President Donald Trump's view of the world has been overtaken by "dangerous fantasies," according to a new piece in The i Paper, which questions his ability to grasp "vital aspects of what's going on around him."

Veteran reporter Fred Kaplan published the piece for the outlet on Saturday. Kaplan, who writes the "War Stories" column for Slate and has authored several books on US national security policy, has covered defence and military affairs for decades. His piece draws on a recent report from The Atlantic that found Trump "lacks a lot of basic information." Kaplan argued that this "obliviousness has rarely been more glaring" than in the recent fiasco surrounding outgoing Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.

"Driscoll had clashed repeatedly with the Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, especially over Hegseth's moves to fire or block the promotion of more than 80 senior officers, most for their adoption of 'diversity, equity and inclusion' (DEI) policies, many for their promotion of new ideas (such as recognising the new dominance of drone warfare over, say, tank manoeuvres), at least half because (and pretty much only because) they were black or female," Kaplan wrote. The Army Secretary is the service's top civilian official, responsible for manning, equipping and organising the force, reporting to the Secretary of Defence.

"No surprises here. Driscoll – who, like Hegseth, is an Ivy League law school graduate and Army veteran with political ambitions beyond this administration – had been expected to resign for some time. The stunner was that, according to The Atlantic, Trump expressed surprise at Driscoll's comments. It seems the President – who also serves as the commander-in-chief of the US armed forces – had no idea that Hegseth had dismissed or derailed the careers of so many senior officers or that the Army was now soaked in turmoil as a consequence. (In April, Hegseth also fired the Army's much-beloved top general and hasn't nominated a replacement since," Kaplan continued. The dismissal of that top general – the Army Chief of Staff – came amid a broader wave of leadership changes at the Pentagon during Trump's second term, including the removal of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff early in the administration, moves that drew criticism from former military leaders and members of Congress.

Kaplan argued that this break with reality may not be surprising given Trump's long-established habit of dismissing any report that clashes with his own "prejudices" as "fake news," as well as the steady diet of "praise and happy-making news" he is fed by his scandal-plagued aide, Natalie Harp.

"This may explain why Trump tells interviewers that many people regard him as the greatest president of all time (if some people do regard him as such, Natalie Harp has tracked down their TikTok posts) or that the war in Iran is going smoothly (some commentators have said so) or that his positive ratings in the polls are historically high (it's unclear where he might have picked up that myth, as in fact they're as low as any president's have been)," Kaplan explained.

He concluded: "As long as Trump can convince himself that he's 'winning' in Iran, he will champion Hegseth as the agent of those victories. The question is how long even the likes of Trump, so determined to evade bad news, can sustain this delusion – and whether, when the truth starts to burn, he pushes Hegseth under the bus, as he has done to so many other top aides whose loyalty he'd suddenly deemed lacking."