Brief Encounter: A Letter from a 19th Century Physician to Donald Trump 39%
By E. Fuller Torrey53% Wendy Simmons53%
7/15/2026, 9:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Appeal to Authority, and Hindsight Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 40.3% saturation with 215 hits. Analysis detected 1,139 faulty-reasoning hits from 534 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 44.8% and a BS Rank of 39% (12,608 of 20,517 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 61.40% of the article peer group.
To: President Donald J.
Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
From: James Parkinson, M.D.
Hoxton, London, England
Dear President Trump,
In 1817, I published a short book, An Essay on the Shaking Palsy , containing the first clear clinical description of the disease that would eventually bear my name.
I hoped it would spur others to investigate this mysterious illness.
My description of what I called a “tedious and most distressing malady” proved remarkably accurate and enduring.
After my death, Jean-Martin Charcot, the French neurologist, popularized the name Parkinson’s Disease.
From my vantage point in the hereafter, I have watched with alarm as diagnoses of the “shaking palsy” have risen steadily—and, in recent decades, precipitously.
James Parkinson.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
I am writing because your administration has embarked on a systematic effort to prolong and expand the burning of coal.
Unlike the Operation Warp Speed in your first term, which sped the development of a vaccine to battle COVID-19, this is, decidedly, a step backward for public health.
In February, the Environmental Protection Agency repealed stricter limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants.
In April, it proposed weakening federal rules governing the disposal of coal ash.
Then, in June, the Department of Energy announced up to $350 million for projects to modernize, restart, and potentially construct coal-fired plants.
You are repeating a mistake Great Britain made two centuries ago, when it embraced coal before comprehending the damage coal smoke could inflict on the first cases of “the shaking palsy.”
As the Industrial Revolution gained momentum, we observed its terrible medical consequences without understanding their causes.
We no longer have that excuse.
Your own government identifies power plants as the nation’s largest source of airborne mercury emissions.
Championing coal is therefore ill-advised: mercury is a potent neurotoxin with a particular capacity to damage the brain and nervous system.
Researchers have found evidence connecting mercury exposure to Parkinson’s disease, although its precise contribution remains under investigation.
That uncertainty is an argument for caution—not for allowing more mercury into the air.
So, Mr.
President, by promoting coal-fired power plants while loosening safeguards against their toxic emissions and waste, you are repeating a mistake we made 200 years ago.
Britain learned this lesson during my own lifetime.
As the Industrial Revolution accelerated, coal consumption rose from a few million tons annually to tens of millions.
The air darkened, disease became increasingly visible, and physicians struggled to understand the consequences.
We had the excuse of ignorance .
You do not .
What you call “beautiful coal” has an ugly human cost.
Finally, Mr.
Trump, I have a proposal.
Since you are fond of attaching your name to things, I would be happy to surrender mine.
Call it Trump’s Disease.
I would rather be remembered as a geologist and a founding member of the Geological Society of London than for the neurological illness whose risks your policies so casually disregard.
The name is all yours if you want it.
James Parkinson, M.D.
The post Brief Encounter: A Letter from a 19th Century Physician to Donald Trump appeared first on Washington Monthly .
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1speaker75%attributed speech133writer words
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84%flagged-word coverageJames Parkinson, M.D.
401 attributed words100% of attributed speech24% writer coverage
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Analysis
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