Donald Trump has lost touch with reality

At 10:35 this morning, Donald J. Trump took a break from praising authoritarians on social media and sat down behind the long mahogany table inside the White House Cabinet Room for his first meeting with his full cabinet since his war with Iran began. In what was supposed to be a wartime briefing, Trump instead declared he might become president of a South American country and accidentally shared that he should probably have the 25th Amendment invoked on him. And that was just the beginning. What unfolded over the next 97 minutes was an alarming spiral of disinformation and recklessness.

As he sat there in his navy suit, crisp white shirt, and red tie that perfectly matched the red stripes in the multiple American flags placed behind him, he appeared surprisingly alert. Like he’d been practicing for the camera. He cracked jokes, clearly enjoying himself. If you couldn’t hear what he was saying, you’d think you were watching a man without a care in the world.

And as he gestured and grinned and interrupted and rambled, it’s easy to imagine that he feels like he’s back on The Apprentice. But instead of saying catchphrases for a camera, he’s holding the fate of millions in his hands. And he doesn’t seem to feel the weight of that at all.

And for their part, his cabinet played along. One by one, they took their turns participating in the theatrical production. Rubio called him the president who finally had the courage to act. Vance claimed Iran’s military is effectively destroyed. And then came Hegseth, the former Fox News host turned Defense Secretary, who used his time to attack the press. “Behind every headline you write, there’s a helicopter crew in the air,” he told the reporters in the room. “Behind every fake news story, there’s an F-35 pilot executing a dangerous mission.” He called Trump’s war “stuff for the history books” and “stuff for legacy.” Then he said the Department of “War” would “continue negotiating with bombs.” The rest of the cabinet nodded along. But none of that was true. The press he was attacking were doing their jobs, reporting the facts with compassion and respect for the men and women in uniform. It was Hegseth who was spinning reality into his preferred storyline to make an unjust and struggling war look justified and heroic.

And while Hegseth delivered that performance, the man sitting right next to him, the man who started this war, once again couldn’t keep his eyes open. Trump sat hunched forward in his chair, his head tilting, his eyes heavy and closed. The commander-in-chief of the United States military could not stay awake while his own Defense Secretary briefed him on the war he launched 27 days ago. That is how this administration is really being run. By a deteriorating president who sleeps through “life and death” meetings.

But when it was his turn to talk again, he snapped back. Not to discuss strategy or a number of important matters involving the country he was elected to lead. Instead, he wanted to talk about pens. To make his point, he pulled a Sharpie from his pocket, held it up for the cameras, and spent the next five minutes telling the story of how it got there. The Biden administration, he said, had left behind ballpoint pens that cost $1,000 each. Gold and silver. Beautiful, he said. But they didn’t write. “I take it out and I sign and there’s no ink and I got all you people looking and you’re saying there must be something wrong with Trump.” So he personally called the CEO of Sharpie. Negotiated the price down to $5. Asked them to paint it black so it wouldn’t look “too informal” when he was signing “a trillion dollar airplane contract to buy brand new fighter jets.” They added the White House logo in gold. “Almost real gold,” he said. Then they added his signature. His signature. On a pen. That is what the president is focused on these days.

And when the story was finally over, he held the pen out to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “Could I give it to a man who’s done a great job at treasuring?” he said. The cabinet laughed. Because that’s what you do when the most powerful man in the room hands you a $5 pen, and expects you to act grateful for the “gift” and amazed by the story.

And then, moments later, he went on his next detour. ‘I’m the highest-polling person,’ he said. ‘In other words, after the presidency, I think I may go to Venezuela and run for president against Delcy. I may run against Delcy. It’s an option for me. It’s a wonderful option.’ The room laughed at the absurdity of it all, because they had been trained to always respond to his outbursts in this way. But it becomes more troublesome when you think about what he has just said. The President of the United States declared that running a foreign country he just invaded is ‘a wonderful option’ for his post-presidency. And as much as I’d love to say this was just a joke, with Trump, all of his so-called jokes must be taken seriously. Because this is not a man limited by rules or common sense. This is a man who responds with impulse.

Earlier in the same meeting, he had described the Venezuela arrangement as ‘sort of like a joint venture.’ He said, “we get a lot of it,” referring to their oil. He confirmed the U.S. took in 100 million barrels in the first two weeks. Rubio confirmed the money flows into a U.S. Treasury blocked account. Trump said the U.S. has ‘made a lot of money’ and that they’ve ‘paid for the cost of that military hit many, many times over.’ One of his cabinet members then told him the Venezuelan people were going to build a statue of him, comparing him to Simón Bolívar, the liberator of South America. Trump’s response? ‘That would be a great honor.’ And then, while that same cabinet member was still talking about oil production and American companies returning to Venezuela, Trump interrupted him to ask, ‘Forget that, when are they going to do the statue?’ Because all jokes aside, that is what Trump cares most about. Seeing his likeness plastered all over our country and the world, like most authoritarians do.

And then, in the moment that was the most concerning and possibly the most truthful thing Donald Trump has ever said, he admitted the reality of his presidency. A reporter asked about his plans for Iran. Trump said he couldn’t reveal them, and then, unprompted, offered this: “I can’t say what we’re going to do because if I did, I wouldn’t be sitting here for long. They probably, what is it called, the 25th Amendment.” He couldn’t remember what it was called. The 25th Amendment. The constitutional mechanism designed specifically to remove a president who is no longer fit to serve. And he had to search for it mid-sentence. Then he added, almost as an afterthought: “Which they didn’t do with Biden. Which is shocking.”

Nobody asked him about the 25th Amendment. No reporter brought it up. No cabinet member raised it. He volunteered it. He put it on the table himself, in front of the cameras and the world, and in doing so told the country two things at once: that somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows the 25th Amendment is a real possibility for him. And that even he knows it should be invoked based on his actions. That is who sat behind that mahogany table today. That is who is running this war.

And as if to prove the point he didn’t realize he was making, Trump spent the final stretch of the meeting on an unprompted defense of his own mind. No reporter asked about his cognitive health or even brought it up. The question that started it was about European deportation policy. But Trump’s mind took him somewhere else entirely. He went from European policy to attacking Democrats, to calling Kamala Harris and Biden “two sleepy people, two stupid people,” to mocking Gavin Newsom for having “a mental disability,” to him ironically declaring, “I don’t want a stupid person being president.” And that’s where his own brain betrayed him. Because from there, with no one pushing him, he drove himself straight into a defense of his own cognitive decline.

He told the room he’s “the only president that ever took a cognitive test.” That he took it three times. That he “aced it all three times.” That the questions start easy, but “by the time you get to the middle, it gets tougher,” and “by the time you get to the end, very few people can answer those questions.”

And that’s the part where he let the truth out. A cognitive screening test is not an IQ test. The questions don’t get “tough” for a healthy brain. They’re designed to detect impairment. If the middle of the test is where it starts getting hard, that’s not a sign of difficulty. That’s a sign of potential decline. These tests exist for one reason: as a screening tool designed to measure cognitive strengths and weaknesses. So when the president tells us it gets really hard in the middle, he’s telling us more than he thinks.

And then there are the questions no one in that room had the courage to ask. Why has he taken it three times? Most of us have never taken one. It’s not part of a routine physical. It’s ordered when there is a concern. Who ordered them? He said he took them “in front of numerous doctors that I have no idea who they are.” He doesn’t know who was evaluating him. And he said his own doctors warned him beforehand that “it’s Walter Reed, it’s essentially a public hospital, and if you do badly, it’s probably going to get out.” They warned him before the test. That’s not how you prep someone you’re confident about. That’s how you prep someone you’re worried about.

He ended by calling Obama “not a smart man” and saying Biden “wasn’t a smart man 30 years ago.” But the room wasn’t thinking about Obama or Biden. The room was watching a 79-year-old president, in the middle of a war, unable to stay awake during his own Defense Secretary’s briefing, defending his cognitive fitness to a roomful of people who hadn’t asked, and insisting he passed a test that most healthy adults would never need to take.

Every day brings more chaos and damage, but today it went beyond just what Trump said and into what he is doing. Because hours after that cabinet meeting ended, the Treasury Department made an announcement that shows how unrecognizable this country truly has become. Starting in June, Donald Trump’s signature will appear on all U.S. paper currency. The first $100 bills will roll off the press this summer with his name on them. He will be the first sitting president in American history to put his signature on our money. And to make room for it, they are removing the signature of the U.S. Treasurer, a position that has appeared on every single bill printed since 1861. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent released a statement that read like something out of a state propaganda handbook: “There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S. dollar bills bearing his name.”

In that one sentence, the Trump regime made its intentions clear: Donald J. Trump and the United States of America are one and the same. ‘Our great country and President Donald J. Trump,’ side by side, as if there is no difference between the two. Because in his mind, there isn’t.

And this wasn’t even his first attempt at conquering all of the visual reminders of what this country really is and replacing them with his likeness. His first attempt was to put his face on a coin. He wanted a $1 coin with his portrait to go into circulation, and a 24-karat gold commemorative coin with his image hunched over a desk, fists clenched, to also be available. But federal law has prohibited living people from appearing on U.S. currency since 1866. The nonpartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a body established by Congress specifically to review coin designs, refused to even look at it. The chair, Donald Scarinci’s words carry the weight of what Trump has been attempting: “Only those nations ruled by kings or dictators display the image of their sitting ruler on the coins of the realm.” He called the proposal “abhorrent to the Declaration of Independence.”

And here’s what makes this so much bigger than vanity. George Washington, the first president of the United States, the man who led the revolution, specifically refused to put his face on the country’s currency. He called it “monarchical.” The Mint Act of 1792, one of the earliest laws of this nation, stamped coins with an image of Liberty instead of Washington’s face. The founders did this on purpose. They had just fought a war to free themselves from a king. They were not going to put another one on their money. That principle held for years. Until Donald Trump became president.

And now, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of independence from that king, this president is stamping his name on every dollar bill in America. The irony is so heavy it’s painful. Because it will be just one more way to normalize his authoritarian tactics. It is just a signature, but it means so much more. And we know that because we’ve seen it before. Mussolini put himself on Italian coins. Saddam Hussein’s face was on every Iraqi dinar. Franco did it in Spain. Marcos in the Philippines. Assad put himself on the Syrian currency in 2017 while his country burned. Mao is on every bill in China. The pattern is consistent across a century of authoritarian regimes, and it never varies: when a leader puts himself on the money, he is not honoring the nation. He is claiming ownership of it.

And now connect it to everything we watched today. The pen with his signature on it. The statue he wants in Venezuela. The “joint venture” where he’s extracting oil from a country he just invaded. And then the things he’s already done, The Kennedy Center with his name added to the building. The triumphal arch he’s building. His name going on warships, on a drug discount website, on savings accounts for newborns. His face on a banner hanging down from the Department of Justice. And now he’s adding his name to our money.

And while he stamps his name on our currency, he’s simultaneously tearing apart every alliance that once made this country a force for stability in the world. Today, in that same cabinet meeting, he told our NATO allies to “remember my statements” and warned them to “never forget” that they didn’t help. He called the UK’s aircraft carriers “toys compared to what we have” and mocked their offer of support by saying, “We’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over. I said, ‘Oh, that’s wonderful, thank you very much. Don’t bother. We don’t need it.’” And then, most devastatingly, he said this about standing with our allies in the future: “We’re always going to be there. At least we were. I don’t know about anymore, to be honest with you.”

These were not random comments. This was the intentional destabilization of allied governments. He is weakening Europe because strong allies hold him accountable. He went after Venezuela first because Maduro was a dictator no one would defend. Then Iran, because the nuclear threat made it justifiable on the surface. He’s already said Cuba will “just fall.” He said “Operation Colombia sounds good to me.” He said “you have to do something with Mexico.” He hasn’t forgotten about Greenland or Canada. He’s just temporarily distracted by easier targets, racking up “wins”, building the precedent that America can take what it wants without consequence.

But here’s what he doesn’t understand, and what every authoritarian eventually learns the hard way. He can put his name on every bill in circulation, and we still get to decide where those bills go. Because I spent the better part of an afternoon doing something that has become a regular part of my life under this administration, making sure my money is going to people on the right side of history. That day’s search was for a new specialist doctor for preventative care. But now I don’t just read reviews and check credentials, I also scroll through their social media, looking for any sign of where they stand. I’m not expecting a public statement from every provider. I understand the cost of speaking out. I’ve felt it. The threats against myself and my family. The emails no parent should ever have to read. I know what it costs to use your voice right now, and I understand why some people don’t feel safe doing it.

But I also know what silence costs. And I wanted to find someone who understood that too. I found one. A doctor who had posted against ICE, who had made it clear they weren’t okay with what’s happening in this country. And today was my appointment. When I went in, I told them exactly why I chose them. It wasn’t just the amazing reviews. It was because they, too, were not okay with what is happening to our country. They said it was hard, that they too got pushback. But they own their own practice, they can’t be fired, and they felt it was important to speak out. I’m bringing my whole family to this doctor now. Because we have to support each other. We have to make sure our money goes to the people who are standing up when it would be easier to stay quiet.

There’s an old saying that if there’s a fascist at the table and ten people sitting with him, you’ve got eleven fascists. I’m not calling anyone a fascist for being afraid. But I am saying this isn’t business as usual. Nothing about this is usual. We are watching a regime take shape in real time, and every one of us is making a choice about where we stand, whether we realize it or not. I choose to reward the people who are brave enough to say something. And I’m asking us all to do the same in any way we can. I know it is hard to find a doctor these days, and this isn’t practical for everyone to do, but it doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. Look for the opportunities you can easily align with others on the right side of history and start there.

We are not looking for perfection in our resistance efforts. We are looking at endurance. Because our push back is working. New polling from Reuters/Ipsos from March 24th now shows his approval has dropped to 36%, with 62% disapproving, a new second-term low.

And on Saturday, two days from now, this country is going to show him beyond the polls and in numbers never seen before just how unpopular he and his presidency really are. The third No Kings Day of Action is happening on March 28. Over 3,100 events are planned in all 50 states. The first No Kings protest in June 2025 drew nearly 5 million people. The second in October drew 7 million. Organizers are projecting 9 million for Saturday, hoping to make it one of the largest sustained nonviolent protest movements in American history. And as we get closer to the midterms, the resistance movement will just keep getting larger and louder. If we can keep the pressure building, we will be in a very different place next year. We will have a Congress that actually checks his power. And that is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.

Picture of the day: These two bring us so much joy. They aren’t big walkers, but they love to go for drives.

Sources:

VIDEO: C-SPAN full cabinet meeting: https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/pres-trump-holds-cabinet-meeting/676355

Trump Signature on Currency: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/signature-appear-paper-currency-dollar-bills-first-sitting-president-rcna265389

“Kings or Dictators” Coin Quote: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Can-a-Living-Person-Appear-on-US-Currency

Trump Falling Asleep: https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-pete-melts-down-using-troops-to-attack-hate-trump-media/

Sharpie Monologue: https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2026/03/26/trump-interrupts-cabinet-meeting-dealing-with-iran-war-and-rising-prices-to-talk-about-sharpies/

DHS Shutdown / TSA: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/26/us/tsa-airport-weekend-security-delays https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/26/trump-tsa-shutdown-dhs.html

Polling: https://www.livenowfox.com/news/trumps-approval-rating-hit-new-low-amid-iran-war-new-poll-finds-march-2026

Bannon/Epstein 25th Amendment: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/steve-bannon-told-epstein-trump-020106125.html

UK / Starmer: https://www.itv.com/news/2026-03-26/trump-says-uk-aircraft-carriers-are-toys-compared-to-us-ones

No Kings Protest: https://www.foxla.com/news/no-kings-day-protest-march-28-california-locations