Cartoon by Luc Nadeau
The Midnight Rants of Donald Trump:
On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere and several other revolutionaries rode by horseback from Boston to Lexington, Concord and other towns in the Massachusetts Bay area to warn of the approach of British troops. Because of this alert, local militia had time to assemble and take on these British forces, driving them back to Boston and marking a critical early victory in the American War of Independence.
The title of this article indirectly compares Trump’s midnight rants to Revere’s midnight ride—the former, a set of attacks on American democracy (and democracy in general); the latter, a major event leading to the establishment of democracy in the United States.
In the past few months, a number of writers have suggested that Trump may be losing his marbles. Others have argued that he's the same narcissistic guy, just acting out on a bigger stage. This article is part of a series on Trump’s corruption. This one explores his recent erratic behavior and the consequences of this behavior for his country and the world.
The hypothesis that he’s getting crazier
In January 2026, Paul Krugman wrote an article about Trump’s “sundowning" symptoms. Sundowning may affect people with early-stage dementia. It often occurs at night and can cause confusion, aggression and other disoriented behavior. Trump sometimes makes bizarre late night posts on his social media platform Truth Social. A few examples:
- After the October 18 No Kings March, Trump posted an AI video of himself wearing a crown dropping feces on protesters from a jet fighter.
- Attacking the “Seditious Six”: In late 2025 and early 2026, Trump repeatedly targeted six Democratic lawmakers (including Senator Mark Kelly) for a video they made regarding the military's duty to the Constitution. He labeled their behavior “seditious” and shared posts suggesting such actions are “punishable by death.”
- Racist imagery of the Obamas: In February 2026, Trump posted a video at approximately 11:45 p.m. ET that depicted former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes.
- He sent a message to the Prime Minister of Norway at about 10:30 p.m. on January 18, 2026, which stated in part: “Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace…. Denmark cannot protect [Greenland] from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also…. The World is not secure unless [the United States has] Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT”
- On March 2 and 3, 2026, he sent a series of posts about US attacks on Iran. A headline in The Daily Beast, summarized them as follows: “Trump Goes on Wild Posting Spree to Try To Shift War Blame.”
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But can one jump from these examples of bizarre late-night behavior (and other similar eccentricities) to the conclusion that Trump has a degree of dementia that should disqualify him from office?
Other actions that show a method, or at least some measure of restraint, in his “madness.”
One could argue that being the TACO (Trump always chickens out) president is a (not very good) bargaining strategy, rather a sign of being nuts. Even his over-the-top threats to take over Greenland could be categorized that way. After all, he has backed off (for now) on the potential US invasion of that large icy landmass (although his very strange late night post to the Prime Minister of Norway, cited above, comes across as totally wacko).
The same old, same old hypothesis
Another way to view Trump's behavior during his second term in office is that it is not much different from his behavior during his first term, or for that matter throughout his adult life. He’s always been a narcissist, a bully, an erratic decisionmaker, and has exhibited other traits that many of us do not consider presidential (or normal). He’s been impeached twice. He was almost impeached a third time for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Many of us believe he is a very despicable man. He now has a bigger stage on which to be despicable and a more pliable cast of enablers, but is he any crazier than he’s always been?
The bigger stage makes him more dangerous than ever
Unless Trump’s erratic and/or bizarre behavior dramatically increases, we’re probably stuck with him for the duration of his second term. Even if he does cross over into some more dangerous form of psychosis, it is far from clear that Congress and others in his sycophantic retinue have the will to, or interest in, deposing him.
Trump's increasingly narcissistic behavior reflects what happens in the absence of any internal restraint such as a moral compass or any external constraint such as the law. He hears only encouragement for his unhinged impulses, receives mostly accolades for his over-the-top self-aggrandizement. No one in his inner circle, almost no one in Republican congressional leadership or among the oligarchs who want to stay on his good side, presents a credible counterpoint to Trump's sense of himself as the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong. He filters out or disparages criticism from domestic voices and international leaders who dare challenge his pronouncements and actions.
Unlike Paul Revere's warning to the early revolutionaries, Trump's midnight “rides” have a much baser message: “Look how important I am.” It is undeniable that Trump is correct in the only way that matters to him: he is important. He is important in a world-changing way, in a way that will echo for generations. He will be remembered long after he is dead—perhaps as long as Paul Revere—not as someone who acted selflessly and put himself in danger to help usher in an era of democracy but as someone who acted solely out of self-interest to help bring it to the breaking point.
Conclusion
So, crazy (in the colloquial sense) or not, Trump will continue to go on his midnight and daylight rants, and to threaten democracy at home and abroad. His military campaign in Iran, the 17th largest country in the world, is sewing chaos with no apparent end game. At home, he is attempting to coerce Congress into approving the so-called “Save Act,” which would destroy the electoral voting process in the United States. Paul Revere is probably turning in his grave.
We must continue to oppose his anti-democratic actions through non-violent protests, the critically important midterm elections, legal challenges to his constitutional over-reaches and the defense of local and states’ rights.
