President Donald Trump once again displayed evidence of cognitive decline, at least according to one political expert.
Speaking for The Daily Beast, analyst David Rothkopf cited Trump’s Sunday remarks shortly after arriving at Joint Base Andrews.
“What we’re doing now is we’re ending any chance where they can have a nuclear missile,” Trump said when asked about his ongoing war against Iran. “If you look at it, after a week and a half… not four weeks, a week and a half, two weeks, we stopped them from, probably—but I don’t want to have the word ‘probably.’ Thank you very much, everybody.”
Rothkopf pointed to this incoherent rant as proof that something is wrong with Trump’s brain.
“But then he goes off to this thing, and he’s asked about the war, and he goes, in his brain: ‘I know, I have an answer,’” Rothkopf argued. “‘Something about nuclear, something about I had to do this, something about they’re the bad guys, something about this’ll be over soon.’” He added that Trump’s brain “misfired” and caused him to offer his talking points in a “random order.”
He added, “Because… there’s no file retrieval going on in his brain anymore at this point. And… then they lead him away to the plane because he obviously can’t be exposed to the public. That’s why… you guys have written about it.”
The pundit also pointed to another seeming sign of decline, Trump loitering on the stage and clapping during Spain’s trophy ceremony at the World Cup even as FIFA President Gianni Infantino attempted unsuccessfully to lure him away. Spain eventually photoshopped Trump out of their team image celebrating their triumph.
“His public schedule is next to zero because any time he gets in front of a camera, he embarrasses himself, he embarrasses the country, he offends somebody, he says something he shouldn’t say. And it happens when things are planned, when they’re not planned, around the clock,” Rothkopf claimed. “He is his own greatest liability at this point.”
This is not the only sign that Trump is experiencing cognitive decline. Earlier this month, longtime Trump journalist Michael Wolff characterized Trump’s ongoing fixation with the 2020 presidential election — which he lost to Joe Biden but continues to claim he won, despite all of his arguments being thoroughly debunked — as evidence of mental illness.
“I think everyone around him understands, in fact, that he absolutely believes this,” Wolff told his Joanna Coles. “No one else believes it. No one else believes that he won the 2020 election. But he does believe it.”
He continued, “And that to me is actually the kind of the scarier thing, the larger thing than that. This is another way for him to try to manipulate the election, or another way for him to set up a rationale for losing the election. There is mental illness here, and it’s kind of a result of his paranoia, his resentments, his insecurity, his inability to appreciate reality, I think you might most accurately say.”
Indeed, speaking with this journalist for Salon in 2020, former Yale University psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee predicted he would be unable to accept losing to Biden because of his mental health problems.
“Just as one once settled for adulation in lieu of love, one may settle for fear when adulation no longer seems attainable,” Lee told this journalist in October 2020. “Rage attacks are common, for people are bound to fall short of expectation for such a needy personality—and eventually everyone falls into this category. But when there is an all-encompassing loss, such as the loss of an election, it can trigger a rampage of destruction and reign of terror in revenge against an entire nation that has failed him.”
She concluded, “It is far easier for the pathological narcissist to consider destroying oneself and the world, especially its ‘laughing eyes,’ than to retreat into becoming a ‘loser’ and a ‘sucker’ — which to someone suffering from this condition will feel like psychic death.”
Trump, who turned 80 last month, will be the oldest president in American history upon completing his second term in January 2029. In May, psychiatrist Dr. Henry Abraham (formerly of Tufts University) that he and other health professionals have repeatedly raised the alarm about his apparent decline, including in statements to Congress.
“The president’s condition appears to be deteriorating,” he said, continuing that “there has been a frightening progression of symptoms. These include grandiosity without moral safeguards, paranoia, impulsivity, vindictiveness, easy misperception of being harmed, moments of omnipotence, uncontrolled rage, and sole control over the use of nuclear weapons in a time of war.”
He finished with the note, “As a psychiatrist reviewing these, I can only say Yikes!”
