Fact Checking the Trump Campaign on His Fitness For Office:
What’s The Story, Donny?
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There has been much talk about the age and fitness of President Joe Biden. And we all know why. President Biden is 81 years old and is running for a 2nd term, as the demands of the office of the presidency are vast and growing by the day. Running the country and representing the world is no lightweight job for any individual, never mind someone who has been through as much as President Biden has.
He had to overcome childhood stuttering and family financial troubles in his early years, during his family’s move from Scranton to Wilmington. He had to overcome a double-digit deficit in his first run for US Senate in 1972. He had to overcome setbacks like the 1988 plagiarism stories and the 1991 Clarence Thomas hearings. He had to keep moving on after his son Beau Biden’s death from glioblastoma in 2015. And, on the verge of being forced to drop out after Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden came back to win the presidency in 2020 and govern in historic fashion.
No one can contest much of this, just as they can’t contest the questions that still remain around age. That is a discussion I will leave up to those already covering it 24/7 (maybe ad-nauseum, but that’s a different story). For the sake of the campaign as it stands this week, it is only the President who can fully address the concerns with an honest and open discussion. Especially with those voters who have likely kept the 2024 election neck-and-neck in the first place.
Yet we haven’t heard too much about the other guy’s age and fitness. So what is the story there? We have seen Biden out there in the past week. Trump, on the other hand, has apparently spent 9 straight days golfing, like he didn’t do enough of it as President.
Donald Trump’s health concerns do go back years, from being overweight, likely due to what is in most cases an unsustainable fast food diet, to his almost deadly COVID-19 diagnosis in 2020 (which, by the way, he failed to disclose in the first presidential debate, putting the health of now-President Biden at risk). In fact, remember when Trump’s doctor evaded questions about his visit to Walter Reed?
A variety of historians, political scientists, medical doctors, and even psychologists and psychiatrists have studied and analyzed Donald Trump’s erratic behavior. A number of them have publicly and privately said that Trump has almost all—if not all—of the symptoms of narcissism. Among the most notable symptoms is his incessant and pathological ability to lie to the American people. For what it’s worth, former Speaker Paul Ryan basically agreed with this characterization of Trump.
Some have even speculated whether Trump’s increasingly unhinged rhetoric towards his political opponents, Democratic or Republican, are a sign of the accelerating deterioration of his mental health. He does talk more about his legal gripes than he does about any substantive political issues at his rallies. That his rallies occasionally start with a salute to “the January 6th Hostages” and their performance of the national anthem do not calm down these concerns.
Some people are also starting to question his memory.
In the wake of the questions about President Biden’s age and fitness, we miss the questions and even red flags being raised about Trump’s cognition. Trump’s rallies are not as energetic as they once were. Trump sounds more tired and low-energy than ever. Speeches like those from 2016 vs. 2024 speak for themselves.
Many see Trump as being more diminished than he was before, as evidenced by two new patterns in his recent campaign speeches. First, he is slurring and appears much more jarbled than he once was. His sentences and reasoning hardly link together, often leading to rambling irrelevant beyond campaign trail topics, such as the shark and the battery tale, or preferring lakes over oceans, or bragging about his golf swings, or reading his snake poem (as he did in New Jersey). Ever hear of “the Biden border wheel” [wall?]?
Though again, Trump was always crazy and disjointed. This was the same man who in 2020 declared that a Biden win would bring an end to Christmases, Thanksgivings, Easters, and Fourth of Julys. So much for that; whatever you think of President Biden, I believe we’ve made it through the holidays quite alright.
Still, we should not forget about Trump’s newfound talent for mixing up names and places? Judging from Trump’s campaign rallies, you would think he was running against Barack Obama instead of Joe Biden. Is there a count on how many times that Trump has made this mistake? Then again, how many times has Trump complained about Nancy Pelosi while referring to her as “Nikki Haley”? In other Trump events, you might “learn” that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Urban rules over Turkey (wrong; he doesn’t; he rules over Hungary), or that Joe Biden called Black Americans “super predators” (pssst…it was Hillary Clinton. That was a 2016 talking point, Donny).
Whether it is Biden at 81, or Trump at 78, the age question still remains. And Donald looks much less willing to answer it.
In other news:
Places traditionally left behind have bounced back in the Biden era—even as inflation has taken a toll there like it has in most other parts of the country. A message to Rural America.
5 of the 6 Supreme Court Justices who gave Trump presidential immunity said the contrary when they were first appointed by their respective Presidents. Actually, I have to credit Clarence Thomas, as insane as that may sound, for at least being consistent with his beliefs, unlike the rest of the far-right, dark money-loaded Supreme Court.
Congressional GOP Leadership is gearing up to bloat the Pentagon budget even more by “spending reform” (which means social service cuts and corporate welfare) if Trump is reelected. If Mike Johnson and Trump’s Senate GOP leader get their way, Project 2025 will become law and Build Back Better will be dismantled.
Learn more about the Heritage Foundation policy blueprint here.
And interestingly, the idea of Gina Raimondo for President is not resonating with everyone. See the Washington Post debate regarding the US Commerce Secretary and others as potential presidential contenders. Gonna have to try a little harder propping up Raimondo next time, Mr. Ignatius and Ms. Rampell.