Donald Trump may be trying to mount a mental incompetence defense after all

| 9:17 pm EDT October 14, 2017
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Donald Trump’s words and behavior are becoming more inappropriate, idiotic, deranged, and outright senile by the day. It’s well past the point where he should have been removed from office by now based on that alone. Of course he’s also in danger of being removed from office for his treasonous conspiracy with Russia to rig the election. Now one legal expert is suggesting that when Trump is forced to answer for his crimes, mental incompetence may end up being his defense.

Earlier today it was reported that one of Trump’s former Wharton professors declared “Donald Trump Was the Dumbest Goddam Student I Ever Had.” This prompted respected Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe to point out that this may end up being how Trump tries to get off the hook for his crimes: “Trump’s idiocy may end up being POTUS’s best defense against charges of deliberate abuse of power. He could be too dense to scheme!” (link).

Professor Tribe seems to be hinting, perhaps seriously, and perhaps sarcastically, at the possibility that Donald Trump may be faking his own worsening mental incompetence as a legal defense strategy. In recent months Trump has gotten confused and wandered away in the middle of his own public events, wandered out of two different signing ceremonies without signing anything, wandered away from a joint press conference, and wandered away from his own motorcade. His words increasingly sound like pure gibberish when he goes off teleprompter.

Perhaps most notably, Donald Trump’s own staff began leaking to the media this week that he’s “lost a step” and that they’re trying to prevent him from doing interviews for fear of how bad he’ll make himself look. It initially came across as a panic move on the part of staffers who were genuinely worried about his decline. But what if he knows he’s going to be found guilty in his Russia scandal – and he’s painting himself as senile to avoid the most serious punishment?