Morning Note

Donald Trump expressed openness to bringing back insane asylums during his weekend interview with the Daily Caller, floating the move as a way to get the mentally ill off America’s streets.

“They used to have them, and you never saw people like we had, you know, they used to have them. And what happened is states like New York and California that had them, New York had a lot of them. They released them all into society because they couldn’t afford it,” the president said. “You can’t have these people walking around,” he added.

The media is already twisting Trump’s words to make them seem cruel and inhumane, but the truth is that he’s talking about committing more resources to helping Americans struggling the most. Like his proposal to end homelessness by providing shelters to those living on the streets, this idea isn’t barbaric or authoritarian at all. It’s actually quite liberal, in a good way. 

The U.S. began closing its mental institutions after JFK signed the Community Mental Health Act of 1963.

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