No wonder Trump wont show up on a debate stage. Hes gotten to where he can barely keep it together in front of the adoring throngs at his campaign rallies. Somewhat smaller throngs, it must be said but, hey, its January, and everybodys seen The Trump Show many times by now.
Even so, that was a real humdinger the great man emitted the other day when he confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, blaming her for failing to provide adequate security during the Jan. 6 riot. Psychiatrists call it decompensating. Ordinary people call it losing your marbles.
Courtesy of Michael Tomasky in The New Republic, heres a transcript of what Trump said: By the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6. You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley … you know they … did you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it? All of it! Because of lots of things. Like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people. Soldiers, National Guard whatever they want. They turned it down. They dont wanna talk about that. These are very dishonest people.
Thats right, sports fans, Trump confused the then-Democratic speaker of the House with his Republican presidential rival and former United Nations ambassador. Not once, but several times. All in service of one of his most absurd lies: that he offered Speaker Pelosi soldiers to defend the U.S. Capitol from the same mob hed urged to fight like hell, or you wont have a country anymore.
Also to support another lie: that the House Select Committee that investigated the events of Jan. 6 possessed this exculpatory evidence but destroyed it. Yeah, sure they did. And all of Humpty Trumptys horses and all of his men couldnt put it back together again.
In reality, numerous White House aides testified that Trump spent hours enjoying the spectacle on TV, even as they begged him to call off the mob. Then at 2:24 p.m., with the crowd having erected a gallows and chanting Hang Mike Pence, Trump sent out a tweet: Mike Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.
That is, to prevent the Electoral College vote and award the election to Trump. The election hed lost by 7 million votes.
But, yeah, it was all Nikki/Nancys fault.
And if you believe that … Well, what wont you believe?
Tomasky asks an interesting question. If Haley herself hadnt made an issue of Trumps senility, would the news media even have covered the event? Probably not. Theyve been ducking it for months, even as the deterioration in the former presidents affect has grown steadily clearer.
Heres the self-proclaimed stable genius on the topic of wind turbines, which he claims are driving whales crazy: I never understood wind. I know windmills very much. … Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything.
Now I dont want to brag, but I could never get that drunk. But of course, Trump famously doesnt drink. Instead, he boasts about acing a screening test for dementia. Going on six years ago.
If Humpty Trumpty were a doctor, lawyer, a veterinarian or a hairstylist, his clients would tiptoe quietly away. A presidential candidate, however, is to many people a fantasy figure a combination sideshow barker and shaman, credited in the popular mind with powers he does not and never will have. So, its not a practical decision. Tribal loyalties are involved.
During my lifetime, the most astonishing example of mass psychosis Ive seen was the Jonestown Massacre of hundreds of religious devotees by suicide the origin of the phrase drinking the Kool-Aid. Second was the Branch Davidian catastrophe in Waco, Texas, where evidence showed cult leader David Koresh helped massacre his followers.
No, Trumps MAGA movement is nowhere close. Even so, its going to be interesting to see how his followers react as his psychological and intellectual decompensation proceeds under the enormous pressure of a presidential campaign and a series of criminal trials.
Tomasky points out that given the media obsession with Joe Bidens age Fox News and others televise his every verbal or physical stumble relentlessly for the president to commit anything like Trumps Nikki/Nancy blunder would probably result in his being forced to withdraw.
And properly so, as far as Im concerned.
Anybody whos ever had a relative or close friend disappear over the event horizon into dementia knows the story. Trump will have better days and worse days, but its a one-way journey to nowhere.
Meanwhile, its not the MAGA faithful that scare me; its the cynics and opportunists who think they can flog him across the finish line.
Arkansas Times columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of The Hunting of the President (St. Martins Press, 2000). You can email Lyons at [email protected].
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