It’s now clear that Donald Trump no longer has any idea what’s going on
I’ve been told that I may have made reference to Donald Trump’s courtroom fist bump of Jeff McConney one too many times of late, and perhaps that’s so. But the reason I keep coming back to that moment is that it was undeniable proof that Trump is now too senile to have any idea what’s going on. There’s no other explanation for why Trump would fist bump a longtime associate who had just finished feeding him to the wolves on the witness stand. Trump is truly so far gone, he couldn’t process anything in that moment beyond “Hey I remember that guy!” Now we’re seeing more.
Over the weekend it was reported that the prosecution plans to spend two more weeks putting on its case. This was in line with every expectation going into the trial. But Trump’s babysitters apparently told him a much different version of the story. Yesterday he told reporters that he thought yesterday was supposed to be the last day of the trial, and he was really upset to learn that it’ll go on for another two weeks.
How could Trump possibly have thought that yesterday would be the last day of the trial? Did it not occur to him that Michael Cohen hasn’t even taken the stand yet? Does Trump even remember who Cohen is at this point? After all, he thinks Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley are the same person (combining multiple people in your life into one person is a common dementia symptom). Did Trump not notice that his own attorneys haven’t put on a defense yet? Did Trump think there would be a verdict yesterday? This is a serious problem.
Did Trump’s handlers suggest to him that Tuesday was going to be the last day of the trial, so that he would behave on Tuesday? Is that how much they’re babying him? Or is Trump’s mind such an incoherent mess of nonsense that he somehow convinced himself that Tuesday was the final day of the trial?
Either way there’s something very wrong here. We’re talking about a criminal defendant who keeps sleeping through his trial, getting confused about which witnesses are for or against him, and… thought the trial was going to end already? This is full blown dementia.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report