This just keeps getting stranger
Here’s a list of things that Donald Trump has done at his rallies within the past few days: Threatened to never visit several states again if he loses them. Threatened to fire the Governor of Florida, which he can’t do, if he loses the state. Danced like a fool. Threatened to shave his head. Threatened to leave the country if he loses.
Here’s the thing: if you ask people like Michael Cohen, they’ll tell you that Donald Trump doesn’t have a sense of humor. He’s always been eccentric, but he’s not one to joke around. Yet the longer he’s been out on the campaign trail since abruptly leaving the hospital, the more of a vaudeville act he’s developing. But he hasn’t become funny in a self aware way. Instead he’s coming off like what you might expect Donald Trump to be like if he were on laughing gas, or his brain were deprived of oxygen.
There’s no precedent for how weird this is getting – not even in the movies. He’s not going on some Bulworth truth-telling binge. He’s not carrying out some darkly deranged but coherent plan like the Joker. Instead we’re seeing a guy, who’s never come close to feeling or understanding human emotion, who’s coming up against the end of things and whose mind seems to be splintering before us.
Maybe Trump’s doctors have him pumped so full of drugs to keep him upright, he’s simply behaving this way because he’s just that high. Or maybe Trump, who has spent his entire life making messes for himself and then finding a way to weasel out of them, doesn’t see a way out this time and can’t handle the reality of what he’s facing. One thing is for sure: over these next two weeks, Trump’s behavior will only get stranger. Our job is to vote him out in overwhelming numbers, so he stops being our problem.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report