Trump rants expose his 'brain rot in real time': ex-White House official

Conservative Sarah Matthews went from serving as deputy press secretary in the first Trump administration to becoming a full-fledged Never Trumper and giving Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris an enthusiastic endorsement in 2024. This week, Matthews has a lot to say about Trump's social media rants, arguing that the type of content he posts shows the severity of his mental decline.

The Daily Beast's Ewan Palmer notes, "A former close aide to President Donald Trump has said the 80-year-old's unhinged Truth Social posts show he is losing touch with reality. Sarah Matthews, a White House deputy press secretary during Trump's first term, suggested that it is not only the sheer amount of AI-generated slop the president shares online that is worrying, but also, the sort of content he posts. This includes a particularly frantic posting spree on Sunday, when Trump shared dozens of deranged Truth Social updates, including one showing him with an army of robots launching a nuclear war on Earth from outer space, and another image of him threatening to beat Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with a hockey stick."

During his first presidency, Trump did a lot of ranting on X (Twitter at the time). But according to Matthews, his social media posts are much worse now.

Matthews told the New York Times, "He floods the zone with so much of it that we've become numb to just how bizarre it is. An 80-year-old president is spending a ridiculous amount of time consuming and reposting endless AI fan fiction portraying him as the biggest, strongest, and most important person alive. It feels like we're genuinely watching his brain rot in real time."

Palmer points out that Trump's posts often "promote how he portrays himself in his head or how he wants to be seen" — for example, an "AI-generated image showing the U.S. military attacking Iran's oil hub of Kharg Island" as well as an image of "Trump smashing a chunk of land depicting Iran with a comically large hammer bearing the American flag on its head."

"It is not just Matthews — who resigned from the White House in the wake of the January 6 attack in 2021 and has since turned into a vocal Trump critic — who has expressed concerns about the president's social media addiction," Palmer observes. "There have been multiple demands to remove Trump from office via the 25th Amendment over suggestions that his Truth Social activity shows he is unfit for office. Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine made such a call while sharing a video showing a stream of worrying content from Trump's Truth Social account on Sunday."

Pingree, in a September 6 post on X, wrote, "This is truly unhinged behavior from the president of the United States. And I don't want to hear 'oh, it's just Trump being Trump' or that he's 'trolling.' Enough. None of this is normal or okay. Republicans cannot keep shrugging this off. Congress, the Cabinet, and everyone around him has a responsibility to stop enabling this dangerous behavior and start asking whether he is fit to hold this office."