written by psychiatrist L. Dodes, MD, entitled “Donald Trump, Like Hitler, is a Psychopath.” Dodes warns that “this constitutes the most dangerous of all mental disorders, since it is the only psychological condition in which behaving in a morally reprehensible way is an essential part of its nature.”

Manifestations of this disorder include the intentional creation of harm to others without guilt or remorse, for personal gain or self-gratification, which includes the sadistic pleasure of wreaking revenge against imagined enemies. Psychopaths cannot be reasoned out of their beliefs or their behavior, because they are unable to comprehend that others have value, or the concept of questioning themselves. The fact that Donald Trump has the most dangerous form of this disorder has two long-term consequences: It means that he is never going to stop intentionally harming others for his personal benefit, and it means that he will become worse over time. With his use of the ‘Big Lie’ technique, attacks on minorities and immigrants, and claims that only he can save America, Trump has shown that he is following the very same plan as that of Hitler and other truly evil dictators in human history, including lawbreaking, lying, cheating, and the absence of conscience.”

Given all these facts, how could the average person understand and react to Trump❓ A common mistake is to assume that he is “sane,” that is, possessing human qualities common to all, such as the ability to listen to reason and draw conclusions from cogent facts, and to modify his/her behavior accordingly. Donald Trump possesses none of these qualities, and we should not be misled by this erroneous interpretation.

But what can we, as a population, do about Trump’s current posses
sion of the levers of power❓

If Donald Trump continues on a course of obvious mental deterioration, (Alzheimer’s, etc.), or that of a more serious mental disorder, this should provide enough impetus to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would require his removal after initiation by his own Cabinet, which, at present, seems unlikely. Another, third impeachment, also is currently unlikely at least until the next election in 2026. But in any event, the majority of enlightened voters of either party could, with a great majority, elect a legislative body able to limit Trump’s destructive behavior until he leaves office.

Finally, I advise everyone to read the books referred to above.
Morton Tavel, MD, FACP, of Fort Myers, is professor emeritus, Indiana University School of Medicine, authored over 145 research publications, editorials, book reviews and a medical textbook. 

Donald Trump should be required to have a mental competency exam - psychiatric experts echo

Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency, mental health professionals have come forth in historically unprecedented ways to warn against entrusting the U.S. presidency to someone who exhibits what we have called his “dangerous” signs.

Echo opinion Published in The Conversation by Bandy X. Lee
Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University

The observed signs have included “grandiosity, impulsivity, hypersensitivity to slights or criticism, and an apparent inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality.”

As a psychiatrist and expert on violence, I worked with my colleagues to put our observations into a book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” responding to the hunger for understanding on the part of the public.

Trump Mental Health Urgently Deteriorating

I was never interested in domestic partisan politics until it coincided with my concerns for public safety as a violence scholar. 

As a scientist and physician, my training leads naturally to making conclusions that are based not on ideology or personal preference, but on research evidence and medical needs.

Now, since the Democratic Party will have the majority in one-half of the legislative branch of government and can provide some oversight of the presidency, it seems a propitious time to begin an important, civilizing conversation about mental health in the presidency.

All American military personnel must pass a fitness for duty exam before they serve. Further, those who handle nuclear weapons undergo an especially rigorous screening process that is updated every year.

That United States commanders-in-chief are not put to the same test before they are allowed to lead the troops or to order the use of nuclear weapons is, I believe, a serious omission.

Assessing fitness for the job

Evaluations of fitness, or capacity, or competence, are specific to the requirements of a task or job. The exam can be suited to any job.

The U.S. Army’s field manual, for example, includes elements that are critical for fit leadership: trust, discipline and self-control, judgment and critical thinking, self-awareness and empathy.

One can deduce, for example, that the minimal requirement for a U.S. president is to have the ability to take in proper information and advice, to process that information and to think about consequences before making sound, reality-based decisions.

Fitness for duty tests also assess an employee’s capacity to work without putting their own or others’ health and safety at risk.

In the case of Trump, there have been numerous, concerning signs that suggest he may lack that capacity.

The potential for violence is best assessed through a past history of violence, including verbal aggression and incitement to violence, and a structured checklist of personal characteristics.

Courts and employers may legally request capacity evaluations, which forensic mental health professionals – who practice at the interface of mental health and the law – usually perform. They are independent of the interested parties and are not engaged in treatment with the person being evaluated.

Ideally, these exams would be given before a person takes the job. They can also be ordered after a worker has shown signs of incompetence.

Incapacity is not the same as mental illness. Mental illness per se does not make a person unfit for duty, just as one can be unfit and yet not have a diagnosis of mental disorder. Abraham Lincoln famously suffered from debilitating depression, which may even have helped him to be a better, more empathetic leader.

Mental capacity should inform political discussion
Since President Trump took office, news reports have revealed that discussions had been held among GOP members and even high-level government officials about the 25th Amendment. That amendment allows the removal of a president who is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.

I have been asked to comment on the applicability of the 25th Amendment to Trump in multiple forums, including to members of Congress.

As a forensic psychiatrist, it is of utmost importance that I make the boundaries of my expertise clear. I should not comment outside my area, but within my expertise, I can speak authoritatively.

The removal of a president because of inability is ultimately a political decision, but politicians and the public would do well to proceed in an informed manner.

Disability, incompetence and unfitness are legal and not mental health concepts. Yet no court of law would consider making these determinations without input from medical experts.

To invoke the 25th Amendment without relevant evidence could also expose the process to endless use and misuse for partisan purposes. Medical expertise can serve as a neutralizing ground. It is based on verifiable clinical observations and uniform standards of practice. A panel of experts could bring forth consensus where there are sufficient, high-quality data.

In the current situation, if the patterns of impulsivity, attraction to violence and detachment from reality we are observing in the president are psychological pathology and not political strategy, it is incumbent on mental health professionals to inform the appropriate authorities, regardless of the context in which they are occurring. Non-experts can then be alerted to the need for more detailed examination.

The 25th Amendment

The proper role of the medical professional regarding the 25th Amendment is to wait for a consultation to be requested and not to interfere in the political process.

However, taking steps to protect the public’s health when there are dangers is very much the health professional’s domain and may entail alerting the public about the need for an urgent evaluation.

Scholars have pointed out at least four instances where the 25th Amendment would have been useful but was not invoked or not available. The most conspicuous example is the case of Ronald Reagan, who may have been suffering from early manifestations of dementia.

Furthermore, White House physicians have covered up presidential impairments in the past. (MaineWriter: For example, President Woodrow Wilson as described in this NPR report.)

To avoid this predicament in the future, we can require fitness for duty testing for all presidential and vice-presidential candidates, preferably before they take office and annually thereafter.

In a healthy democracy, it is reasonable for the people to require that their leader meet the minimal mental and physical capacity to serve in the office, and for them to be informed if he or she fails to do so.

Members of the National Coalition of Concerned Mental Health Expertsare already in the process of forming a nongovernmental expert panel, based purely on medical criteria, to serve in a rigorous consulting role if called upon or to advise on the need for urgent assessments.

We believe that Trump’s numerous signs of impairment have long called for an urgent evaluation.

In addition to a capacity evaluation, a thorough neuropsychiatric examination would help us to understand better if the president’s behavior will continue or rapidly grow worse.

Mental pathology can be powerful when severe. Decisions about impeachment or other measures to contain the dangers that Trump – or any other president – could present should not be made without this information.

Fear ~ more than a book title describes Donald Trump

Two echo opinion letters published in the New York (Long Island) newspaper Newsday.

Bob Woodward's investigation into the Donald Trump administration is rightly titled Fear.  These two letters echo the book's central theme - being, Donald Trump believes creating fear will build his credibility. OMG!

Letter #1: From Robert Mays, Freeport New York

Donald Trump characterized Bob Woodward’s new book, the latest in a series of documented critical writings about Trump’s administration, as a joke [“Trump: New book a ‘Joke’,” News, Sept. 11].

Unlike Trump, Woodward has a sterling reputation for honesty and for meticulous detail in his writing and reporting. He has a history of criticizing both Republican and Democratic administrations when deserved and has won prestigious awards for doing so. Trump and his administration are different from past administrations, and not in a good way. Recent polls indicate that more and more American voters are paying attention to Trump’s unique dysfunction.

If those polls are accurate and special counsel Robert Mueller completes his work, the joke will be on Trump, and the country can be a leader in the world once again.

Letter #2 Edward B. (Woody) Ryder IV, Greenlawn, New York

White House staff do the nation a disservice by enabling the man in the Trumpian bubble. 

Instead, they should help Donald Trump by orchestrating an intervention and invoking the 25th Amendment as they apparently discussed shortly after Jan. 20, 2017, according to Bob Woodward’s new book.

If news reports are accurate that the only people Trump trusts are his children, it is up to those who feed off the paternal entrails to orchestrate this intervention.

The New York Times op-ed about Trump’s White House that claimed there is a “resistance” within the Trump administration was written anonymously, for good reason. Anonymity was required for the writer for the same reason, albeit with a substantially much less violent proposed end result, that neither Claus von Stauffenberg nor his Valkyrie allies revealed their identities in their ultimately futile attempt to remove from office the lunatic (Hitler) of their era.

Evangelical Christians misplace their Messianic obsession with Donald Trump

It makes no religious sense. Regardless of what faith you follow. Even atheists know better. 

I'm a Roman Catholic who doesn't believe in false prophets.  

There is nothing Evangelical or Messianic about Donald Trump. 

It's scary. Donald Trump is an immature, and hedonistic man, who created a cult following, by throwing around a couple of slanderous campaign slogans. 

Donald Trump's horrible, but indelible, messages like "Lock her up", or "Mexicans are rapists," are among other evil messages that obviously captivated the minds of misguided Evangelicals (including many who are Roman Catholics, like Hugh Hewett, sorry to say.)

No, seriously! It's apparent to me that the Evangelical Christians who blindly follow Donald Trump, like he is a new age Messiah, are behaving with a cult mentality. They are victims of the most heinous hypocrisy.  They blindly obey Donald Trump, a man who has no Christian beliefs, whatsoever.

Honestly, I heard from a friend who sent her two daughters to a Christian summer camp. They came home with a message from a counselor, who instructed them to always obey their leader, because they are inspired by God. Oh really? 

Obviously, Moses would never have been the heroic leader he became, if his mother had given in, and obeyed the Pharaoh. 

It was the leader of Egypt, the Pharaoh who commanded that all male Hebrew children born would be drowned in the river Nile. But, Moses' mother placed him in an ark and concealed the ark in the bulrushes by the riverbank, where the baby was discovered and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.  

"A man and a woman from the tribe of Levi had a baby boy. They defied Pharaoh’s decree, hiding their son for three months. But when it became impossible to hide him any longer, they 'cast him into the Nile River'...In fact, if Moses hadn't been saved by Pharaoh’s daughter, there would have been no nation for him to deliver more than 75 years later." Moses and the Exodus (Exodus 1-15).

Now, Donald Trump is trumpeting another evil slogan.  
"North Korea Will Be Met With 'Fire And Fury'", was a dangerously stupid response to Kim Jong-un, who is bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war, all by himself. Yet, (unbelievably) Donald Trump is now enticing him to move even faster, in this regard. 
Donald Trump was incendiary and reactionary by calling on fire and brimstone to annihilate millions of North Koreans. He reacted in defiance to the measured responses to Kim Jong-un, as provided by his leadership team. In fact, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for negotiations, using moderate tones.  United National Ambassador Nikki Haley coordinated a 15-0 vote of the international community, to impose greater sanctions on North Korea. Both responses were synergistic. While Tillerson offered a door to negotiations, Haley's strategy tightened the economic incentive for Kim Jong-un to go to the negotiating table.  

Tragically, Donald Trump upset this cleverly nuanced strategy with the stupidity of raising the danger bar too high for anybody to transcend.

As long as Kim Jong-un in North Korea is alive, the likelihood of a retaliatory strike against the US by a rogue missile, with nuclear impact, is highly probable.  

It is the US that will experience the wrath of fire and fury, because Donald Trump raised the temperature on an inflammatory situation, rather than work to calm the flames.

Meanwhile, the Evangelicals continue to blindly follow Donald Trump. Clearly, they forget the Biblical Scripture in Ezekiel 28-16:

"The riches which thy great trade has produced have but increased thy love of gain more and more, and induced thee to commit acts of violence, fraud, and extortion, to make further additions to thy power and riches; therefore I will cast thee out of the mountain of God — I will cast thee down to contempt from that super-eminent degree of power and glory..."

Evangelicals who blindly follow Donald Trump (including Roman Catholics) are classic cult victims. They have falsely believed in his wrongly claimed Messianic status. Donald Trump will fall, just like all the despots before him.  Nevertheless, in his fall, he risks taking millions of innocent people along with him, unless America wakes up and removes him for incompetence, as the 25th Amendment of the Constitution provides.

Military families and the USS Carl Vinson

Mockery, anger in South Korea over USS Carl Vinson 'bluffing'- "...no-show has caused some South Koreans to question leadership and strategy..." 

One newspaper headline called it Trump's "Carl Vinson lie," and speculated that the Russian and Chinese leaders must have had a good laugh at its absence.

USS Carl Vinson- "Calling the USS Carl Vinson!"

How can Donald Trump loose track of an aircraft carrier?

It's very serious error in judgement when Donald Trump and his Press Secretary, "spokesy Spicey", appears to plays games with the USNaval operations. Moreover, the families of our military serving in these dangerous operations are receiving mixed messages.

Quite frankly, I'm horrified by this terrible headline about how the USS Carl Vinson was misrepresented as being on a trajectory to the Korean Penninsula to intercept in a potential crises while, in reality, the aircraft carrier was headed to Australia.  This miscommunication is irresponsible!

(CNN)

Donald Trump said he was sending "an armada" to Korean waters to potentially deal with threats from Pyongyang, North Korea.

But its no-show has caused some South Koreans to question his leadership and strategy regarding their unpredictable neighbor in the north.

And as the country prepares to vote for a new president on May 9, the claim could have far-reaching implications for the two countries' relations.

"What Mr. Trump said was very important for the national security of South Korea," Presidential candidate Hong Joon-pyo told the Wall Street Journal.

"If that was a lie, then during Trump's term, South Korea will not trust whatever Trump says,"​ said Hong, who is currently trailing in the polls.

South Korean media also seized on the conflicting reports on Trump's "armada" -- led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

Meant to present a robust defense against a potential nuclear test by Pyongyang, the report likened the bluff to North Korea's shows of force, where "fake missiles" are paraded through the streets of the North Korean capital.

"Like North Korea, which is often accused of displaying fake missiles during military parades, is the United States, too, now employing 'bluffing' as its North Korea policy?" it asked.

Sending the armada
In the face of antagonism from North Korea last week, Trump had said the USS Carl Vinson carrier group was being deployed to waters off the Korean Peninsula.

"We are sending an armada. Very powerful," Trump told Fox Business Channel's Maria Bartiromo. "We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. That, I can tell you." (This is so inconsiderate of the military families who follow their loved ones and the misleading information is distressing to all involved in the naval operations.)

It turns out the carrier group was never actually steaming towards the peninsula, but rather heading to joint exercises with the Australian navy. US officials insist it's now on its way to the Sea of Japan, known in South Korea as the East Sea. 

It still hasn't arrived.

On Thursday, the US Navy announced it was extending the Vinson's deployment by 30 days "to provide a persistent presence in the waters off the Korean Peninsula."

South Korea reacts

"How does the US expect South Koreans to trust the US when its leader bluffs and exaggerates? South Koreans' feelings were hurt considerably by remarks by the leader of a close ally."

Confusion reigns
Trump's initial assurance, in the form of a strong military response, telegraphed a robust defense of the US' stalwart allies, South Korea and Japan.

It also ratcheted tensions on the peninsula, prompting North Korea's deputy ambassador to the UN to warn that the US was risking nuclear war with its actions on the peninsula -- any hostile act is inherently a dangerous calculation when dealing with an unstable actor like North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

A senior administration official later said a miscommunication between the Pentagon and the White House was to blame for the mixed reports.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer (aka "Spicey"), however, compounded the confusion, by doubling down on the President's assertions.

"We have an armada going toward the peninsula. That's a fact," he told a skeptical press corps during his daily briefing on Wednesday, arguing that, in the broadest sense, the president's statement was accurate because the ships would eventually get to the waters between North Korea and Japan.

Meanwhile, the US and South Korean military are currently engaged in joint training exercise at the Kunsan Air Base on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has long objected to the two countries' annual joint maneuvers.

"We've been tasked to do these yearly exercises because we always have to be ready to defend the republic of Korea and we've been doing it obviously for a while and we will keep doing it as need be," Lt. Col. Steven Raspet told CNN.

Political thin ice
The bluff -- if that is what it was -- comes at a precarious time for South Korean politics -- in less than a month, the country will go to the polls to elect a replacement for impeached President Park Geun-hye.

In addition to the comments about US-South Korea relations made by Hong, the presidential candidate from Park's ruling party, the confusion over the US' response to the potential nuclear tests has led to questions about how much the government and the military knew about the location of the Vinson and its group.

Questions about what this means in the context of the election, where Pyongyang's increased belligerence has been a key election talking point, abound.

"Both South Korea and the US are in close cooperation to deter North Korea's provocations and to pursue peace and stability of the Korean peninsula," a South Korean Defense Ministry official said.

"The defense ministry has been and is closely working together with the US military. However, it is inappropriate for the ministry to go into details about the (strength of the) US military operation."

Wounded pride
Some of Trump's comments (!) have also rankled in South Korea. 

In fact, Trump told the Wall Street Journal -- after getting a primer on regional geopolitics from Chinese President Xi Jinping -- that the Korean peninsula "actually used to be part of China."

South Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry, in a daily briefing Thursday, announced the government's response to the comments.

"The Ministry is in the process of checking facts with both the US and China through various diplomatic channels," the ministry's spokesperson Cho June-hyuck said.

"The international community unequivocally acknowledges that Korea was never a part of China in its thousands of years of history that no one can deny the fact," he added.

CNN's Pamela Boykoff and journalist Seo Yoon-Jung contributed to this report.

In conclusion- it is obvious that Donald Trump can't get anything right! Impeach for incompetence- or invoke the 25th amendment.
PRESIDENTIAL DISABILITY AND SUCCESSION