Comatose Donald Trump sniffles his way through vapid Afghanistan speech while calling people “losers”

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Donald Trump just finished spending seventeen days on vacation, where he largely didn’t even try to do the job of president. Tonight was a reminder that America is arguably even worse off when Trump does occasionally try to get it right. His nationally televised speech about the war in Afghanistan was an earnest effort on his part at being taken seriously. It was also a dangerous disaster.

Trump did come close to a moment of genuine reflection early on when he admitted that although he’d spent years insisting that we should simply walk away from Afghanistan, he now realizes that doing so could have negative results for the United States. But from there, Trump – who seemed little more than half awake – largely went on to repeat himself and babble vapidly about military strategies which he clearly did not understand. The central premise of his speech was that he’ll win the war in Afghanistan by not announcing how many additional troops he’ll be sending there. And then there was the sniffing.

Donald Trump’s sniffing during his Afghanistan speech was more subtle and much less frequent than it had been during his sniff-a-sentence general election debate performances. But it’s enough to once again ignite debate as to whether Trump is using cocaine. And yet, for someone who was sniffing like he was high on an upper drug, Trump sounded borderline comatose for much of his speech. Even when he decided to repeat one of his most negatively received remarks of all time by referring to terrorists as “losers,” he still didn’t show a trace of emotion or interest.

As per usual, Trump spewed quite a few lies and inaccuracies about how the Afghanistan War has played out to this point and other topics. And as is typically the case, his lies didn’t even serve to bolster his argument; he simply feels compelled to lie at all times. Now we wait to see how many cable news commentators declare that Trump became “presidential” tonight, only to be quickly proved wrong when Trump begins tweeting toxic garbage in the morning.