Donald Trump is clearly flailing. He has reportedly taken to complaining about his campaign, which candidates tend to do when they are looking for someone to blame. He is, in the words of The Washington Post, “steaming” at what has happened to him. This is what he posted on Truth Social on Tuesday afternoon:
“What are the chances that Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the history of the U.S., whose Presidency was Unconstitutionally STOLEN from him by Kamabla, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and others on the Lunatic Left, CRASHES the Democrat National Convention and tries to take back the Nomination, beginning with challenging me to another DEBATE,” the post read. “He feels that he made a historically tragic mistake by handing over the U.S. Presidency, a COUP, to the people in the World he most hates, and he wants it back, NOW!!!”
Are these the words of a stable man who is in touch with reality?
It gets worse. On Thursday, he held a lengthy press conference, supposedly to get the attention back on him instead of focusing so much on the “fun” and very successful rollout of the Harris-Walz ticket. By any measure, the press conference was a disaster.
Trump repeated his familiar rants, complete with lies that have been repeatedly fact-checked. No, he did not cut taxes more than anyone else in history. No, he did not have a bigger crowd on Jan. 6 than Martin Luther King Jr. did for the March on Washington. No, it was not a “small” crowd that stormed the Capitol, and it was not a “peaceful” transfer of power.
At some points, he was utterly incoherent. Asked if he would direct the FDA to deny access to abortion pills, he responded: “So, you can do things that will be, would supplement, absolutely. And those things are pretty open and humane. But you have to be able to have a vote. And all I want to do is give everybody a vote. And the votes are taking place right now as we speak.”
What? An aide later said that he didn’t hear the question, which is hardly an explanation, and that his position has not changed since the Supreme Court ruled. But the Supreme Court never ruled on the merits of the question of whether abortion medication should be available; it only ruled that the particular plaintiffs before it did not have standing to raise the issue. Asked how he would vote on the Florida initiative to protect abortion rights, which is on the ballot this fall, he just dodged, promising to hold a press conference sometime in the future.
He was equally incoherent about his attacks on Kamala Harris’ blackness. Asked how he could claim that a woman who attended a historically black university had only recently claimed she was black, Trump said: “Well, you’ll have to ask her that question because she’s the one that said it. I didn’t say it. So you’ll have to ask her. And I very much appreciate that question, but you’ll have to ask her.” What did she say? What question? His answer makes no sense at all.
We are so used to Trump ranting and raving, lying and boasting, flaunting his insecurities and anger, that it is easy to dismiss it as yet another instance of Trump being Trump. But this time he went even further, literally making up a supposed helicopter trip he took with Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco and speaker of the California Assembly. According to Trump, the helicopter nearly crashed, but not before Brown disparaged Kamala Harris, a woman he dated decades ago and has supported throughout her career. According to Brown, an inveterate storyteller who pointed out, convincingly, that if it had happened, he would have told the story himself, the helicopter trip simply never happened.
Donald Trump is a man who not only rants and raves, not only exaggerates and lies, but literally makes things up. How can he possibly be qualified to be president? This is not just Trump being Trump; it is Trump literally being crazy. It is no longer simply about ideology or policy. The man is not competent to be president. It’s time to say it out loud.
Susan Estrich is a lawyer, professor, author and political commentator.
