Diagnosed or Possessed: America’s Favorite Way to Avoid Thinking

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — April 18, 2026

The United States has entered a new and frankly ridiculous phase of political discourse.

When Americans do not like a political figure anymore, many of them no longer argue policy, record, or results. They diagnose him.

Or, depending on the crowd, they try to exorcise him.

A fringe religious figure recently suggested that Donald Trump might be demon possessed. The comment spread because it was bizarre, clickable, and perfectly built for the internet. At the same time, critics on the other side have spent years using psychological labels in ways that often sound more confident than careful.

Different language. Same dodge.

Both moves let people avoid the harder work of explaining what Trump has actually done, why it matters, and what the consequences have been. They replace analysis with theater. They turn politics into a costume party where everyone shows up dressed as either a therapist or a televangelist.

That is not serious civic thinking. That is a national escape hatch.

There are real criticisms to make of Trump. There always have been. His record can be judged through public statements, policy decisions, legal exposure, staffing chaos, administrative behavior, and the measurable effects of what happened under his leadership. That is where the argument belongs.

Instead, a lot of Americans keep reaching for labels that make them feel better.

If he is mentally unwell, then nobody has to explain the structure that elevated him. If he is demonically influenced, then nobody has to admit they backed an unqualified, incompetent, malignant narcissist because he told them what they wanted to hear. In both cases, the explanation becomes a cushion. Responsibility slips out the side door.

That is the part worth noticing.

The problem is not just Trump. The problem is a political culture that would rather name a monster than read a document. It would rather perform insight than do homework. It would rather shout “evil” or “crazy” than track cause and effect.

That habit poisons public life.

When politics turns into diagnosis, people stop arguing evidence. When it turns into spiritual warfare, they stop arguing facts. In either case, the public ends up with a fog machine where a functioning debate should be.

And that fog is useful. It protects bad judgment.

It is easier to say a man is possessed than to admit he was never qualified. It is easier to say he is psychologically disordered than to explain why millions of people, institutions, media companies, and political operatives kept enabling him anyway.

That is what makes this latest round of demon talk so revealing. It is not really an explanation. It is an excuse wearing a church hat.

America does not need more ghost stories about Donald Trump. It needs more citizens willing to say the obvious. A bad leader does not need to be haunted to be dangerous. Sometimes he is just a bad leader, surrounded by enablers, protected by tribal loyalty, and carried along by a culture that keeps mistaking spectacle for substance.

If your political argument requires either a DSM manual or holy water, you have already left the field of serious analysis.

Trump does not need a demon to explain him.

He needs an honest description.

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For more from Cliff Potts, see https://cliffpotts.org

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