Washington: Republican leaders say they have no concerns about President Donald Trump’s mental health and stability, even as some acknowledged discomfort with him attacking the pope and likening himself to Jesus.
As senators returned to Washington from the spring recess on Tuesday (US time), this masthead asked more than a dozen Republicans whether they were worried about the president’s temperament following his recent outbursts on social media.
Those included threatening to wipe out Iran’s entire civilisation, attacking Pope Leo as a radical leftist sympathiser who was “weak on crime” and posting an AI illustration that depicted him as Jesus Christ healing the sick – which he later deleted.
“The president is a person of enthusiasm, and he does not hold back – ever,” Republican senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said. “I’ve never known him to hold back – in person, or in public.”
Hawley said popes and US presidents often differed. “It’s part of the office of the church to try to sneak into controversial subjects, and try to apply the teachings of the church. Sometimes I agree with those, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes presidents do, sometimes they don’t. I imagine the pope will not be deterred.”
Others baulked when asked if they were concerned about Trump’s mental health. “No. Where did that come from?” replied Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana, and a physician.
Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz said he had no concerns, and criticised what he portrayed as the media’s tolerance of former president Joe Biden’s physical and mental decline.
“It is a real indictment of the media that, for four years, I’d be willing to wager you didn’t ask that about Joe Biden when he clearly had dementia and could barely tie his shoes,” Cruz said. “Now that President Trump is achieving historic victories, suddenly the media has decided to unleash ridiculous questions.”
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana initially rejected the question and asked this reporter: “Who are you with?” But later, he said Trump should simply ignore the pope.
“I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Kennedy said. “He’s a nice fellow, and he’s important, and all of that. He has an opinion like everybody else, and he’s entitled to share it – it doesn’t mean you have to comment about it.”
Senators and other senior Republicans were generally willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt about his controversial posts, including the deleted image that depicted him in Jesus Christ’s white robes attending to a sick man.
“He said it was a doctor,” said Republican senator Rick Scott of Florida. “No, I don’t have concerns about the president’s mental health.”
Trump on Monday said that he thought the illustration showed him as a doctor and “had to do with the Red Cross”, even though there was no obvious imagery associated with the Red Cross in the picture.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson told reporters he spoke with Trump about the Jesus illustration as soon as he saw it, and told him it wasn’t being received in the way the president intended.
“He agreed, and he pulled it down, it was the right thing to do,” Johnson said. “He explained how he saw that – I don’t think he thought it was sacrilegious at all.”
Others were more critical. Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine who has a strained relationship with Trump, said his remarks about the pope offended millions of Catholics and people of faith around the world.
“Popes do not campaign for office, nor are they guided by American politics, and the president should stop treating the pope as he would a political rival,” Collins said on X. “He is the leader of the Catholic Church and speaks on matters of faith, not partisan politics.”
Trump has repeatedly denied having health conditions of any kind, and has boasted of his success at cognitive tests. The White House has described him as having unmatched energy and sharpness – especially compared with his predecessor.
Asked last week what he would say to critics who thought his mental health should be examined, Trump said: “I haven’t heard that, but if that’s the case you’re going to have to have more people like me because our country was being ripped off on trade, on everything, for many years until I came along.”
But some Democrats are questioning Trump’s capacity to lead. Representative Jamie Raskin introduced a bill on Tuesday (US time) that would begin a process to remove him using the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution.
While the bill has virtually no prospect of success, Democrats are using the occasion to pressure Republicans to rein in Trump’s excesses.
“This president has demonstrated he is truly dangerous,” Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren said. “A man who stands up and in the name of the United States of America threatens to wipe out an entire civilisation is a danger to our country.”
Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told this masthead was not concerned about Trump’s mental health as much as “whether he is really in touch with what’s happening in America on the ground and abroad”.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
