John Fetterman Is Delusional. What's Every Other Politician's Excuse?

A recent exposé says more about America than the Pennsylvania Senator.

A shocking New York magazine exposé of Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has become the center of Washington discourse. Written by Ben Terris, the article details Fetterman’s mental health and cognitive battles stemming from a stroke suffered months before his 2022 election. According to Fetterman’s family, staffers, and colleagues, the Pennsylvania Senator is suffering from delusions. He walks figure-eight circles during meetings, wanders into traffic, is prone to outbursts, and scrolls social media while driving “well over” the speed limit. Last summer, he caused a high-speed highway crash that almost killed him, his wife, and the 62-year-old woman he hit. Anyone who has watched a mentally suffering family member will recognize the behavior Fetterman’s inner circle describes. However, familiar signs of delusion are not the only reasons for concern.

In addition to the common telltales of mental instability, the profile detailed Fetterman’s equally erratic and irregular political behavior. While strong political stances are not concerning on their own, those surrounding Fetterman say his newfound extremism is a symptom of his invisible illness. According to former chief of staff Adam Jentleson, Fetterman discards information he doesn’t like as “propaganda,” is a vile racist, spirals on social media, and believes an unspecified ‘they’ is trying to ‘cancel him.’ Following publication of the article, many called on John Fetterman to resign, including some of the Senator’s most prominent supporters.¹ I agree. John Fetterman needs serious help, and the stresses of public office will only worsen his condition and further endanger those around him. However, the psychotic political statements presented as evidence of Fetterman’s delusion are par for the Washington course. In many cases, what is seen as a source of alarm for the Pennsylvania Senator is the status quo for members of both major political parties.

In an alarmist email to Fetterman’s doctor, Jentleson wrote:

“We see the warning signs we discussed [in Fetterman]: Conspiratorial thinking; megalomania (he claims to be the most knowledgeable source on Israel and Gaza but his sources are just what he reads in the news — he declines most briefings and never reads memos); high highs and low lows; long, rambling, repetitive and self centered monologues; lying in ways that are painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone in the room.”

This behavior is enough to disqualify someone from a driver’s license, never mind a seat in the most powerful legislative chamber. Yet, what Jentleson details is indistinguishable from the conduct of the man running the country. Recently appearing on Meet the Press, Donald Trump claimed gas prices were at an all-time low of $1.98. That’s not true, but $1.98 was the price of gasoline futures last Thursday.² This means Trump is deluded, easily misled by his staff, or, to parrot Fetterman’s ex-right-hand man, lying in a way that is painfully, awkwardly obvious to everyone. And yet, the interviewer brushes over the lie and continues the interview unfazed.

Just like Fetterman, Donald Trump skips daily briefings, yet claims supreme knowledge of complex subjects he knows nothing about.³ While I don’t doubt fixating on Twitter deteriorated Fetterman’s mental health, his obsession can’t possibly compare to Elon Musk’s, who is destroying social services faster than his marriages. After years of public meltdowns on the Twitter, Musk bought Twitter and directed engineers to boost engagement on his tweets. If that’s not manic, I don’t know what is.

The most troubling aspects of Fetterman’s cognitive state arises around Palestine and Israel. While he’s long been pro-Israel, following the October 7th attacks, the Pennsylvania Senator took his Zionism to a previously unthought level. He shut down calls for a ceasefire, even when the Israeli government began blockading food, water, and electricity from Gaza, a crime under American and international law. Calling his new positions a “gutting betrayal,” former staffers wrote an open letter to Fetterman imploring him to return to his campaign promises.⁴ Having previously surrendered his Twitter login information to his staff as part of his recovery plan, Fetterman wrestled back his account and posted the below meme. Many politicians are out of step with the public on Israel, but few are openly mocking anti-genocide protestors and making light of sexual assault.

When Fetterman’s staff begged him to delete the post, he said didn’t want to “give in to the woke mob.” Paranoia of an unspecified cabal out to get you is both a sign of dementia and a foundational belief of the conservative worldview. It’s terrifying a sitting Senator has succumbed to these delusions. But what’s the difference between John Fetterman’s mania and Ron DeSantis’s political strategy?

As Israel’s assault on Gaza continued and eliminated any doubt it was a genocidal campaign, Fetterman became one of many prominent political figures who lost their minds trying to justify a disproven worldview. Many Americans, myself included, were propagandized from an early age to see Israel as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East.’ Portrayed as a perpetually besieged nation, we were taught Israel yearned for peace, but was constantly driven to war by its aggressive neighbors. While there’s decades of available evidence that this was never the truth, the last two years have shattered that illusion entirely. Rather than face reality, many prominent, pro-Israel government and media figures have driven themselves mad attempting to fit the ‘Israel is a victim’ square peg into the square hole of reality — up is down and war, right is left, and murderers are victims.

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In his latest book, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed charging Israel with genocide is antisemitic because, “It makes the Jewish people look like monsters, which they are not.” Saying any ethnicity is incapable of wrong is as childish as it is racist. Every major newspaper still caveats Palestinian death totals as coming from “the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry,” as if there’s reason to doubt Israel has slaughtered thousands. Noah Smith, a popular Substacker, still maintains students at Columbia were given advanced notice of the October 7th attack by Hamas’ military command. Such claims are tin-foil-hat-level conspiratorial, and John Fetterman’s beliefs are no different. Speaking anonymously to Terris, one staffer recalled a heated argument between Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, in the Washington office.

“They are bombing refugee camps. How can you support this?” the staffer recalled [Gisele] saying with tears in her eyes.

“That’s all propaganda,” Fetterman replied.

Gisele later pulled the staff aside to learn who was pushing such egregious positions on her husband. She was dismayed to learn Fetterman was making these claims on his own, often over strong objections from his staff. But Fetterman only doubled down, resorting to outright racism and dehumanization to justify his positions. According to minutes from his meeting with J Street, a Zionist lobbying group, Fetterman told the group’s leader a two-state solution was impossible, because, Palestinians were like “a carton of sour milk,” incapable of being “reformed.” In latter talks about a ceasefire, one source reported Fetterman said, “Let’s go back to killing. Kill them all.” This is the kind of thing school shooters and spree killers say, so I’m glad John Fetterman’s staff identified it as a sign he was off his medication. But what are we supposed to do about the politicians might not say ‘kill them all,’ but supply the murder weapons? A recent investigation by Israel’s Channel 13 found the Biden Administration brought John Fetterman’s sadistic desires to life. According to the report, Biden’s senior national security aide Ilan Goldenberg described Israel’s plan as “killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying.” The White House never once pressured Israel for a ceasefire, provided diplomatic cover for Israeli war crimes, and never withheld weapons, even when Biden admitted Netanyahu was sabotaging deals to free the hostages.⁵

“God did the State of Israel a favor that Biden was the president during this period… We fought [in Gaza] for over a year and the [Biden] administration never came to us and said, ‘ceasefire now.’ It never did. And that’s not to be taken for granted.” — Former Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog

While I’m glad John Fetterman’s struggles are in the open, focusing solely on the Pennsylvania Senator cannot be the limit of Ben Terris’s work. If even half the accounts published in New York magazine are true (and I see no reason to doubt them), than Fetterman is dangerously close to harming himself and those close to him. However, his delusion-driven politics, which are not unique in the halls of power, have already killed more people than we’ll ever know. He openly lies without consequences. That’s a massive concern, for both the Pennsylvania Senator and the American President. Fetterman believes there’s a secret society of woke mobsters solely dedicated to destroying his life. Saying that to your therapist will land you in the psychiatric ward. Saying it to Joe Rogan will get you elected to the House of Representatives. Most disturbingly, John Fetterman sees Arabs (and I’d wager other non-white groups) as subhumans who should be slaughtered. If John Fetterman were my neighbor, I’d report him to the authorities out of fear he would shoot up a mosque. But he’s a politician, so he and his like-minded colleagues have blown up every mosque in Gaza. And most of the hospitals, too.

John Fetterman’s behavior is cause for serious concern. Not just for Fetterman’s family, but for the United States of America, whose policies are indistinguishable from the incoherent rage of an unmedicated stroke victim.

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1. https://www.yahoo.com/news/needs-resign-democrats-react-quiet-215443271.html

2. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/05/where-trump-is-likely-getting-his-1point98-gas-price-figure.html

3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/breaking-with-tradition-trump-skips-presidents-written-intelligence-report-for-oral-briefings/2018/02/09/b7ba569e-0c52-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html

4. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24074058/fetterman-for-senate-open-letter.pdf

5. https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1916889129771577847