PBS’s Friday evening political roundtable Washington Week with The Atlantic got nasty and personal about President Donald Trump, going beyond criticism of his handling of the Iran War to mock him personally and suggest he’s demented.
After The Atlantic’s Jonathan Lemire damned the war in Iran (“Gas prices are up. His poll numbers are down. Very few of the U.S. military goals have actually been accomplished there in Tehran”), the conversation turned to Trump’s latest beef with a reporter. Trump apparently loves to brutally attack “black female reporters in particular,” according to PBS News Hour co-anchor Amna Nawaz, appearing as a roundtable guest.
Amna Nawaz: There's two things going on here. Can I just point out, one is the president has a tendency to attack female reporters in a particularly brutal way, black female reporters in particular. Rachel Scott, as we all know, is a fabulous reporter and a wonderful person, and doesn't deserve that. No one does. The other, to Jonathan's point --
Moderator (and Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg: Yes, it was particularly nasty.
PBS News Hour anchor Amna Nawaz on Washington Week: "the president has a tendency to attack female reporters in a particularly brutal way, black female reporters in particular. Rachel Scott as we all know, is a fabulous reporter and a wonderful person and doesn't deserve that." pic.twitter.com/jjr1BIMOtg
— Clay Waters (@claywaters44) May 12, 2026
Of course, Trump has insults for everybody, not just black female reporters. And the Washington Examiner pointed out that “similar questions by Scott [about soaring gas prices] do not appear to have been raised during former President Joe Biden’s term, during which gas prices reached record highs on June 14, 2022.”
Then the Washington Week talk turned to Trump’s state of mind. After earlier complaining the president was apparently bored with Iran, the panel looked askance at Trump bringing his justifications for the war up at a youth fitness event at the White House and even suggested it was evidence of the president’s derangement.
Goldberg: I want to read something that Peter wrote last month, and you can comment on it….Peter wrote, Democrats who have long challenged Mr. Trump's psychological fitness have issued a fresh chorus of calls to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from power for disability. But it is not just a concern voiced by partisans on the left, late night comics, or mental health professionals making long-distance diagnoses. It can be heard now among retired generals, diplomats, and foreign officials. And most strikingly, it can be heard now on the political right among one-time allies of the president.
Goldberg was referencing a month-old front-page story by Baker in the New York Times: “Trump’s Volatile Talk Revives Doubts on Stability -- Onetime Loyalists Call President ‘Lunatic' and ‘Insane.’”
Peter Baker: You could find episodes, obviously, in his first term. You could find plenty you know, to raise questions about stability. But I think what is striking is it happening more and more, right? Like every week seems to bring another example of people look at that and they scratch their head and say, "oh my goodness, what is up with that?"
Later, The Atlantic’s Vivian Salama reminded viewers that Trump’s “80th birthday is a month away.”
It’s a bit rich to talk about the 25th Amendment in reference to Trump when this same program aided in hiding former President Joe Biden’s clearly declining capacity, most infamously on the September 1, 2023 show when The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich accused those who called Biden demented of "lying," while moderator Goldberg said of Biden, “Mentally, he’s quite acute,” and Leibovich responded, “It seems like it.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times embarrassed itself claiming that video clips showing Biden’s infirmities were misleading “cheap fakes.”
