Commentary by Andy Brack | When conservative readers don’t like something written about President Donald Trump and what he’s doing to our American democracy, it’s easy to send off the MAGA playbook zinger that the writer has “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Perhaps, but another malady is really at work – Deranged Trump Syndrome. The president, known for giving demeaning nicknames to critics, making rambling speeches and issuing hyperbolic statements that are way over the top or just outright lies, is getting worse. Observers on both sides of the aisle are rightly calling his mental health into question.
This week, Trump went too far. If you had asked last week whether an elected American president would ever say something that put a big fat bullseye of an attack by a foreign power on two major American cities, just about anyone would have said YOU were crazy.
But Trump crossed that line this week when talking about high oil prices and the controversial Iran War at a Nebraska rally:
“And again, remember, with the war it’s just artificial, it’s a little bit high, it’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city, let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego. [crowd cheers] That’s, this is a very small price to pay, and it’s gonna be over with very soon. It’s essentially almost over with, and they might keep going a little long, you know? They always say they have a big threshold for pain. They need it, let me tell you, they need it. But it’s gonna end very soon….”
Take out an American city? Are you kidding? More than 100,000 active-duty service members live around San Diego, which also is home to an estimated 118,000 of their family members and 275,000 veterans.
For Trump to even suggest “taking out” American cities during a political rally where a bunch of idiots cheered is outright treason.
As historian Heather Cox Richardson wrote, the outcry against Trump’s bombast was quick and profound.
Said Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom: “After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego. He is deranged and dangerous.”
His press office later followed up with this: “Let’s be clear: The President is advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents in two of America’s largest cities. This is not normal. None of this is.”
No, it’s not normal. Trump isn’t being cute. He’s panicking because his MAGA empire is crumbling. Voters likely will impose retribution during the Nov. 3 election for Trump’s corruption, lack of real leadership and assaults on democracy, voting out the GOP Congress in the midterms. And all fingers will point to Trump as the culprit.
Face it: The aging, unhealthy Trump is becoming increasingly mentally impaired. He needs to step down, but his narcissism keeps him from giving up power.
It’s time for Washington to invoke section four of the 25th amendment. If you haven’t read it lately, here it is, in part:
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
The rest of the section details how the president can contest his removal and how Congress can then decide.
Congress: Do your job.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
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