Friends,
The blatantly racist video clip Trump posted last Thursday night, portraying former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, was bad enough. Insisting he had nothing to apologize for after deleting the video and pretending he knew nothing about it was in some ways worse.
It’s the pattern one expects from a troubled adolescent who causes parents and neighbors to worry he might damage himself or others. But, my friends, we’re talking about the president of the United States.
This is just the latest in a series of bizarro behaviors from the putative leader of the free world. If you’ve seen his off-script rants, speeches that veer into angry tirades, demands that his name appear everywhere, and aggressively hostile responses to reporters, you know what I’m talking about.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” Trump posted after the show was over. “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting.”
On Thursday morning he gave a crazed speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, telling attendees, among other things: “They rigged the second election. I had to win it. I had to win it. I needed it for my own ego. I would’ve had a bad ego for the rest of my life. Now I really have a big ego, though. Beating these lunatics was incredible, right? What a great feeling, winning every swing state, winning the popular vote. The first time, you know, they said I didn’t win the popular vote. I did.”
It should go without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that anyone with a mental or personality disorder merits our compassion. But compassion doesn’t necessarily extend to putting such people into positions of high governmental responsibility, or keeping them there. The 25th Amendment was enacted to allow their timely removal from office.
So, today’s Office Hours question: Is Trump really, finally, losing his mind — and if so, why?
If he is losing his mind, it’s useful to know why because different forms of loss typically occur at differing speeds and trajectories and with their own characteristics.
I’ve been asking specialists who know far more than I do about the aging human brain for their views about Trump’s mental state and have categorized their responses as follows. Please take a look and share your thoughts.
This post has been syndicated from Robert Reich, where it was published under this address.