‘Trump is in severe mental decline’: Concerns raised over president’s health

[bostonangler]

Donald Trump is “in severe mental decline” and “won’t make it” to the next election, a former top aide has claimed.

Anthony Scaramucci, who was White House communications director for just 11 days before he was sacked in 2017, said the US president’s behaviour has “got worse” since he last saw him a year ago.

In an interview with CTV News on Friday, he said: “He’s in full-blown meltdown; it’s like the episodes of Chernobyl where the reactor’s melting down and people are trying to figure out whether they’re going to cover it up or clean it up.”

Mr Scaramucci said he believed the president’s chances of re-election were “diminishing every day” – but admitted there was “still a chance there”.

He added: “I predict he won’t make it to that election; there’s such severe mental decline going on that the most likely outcome here, and I think the proudest outcome, would be to say ‘OK I did a great job, and I’m going to retire at the end of the term’.”

Speaking at Toronto Global Forum on Friday, he repeated his claim that Mr Trump is in “severe mental decline”, adding: “I’m not saying that now because I’m a political adversary or I disavowed him, I’m saying that objectively just looking at what’s going on.”

The former aide’s comments came after the president was taken to task for a tweet he posted last weekend claiming that Alabama would be hit by Hurricane Dorian.

He later faced criticism after posing in the Oval Office with a National Hurricane Centre map of Storm Dorian which appeared to have been altered to include Alabama in the storm’s path.

Mr Trump hit back, tweeting: “This nonsense has never happened to another president.

• Read more

Trump ‘orders admiral’ to publicly defend his false Alabama claims

“Four days of corrupt reporting, still without an apology.”

However the National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama, tweeted: “Alabama will not see any impacts from Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama.”

Sources told Business Insider that the president’s advisers were particularly concerned about his refusal to acknowledge his claim was false.

“People are used to the president saying things that aren’t true, but this Alabama stuff is another story,” they said.

"No one knows what to expect from him anymore," one former White House official told Business Insider, speaking anonymously.

http://players.brightcove.net/624246174001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5837728067001

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"His mood changes from one minute to the next based on some headline or tweet, and the next thing you know his entire schedule gets tossed out the window because he's losing his s***,” they added.

A Republican strategist told the website: “He’s deteriorating in plain sight.”

Read more

Read more Trump ‘orders admiral’ to publicly defend his false Alabama claims

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-severe-mental-decline-concerns-084138308.html

 

 

B/A

[bostonangler]

• Aides and confidants are increasingly worried about his mental state after days of erratic behavior and wild outbursts.

• "No one knows what to expect from him anymore," one former White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations about the president, told Insider. "His mood changes from one minute to the next based on some headline or tweet, and the next thing you know his entire schedule gets tossed out the window because he's losing his s---."

• Trump has spent the past several days fixated on his false claim that Alabama was going to be hit by Hurricane Dorian. He has also taken time to lob attacks at his perceived enemies, like the actress Debra Messing, former FBI Director James Comey, and the "LameStream media."

• "He's deteriorating in plain sight," one Republican strategist who is in frequent contact with the White House told Insider on Friday.

• But one person who was close to Trump's legal team during the Russia investigation told Insider his public statements were "nothing compared to what he's like behind closed doors."

• "He's like a bull seeing red," this person added. "There's just no getting through to him, and you can kiss your plans for the day goodbye because you're basically stuck looking after a 4-year-old now."

• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump's aides and confidants are growing more and more concerned about his mental state after days of erratic behavior, wild outbursts, and bizarre fixations.

"No one knows what to expect from him anymore," one former White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations about the president, told Insider. "His mood changes from one minute to the next based on some headline or tweet, and the next thing you know his entire schedule gets tossed out the window because he's losing his s---."

The president's advisers are particularly worried about his stubborn refusal to acknowledge that a tweet he sent over the weekend claiming that Alabama was going to be hit by Hurricane Dorian was false. They believe that his frustration is compounded by stress about the 2020 election and the economy's recent downturn.

"People are used to the president saying things that aren't true, but this Alabama stuff is another story," the former official said. "This was the president sending out patently false information about a national-emergency situation as it was unfolding."

Read more: Trump may have committed tax fraud by fabricating a loan to avoid paying income taxes on nearly $50 million

Trump's latest outbursts on the matter came Friday as he railed against the media for fact-checking him on the claim.

"The Fake News Media was fixated on the fact that I properly said, at the beginnings of Hurricane Dorian, that in addition to Florida & other states, Alabama may also be grazed or hit," he tweeted. "They went Crazy, hoping against hope that I made a mistake (which I didn't). Check out maps."

Trump went on to complain that "this nonsense has never happened to another President. Four days of corrupt reporting, still without an apology. But there are many things that the Fake News Media has not apologized to me for, like the Witch Hunt, or SpyGate! The LameStream Media and their Democrat ... partner should start playing it straight. It would be so much better for our Country!"

Later Friday, the president posted a misleading video that included a CNN clip from Wednesday, August 28, in which a reporter discussed how the hurricane was threatening several US states, including Alabama. The video then played the reporter saying "Alabama" on loop, cut to a clip of Trump nodding, and then to a doctored clip of CNN's logo superimposed onto a moving truck which careened off the road and caught fire.

But Trump's first tweet about Alabama being in Hurricane Dorian's path came on Saturday, by which time weather forecasters had determined that it was not going to be hit.

 

'He's deteriorating in plain sight'

As of Friday evening, Trump had posted 13 tweets and five maps about Alabama and the storm to try to prove his original tweet was correct, despite the fact that he'd been publicly rebuked by the National Weather Service. He also showed reporters an altered map of the storm's path on Wednesday to defend his claims, a move that may even be illegal, according to federal law.

"He's deteriorating in plain sight," one Republican strategist who's in frequent contact with the White House told Insider on Friday.

Asked why the president was obsessed with Alabama instead of the states that would actually be affected by the storm, the strategist said, "you should ask a psychiatrist about that; I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment."

Read more: Trump may have broken federal law by altering Hurricane Dorian's path on a map to validate his false claim that it could hit Alabama

Trump often airs his grievances publicly, either on Twitter or while speaking with reporters, which means the world has an unprecedented window into the president's stream of consciousness.

For instance, on Labor Day weekend, as Hurricane Dorian battered the Bahamas and made its way to the US's mainland, Trump took breaks in between golfing to post more than 120 tweets.

In addition to updates on Hurricane Dorian and quote tweets of fawning praise of his presidency from Fox News, the subjects of Trump's tweets included:

• Former FBI Director James Comey.

• Four freshman Democratic congresswomen of color known as "the squad."

• AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

• "Failing New York Times columnist Paul Krugman."

• "Amazon Washington Post."

• The "LameStream Media."

• The liberal actress and activist Debra Messing.

Read more: Trump advisers are more worried about Elizabeth Warren than any other 2020 Democratic candidate

'He's like a bull seeing red'

Messing provoked ire from both sides of the aisle when she posted a tweet last week calling for a public list of Trump donors who will attend an upcoming fundraiser for him in Beverly Hills, California.

The "Will & Grace" actress' tweet drew a harsh response from "The View" cohost Whoopi Goldberg, who likened it to the McCarthyism of the 1950s.

Trump had Messing on his mind as recently as Thursday, when he referenced Goldberg's comments and tweeted, "Bad 'actress' Debra The Mess Messing is in hot water. She wants to create a 'Blacklist' of Trump supporters, & is being accused of McCarthyism."

The president also latched onto another tweet Messing posted in which she praised a sign in front of an Alabama church implying that black voters who support Trump are mentally ill. Messing later apologized for "recklessly" sharing the sign and added that its use of the term "mentally ill" was "wrong & hurtful."

Trump called Messing a "racist because of the terrible things she said about blacks and mental illness" and added that if the actress Roseanne Barr — an avid Trump supporter — had said the same thing, she would have been fired.

Barr was fired from her sitcom last year after making racist comments about an aide to former President Barack Obama. "Will Fake News NBC allow a McCarthy style Racist to continue?" Trump wrote, referring to Messing.

The actress responded by linking to a New Yorker piece this week that detailed Trump's wild behavior over the past month.

She added that she hoped "his family gets him the help he needs. Sad."

Read more: Trump said he skipped a diplomatic trip to monitor Hurricane Dorian. Then he spent the weekend golfing.

Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, also weighed in on Trump's state of mind on Friday.

"I think the president is in severe mental decline, and I'm not saying that now because I'm a political adversary or I disavowed him. I'm saying that objectively just looking at what's going on," Scaramucci said at the Toronto Global Forum.

This isn't the first time questions have been raised about Trump's mental state and his fitness for office. In fact, Trump's mental stability is a regular topic of discussion in the White House.

This was confirmed by the anonymous author of a famous 2018 New York Times op-ed who said Trump's aides routinely ignore or dismiss his orders for the good of the country. Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" and Bob Woodward's "Fear: Trump in the White House" detailed similar instances.

And the former special counsel Robert Mueller also found that Trump's myriad efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation were largely unsuccessful only because his underlings refused to carry out his directives.

One person who was close to Trump's legal team during the Russia investigation told Insider his public statements were "nothing compared to what he's like behind closed doors."

"He's like a bull seeing red," this person added. "There's just no getting through to him, and you can kiss your plans for the day goodbye because you're basically stuck looking after a 4-year-old now."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hes-losing-trumps-advisers-increasingly-202200411.html

 

B/A

[new york kevin]

Shouldn't this thread instead be titled " Biden is in severe mental and health decline" . 

[Indraman]

I wonder if the sources for these articles are the same sources who brought us TRUMP-RUSSIA COLLUSION GATE? We all know how that's going: the accusers will become the indicted!

 

Indy

[bostonangler]

29 minutes ago, Indraman said:

I wonder if the sources for these articles are the same sources who brought us TRUMP-RUSSIA COLLUSION GATE? We all know how that's going: the accusers will become the indicted!

 

Indy

 

It does say his aides... I don't think he is as stable as he'd like you to think...

 

57 minutes ago, new york kevin said:

Shouldn't this thread instead be titled " Biden is in severe mental and health decline" . 

 

I have to agree Biden's time has passed..

 

B/A

[nstoolman1]

3 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

 

It does say his aides... I don't think he is as stable as he'd like you to think...

 

 

I have to agree Biden's time has passed..

 

B/A

 

No names, fake news, former aides don't count. They have a grudge. 

[bostonangler]

2 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

 

No names, fake news, former aides don't count. They have a grudge. 

 

Regardless of what people want to believe, this could be a very real and serious issue.... Just by how he lost it over the hurricane and Alabama story makes one wonder... He should have just let it go, but he is obsessed... That is something to pay attention to. Dwelling on one story for a week may show some obsessive compulsive disorder. It definitely show weak leadership.

 

B/A

[nstoolman1]

And attacking a legally elected president for 2 and a half years by the media et al with hate and false stories shows a mental issue. 

If he had let it go the media would have accused him of a cover up. Besides, he did nothing more than weather forecasters have done for years. Nobody is accusing them of tampering with a weather report. 

[adhoc10]

24 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

It does say his aides... I don't think he is as stable as he'd like you to think...

if the evidence is given more credibility than the so called 'facts'. It is much easier to see that indeed, we ha can replace the famouse NASA line of' Houston , we have a problem, wth America, we have a problem.

 

11 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

And attacking a legally elected president for 2 and a half years by the media et al with hate and false stories shows a mental issue. 

I don't have to listen to the stories to form my personal opinions about the potus with the motus

Is it proper political decorum to capitalize words that reference POTUS?   sHOULD THE 'a'  IN a$$HAT BE CAPITALIZED OR DOES IT DEMONSTRATE DISRESPECT FOR THE office if you use lower case??