Trump stumbles over Epstein while aiming at Chicago
Shrinking Trump
Really American Media
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 September 2025
⏱️ 135 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Your favorite psychologists, John Gartner and Harry Segal, present “this week” in Trump’s power grab encouraged by the Supreme Court. They are joined by the great Andy Borowitz who brings his humor and insight to this dangerous moment in political history.
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Trump announced plans to seize control of the D.C. police, declared multiple states of emergency, and threatened to deploy troops in a city where violent crime has actually declined. Gartner and Segal argue these maneuvers aren’t about public safety at all but about manufacturing chaos in order to justify ever-greater power grabs.
When Trump set his sights on Baltimore, he twisted the city’s story of revitalization into a caricature of dysfunction. Coverage of neighborhood renewal, falling crime rates, and community-led solutions vanished beneath his fearmongering. Gartner and Segal contrast the real on-the-ground progress with Trump’s distorted narrative, showing how he weaponizes urban success to sow division.
This episode isn’t a partisan broadside so much as a civic call to psychological arms. Recognizing cognitive warning signs in our leaders isn’t a cheap political shot—it’s a crucial act of self-defense for democracy. By naming these stunts for what they may be—symptoms of mental strain—we sharpen our defenses against manipulation and reclaim our democratic norms.
Listen to Shrinking Trump on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. Equip yourself with the insight to see past the spectacle and call out authoritarian playbooks the moment they emerge.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Dr. John Gartner. |
| 0:02.5 | And I'm Dr. Harry Siegel. |
| 0:04.6 | And welcome to another session of Shrinking Trump. |
| 0:09.7 | John, this is our 67th episode. |
| 0:13.8 | John and I are both clinical psychologists. |
| 0:15.9 | We've been hosting this podcast for 67 episodes |
| 0:20.2 | because we became very concerned by what we saw, |
| 0:25.6 | not indirect and direct examination, but what we saw from video and from public appearances, |
| 0:34.2 | that Donald Trump is suffering from the early signs of dementia. We've been cataloging |
| 0:40.4 | those signs. They're both linguistic and physical. And for a long time, and John really was the |
| 0:49.5 | person who spearheaded the duty to warn movement in 2017, talking about Donald Trump's |
| 0:57.0 | severe narcissistic personality disorder, which prevents him from being able to have empathy |
| 1:05.4 | for others, prevents him from internalizing a moral code. |
| 1:12.3 | It accounts for his criminal behavior. |
| 1:14.6 | His out of control lying, which at this point now |
| 1:18.2 | in his development or a decline has become completely unchecked, |
| 1:25.5 | and his wish for power and domination of everyone and everything. |
| 1:33.3 | We are seeing it. It's an insatiable desire he has to use leverage and extortion over other countries, |
| 1:42.3 | over institutions within the government, within the culture. |
| 1:47.0 | There's no part of the government or the culture that Trump is not trying to gain control of. |
| 1:54.7 | And we've been watching this and we're alarmed and we've been inviting our viewers to pay attention. |
| 2:00.6 | Right, John? |
... |
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