Donald Trump is not mentally well. News media that reported President Biden's physical health must investigate Trump's declining cognition

It seems strange and troubling that the mental capacities of Trump, almost 80, are yet to command a rigorous and concerted examination from more mainstream news organizations.

Echo opinion essay published in the Boston Globe by 

Are mainstream news media finally ready to examine Trump’s mental fitness❓

"Trump is undergoing a 'significant decline' in his mental faculties, citing alleged dementia and saying the president is 'a man who is clearly insane', ” Ty Cobb.  "He often engages in late-night or early morning posting sprees, churning out dozens —sometimes hundreds — of so-called 'truths' and 're-truths' over a span of a few hours."

A recent New York Times story and prominent MAGA defections could be signs of the dam breaking.  (Maine Writer opinion- Donald Trump obviously has multiple personality disorders, pathological narcissism and a sociopathic problem with being civil and lacking appropriate emotional reactions to people who are struggling.  He threw paper towels to survivors of the category four hurricane Maria, when they were overwhelmed by the storm's disaster. He stooped to another low by expressing happiness about the death of the highly respected former FBI director Bob Mueller. Trump said, "Good, Im glad❗🤢) These and many other examples are symptomatic of mental illness and age related declining cognition.)

By Jill Abramson, is a former executive editor of The New York Times, teaches journalism at Northeastern University and is a contributing Globe Opinion writer.

Donald Trump’s obvious signs of mental decline have not received the national news media attention that would be commensurate with the problems they pose to the world. Hopefully, that’s beginning to change.

Peter Baker, reporter for The New York Times, dug deeply into the president’s erratic, bizarre, and dangerous behavior, social media posts, and other statements for an article released this week. Baker’s article was chock-full of recent examples, including Trump’s threat to annihilate Iran (dangerous), his since-deleted AI-generated Truth Social post portraying himself as Jesus and his fight with Pope Leo XIV (bizarre), and his out-of-the-blue discourses about Sharpies and White House drapes (erratic). The article showed definitively a president in decline and — though it stopped short of saying it — a man who, many believe, is losing his mind.

The news media were accused of helping cover up former President Joe Biden’s slipping mental acuity until a halting, disastrous debate performance put it on national display and forced Biden out of the 2024, election.

It seems strange and troubling that the mental capacities of Trump, almost 80, are yet to command a rigorous and concerted examination from more mainstream news organizations.

But, often, they lack the reporting muscle to investigate what happens inside the Trump White House or to pierce government stonewalling. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has put unprecedented pressure on the media, making government reporting more challenging, even as some Trump administration anti-free press moves are withering in the courts.

The Times story could be a sign of the dam breaking. So, too, are the defections of MAGA celebrities like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and former representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said, “President Trump has gone mad” and called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked.

Ty Cobb, a former White House attorney during the first Trump administration, has also publicly stated that Trump is undergoing a “significant decline” in his mental faculties, citing alleged dementia and saying the president is “a man who is clearly insane.”

Though the traditional press, cable, and television networks no longer enjoy the reach, trust, or influence they once had, global publications like the Times can still set the news agenda. 

With an increasingly atomized news media landscape, it isn’t surprising to see the online subscription Substacks of individual journalists, other online sites, and the foreign press stepping up to fill gaps left by traditional the lack the reporting muscle to investigate what happens inside the Trump White House or to pierce government stonewalling.  (Check my Juliana LHeureux Substack post about Donald Trump's age related disabilities, at this link here)

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has put unprecedented pressure on the media, making government reporting more challenging, even as some Trump administration anti-free press moves are withering in the courts.

With the earliest coverage of Trump’s mental decline often coming from new media, a sea change is visible. But writers on Substack and other new media platforms are not necessarily bound by traditional sourcing rules and reporting techniques. Because they may not have firsthand sources inside the White House who actually witness the president’s behavior, they tend to rely on opinion polls showing that a majority of the public doubts Trump has the mental capacity to govern, or medical experts who also lack firsthand knowledge.

That hasn’t prevented an array of mental health professionals from commenting on Trump’s apparent decline. In 2017, forensic psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee published an anthology, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” with essays by 27 psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals describing the danger that they felt Trump’s mental health posed. A new edition, “The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 50 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Warn Anew,” came out in 2025.  Recently, Dr. Vin Gupta, a medical analyst for NBC News, discussed the Trump family history of dementia, stating that he was observing a “trend line” with the president and “it seems like it’s getting worse.”

STAT, a health news site that shares a parent company with The Boston Globe, provided early coverage of Trump’s potential mental decline. Some Substacks have also smartly addressed the topic of Trump’s mental challenges.

John Ellis, editor of the News Items Substack newsletter and a former columnist for Globe Opinion, cited a recent poll showing a majority of Americans believe Trump “lacks the mental sharpness to serve effectively” as president. Given that concern, he says, it’s odd that mainstream news organizations have not attacked the story more aggressively. “It is arguably the most important story in the world,” he told me.

Former New Yorker and Daily Beast editor Tina Brown, who has also written smartly about Trump’s mental health, said on her Substack, Fresh Hell, that “Trump’s psychosis is our biggest national export.”

During his first term in 2018, Trump boasted of scoring 100 percent on a 10-minute cognitive test administered by his doctor. (More recently, he said he aced two other cognitive tests.)

It was laughable when Trump in 2018, reacted to a negative portrayal of himself in Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by calling himself a “very stable genius.” Now, when he is leading an illegal war of his own choosing and his troubling utterances and actions pile up, his apparent lack of mental fitness is no laughing matter.

Donald Trump hearing from angry Republican Catholics who are disgusted by his obsession with His Holiness Pope Leo

A president cosplaying as Christ and trashing the pope crosses a moral red line | Echo Opinion published in the Miami Herald by Mary Anna Mancuso.

I’m a Republican. I’m also Catholic. And this weekend, both of parts of my identity were at odds when President Trump attacked Pope Leo, the first American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Trump called Leo, “WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy,” in a post on Truth Social on Sunday evening. He then boasted it was because he was in the White House that Pope Leo is in the Vatican. But Trump didn’t stop there, in the same post, he made it political saying, “I like his brother Louis much better than I like him, because Louis is all MAGA.”

More troubling was the AI-generated image Trump shared on Truth Social depicting himself as Jesus Christ. When a sitting president borrows sacred religious imagery and attacks the head of the Catholic Church, it’s not just political rhetoric but blasphemy. The image has since been deleted after backlash, but the point remains: Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo are morally wrong. 

No other American president has ever done this.

Catholics believe the pope is the successor to St. Peter, the spiritual leader of more than a billion worldwide. 

But, here in South Florida, this isn’t some distant theological concept — it’s personal. The Archdiocese of Miami is home to roughly 1.3 million Catholics, the single-largest religious group in South Florida. That’s more than a number, it’s families across Miami-Dade County, and 30% of adults, according to Pew Research. 

You don’t have to be Catholic to understand that the pope’s role is moral, not political. Criticizing the pope isn’t new, it’s happened for centuries. Catholics have debated and disagreed with Church leaders before. But, morally, this is different from theological differences. Treating the papacy as a political opponent to be mocked crosses a line as red as the pope’s vestment.

When the president ridicules a spiritual leader, it makes the office of the presidency look small, not powerful. When every institution is treated as political and something to be conquered, nothing is left above politics. Democracy requires shared ground — institutions that are beyond the reach of one man’s ambition. The Catholic Church is one of them.

For two millennia, the church outlasted empires and survived wars. And it’s always emerged from centuries of political turmoil with its mission intact. Indeed, the Catholic Church will outlast Trump’s insolence, too. 

Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he was “disheartened” by Trump’s comments, saying, “Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician. He is the Vicar of Christ who speaks from the truth of the Gospel.” GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said, “I saw a lot of Republicans commenting in it last night. Some saying he’s just trolling, and others saying it’s anti-Christian. 

When you divide your own party it is self destructive. To me it was a gaudy and juvenile post.” Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, called it “inappropriate and embarrassing.” 

These are not liberal critics. These are Republicans telling Trump he went too far. And the post’s deletion suggests the White House knew it, too. On Monday, Leo told reporters he is “not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the Church works for.”

“We are not politicians,” Leo said. Leo didn’t mince words and conservatives must defend that distinction. A president who portrays himself as Christ while treating the pope as a political enemy is doing more than attacking a religious leader. Trump is claiming authority that no American president is meant to have. But the deletion of the image wasn’t an act of contrition. There hasn’t been an apology or statement issued. Under pressure, Trump retreated — which is telling. It shows the backlash worked and that a line still exists. And it means Americans — including conservatives and Christians who support Trump — will not follow him past it. The papacy isn’t a political target, and Jesus Christ isn’t a brand. Any president who refuses to acknowledge that diminishes the office he holds. 

Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com

Donald Trump and maga Republicans wrecking America's reputation in Europe anti-American sentiment rising

I just got back from Europe. Anti-American sentiment is on the rise
Opinion essay echo published in the Los Angeles Times by Robin Abcarian.

It was midday just before Easter in Paris. 

My niece and I walked past the city’s famous opera house, where tourists were relaxing on the wide steps. French soldiers armed with assault rifles strolled around, a comforting sight given the warnings about Iran-backed sleeper cells and potential retaliatory attacks. 

A busker with a guitar and a microphone entertained the crowd with a Coldplay cover.

Between songs, he asked, “Anyone here speak English?” Unbelievably, not a single hand went up.

The busker shrugged, turned both thumbs down in the universal gesture of disapproval, and said, “America, eh?” I felt him.

A couple of days after I got home, I saw a social media post that reminded me of that moment. “Honestly,” wrote @_thatambitiousgirl, “I don’t know how anyone could even feel comfortable traveling as an American outside of the U.S. right now.”

Anti-American sentiment is on the rise, and it sucks being from a country whose presidents do things like threaten to end a “whole civilization,” invade Middle Eastern countries based on lies about weapons of mass destruction, or insert themselves into pointless conflicts in faraway lands. 

In college, I had friends who sewed Canadian flags onto their backpacks because they didn’t want to be associated with America’s misadventures in Southeast Asia.

Polls show that half of Europeans view Donald Trump, who has threatened to withdraw from NATO, as an enemy rather than an ally. He has managed the neat trick of telling our allies they are useless while castigating them for not rushing to help with his poorly planned and illegal war on Iran. “This is not our war,” the German defense minister said pointedly last month. “We have not started it.”


Quite simply, with the assent of the Republican Party, Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the world order as we’ve known it in our lifetimes, while also managing to make life harder for Americans at home.

“We’re worse off in every way, and officially a global pariah,” said the New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie on Facebook this week. “Awesome. Love that.”

Anyway, I was glad to see that someone I know, the novelist Erin Zhurkin, responded thoughtfully to @_that ambitiousgirl’s Instagram post.

Donald Trump is a Republican wrecking ball

Been an American abroad for 20 years now,” wrote Zhurkin, whose Russian-born American husband is an executive with Renault. “Six countries so far. People are in general curious and grateful that I can see my country from all sides….I try to represent the heart of the US, which I believe is about being open to all people and finding commonalities rather than differences.”

This, truly, is the heart of the matter.

 In the fall of 1967, my family moved from Northridge to France, where my father had a year-long Fulbright teaching scholarship at the University of Pau. Before we got on the airplane, my mother sat the four of her rambunctious kids down.

“It’s very important that you not be ‘Ugly Americans,’ ” she told us. We were too young to have read the classic 1958 novel she was referring to, but we understood that we were to be curious and respectful and maybe not yell, as we unfortunately did, “Yuck, this is NOT a hot dog,” during our first meal in Paris.

One winter evening in Pau, my parents took us to an anti-war demonstration, as they had done many times in Los Angeles. The locals we marched with were chanting something we couldn’t quite make out. It sounded to our American ears like “Yohn-kee go ohm.” We figured it out pretty quickly, and frankly, it was unsettling.

Zhurkin had a similar experience in Moscow, in the early 1990s, at a kiosk near Red Square. “An older Russian lady looked at me, and in a thick Russian accent said, ‘Yankee, go home,’ ” Zhurkin told me by phone from Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she and her family had moved in September from Seoul. “It opened up this whole feeling inside of me that there is something about my country that may not be as wonderful as it seems. It was a huge, perspective-breaking moment for me.”

Years later, Zhurkin was living in Paris. Trump had just been elected to his first term.

“I could not get into a taxi without someone asking me why I would let this happen, as if it was all me,” Zhurkin said. “They’d say, ‘I can’t believe you Americans are so stupide.’ I was like, ‘Look, I didn’t vote for him.’” Still, she said, “I feel like I am apologizing all the time.”

By the time President Joe Biden was elected in 2020, Zhurkin said, her family had moved to Ireland, where the vibe was much more “Thank God you guys got your act together.”

Maybe in the not-too-distant future, we will again. And then we can start to put this long national hideous nightmare behind us.

Bluesky: @rabcarian
Threads: @rabcarian

Donald Trump needs psychiatric care and behavioral health counseling. He creates evil and Republicans must remove him from office!

Re: “Donald Trump talks like a genocidal maniac” — Sun Sentinel Editorial, April 8, 2026.

I hope Republican Senator Susan Collins in Maine will find somebody to read this echo opinion letter to her, published in the Florida Sun Sentinel.

Thank you for your excellent editorial about Donald Trump’s un-fitness for office.

Trump revealed a murderous philosophy shared by other 20th century dictators: genocide. On social media he threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz and end hostilities (a war Trump himself unilaterally and illegally launched against Iran).

Trump's hideous statement was condemned around the world, and it should have shaken every American to their core.

Such an evil threat cannot be dismissed just because he failed to carry out his apocalyptic blackmail threat. 

Just the fact that he made such a dangerous declaration, and is capable of such thinking, is proof about his sociopathic mind.

As the former Yale historian Timothy Snyder, an expert on tyranny and genocide, put it, “Whatever happens tonight, or any other night in this war, is now legally defined by Donald Trump's dangerous statement.”

Snyder says Trump practices “sado-populism,” using threats and cruelty to subdue his perceived opponents while sabotaging democracy by “destroying institutional trust.” Trump has spoken. 

We must repudiate Donald Trump. Americans must reject his tyranny. #ImpeachTrumpNOW  #25thAmendment

From — June S. Neal, in Delray Beach, Florida

Donald Trump is crazy! Full Stop! He must be removed from office, impeached or by 25th Amendment- NOW!

Echo opinion letter published in CAPTimes, a Wisconsin newspaper:

Dear Editor: Donald Trump agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran. It's been fragile, the details sketchy at best. But for now he has backed off from his draconian threats to Iran.

Those threats to destroy Iran's non-military infrastructure of bridges, power plants and water desalinization systems, if carried out, would be considered war crimes under the Geneva Convention.

Of course there are those who would say that Trump's draconian threats to end the civilization of Iran is just Trump being Trump. Just a negotiating technique.

But, I contend, and it's of utmost importance for everyone to remember, that Trump knows, the Iranians know, and we should all know, that in any real serious negotiation such as the one between the United States and Iran, there is no place or purpose for the completely idle threat. He really thinks he might blow Iran into "smithereens." When we consider that, along with Trump's escalating psychological instability, think malignant narcissism, we can only conclude the president is not well. Not well at all.

This incompetence makes Trump now totally unfit to carry out the duties of the presidency, and not only puts our United States system of government in crisis mode, but also puts the rest of the world on existential standby.

The time for invocation of the 25th Amendment should be at hand. There has never been a more pressing moment in our country's modern history when that has been more apparent and important.

From Bill Walters in Fitchburg Wisconsin

Republicans like Senator Susan Collins are enabling Donald Trump's war crimes. GOP must stop Donald Trump's insane tranny

Echo Editorial Opinion published by The New York Times:

Four Ways Trump’s War Is Weakening America

When Donald Trump attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, we called his decision reckless. 

Donald Trump is inept, corrupt a dunce in KKK attire

Trump went to war without seeking congressional approval or the support of most allies. He offered thin and contradictory justifications to the American people. He failed to explain why this naïve attempt at regime change would end better than earlier attempts by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

In the six weeks since, the recklessness of his war has become clearer yet. He has disdained careful military planning and acted on gut instinct and strange wishfulness. 

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel predicted to  Trump that the attacks would inspire a popular uprising in Iran, the director of the C.I.A. countered that the notion was “farcical,” The Times reported. But, Trump proceeded nonetheless. 

Without consideration for the consequences, Trump was so confident that he assembled no plan to respond to an obvious countermove available to Iran: causing a spike in oil prices by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Nor did he develop a feasible strategy for securing the enriched uranium that Iran can use to rebuild its nuclear program.

Last week, Trump careened from illegal and immoral threats about erasing Iranian civilization to a last-minute cease-fire that accomplishes few of his announced war aims. Iran continues to defy a central part of the deal and block most traffic from crossing the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s irresponsibility has left the United States on the cusp of a humiliating strategic defeat.

As we have emphasized, Iran’s regime deserves no sympathy. It has spent decades oppressing its people and sponsoring terrorism elsewhere. And the current war, combined with the June attacks by the United States and Israel and other Israeli operations since 2023, weakened Iran in important ways. Its navy, air force and air defenses have been degraded, and its nuclear program has been set back. Its murderous network of regional allies — including Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria’s fallen government — has been eroded.

Yet, these successes cannot mask the ways in which the war has weakened the United States. 

We count four main setbacks for America’s national interests that are the direct result of Trump’s carelessness. These setbacks likewise weaken global democracy when authoritarians in China, Russia and elsewhere were already feeling emboldened.

The most tangible blow to the United States and the world is the increased influence that Iran secured over the global economy by weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz. About 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows through the strait, which is next to Iran’s southern shore.

Before the war, Iran’s leaders feared that blocking traffic would invite new economic sanctions and a military attack. Once the attack happened anyway, Iran closed the strait to nearly all traffic except its own ships. The policy is inexpensive because it mostly involves a threat, namely that a drone, missile or small boat may blow up a tanker. Forcibly reopening the strait, by contrast, would require an enormous military operation potentially including ground troops and an extended occupation.

Trump’s lack of foresight about the strait reveals glaring incompetence. The two-week cease-fire does not bring back the status quo because Iran is still limiting traffic and has threatened to impose tolls as part of a final peace deal. The war has shown Iran’s leaders that controlling the waterway is a real possibility. Eventually, other countries are likely to develop alternatives, including pipelines, but those solutions will take time. For now, Iran appears to have won diplomatic leverage that it could have only dreamed of six weeks ago. The only apparent way to change the situation would be for a global coalition to demand the strait’s reopening — the sort of coalition that Trump is distinctly unsuited to lead.

The second setback is to America’s military standing around the world. This war, together with recent U.S. assistance to Ukraine, Israel and other allies, has burned through a substantial portion of the stockpile of some weapons, such as Tomahawk missiles and Patriot interceptors (which can shoot down other missiles). Experts believe the Pentagon used more than one-quarter of its Tomahawk missiles just in the war against Iran. Returning the stockpile to its previous size will take years, and the United States will have to make tough choices about where to maintain its military strength in the meantime. Already, the Pentagon has pulled missile defenses from South Korea.

The war also revealed that the U.S. military is vulnerable to new ways of warfare. 

For example, America used billions of dollars’ worth of high-tech munitions to destroy Iran’s traditional air and naval forces, while Tehran used cheap, disposable drones to halt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and hit targets in the region. The world saw how a country that spends one-hundredth of what the United States does on its military can seek to outlast it in a conflict. It is a reminder of the urgent need to reform America’s military.

The war’s third big cost is to America’s alliances. Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and most of Western Europe refused to support the United States in this war — unsurprisingly, given Mr. Trump’s treatment of them. When he demanded their help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, most allies declined. These countries will remain allies in important ways, but they have made clear that they no longer consider the United States a reliable friend. They are working to build stronger relationships with one another so that they can better resist Washington in the future. “Perhaps the greatest long-term damage to the United States from the Iran war will be in its relationships with allies around the world,” Daniel Byman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington wrote on Wednesday.

The situation in the Middle East is more nuanced. Iran’s decision to attack its Arab neighbors during the war may draw those countries closer to the United States. But that prospect is uncertain. Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries have been damaged economically by the war and feel abandoned by Mr. Trump’s cease-fire. The past six weeks have given them reason to question his judgment and his understanding of their interests.

The fourth setback is to America’s moral authority. For all the flaws of this country, it remains a beacon to many around the world. When pollsters ask people where they would move if they could, the United States is consistently the runaway No. 1 answer. America’s appeal stems not only from its prosperity but also from its freedom and democratic values. Mr. Trump has undercut those values for his entire political career and perhaps never more than in the past week, when he made odious threats to erase Iranian civilization. Trump's (whiskey) secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, made a series of bloodthirsty remarks, including a threat to offer “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.”

Those would be war crimes. Trump and Hegseth have embraced a brutal approach to armed conflict that the United States led the world in rejecting after World War II. By doing so, they have undermined the foundations of America’s global leadership, which claims to place human dignity at the center of an argument for a freer and more open world.

Our New York Times editorial board has long opposed Mr. Trump’s approach to politics and governing. Yet we take no pleasure in his failures over the past six weeks. For one thing, there have been deaths, injuries and destruction, in Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. At least 13 U.S. service members have died in the war.

It is also a mistake for any Americans, including Trump’s critics, to root for this country to fail. We all have a stake in the nation that he leads. So does the rest of the free world. There are no other democracies with the economic and military strength to counter China and Russia. When America is weaker and poorer, as this war has made us, authoritarianism benefits.

The best hope now may sound naïve, but it remains true. Trump(and Republicans like Senator Susan Collins) must at long last recognize the ineptitude of his impulsive, go-it-alone approach. 

Trump must involve Congress and seek help from America’s allies to minimize the damage from his failed Trump Iran World War.

Republicans must remove Donald Trump before he annihilates earth with his hate and vengeance

Echo opinion letter to the editor published in The Gazette, an Iowa newspaper.

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Congress, do your job and rein in Trump

How many of us have been in a restaurant or grocery store where a child is having a meltdown, screaming and crying, while their parents seem oblivious to the tantrum and let it continue❓ When I am confronted with this disruptive and annoying behavior, my response is not anger at the child, but anger at the parent who will not act to control the outburst.

This demonstrates how I feel about Congress as it continues to ignore the tantrum happening every day in the White House. 

Donald Trump clearly is unhinged❗ He's not well. Like a toddler, he is unable to regulate his emotions or his words. Like the parents of the child freaking out in the grocery store, Congress is responsible for reining in Trump's behavior, including his illegal war and his appalling threats to destroy "a whole civilization." 

Rep. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, along with Senator Chuck Grassley, vowed to defend the U.S. Constitution, not the president. For the sake of humanity, please control your unruly child or we voters must elect someone who will.

From Sheri Albrecht in Solon, Iowa

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are putting U.S Navy in danger by deploying too many ships without a purpose

Editorial opinion published in the Virginian Pilot:

Donald Trump's war crimes demand Congressional investigation.

As church services marked Easter, the holiest day on the Christian calendar, Donald Trump spent the morning threatening war crimes against Iran by claiming he would order the attacking of essential infrastructure if that nation’s leadership didn’t accede to his demands. Donald Trump's latest incendiary messaging continues his reckless pattern of violating international laws, putting servicemembers in greater danger and undermining American security.

Trump’s war of choice may be delivering successful blows on the battlefield, but it looms as a generational strategic disaster, driving oil prices higher and calcifying the control extremists have on the Iranian government. As the home to thousands of men and women fighting this conflict, Hampton Roads must press its congressional delegation to demand better from the president, and to assert legislative authority over war operations to bring our people home quickly.

Last week, another carrier strike group homeported in Norfolk departed for the Middle East, the latest deployment of servicemembers from our region to the ill-defined war of choice with Iran. The USS George H.W. Bush and its roughly 5,000 sailors are expected to arrive in the region soon, adding to the estimated 50,000 personnel the United States now has positioned in the Middle East, according to New York Times reporting.

As Congress debates the White House’s 💲200 billion request for continued operations there, our men and women in uniform should be foremost in lawmakers’ minds, just as their swift and safe return dominates our thoughts in Hampton Roads. Those who volunteer to serve this country deserve clearly stated goals, achievable objectives and defined rules of engagement to ensure both their success and to confirm their mission is just and legal — none of which has been forthcoming since operations began a month ago.

Our region (in Norfolk and Hampton Roads) has seen plenty of ships depart these shores over the years, both in periods of peace and in times of war, so the scenes that played out last week at Naval Station Norfolk were quite familiar as the USS Bush headed out to sea.

But, knowing where the strike group is headed is cause for queasiness. Trump has repeatedly used the social media platform he owns to threaten the destruction of numerous targets that, if struck, would be egregious violations of the Geneva Convention. These include Iranian power stations, roads and bridges, oil wells and the desalination plants that provide drinking water to the public.

Perhaps Americans have grown calloused to the president’s saber-rattling, just as they have come to accept his other orders that constitute war crimes, 💢❗including the extrajudicial killing of people aboard boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. But, we should be keenly aware of the danger ⚠️his behavior represents.

In one egregious example, Trump said the March 4, sinking of an Iranian frigate, a strike that killed more than 100 sailors, was done because it was “more fun” than capturing the vessel. It was a comment that chilled the blood of everyone in our Navy-centric region who knows that international law requires an effort to rescue survivors, which the USS Charlotte did not make.

While Iran, thankfully,  may not have the capability to respond in kind to American ships, our nation’s enemies have surely taken note of our conduct in this war and could use it to justify similarly calloused and reprehensible behavior in future conflicts.

Trump’s unhinged and vulgar social media post this Easter weekend follows his listless address last week in which he claimed the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed since the U.S. and Israel attacks, is a problem for Europe and Asia. Trump claimed during his nationally televised chaotic speech that the strait “will open up naturally.”  

(OMG- Will Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves suddenly show up with the magical command to "Open-Sesame"❓ Of course not❗)

None of this inspires confidence in the leadership or direction of these operations, or that they will result in a stronger, more secure nation. Congress has been on the sidelines for too long and members, led by those who represent our region, should assert their constitutional authority to bring focus, responsibility and a swift conclusion to this illegal Trump war.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are not telling Americans the truth about how Iranian children were victims of U.S. missile attacks

Unfortunately, we’ve seen this disturbing pattern before.

Echo opinion essay published in the Virginian Pilot and the Los Angeles Times. 

Photos of a number of Iranian children who were victims in the U.S. missile attacks.

A U.S. deadly missile strike. An initial statement emphasizing precision. Then, later, reports that civilians — including many children — were among the dead. In Afghanistan, through the early and mid-2000s, these reports came so often they formed a grim pattern. Each incident is explained as an anomaly, but over time, the pattern itself became the story.

Now, similar reports are emerging from Iran. A new investigation alleges that a Feb. 28, strike by the U.S. hit an elementary school and sports hall in the southern city of Lamerd, with children once again among the dead. U.S. Central Command has since denied carrying out any strike in or near Lamerd that day, calling the reports false.

Independent verification is difficult because Iran shut down its internet, but Americans should nevertheless be concerned, especially after at least 175 people including many children were reported killed in a U.S. strike on a different school in Minab 😢that same day. The cycle is familiar, with allegations of civilian harm followed by official denials, and no independent access to quickly verify the facts.

Sarah Yager says she was a civilian protection adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the first Trump administration. "I worked inside the Pentagon with military professionals who took the issue of civilian harm seriously. They saw avoiding civilian casualties as a matter of military discipline and their own humanity. I know what it looks like when civilian protection works. But, obviously, this isn’t it."

Over more than two decades of armed conflict, U.S. efforts to reduce civilian harm have moved in fits and starts, with periods of progress followed by setbacks and recurring mass casualty events. Pressure often came from civil society, public outrage and negative headlines, but also from within the armed forces. Senior commanders came to see civilian casualties not just as “collateral damage,” but also as operationally counterproductive.

That recognition led to real changes including tighter rules, better intelligence practices and eventually the creation of systems within the Pentagon meant to track, investigate and learn lessons to reduce harm. By the time U.S. troops were withdrawing from Kabul in 2021, those lessons were just beginning to be institutionalized across the armed forces.

What is happening now is undoing that progress. Safeguards built over years are being torn down, and it is unclear whether senior military leaders are willing to push back.

There are warning signs that in this policy environment, the U.S. military will not be led to correct its course. 

Defense Secretary (Wiskey❗) Pete Hegseth publicly dismissed what he calls “stupid rules of engagement” and emphasized making the military “more lethal.” 💢🤢😔

At the same time, Hegseth has weakened or sidelined efforts designed to reduce civilian harm in war.

Before and since the start of the U.S. war on Iran, there has been little sustained public debate and no congressional hearings about the risks of American military action in Iran, including the inevitable civilian casualties that result from using powerful explosive weapons in populated areas. During the war in Afghanistan, each deadly strike on a wedding party or family compound did more than take civilian lives. It fueled anger at the U.S. and magnified skepticism that our military was trying to minimize civilian harm in any way.

Americans are entitled to clear answers about who and what is being targeted, what its military is doing to protect Iranian civilians and how possible violations of the laws of war are being investigated. This is basic public oversight that should accompany the use of military force. When incidents are openly disputed, as in the Lamerd strike, the need for impartial and transparent investigations becomes more, not less, important. If the U.S. military was acting lawfully, it should show it. But, if it wasn’t, the public deserves to know that too.

The United States has long claimed to fight according to international law and to benefit from doing so. 

But, that means little if the rules are mocked and actions don’t match reality. Waiting to recognize these patterns of civilian harm, and to correct them, will once again cost lives.

Sarah Yager is the Washington director of Human Rights Watch and previously served in the Department of Defense. She wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.