Ahead of Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night, one of his senior advisers signaled to reporters that this event would be a little different from most. Specifically, Jason Miller let journalists know that the former president would preview the Republican’s “closing message” as Election Day drew closer.
Miller went so far as to tell the media that Trump’s remarks would be “important.”
In a way, the words proved prophetic, but probably not in the way the GOP candidate’s campaign had in mind. NBC News reported:
Trump spent 12 minutes at the beginning of his roughly 90-minute speech telling stories about [Arnold] Palmer, the late professional golfer for whom the airport was named. At one point, he suggested that Palmer had unusually large genitalia. “He was strong and tough, and I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there they said, ‘Oh, my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said.
The former president has spent months, on a nearly daily basis, telling anyone who’d listen that he’s not at all “weird.” But when candidates for the nation’s highest office ramble for 12 minutes about a deceased golfer, culminating in comments about his genitalia, I think reasonable observers can agree that’s incredibly weird.
At the same event, Trump also said, in reference to Vice President Kamala Harris, “We can’t stand you. You’re a s--- vice president.”
A Harris campaign spokesperson asked soon after whether someone has “done a wellness check” on Trump, and given the circumstances, that was more than just a pointed response.
Indeed, the Democratic nominee also said on Saturday, in reference to her GOP rival, “He’s becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged. The American people are seeing it, witnessing it in real time. The American people deserve better than someone who seems to be unstable.”
And that was hours before Trump spoke publicly about a deceased golfer’s private parts.
As the electoral finish line comes into view, Democrats are increasingly invested in the idea that Trump isn’t just a reactionary criminal with an authoritarian agenda, he also seems to be a mentally unstable criminal with an authoritarian agenda.
The day before Trump’s event in Latrobe, for example, Barack Obama headlined a rally in Arizona where he told locals, “I do have to point out that along with his intentions, there is also a question of his competence. Have you seen him lately? I mean, he is out there, he’s giving two, two-and-a-half-hour speeches. Just word salads.”
“Let me explain because I’ve done a lot of town hall meetings,” Obama added. “The point of a town hall meeting is to take questions. He just decided, you know what, I’m gonna stop taking questions and then he’s swaying to ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Y.M.C.A.’ for about half an hour. Folks are standing there, not sure what’s happening. Can you imagine if I did that?”
The former Democratic president concluded, “You would be worried if your grandpa started acting like this. ... The point is we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails.”
There’s probably no point to referencing every example of the former president’s recent breakdowns — there are simply too many to chronicle in a single blog post — but for those concerned about the Republican’s mental acuity and cognitive fitness, Trump adds fresh fuel to the fire with unsettling frequency.
And given that he’s hiding his medical records for reasons that have not been explained, it’s tough to blame Harris and her allies for issuing these warnings to the public.
The day after his event in Latrobe, Trump participated in a Q&A in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in which he tried to address the matter. “I have no cognitive,” the Republican boasted, adding: “There’s no cognitive problem.”
How reassuring.