Donald Trump isn’t going to make it
Imagine a criminal defendant being so deep into dementia that he keeps sleeping through his trial, and after one of his longtime close associates gives damning testimony against him, he cheerfully fist bumps that witness. Now further imagine that this defendant is also a presumptive major party nominee for President of the United States.
This should be the fist bump heard round the world. It’s proof that Trump isn’t just tired, he isn’t just feeble, he’s so senile that he has no clue what’s going on around him. He doesn’t seem to understand what these trial proceedings are all about, or what any of these people are doing on the witness stand, or what a trial is. At this point his cognitive abilities are limited to “Hey that’s Jeff, I haven’t seen him in awhile” and nothing more.
There’s nothing left of Trump’s mind, beyond seeing a longtime associate on the witness stand and thinking it’s a dinner gathering or something. If this is Trump’s mindless reaction to someone like Jeff McConney, who’s been at his side for years, what happens when certain other witnesses show up in court? After all, Trump has had sexual relations with two of the upcoming witnesses. What will his cognitively blank response be when he sees them? Will he start telling them how good they look while they’re trying to testify?
For that matter, what happens when Michael Cohen takes the stand? Trump and Cohen spent many years being pals, and they’ve since spent years being enemies. But what parts of his past with Cohen is Trump going to remember? Will Trump be tempted to angrily yell things at Cohen while he’s testifying? Or will Trump get so confused that he ends up trying to fist bump Cohen too?
This is all a crapshoot, because dementia is worse on some days than others, and leaves the patient with a different partial set of memories on some days than others. Trump has already shown that he often doesn’t know what the current year or decade is, or what part of his life he’s in. Now that we know Trump is going to have confused and bizarre reactions to the witnesses he recognizes, this could get really, really weird.
Bottom line: there’s a good chance Donald Trump isn’t going to make it. If he’s already so far gone that he’s trying to cheerfully fist bump an old friend who just gave damning testimony against him, Trump’s behavior could get so bizarre that the judge ends up having to remove him from the courtroom.
Trump is already on the verge of getting thrown in jail for misbehavior in this trial. We should also consider the possibility that Trump ends up getting hauled away during this trial for incompetent behavior.
