Trump is 'looking awfully weak' and MAGA has stopped 'fearing him': analysis

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during the opening of a temporary migrant detention center informally known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in Ochopee, Florida, U.S., July 1, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

President Donald Trump is desperate for the Jeffrey Epstein scandal to go away, and his about-face on releasing the files is a lie, writes Salon's Amanda Marcotte. She also observed that "Trump's power over the MAGA movement" is beginning to weaken — along with his own health.

"With all that’s been going on — the Epstein vote, the economic numbers, his polling, Democrats’ drubbing of the GOP in the recent elections — it’s hard to imagine he’s feeling too good these days," Marcotte writes.

Speculation about the 79 year-old president's health is ongoing, as he is officially the oldest president to take the oath of office for his second, non-consecutive term. Some of Trump's more visible symptoms of aging include swollen ankles, bruised hands and cognitive decline, along with a noticeable lack of specific details from the White House, according to Marcotte.

"The White House continues to deny there are problems with Trump’s health. But since they lie about everything, those words mean less than nothing," Marcotte says. "The public evidence that the 79-year-old president is not doing well is hard for even the most diehard MAGA types to ignore."

Trump's decline, Marcotte notes, isn't just physical.

"He’s looking awfully weak these days — and his coalition is starting to crack as various MAGA actors position themselves to take advantage of an anticipated power vacuum," she writes.

Despite recent pushes for an unconstitutional third term, one which Trump flip-flopped on, Marcotte says that while "it stands to reason [Republicans] would find some laughable pretext to bless his run for a third term, despite it being explicitly forbidden by the 22nd Amendment," there's something darker casting a shadow over those delusions.

"But the rumors that Trump died over Labor Day weekend have kept the spotlight on his health and physical appearance. Then, in October, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson openly declared there’s 'no path' to a third term for the president," Marcotte writes.

"The next day, Trump himself admitted as much. Considering how Johnson tried to help Trump steal the 2020 election, this capitulation says more about the president’s low-energy levels than any kind of devotion to democracy or the rule of law," she adds.

The recent transformation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from Trump loyalist to foil, she notes, has another interesting twist, Marcotte notes.

"A lot of commentators think it’s odd that Greene is feuding with Trump, even as her boyfriend, Brian Glenn, remains one of biggest suck-ups to the president in the White House press pool," she writes.

"But a cynic might point out that Glenn’s physical proximity to Trump is giving him insight into the president’s health, information that could be useful to someone who, like Greene, is seeking to be MAGA’s leader," she adds.

A president's bodily strength, she notes, may not play into his ability to "wield power in the world," she writes, pointing to FDR being one of the most influential in history as he was confined to a wheelchair, but when it comes to Trump, it's different.

"But there’s a big exception in which more old-fashioned prejudices about bodily strength and real world power kick in: When the person in question rules through intimidation. Someone like Trump cannot persuade; he can only bully," Marcotte writes.

"He keeps the GOP in line not through persuasion and horse-trading but by threats ranging from backing primary challenges to the implicit fear of violence," she adds.

These tactics, Marcotte notes, "breed resentment," and "when the authoritarian leader starts to display physical impairment, the people who have been chafing under his iron fist stop fearing him. They start rebelling."

"For leaders whose only tactic is to terrorize, physical enfeeblement can be a devastating blow to their power. No wonder Trump’s makeup seems to get thicker by the minute. He knows that his power is built on appearances — and he has little to fall back on if he loses that," she says.

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