A US psychologist has claimed that President Donald Trump is displaying what he sees as a key sign of psychosis, arguing that the president's recent online behaviour suggests he 'wants the world to worship him as a god' and is gripped by 'magical thinking'.
The comments come from Dr John Gartner, a former psychology professor at Johns Hopkins University who has publicly tracked Trump's mental state for years. Speaking this month, he pointed to a series of Truth Social posts, including one in which Trump reportedly shared, then deleted, an AI generated image of himself as Jesus, and another in which he referred to himself as the 'acting president of Venezuela'. The White House has not endorsed Gartner's assessment and continues to insist the president is in 'excellent' health.
Trump 'Magical Thinking' And The Psychosis Claim
Gartner's central argument is direct. He says Trump's online self presentation is not simply political theatre or exaggerated bravado, but evidence of a disordered style of thinking more commonly associated with psychiatric illness.
'It's something that, again, we associate with psychosis,' he told The Daily Beast, describing what he sees as the president's 'magical thinking'. In clinical terms, he said, it resembles what Sigmund Freud called 'primary process' thought.
Gartner explained this as 'the most primitive type of thinking, where if you imagine it, it must be true'. In Trump's case, he argued, 'anything that occurs to him, any stray, crazy thought, is true'.
He pointed to the AI Jesus image and the 'acting president of Venezuela' post as part of a wider pattern rather than isolated incidents. In his reading, Trump is no longer just using grandiose slogans or exaggerated rhetoric, but increasingly blurring the line between fantasy and reality in public.
Gartner has gone further than many of his peers are willing to go. Professional bodies in the United States have long debated the ethics of diagnosing public figures from a distance, particularly under the so called Goldwater rule, which discourages speculative diagnosis. Gartner has made clear that he has never examined Trump personally, but argues that the volume of public video and written material is enough to justify his concerns.
'He Wants The World To Worship Him As A God'
Gartner has also argued that Trump's behaviour reflects a broader pattern of mental decline. Earlier this month, he said the president was displaying four major symptoms associated with dementia, pointing to what he described as 'the deterioration of his thinking, of his verbal language, of his physical body, and of his behaviour'.
On the question of psychosis, Gartner focused on what he sees as Trump's need for endless praise and public adoration. He argued that the president's grandiosity 'is so extreme that not only does he want to be the pope and Jesus and the president of Venezuela and the Mullah of Iran, he wants to be all of these things at once'.
'He wants the world to worship him,' Gartner said, 'and he wants to erect massive monuments to praise himself.'
TRUMP TO BULD HIS OWN ARC DE TRIOMPHE
— ADAM (@AdameMedia) April 10, 2026
The Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon to honor his army’s great military victories.
Trump is no Napoleon… pic.twitter.com/76XFsCIqBd
To support that claim, he pointed to what he described as Trump's 'vanity projects', including a proposal dubbed the 'Arc de Trump', a lavish White House ballroom idea and the president's long standing habit of placing his name on buildings and ventures.
Gartner also cited what he said were efforts to pressure states to rename airports, train stations and tunnels after Trump. That claim was presented as Gartner's interpretation, however, and the report did not provide independent evidence to support it.
Health, Denials And A President Under Scrutiny
If Gartner sees a president drifting further from reality, the Trump administration has taken the opposite view. The White House has repeatedly rejected suggestions that Trump is suffering from mental deterioration.
Trump has often responded to questions about his fitness by presenting them as proof of his strength. He has repeatedly said he 'aced' cognitive tests, using those results to argue that he remains sharp and fully capable of serving. The White House physician has also said the president remains in 'excellent' health.
There is no independent medical evidence in the public record confirming Gartner's claims of psychosis or dementia like decline. His assessment is based on Trump's posts, speeches and reported projects, viewed through his own clinical and political lens.
What Gartner's intervention does show is how Trump's public persona is now treated as a kind of running case study by both critics and supporters. Every AI image, outlandish title and naming proposal is dissected for clues about the state of mind of a president who still dominates American politics. Unless the White House releases fuller medical information, or outside clinicians are allowed to examine him directly, those competing readings will remain interpretations rather than established medical fact.
