Conservative politician says ‘Trump is losing his mind’

Dan Hannan — former conservative Member of the European Parliament and contributor to the conservative publication the Washington Examiner — has a blunt assessment of the American president: “Donald Trump is losing his mind.”

As evidence of this, he suggests a thought experiment.

“Imagine it was someone other than President Donald Trump,” wrote Hannon. “Suppose a different leader were posting deranged rants in the small hours, insulting the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics, threatening entire civilizations with annihilation, and comparing himself to God. What would be the reaction? We all know the answer. Both parties would be rushing to bundle him out of office before he did irreversible harm to the republic.”

According to Hannon, however, Democrats fear attempts to remove the president will only boost his support, while Republicans worry about angering Trump’s electoral base. Trump’s behavior and performance have pushed away many in the MAGA movement in recent months, but as Hannon notes, there are still those who “will cheer the president unconditionally.” He cites a recent conversation with a MAGA couple, who asserted the now-cliché that Trump is “playing chess while you’re playing checkers.”

“What chess move,” wonders Hannon, “requires picking a quarrel with the Pope? The only conceivable answer might be that Trump is engaging in prestidigitation, fabricating a row to distract from something worse. What, though, could be worse?”

Could it be that Trump is worried Americans might be waking up to his grifts, like “the favors sought from foreign governments, the digital currency boondoggles, the consultants offering access for cash, and the acceptance of a private jet from a Gulf state?” Or maybe he’s concerned about what the electoral loss of his Hungarian ally Viktor Orban implies about Trump’s own waning popularity?

“The likelier explanation, though, is that this is exactly what it looks like,” says Hannon. “A 79-year-old man who has long dealt in chaos is now being consumed by that chaos. His episodes are becoming more frequent, his good days further apart. What he has lost is not a sense of decency or decorum — he never had those — but any remaining sense of self-control.”

Everyone, Hannon asserts, can see it, yet no one is doing anything about it. As a consequence, “The tragedy is no longer Trump’s. It is now America’s.”