When Leadership is Just a Long, Loud Mistake
“The inmates are running the asylum.” A phrase so eerily fitting for today’s political landscape that you’d think it was invented just to describe Trump’s America. But no, this one has history.
It first started making the rounds in the late 19th century, with a version appearing in the 1898 novel The Melancholy of Stephen Allard, where a character laments what happens when lunatics are given control of the institution. But it really gained traction in the early 20th century, when Hollywood legend Cecil B. DeMille reportedly used it to complain about actors getting too much power in the studio system. Because what could be worse than creative people having a say in their own work?
The phrase, however, has always been about something deeper—the idea that the least competent, least rational people have taken over the controls of something far too complex for them to handle. And if that doesn’t describe our present situation, I don’t know what does.
Take Trump’s latest stroke of genius—dumping billions of gallons of California water into the Pacific. Why? Well, he claims it’s to help farmers, except his own administration’s scientists told him that’s nonsense. But when has science ever stopped a man who once suggested nuking hurricanes? Historically, America has spent over a century developing some of the most advanced water management policies in the world, but Trump, armed with nothing but his gut and an audience who cheers at cruelty, has decided to flush decades of expertise down the drain.
Then there’s his mission to start tariff wars with our closest allies and trading partners—a move so economically disastrous it makes the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 look like a minor hiccup. That particular blunder, in case you forgot, helped deepen the Great Depression. And yet here we are again, watching Trump pick fights with Canada, Europe, and Mexico like they’re all out to steal his lunch money, all while American industries brace for impact.
Of course, no asylum would be complete without mass firings. Trump has systematically purged career diplomats, scientists, and national security experts—people who have spent decades quietly keeping the country running. And who replaces them? Loyalists, conspiracy theorists, and the occasional MyPillow salesman. This isn’t just bad management; it’s the kind of self-inflicted disaster that would make the collapse of the Roman Empire look well-organized by comparison.
And let’s not forget his ongoing crusade to dismantle NATO, cozy up to dictators, and host rallies where he just casually confesses to crimes. Because what better way to run a country than to burn every bridge, alienate every ally, and hope nobody notices that the lunatic in charge doesn’t even know how government works?
So yes, the inmates are running the asylum. But unlike its earlier uses, where the phrase was just a metaphor, this time the patients actually have the nuclear codes.
