By Diego Morra
There is an interesting bit of analysis carried by Dean Obeidallah the Dean’s Report on Saturday, July 18, 2026, in which he discussed the contention of clinical psychologist Dr. John Gartner that Donald Trump “is the purest incarnation of evil that I have ever encountered.”
An American lawyer, journalist and comedian of Palestinian and Italian descent, Obeidallah hosts a podcast and writes for the Daily Beast and other outlets. Dr. Gartner, on the other hand, graduated magna cum laude from Princeton, received his doctorate from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and his post-doctoral training at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. A specialist in treating borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder and depression, he taught for 28 years at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School.
One of the first clinical psychiatrists to analyze Trump, Gartner collected more than 41,000 signatures on a petition in 2017 that tagged Trump as mentally ill and must be removed. Trump’s mental handicaps are a mixture of narcissism, paranoia, sociopathy and a measure of sadism, Gartner said. He added that Trump is “an animal” who is “convinced that he actually believes that he has some type of God-like powers.” He is “unwell, dangerously unfit, malignant personality who has reaped massive destruction,” who is “hypomanic,” “showing gross signs of dementia”, and other mental illness and personality disorders.
The petition declared: “We, the undersigned mental health professionals (please state your degree), believe in our professional judgment that Donald Trump manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the US. And we respectfully request he be removed from office, according to article 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which states that the president will be replaced if he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
In 2024, Gartner launched a petition on change.org entitled “We diagnose Trump with probable dementia: A petition for licensed professionals only.” The petition was intended to raise concerns among mental health professionals about former President Donald Trump’s cognitive fitness to serve a second term. In his interview with Obeidallah, Gartner tagged Trump as the purest example of the “essence of evil,” a phrase coined by Dr. Erich Fromm based on his clinical study of Adolf Hitler. The “evil” from Fromm’s perspective “is not a supernatural force but a severe psychological pathology.” Fromm also developed the concept of “malignant narcissism.” Trump’s evil is marked by a dangerous combination of extreme self-absorption, sadism, destructiveness, and a lack of empathy or conscience.
These very same types of misconduct are very clearly displayed by Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, who has lionized a violent Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player and supported in writing other wayward elements, urging them to continue their rough and rowdy ways. Compare her to Trump, whom Gartner tagged as a sadist who “gets pleasure from chaos, and destruction, and fear, and damage, and death.” He added: “Every indication is that when Trump first started bombing Iran, he was gleeful and talking about, you want to see the fun and showing people the videos of the blowing up targets and talking about it like he was having fun.” Sara also enjoyed it when she bludgeoned a court sheriff in Davao City, enjoyed it when she bragged that her own mother described her as “heartless” even as she wanted her nemesis, former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, to suffer while alive after he had crossed her. This wish for Trillanes’ perdition is akin to her enjoying a Taylor Swift concert in Germany along with her family members while Filipinos die in Luzon floods and lose their properties and livelihood.
Sara notoriously admitted that being truthful, honest and sincere is not needed in politics. This shows that she can never countenance the truth, would never accept facts and certainly would never admit issuing death threats against the Marcoses and her own ex-campaign manager, ex-Speaker Martin Romualdez, even after her own defense panel at the impeachment court confirmed it and tried to mindlessly justify it. Lying with a straight face is typical Duterte antic. Fabricating the “Oplan Romanov” threat to exterminate the Dutertes is yet another stupid scheme that shattered right in their faces. The warning about the family massacre was directed at the Marcoses and raised by yet another Duterte presidential wannabe, Davao City Vice Mayor Baste Duterte, in January 2024. Who would believe Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio now? Only the pawns in their game?
Yet, there are some amentic lawmakers noted for brown nosing the Dutertes have started thinking with their knees and claiming that the fear of the Marcoses about death threats proves that they did something wrong. For which reason they all deserve the ultimate penalty. We thought all along that Aristotle was basic reading for pre-law students. How come some of these cow-tongued lawmakers sitting in judgment of Sara think with their twisted tongues after whistling in the wind? Come to think of it, they are still beholden to the prisoner in The Hague, more than six years after they served the master and abided by his truncated policies. Bayad na kayo kaya isauli na ang kolyar. It would be stupid of them to keep it. #
