The Joy Reid Show – “Dementia Don Threatens Dems” (Nov. 22, 2025)

Main Theme

This lively, incisive episode of The Joy Reid Show centers on alarming and increasingly erratic behavior by former President Donald Trump—dubbed “Dementia Don” by Joy and her audience—and the grave threat this poses to U.S. democracy and national security. The episode covers Trump’s recent social media outbursts threatening sitting lawmakers, his cognitive decline as assessed by mental health experts and journalists, a dramatic political climate where anti-democratic, racist, and authoritarian measures are gaining ground, and the dismantling of the Department of Education. Special guests provide psychological insight, historical context, and direct activism strategies to resist these developments.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Unhinged Behavior and Threats Against Democrats

• Joy opens with Trump’s erratic recent behavior: Trump has lashed out publicly, particularly over Congress’s movement to release Jeffrey Epstein files and a PSA by veteran lawmakers reminding military members not to follow illegal orders—even implying the lawmakers should face death for “sedition.”
• Threats amplified on social media: Trump reposted a white nationalist symbol and an explicit “hang them” message targeting veteran Democratic lawmakers. He also posted, "Seditious behavior punishable by death." [05:08]
• Community Reactions:
  • “He’s showing signs… it’s his mind, it’s his brain. That’s going.” – Joy Reid [04:04]
  • Lawmakers, including Senator Mark Kelly, Alyssa Slotkin, and others, recount increased threats to personal safety.
  • Gavin Newsom: “This man is sick.”
  • Rep. Pramila Jayapal: “These calls for political violence are unacceptable. They must stop.”
  • Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: “He needs to keep his reckless mouth shut.” [09:04]

Timestamps

• Trump’s MRI “Best result” clip: [04:26]
• Joy’s summary and PSA setup: [05:08–07:30]
• Trump’s social media threats: [08:45]
• Responses from lawmakers: [09:06–11:12]
• Trump’s direct response defending his death threats: [13:41]

2. The Military, Illegal Orders, and Historical Parallels

• Democratic Veterans’ PSA: A group of House and Senate Democratic veterans release a PSA reminding active-duty service members that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires them to refuse illegal orders—echoing lessons from the Nuremberg Trials.
  • PSA Excerpt: “You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.” [15:11–16:10]
• Joy contextualizes with history: Refusal to follow illegal orders is fundamental to American military law and was central to putting Nazi war criminals on trial.

3. Expert Analysis: Trump’s Mental Decline

Dr. John Gartner (Psychologist, Duty to Warn):

• Explains signs of cognitive decline: language, memory, behavior, and psychomotor impairment visible in Trump’s public appearances.
  • “He’s showing declines…memory, behavior, and psychomotor performance. That’s a demented level of memory impairment.” [23:19]
• MRI and multiple cognitive tests suggest his doctors suspect significant neurological deterioration.
• “We are watching in real time the unraveling of his mental capacity.” [33:35]

David K. Johnston (Trump Biographer):

• Compares Trump’s lucidity and charm 37 years ago to present behaviors: now purely combative, loses track, and not capable of strategic thinking.
  • “He was much sharper when I first met him…now he loses track of what he’s thinking.” [24:36]
  • “He pulls out the attack as a defense mechanism to deflect from issues he’s not prepared to deal with.” [30:17]

Memorable Moment:

• Dr. Gartner links Trump’s increasingly crude outbursts ("shut up, piggy") and loss of impulse control directly to dementia, contrasting with earlier, more articulate Trump clips. [33:17]

Timestamps

• Dr. Gartner: Dementia signs: [21:20–24:32]
• Johnston on behavioral shift: [24:36–26:21]

4. The Epstein Files, Russia, and Compromat: Theories & Revelations

Lev Parnas (Former Trump associate):

• Discloses alleged backchannel deals between Trump, Putin operatives, and links to Jeffrey Epstein’s kompromat.
• Claims that Russia is leveraging blackmail materials from Epstein (and others) over both Trump and Ukrainian officials to influence U.S. policy, especially regarding Ukraine surrender terms.
  • “Putin did write the deal…reminded Wyckoff to remind Trump that they still have all that kompromat from the Epstein stuff.” [73:57]
  • “Trump is trying to hold back these Epstein files…not only because of the pedophilia…but the actual trail of kompromat and relationship that Russia has over him.” [77:12]
• The “peace deal” Trump is pushing for Ukraine is said to give Putin everything he wants—abandoning Ukraine, removing NATO prospects, and lifting sanctions.

Memorable exchange:

• “If this deal were to go through…there would be no Ukraine. It’d eventually be part of the Soviet Union.” – Lev Parnas [86:39]

5. The Dismantling of the Department of Education (with AFT’s Randy Weingarten & Ohio Nurses Assoc.’s Rick Lucas)

• Overview: The Trump administration is breaking up the Department of Education, reassigning key programs (including for children with disabilities) to other agencies, with some oversight given to figures like Robert Kennedy Jr.

  • “They’re just selling [the Department] to other agencies for parts.” – Randy Weingarten [44:02]

• Consequences:

  • Devastation of programs for disabled children (“eugenicist move”).
  • Deprofessionalization of nursing—removing professional status, impacting student loan eligibility, workforce diversity, and patient care.
  • Selective relief for ICE agents’ student debt, while others (e.g., teachers, nurses) are locked out.

• Motivation: Ideological purge—targeting diversity, empathy, and pluralism to return schools to a pre-civil rights, anti-federal, exclusionary state.

  • “It’s worse than that…they are taking on pluralism as we know it.” [54:53]
  • “They're abandoning any responsibility for our future or for children.” [48:48]

Timestamps

• Weingarten on Dept Ed: [43:59–45:38]
• Deprofessionalizing nurses: [49:11–52:15]

6. Immigration Raids, Rising Authoritarianism, & Racialized Policing (with Kimberlé Crenshaw)

• Joy highlights ICE home invasions: Federal agents bust into a Queens family’s home without a warrant, terrorizing lawful immigrants and their children, drawing disturbing parallels to slave patrols and apartheid.
  • “They terrorized her, and her children. There was no warrant displayed, no authority…” [89:05]
• Racist institutional shifts: The Coast Guard tried to reclassify swastikas and nooses as merely “divisive” instead of hate symbols.
• Crenshaw’s analysis:
  • Uses historical lens to show how scapegoating immigrants or minorities is classic fascist pattern.
  • Links current events to Fugitive Slave Acts and the Constitution’s legacy of anti-Black racism.
  • Condemns the erasure of Black, Brown, and intersectional voices and rights on federal, legal, and educational levels.

Notable quote:

• “The long arm of anti-Blackness…is now undermining the rights of everybody.” – Kimberlé Crenshaw [96:41]

7. National Activism & Economic Boycotts

The People’s Sick Day and Mass Blackout Movement

• Organizers Devin & Caress announce: A week-long economic/labor boycott (Nov 25–Dec 2), targeting corporate profits and focusing on supporting small businesses.
• Goals: Impeachment and removal of Trump and his regime; broad-based civil resistance.
  • “When the people speak, mountains move.” – Caress [111:27]

Timestamps

• People’s Sick Day segment: [107:15–113:44]

Notable Quotes / Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s cognitive decline:

  “...They’ve given him a neuropsychological workup. They’ve given him an MRI. That means they have a high index of suspicion because they’ve seen the same behaviors and traits that we’ve all seen—that he has serious cognitive decline.” —Dr. John Gartner [22:00]

• On Trump’s reactive volatility:

  “He's always been a malignant narcissist, but now it's more crude and more aggressive and more, you know, saying like, ‘shut up, piggy.’ Whereas before he might have been more insulting in a clever way, now it's just a blatant spewing forth of hate.” —Dr. John Gartner [33:17]

• On democracy and pluralism:

  “They are taking on pluralism as we know it. … When they go after and undermine empathy, diversity, inclusion—these are the habits of democracy.” —Randy Weingarten [54:53]

• On systemic racism’s deep roots:

  “The long arm of anti-blackness is settled into this moment and now undermines the rights of everybody.” —Kimberlé Crenshaw [97:07]

• On current moment’s peril:

  “We are watching in real time the unraveling of his mental capacity…. It only gets worse at an accelerating rate.” —Dr. John Gartner [33:35]

Important Timestamps At a Glance

• Trump’s MRI confusion: [04:26]
• Trump “seditious” threats / Lawmaker responses: [08:45–11:12]
• Expert illness breakdown (Dr. Gartner, Johnston): [21:20–34:52]
• Lev Parnas’ Epstein-Kompromat-Russia revelations: [73:42–87:52]
• Deconstruction of Dept. of Ed (Weingarten, Lucas): [43:59–54:53]
• ICE home invasion / Policing racism (Crenshaw): [88:42–106:33]
• People’s Sick Day boycott organizers: [107:15–113:44]

Tone and Style

The episode is both urgent and darkly humorous. Joy’s signature wit and audience interaction keep the energy high, even as she and her guests dissect dire threats to democracy, rising fascism, and the personal dangers facing public servants. The conversational, sometimes sardonic tone underscores a deep seriousness about the current political moment—and a clear call to civic engagement.

Conclusion / Takeaway

This episode blends deep-dive analysis—psychological, historical, and political—with direct invitations to action (economic boycott, legal challenges, activism). It leaves listeners with both a sobering assessment of the Trump era’s dangers (“this is a shock and awe, flood the zone...repeating history all over again”; Crenshaw [105:19]) and a sense of empowered resistance, emphasizing the necessity of bearing witness, calling things by their true names, and fighting to protect democracy at every level.

Memorable Moment of Joy:
Closing the episode with Reese, a young boy defending his mother’s “edges” (hairline) and bringing a smile after a serious episode—classic Joy Reid.

“My mama saved her edges for her birthday. You should do that too.” – Reese [114:29]