President Donald Trump'smental health has long been the subject of intense scrutiny. Now that he suffered a devastating political blow with Republican losses in the 2026 midterm elections, Trump's behavior has become even more noticeably bizarre, especially as he causes "mayhem" because he fears "nobody's paying attention."
"Coping with loss looks different for everyone, and President Trump has processed the country’s nearly wholesale rejection of the Republican Party in the midterm elections in his own way," reported The New York Times' Katie Rogers on Tuesday.
"The last week has seen the president renew false claims about rigged elections, float a mixed martial arts executive as his new press secretary, muse about the beams in the White House ballroom, oust his chief of staff and call unannounced into C-SPAN," Rogers added.
As one example, Rogers noted how Trump seemed to cheapen the losses of the Russia-Ukraine War by comparing them to rally sizes.
“I just think that Ukraine and Russia are tired of fighting," Trump said per Rogers at his Tuesday press conference. "They’re tired of seeing dead young soldiers, mostly soldiers. Most of the people are soldiers. Think of it. They’re losing 25,000 — Dana, can you imagine 25,000? That’s like a stadium, Madison Square Garden. You have your fights, 25,000. That’s what it holds, and they’re losing that every single month, dead, young beautiful people, and it’s — it’s got to stop.”
On another occasion Trump rambled during a call to C-SPAN.
“Frankly, a big problem we had is the mental institutions being dumped into our country," Trump said when asked about the recent midterm election results. "Some very dangerous people were released into our country, to put it mildly. So we have not put the same, uh, pressure, obviously, and, you know, the, uh, we call them the worst of the worst. We haven’t put the same pressure on waitresses and, and on farm workers, et cetera. Not even close.”
Rogers is not alone in reporting that Trump's mental state has deteriorated since his losses in the 2026 midterm elections.
"In the days since his defeat, he has sounded like a man in denial," The New York Times' Peter Baker wrote on Sunday. "With his party still picking through the wreckage of a political earthquake, a seemingly oblivious President Trump signed a steel beam for his new White House ballroom and flew to Florida to give a speech on the space program. He seems flat these days, maybe a little dazed."