'Losing his marbles': Trump is getting a pass on his mental acuity

22 January 2024

During a campaign event in New Hampshire on Friday, January 19, 2024, GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump blamed GOP rival Nikki Haley for the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.

Trump argued that Haley "was in charge of security" at the Capitol that day and dropped the ball badly. But Trump was confusing Haley with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California), who was House speaker at the time.

Haley was governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but she has never served in Congress. Trump, however, mentioned Haley more than once during a rant that was meant for Pelosi.

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In a biting article published on January 22, The New Republic's Michael Tomasky complains that President Joe Biden's gaffes are much more likely to be covered by the media — which, he argues, needs to be paying a lot more attention to Trump's mental acuity.

"He confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi," Tomasky observes. "And not once. Twice. Maybe four times, if you want to be technical about it. You'd think that this would be pretty big news. And it was, but mostly only because Haley herself ran with the comments and made an issue of them, questioning Trump's mental fitness for office…. Now, you know where I'm going here."

Tomasky adds, "Let's imagine that Joe Biden — well, what would the precise equivalent be?"

The New Republic editor is especially critical of right-wing media when it comes to covering Trump's mental acuity.

"The moguls of right-wing media are not out simply to cover the news," Tomasky observes. "They, and the editors and reporters they hire, are out to change what even counts as news because they want to remake society along illiberal, Orbánesque lines. Here's another difference: the right-wing media are far more relentless on the attack."

Tomasky continues, "One little whiff of blood, and they're like sharks to a hobbled seal. If Biden had misspoken in this way, they'd make sure it was an issue that everyone else had to cover and comment on. And that is why the right-wing media drives the news cycle and the mainstream media does not."

But Tomasky criticizes mainstream media as well, complaining that Trump is much more likely to get a pass than Biden.

"If Trump had said, 'Gosh, Gary Cooper was great in 'North by Northwest,' that would be one thing," Tomasky writes. "But Trump confused Pelosi and Haley as people. And it's just the latest in a long string of such incidents."

"North by Northwest" is a famous Alfred Hitchcock film from 1959. The movie starred Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant, not Gary Cooper — which is Tomasky's point.

"If Donald Trump is losing his marbles," Tomasky warns, "it would be good to know that before he has the power to decide that Daniel Ortega is destroying his country and we have no choice but to invade El Salvador."

Michael Tomasky's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.

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