Donald Trump's recent comments have loyalists within his own administration "unsettled," according to the Daily Beast, with author and reporter Michael Wolff stating that his "alarming" behavior had at least one insider wondering if the president's mental state is "teetering."
Trump this week sparked controversy, even among his most fervent supporters, when he suggested that beloved filmmaker Rob Reiner's death was the result of "Trump Derangement Syndrome," a label he has often applied to his most vocal critics. When asked about the comment later at a press conference, he refused to back down, adding that he believed Reiner had been "very bad for our country."
On the latest episode of his "Inside Trump's Head" podcast for The Daily Beast, Wolff reported that at least one White House staffer he spoke to in the wake of Trump's Reiner remarks expressed confusion and alarm, and suggested that they were uncertain about the president's mental state.
“I don’t know what that was, but it wasn’t good," the source said, according to Wolff. "Everybody knows it’s a thin line he walks. Is he teetering? Well...”
“This person didn’t complete the sentence," Wolff added.
Adding his own two cents, Wolff, a veteran political reporter and author with insider sources close to the president, argued that the comments were a clear indication of something "alarming" going on with him.
“It is not just that this is objectionable, but the fact that someone would say this is an indication of their own alarming personal situation," Wolff said. "We all become kind of diagnosticians of these old-man presidents. I mean, nobody is going to come out and say, ‘He’s losing it.’ So we all have to make our own judgments about that. And I think in this situation, particularly in this situation—in the way that everyone who has a family at some level relates to this—I think the judgment is going to be a devastating one: Trump is off his f---ing rocker."
Wolff added that these comments would continue to be "devastating" for Trump as he grapples with his increasing unpopularity, arguing that such an attack on "a beloved American" like Reiner would fall flat with most everyone.
