Folks, I’m worried about Donald Trump and his mental decline, which was on vivid display at a rally Tuesday night on one of his Florida golf courses.
During the event, the former president slurred words, claimed his son Don Jr. is married when he’s actually just engaged, and consistently described the world around him in a manner wholly inconsistent with reality.
During one heartbreaking moment, Trump stopped talking for a full minute while the usual eerie music favored by an unhinged conspiracy group called QAnon played in the background. He sweatily moved his head back and forth and randomly pointed at people, appearing to not know exactly what he was doing.
It’s clear Trump lacks the mental capacity to run against Biden
It was tough to watch, but there’s little question the 78-year-old no longer has the faculties needed to take on President Joe Biden in the race for the presidency. It’s now up to Trump’s family and responsible members of the Republican Party to find a way for him to gracefully step aside and let a younger and more competent candidate take over, possibly someone like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
At one point during Tuesday’s rally, Trump said tourists who go to Washington, D.C., and visit the Jefferson Memorial or the Washington Monument “end up getting shot, mugged, raped.” It was troubling to see a man hoping to become president again act so confused. Violent crime in the District of Columbia is down more than 20% this year, as crime nationwide has plummeted.
Trump in Doral: “We will take over the horribly run capital of our country in Washington DC … right now if you leave Florida — ‘oh, let’s go darling, let’s look at the Jefferson Memorial’ … and you end up getting shot, mugged, raped. We’re gonna take over our capital and… pic.twitter.com/NFnuQSMnoq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 10, 2024
Trump’s delusions continued as he incorrectly identified America as “a Third World nation,” babbled confusingly about the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter and then very freely said, without a hint of irony, “We are a nation where free speech is no longer allowed.”
About that wacky GOP platform: ‘A Nation in SERIOUS DECLINE’: GOP platform is an unhinged all-caps list of Trump lies
Trump’s rally was sad to watch, as the 78-year-old has clearly lost it
It was truly sad. We’ve all known older friends or relatives whose minds have started to slip. There’s no shame in it. But surely the Republican Party knows that with Trump so clearly in decline, it can’t win in November.
At one point during his speech, Trump appeared to completely forget that hundreds of his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, injuring police officers and desecrating the halls of our nation’s government. Those domestic terrorists have been tried for their crimes, convicted and properly sentenced, yet Trump said: “But when people who love our country protest on January 6 in Washington, they become hostages unfairly imprisoned for long periods of time.”
What the heck was he talking about?
Biden? Harris? I don’t care: Stopping Trump and Project 2025 is all that matters.
Slurred words, imagined dystopian scenes and a rant about airports
Trump slurred his words again while apparently making a promise that, if reelected, no American will ever overdose on drugs again: “Mothers will never again be forced to watch their children overdosing and hosplee.”
I don’t know what hosplee means. I don’t even know if Trump knows what it means or if he even knew he was there in the South Florida heat, randomly talking about airports:
“We are a nation whose once revered airports are a dirty, crowded mess. You sit and wait for hours and then are notified that the plane won’t leave, that they have no idea when they will, where tickets prices have tripled, they don’t have the pilots to fly the planes, they don’t seek qualified air traffic controllers and they just don’t know what the hell they are doing.”
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Trump’s imagined view of dystopian airports has no basis in reality. This past Sunday, a one-day record of 3 million travelers were screened by the Transportation Security Administration.
USA TODAY recently reported that the average domestic airfare last year was only 9% more than what it was in 2019, compared with overall inflation at 19% in the same period.
Old Trump truly needs to step aside for the good of the country
Trump’s clear disconnect from reality, which he admirably tries to cover with incessant lies, should prompt pundits, political strategists and all major news outlets to immediately call for him to step aside, for the good of the country.
He’s obviously too old and frail to handle the rigors of another four-year term.
I look forward to the breathless news coverage and weighty editorials about a presidential candidate who has so clearly become unelectable.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump rally shows he lacks mental acuity to continue as GOP candidate
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