The Rant is Due

For the past year, a friend and I have been discussing how one of the huge problems that Trump faces with his dementia is that as issues worsen around him – as we were certain would be the case with someone who has dementia, because it is degenerative – this would increase the pressure on him, which would exacerbate his condition.  Which will only then feed upon itself.  And at some point, boil over.  Over the weekend, on Saturday, this came to a head.

I must add first, as always, that this is not my diagnosis that Trump has dementia, since I'm unqualified to do so.  I'm just quoting the expert psychologists who write and talk about it publicly.  And it should be noted that what many of these psychologists now say openly is that they believe the type of dementia Trump has been exhibiting is frontotemporal dementia, a condition which leads to dramatic changes in behavior, language, memory and decision making.
 
I would suggest that the public has been seeing what they describe for a long while now – but most especially more recently as his poll numbers plummet, gas prices skyrocket, prices keep rising from his court-ruled illegal tariffs, Epstein files get released and more keep the pressure on him.  And so, we see his decision to go to war against Iran and threaten to demolish its civilization, attack Venezuela and kidnap its president, threaten to bomb our ally Oman, create a $1.8 billion slush fund scam, have the Justice Department open an investigation against the woman who twice won jury verdicts against him for defamation and rape, endorse candidates against his very own loyal party officials, continually slamming the Pope, tearing down part of the White House, trying to build monuments to himself, wanting to put his face on money, putting his face on limited-edition passports, putting his name on the Kennedy Center, regularly falling asleep in meetings, losing his train of thought and going off on long off-topic tangents at public events and even White House holiday events for families (a medical term call tangentiality), wandering on the roof of the White House, making up non-existent words (a medical term called paraphasia), repeating stories that are demonstrably show as never having happened (a medical term called confabulation) and much more.
 
And then came this past Friday, when four court rulings came down against Trump, and a new poll was released dropping his approval to 34%.
 
You could almost start the countdown.  10-9-8-7-6…
 
Because then came Saturday, the very next day.  That’s when Trump posted several extremely long, loopy, intense rage rants – and not on substantive, meaningful subjects like his war, gas prices or inflation…but rather about empty, ego-centric matters that were largely of concern only to himself.
 
I would not suggest that Trump’s Saturday Rant Fest was “the turning point.”  Indeed, Trump has had so many “turning points,” that it’s a wonder he hasn’t collapsed from terminal dizziness, and there no doubt will be more “turning points” to come, since dementia is degenerative.  But – Saturday was one of those days when you could stick in a pin in the map as a marker to remember when more bricks fell from the Trump façade.
 
The court decisions came pouring in on Friday.  The decision that Trump had to remove his name from the Kennedy Center and all its documents.  And that it couldn’t be shut down for the next two years for supposed “renovations,” which was mostly seen as being done to hide all the performers and events that had cancelled.    And the decision that put a temporary hold on Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund scam and “get out of jail free” card on IRS investigations.  And the decision to re-open Trump’s “settlement” with his own DOJ to find out if a fraud was committed against the court, which could lead to him owing hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes.
 
What also came pouring in on Friday is even more headlining performers cancelling from appearing in Trump’s “250th anniversary state fair” gala celebration.  So many cancellations that a Trump appointee dealing with the event told a reporter anonymously –
 “We can’t just have Kid Rock every day. It’s a little f--ing embarrassing when you can’t hold on to Bret Michaels… But we’re confident we’ll get a good line-up.”

(Given who their first choices had been before the acts pulled out of the event – indeed, even Trump has now insulted them, rightly this time, as “Third Rate” -- the confidence to get “a good line-up” is profoundly unlikely.)
 
Which is the backdrop to Trump’s dementia and malignant narcissism kicking in together (a really bad combination), making his manic tweet storm almost hilariously worse.
 
For starters, and to keep everything in perspective, with his war in Iran still raging, gas prices skyrocketing, the public dealing with a weak economy and much more (not to mention a 34% approval), Trump went on a monumental tweet rage against the judge who ordered his name removed from the Kennedy Center -- of over 700 words!  (How long is that?  It’s basically 2-1/2 pages of a book!)  But it wasn’t just complaining about the decision – that from Trump is to be expected – but far, far worse, Trump said that Judge Christopher Cooper, who ordered his name removed from the Kennedy Center, “should be brought up on charges”!
 
Yes, really -- he wanted the judge criminally charged for ruling against him.
 
Dementia and fascism rolled into one.  Over nothing more than his name not being allowed on the Kennedy Center.  A ruling, it must be noted, which was based on the incredibly easy-to-follow grounds that it was Congress who created and named the Kennedy Center, and so by law only Congress can change its name.
 
By the way, lest one think otherwise, the 700-word rant is worse than just this – which is saying a lot, but after all, he did have 2-1/2 pages to fill up with needy, outraged angst howling alone at the moon.  So, among many other things – including slamming Hilary Clinton, tariffs, birthright citizenship, the “RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA hoax,” E. Jean Carroll and more -- Trump also even went after the judge's wife, Amy Jeffress, and at great length.  In part, attacking her for not using her married name, and in part calling her a "Radical Left Democrat" who is "totally wired into the Left System.”  He did this because…well, truly, does Trump need a “reason”?  He did it because Trump is Trump, and is a malignant narcissist who has dementia.
 
(That said, there was a wonderful twist to his rage-tweet.  Trump was so red-hot furious at the judge’s ruling that he didn’t seem to realize he himself referred to the building as “The Kennedy Center,” leaving out the all-important “Donald J. Trump.”  Historians believe this may be the first time for Trump making such an omission.)
 
But Trump’s Megalomaniacal Tweet Storm Saturday got worse. 

And this time, it wasn't even over something that didn't remotely affect Americans’ lives during a disastrous war and rising gas prices and inflation and the Epstein files and 34% approval.  Instead, it was just purely a matter of his ego and embarrassment at losing, something Trump has shown he can’t handle -- as performers kept dropping out of his 250th anniversary event.  And so, Trump tweeted an extremely long, lunatic rant against all the acts pulling out and then ratcheted the crazy up more by suggesting a possible and far-greater replacement for the missing performers.  He wrote –
 
“The man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP”!  And what talent would The Magnificent Mr. Trump bring onstage for America's 250th party?  He’d “give a major speech, rallying the Country forward like I have done ever since being President!”  Basically turning it into a MAGA rally.

Well, that should be fun!  Especially when it gets to his tangents about deadly snakes, hatred of windmills, fear of sharks, and solar power supposedly not able to work at night. 
 
(“Honey, will you please switch the channel already and put something else on.  Anything. I don’t care.  There -- that infomercial.  At least it shows how a hose can curl up so small..  It’s better than hearing him tell us again how brilliant he is because he aced six tests that kept asking him to identify an elephant.  The only reason I would keep watching him is if he finally explained why his doctors felt they had to ask him that six times…!!”)

And yet it’s even crazier.  Because this is the tweet where he called the first-choices who cancelled the gala "Third Rate 'artists'".  Imagine being one of the other performers on the bill hearing that other headliners were just “third rate” and merely “artists” in quotes.  Now, try to get others to fill in.

Putting aside this attack on the "Third Rate 'artists'" his own team hired in the first place and his monumental egomania of self-praise – so massive you’d need a bulldozer to put it aside  – what Trump also said is he would just cancel the massive gala to honor America’s birth 250 years ago.  (Honestly, how does one screw up a party to celebrate the country's 250th anniversary?  No wonder his war in Iran is such a debacle.)
 
But it wasn’t just this.  These are just the two longest, deeply craziest and most emotionally concerning tweets that Trump posted on Saturday. But the same day, Trump also again (inexplicably) attacked the Pope – this time for simply having met with the Mayor of Chicago...which is where the Pontiff is from!  Furthermore, Trump also posted a meme on Saturday that showed numerous MAGOP lawmakers (his own party, during an election year), including his loyal acolyte Rep. Lauren Boebert, all sitting a vehicle that was labelled, “GET IN LOSER, WE’RE GOING LOSING.”

This is not normal.

And by "this," I mean all of it, all his tweets on Saturday, all his actions for the past months, all his lies and delusions, all of it.  And it should not be normalized.  This is not just dismissible as "Trump being Trump".  This is out-of-control crazy land.  Though, in fairness, Trump being Trump is being a racist, misogynist, convicted felon, guilty fraud, adjudicated rapist, pathological lying, anti-Semitic, malignant narcissist with dementia.

Which is not normal.
 
On the positive side, most Americans have finally grasped  who Trump is, and his approval has plummeted to 34% already.  And "Trump’s Day of Long, Crazed Rants" was noted online by a great many.
 
"Trump's Truth Social posting over the last hour or so is completely bats--- insane. Get a load of this nonstop nuttery,” wrote independent journalist Aaron Rupar on social media, later adding, "Trump’s behavior on social media today is so unhinged even by his standards that I can’t help but wonder what the doctors really told him the other day. This is a deeply unwell person."
 
“Wow. He’s nuts,” noted Michigan Republican Party strategist Jeff Timmer.
 
Former congressional candidate Melanie D'Arrigo wrote, "When a President is posting insane stuff like this, it really doesn't matter how many dementia tests he passes to tell that he's not mentally fit for office.”
 
CNN’s anchor Jake Tapper tweeted a reply to Trump’s post about canceling the 250th anniversary gala and making himself the speaker, “Didn’t think this was real at first.”
 
And to be clear – all this was just on Saturday.  There’s of course been so much more before then, and will be more to come.  Not to mention all his medical appointments. Indeed, the former White House physician for vice president Dick Cheney, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, wrote a long series of questions after the release of information about Trump’s recent check-up, including “Why was the president again given a MOCA dementia screening test? He’s had 3 in the recent past.”

Trump is not only absolutely unhinged, but over nothing more than his name on a building, a renovation being cancelled, and performers dropping out of a show.  If he can’t handle this (and there’s no “if” about it, he just released his insanity to the public) -- amid all the problems in the country that have driven his approval down to just 34%, and dropping -- just imagine (which my friend and I have been doing for the past year) how Trump will respond as things that are actually, deeply serious get worse and the intense pressure on him increases. 
 
And they will get worse.  Because Trump has dementia, which is degenerative.  And he’s surrounded by unqualified incompetents who know the only reason they are in their jobs is to say “Yes” to him.

But in the end, even all this is not about Trump.  We really do know who he is at this point, and he shows it loudly and more disturbingly every day.  This is about the elected MAGOPs in Congress, who enable him, protect his dementia that they surely see and know about intimately, and are the ones who literally vote for the issues he wants.

There will be more days like Saturday.

Keep your pin markers handy.  You can get them in bulk here, to be sure you don't run out.