Days of erratic behavior, wild outbursts, and bizarre fixations
Oh great.
President Donald Trump’s aides and confidants are growing more and more concerned about his mental state after days of erratic behavior, wild outbursts, and bizarre fixations.
“No one knows what to expect from him anymore,” one former White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations about the president, told Insider. “His mood changes from one minute to the next based on some headline or tweet, and the next thing you know his entire schedule gets tossed out the window because he’s losing his shit.”
The president’s advisers are particularly worried about his stubborn refusal to acknowledge that a tweet he sent over the weekend claiming that Alabama was going to be hit by Hurricane Dorian was false. They believe that his frustration is compounded by stress about the 2020 election and the economy’s recent downturn.
It’s more than a refusal to acknowledge, it’s an insistence that he was right. He could have just shut up about it but noooooooo.
“People are used to the president saying things that aren’t true, but this Alabama stuff is another story,” the former official said. “This was the president sending out patently false information about a national-emergency situation as it was unfolding.”
Putting people in danger, in short, and then attacking anyone who said so.
Later Friday, the president posted a misleading video that included a CNN clip from Wednesday, August 28, in which a reporter discussed how the hurricane was threatening several US states, including Alabama. The video then played the reporter saying “Alabama” on loop, cut to a clip of Trump nodding, and then to a doctored clip of CNN’s logo superimposed onto a moving truck which careened off the road and caught fire.
Oh gawd. I missed that.
“He’s deteriorating in plain sight,” one Republican strategist who’s in frequent contact with the White House told Insider on Friday.
Asked why the president was obsessed with Alabama instead of the states that would actually be affected by the storm, the strategist said, “you should ask a psychiatrist about that; I’m not sure I’m qualified to comment.”
Ego. Ego ego ego. An ego that blots out the sun.
Trump often airs his grievances publicly, either on Twitter or while speaking with reporters, which means the world has an unprecedented window into the president’s stream of consciousness.
For instance, on Labor Day weekend, as Hurricane Dorian battered the Bahamas and made its way to the US’s mainland, Trump took breaks in between golfing to post more than 120 tweets.
In addition to updates on Hurricane Dorian and quote tweets of fawning praise of his presidency from Fox News, the subjects of Trump’s tweets included:
- Former FBI Director James Comey.
- Four freshman Democratic congresswomen of color known as “the squad.”
- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
- “Failing New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.”
- “Amazon Washington Post.”
- The “LameStream Media.”
- The liberal actress and activist Debra Messing.
…
This isn’t the first time questions have been raised about Trump’s mental state and his fitness for office. In fact, Trump’s mental stability is a regular topic of discussion in the White House.
This was confirmed by the anonymous author of a famous 2018 New York Times op-ed who said Trump’s aides routinely ignore or dismiss his orders for the good of the country. Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” and Bob Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House” detailed similar instances.
Well of course. His stew of egotism and stupidity and recklessness have been on display all along.
One person who was close to Trump’s legal team during the Russia investigation told Insider his public statements were “nothing compared to what he’s like behind closed doors.”
“He’s like a bull seeing red,” this person added. “There’s just no getting through to him, and you can kiss your plans for the day goodbye because you’re basically stuck looking after a 4-year-old now.”
Whereas back in 2017 they were stuck looking after a 5-year-old.
Don’t tell me it’s Mad King George all over again. Wasn’t that what the Revolution of 1776 was all about?
I can see it coming. After a tantrum or two (hundred), Toddler Trump will spit the dummy big time. “Gimme them nuclear codes” he will say. “No more tweets. Save them for the sparrows. Let the big birds fly…! All the way to China…!”
“No one knows what to expect from him anymore,” one former White House official . . . told Insider.
What do you mean, “anymore”? He’s been wild, bizarre, unhinged, moody, changeable, erratic, megalomaniacal, fixated, etc., at least from the time he first thought of running for the presidency. He’s not “deteriorating,” afaict. This is completely usual for him. He inhabits a universe of one.
I think we should be willing to entertain the conceptual possibility that there are indeed levels of bizarre, unhinged megalomania. After all, even people who work in the psych wards recognize that patients can be easier or more difficult, or have good and bad days.
I’ve read a few articles by mental health professionals which argued that Trump was showing signs of increasing dementia. If he stops demanding more scoops of ice cream and starts demanding Kaiser Wilhem’s mustache for dinner — that may be our lucky break.
Or, like Omar says, we may not get there.
Yes. It’s tricky, because his base level is already so shockingly bad, but all the same…he can get even worse.
Only, when people start enumerating all the ways he’s shockingly bad there’s always the urge to say “yes and he’s been all that all along.” At least with me there is.
The problem is there are far too many people willing to humour him, cover up for him and go along with him. Someone has to put the interests of the country ahead of party (hello Republicans!) or personal ambition (hello White House staff and Cabinet!). How far around the bend does he have to be before someone invokes the 25th and makes it stick?
Maybe when corporate America decides he’s more of a liability than an asset to their interests? I really don’t know.
I suppose at this point we’re close enough to the next election that nobody in power wants the bother and political uncertainty of impeachment or Article 25. I’d have invoked it long ago, myself.
Lady M, maybe the people in power don’t want theocracy, so they’re holding off until we get a choice other than Pence. I think if we invoked the 25th, we’d be out of the frying pan into the witch-burning fires (maybe not literally, at least at first). In short, we’re caught between a rock and a hard place, as my mother used to say. It’s truly damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
In short, our only real hope lies in the field of Democratic candidates, and I haven’t seen a lot to make me hopeful. I think there are some good candidates there, but I suspect the nomination will go to someone safe, like it always does, because they are afraid if they veer left to differentiate the party from the party of Trump too much, everyone will scream socialist and that will be devastating. Again, a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.