​I swear, yes, this is true.

And in response --
​

​P.S.  As someone else responded on Twitter -- "Did we win?"

And another person replied -- "You can say Merry Protein again."

And by the way, was the White House not able to find a better picture of Robert Kennedy, Junior?  (At least, I assume that's Robert Kennedy, Junior.)

On Saturday, RawStory had an article about an MS NOW panel where one of the speakers was David Drucker, a senior correspondent for the conservative Washington Examiner.  He said that Trump’s "‘old people’ style is beginning to weigh down Republicans for the Midterms."

Drucker goes into detail about the problems this is causing for the party.

“There is a concern about his behavior and his rhetoric,” Drucker notes, “but a lot of this has to do with policy and the fact that he seems to be on so many things other than what voters are focused on and that’s a huge problem for [Republicans.] It's a huge problem for him, but it's really a problem for them. He's not running again. And they are. That’s where their concerns are.”

What stands out most to me here is that, while Drucker is right, and his concern for the party is very real – but he’s unfocused on what the actual problem is.  The problem for MAGOPs is that it isn't just an "old people" thing with Trump – in fact, it’s not even mostly an "old people" thing.  That's the easy part for them – with “old people” things you can give the person rest; deal with his policies in a protective, private environment, and when giving a speech, it’s just reading from a TelePrompter.  The far more pressing hurdle is that it's a dementia thing.  Rest doesn’t make the illness go away.  And if you’re spouting crazy policies and demanding crazy actions behind closed doors in private, they’re still crazy.  And when reading a speech, you can’t control when the patient is going to start rambling far off-topic.  Just the other day at a rally in North Carolina, Trump veered so much off the safe path that he openly acknowledged that he was “very neurotic.”

And making dementia so much worse a problem than all this and just being an “old people” thing is that dementia is degenerative.  So this is the best that Drucker’s concerned party (and all Americans) will see from Trump.

If Trump's style is weighing down on MAGOPs now – and to such an extent that a conservative reporter will address it publicly -- just imagine how the party will be panicking over Trump in six months, when primaries kick in and his dementia degenerates. And in a year, as we near the general election.

What’s notable, too, in Mr. Drucker’s comments is not just him addressing how concerned members of the party are with Trump seeming like “old people” and not his previous, vibrant self, but how even more problematic this is for MAGOPs by thinking that the issue is merely about Trump being old.  And not even just being old, but Drucker refers to it just as "style," Trump now showing an "old people style."  Because when you don’t acknowledge the problem -- that it's not just about being old and not just about style -- you can’t deal with it.  (Now, it’s possible that Drucker knows it’s dementia, but doesn’t want to state that publicly.  But even if so – and that’s an “if” (for all I know, Drucker is unaware or unwilling to accept that many expert psychologists have written for  years that Trump has dementia) – if you can’t handle stating reality openly because the party members won’t accept it, that remains a massive problem.  Because dementia doesn’t hide itself, and worse, it is degenerative.

And yes, I know I’ve said this before about psychologists writing that Trump has dementia, and that I’ve said it often.  But this different, this is taken that to the next level -- it’s the recognition that MAGOPs are beginning to be see and acknowledge that there’s a cognitive problem with Trump.  Because, to the MAGA base, this is someone who has been seen without flaw and sent to them from God.

And lately, slight cracks have begun to appear even to that.  Indeed, it was at the MS NOW panel that Drucker made his comments after a video was shown of longtime Trump supporter, podcaster Joe Rogan slamming Trump for his reprehensible response to the murder of  Rob Reiner.

​“There’s a lot of things that doesn’t feel real,” Rogan told a guest, in a discussion of Trump’s advanced age (as if that was the reason). “The Rob Reiner thing didn’t seem real. That seemed so insane.”

And Trump has recently taken other hits from his base over the Epstein files, because they are convinced it is not a hoax, not a con – because Trump told them it was real during the 2024 campaign and would release the files, which he’s trying to block.  And Trump adding his name to the Kennedy Center was not remotely universally admired within the party.

So, when you add on top of these existing cracks to Trump infallibility the recognition that he has an “old people” thing – which is largely dementia (and he’s about to turn 80), and it’s degenerative, then “That seemed so insane” might be a phrase the party might want to start getting used to.

But this is the hill MAGOPs have chosen to die on, the path they have decided to take. They are letting Trump drive the car, but he's in the wrong lane, heading into onrushing traffic.  And this is their doing.  An unforced error.  Ignoring all the signs right there in front of them.  And it's only going to get worse for the party.  Because dementia is degenerative.  It doesn't get better.

Yesterday, by a vote of 216-211, the MAGOP-run House passed a health care bill, which is pretty much a misnomer since it did absolutely nothing to address Affordable Care Act tax subsidies that expire at the end of the year.  Meaning tens of thousands of Americans will either lose their health care, or make it next-to-impossible for them to pay for it.

The bill won't pass the Senate, since it would require 60 votes, and that won't happen.  So, this is lose-lose situation for MAGOPs.  Passing the bill into law would have basically the same result for those tens of thousands (some estimates are 100,000) as not having health care.

Since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, MAGOPs have said they wanted to "repeal and replace" the law.  Repealing it has been a challenge for them -- but coming up with something to replace it with has been the monumental burden for the party.  In 15 years, they haven't even offered anything.  Trump repeatedly has said for almost a decade that he supposedly had a "big, beautiful health care plan" that he'd be announcing "in two weeks."  The closest he's come to that is during his 2024 debate with Kamala Harris where he laughably said he had a "framework of a plan."

And no, we haven't even heard the framework.

Putting aside how cruel this is -- for some reason, MAGOPs think it's good politics.  Well, it at least helps understand, in part, why Trump has a 33% approval.

On Tuesday, in a Special Election for a state senate seat in Kentucky, Democrats won the seat -- that they had held with a 21-point margin -- by an astounding 47 points.  And the very next day, MAGOPs still failed to get the message and passed this bill to cut health care.

In related news, the Department of Health and Human Services cut funding yesterday for seven grant programs.  Each of those cut grants had been awarded to the  American Academy of Pediatrics for programs that seek to reduce "sudden infant deaths, prenatal substance exposure, birth defects and adolescent mental health problems." The Academy had been critical of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

In other news, there is a new outbreak of measles among children in South Carolina.  Out of the 137 cases, 125 of those infected are unvaccinated. 

This is not about Trump.  We know who he is.  This is about the elected MAGOPs in Congress who enable him and pass his policies making them law.

Even when that means telling the American public who need the tax credits in order to have basic healthcare.

The guests on this week’s Al Franken podcast are former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden and MSNBC/MS NOW senior enterprise reporter Brandy Zadrozny.  As the show writes, “Trump picked RFK Jr. to take over the Department of Health and Human Services, and chaos has ensued. So far, RFK Jr. is ignoring the advice of experts and bringing along his cronies to push vaccine skepticism. It could have a devastating impact on the health of Americans for years to come.
 
“We're joined by Dr. Tom Frieden, who currently heads global health organization Resolve to Save Lives, and Brandy Zadrozny, who has covered RFK Jr. for over a decade. Together we discuss the dangers that RFK Jr. poses to Americans’ health and how the “MAHA” movement is NOT making America healthy again.

“We also talk through Trump and RFK Jr.’s latest announcement declaring Tylenol a contributing factor in the rise of autism, despite numerous studies saying otherwise.”