There’s something seriously wrong with Donald Trump
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times has documented the impact of Donald Trump’s observably stark mental and physical decline in the course of his criminal election interference trial. She describes him as looking haggard and rumpled, with an unsteady gait and a vacant expression. The added strain of the trial is becoming evident, she says.
I’m wondering what strain she’s referring to. Trump is sitting in a chair. When he’s not reading flattering articles about himself or surreptitiously fiddling with his phone he’s asleep. I’m under more strain deciding when to eat dinner.
But, no matter. Sources close to Trump’s inner circle report they are concerned about Trump’s ability to endure the rigours of a full time trial. If that is the case then I put it to them: if Trump can’t sit through a trial, what makes them think he has what it takes to be president of the United States? If it’s tension they’re worried about, how about the kind of tension that can accrue from 18 hours in the Situation Room during a battle of wits and brinkmanship with a nuclear superpower? If it’s endurance they’re worried about, how about the endurance necessary to maintain a soul-murdering schedule of back-to-back top level meetings with representatives from foreign governments? If he’s having trouble staying awake, how’s he gonna do when he has to read a dry-as-dust five hundred page congressional bill he’s expected to sign?
Let’s face it, Trump’s aides and handlers are tacitly confessing that which we have known all along: Donald Trump is not fit — physically, mentally or humanly — to lead the nation. He doesn’t have it and he never has. If he’s not qualified to sit attentively in court, then he absolutely does not have what it takes to sit behind the Resolute Desk and “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.”
These are the kinds of observations that Trump routinely invites. He’s proven time and time again that he’s too thin-skinned to survive the rough-and-tumble of politics. While Trump spends the better part of his day avenging himself on his critics, President Biden gets on with the business of running the country. Biden, who has no shortage of actually unfair criticisms, knows what Trump does not, that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to answer all of one’s critics. But then, Biden also doesn’t play golf.
This is the obvious lesson that all reasonable people should have learned long before Trump’s first (and let us hope) only term of office. Trump is not and never has been fit to be president of a medium-size corporation, let alone president of the United States. His only real success to date has been as a personality on a reality TV show, one tailor-made for clowns and exhibitionists.
That Trump is having difficulty focusing and staying awake during his own criminal trial should surprise no one. The only revelation is that Trump’s conduct during his trial is a revelation to anybody. Trump is a talent-free fool, a latter day Chauncey Gardiner who always performs down to every rational expectation. What I want to know is, when in the name of hell are people going to stop being surprised by this? And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.