I find this frustrating. It’s true that Trump’s fascism, racism, and sadism aren’t themselves mental illness or due to mental illness, just as Nick Starr-Street’s autism wasn’t a shield for his racism. However, that doesn’t preclude mental illness, disability, or impairment being at issue.
Nor is it ableist to talk about this.
I’ve routinely self-disqualified for any job that involves driving a forklift, because my particular combination of impairments means that inevitably I would injure, maim, or kill someone. Am I being ableist against myself, or weighing the real-world consequences of placing the health, lives, and well-being of other people in the hands of my impairments?
When it comes to the office of President of the United States, a job with more power over the health, lives, and well-being of other people (not to mention the entire planet) than any other, it would be irresponsible not to consider illness, disability, or impairment.
Trump can be fascist, racist, sadistic, and mentally ill.
There’s a danger of painting with too broad a brush, to be sure, but we insult ourselves if we say there’s no way to talk about the mental health of the President of the United States without further stigmatizing mental illness. In fact, if what’s at issue is undiagnosed or diagnosed-but-untreated mental illness, everyone’s silence does no one any good, including Trump.
Mental illness doesn’t come with a free pass from all responsibility to those around you, especially if you’re President of the United States.