Trump compares his Ukraine bribery scheme to taking “an orange out of a refrigerator” in bizarre remarks
Let’s be honest. The current president of the United States is operating at a mental capacity that would draw the description of “differently-abled” in more politically correct circles.
Never is that more apparent than when he is among a group of leaders from other major countries of the world, particularly when — as at this week’s NATO summit — he only has a single one of his authoritarian leader pals, Turkish President Erdoğan, to rely on for emotional support.
The signs of Donald Trump’s mental decline have been obvious and much noted for quite some time, with speculation about the onset of dementia coursing through the posts on Twitter that note his at times blatant state of confusion and meandering thought process.
Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee had this to say about his recent 53-minute rant on Fox News that had both viewers and the hosts squirming with embarrassment.
“The president’s cognitive functioning alone in terms of his ability to process information and thoughts has deteriorated to the point where he has difficulty stringing together a single coherent sentence. His word-finding difficulties, repetitions and loose connections are only superficial indicators of a more serious, deeper process. He has additionally shown multiple neurological signs including slurred speech, movement abnormalities, and confabulation is filling in gaps of memory with fabricated stories,” Dr. Lee diagnosed the president’s current condition.
Trump’s cognitive deterioration was on full display as he spoke with reporters today in press conferences with foreign leaders at the NATO summit outside of London. CNN’s Daniel Dale noted one particularly bizarre quote from the president as he moved wildly off-topic from the international concerns of his NATO counterparts to discuss his victimization as the subject of a rapidly progressing impeachment inquiry.
The quote: Someday in the distant future, Trump said, "You'll have a Democrat president. You'll have a Republican House. They’ll do the same thing. Because somebody picked an orange out of a refrigerator and you don’t like it, so let’s go and impeach him.” https://t.co/HQ8x2AUg7M
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 3, 2019
Oranges? Refrigerators? The connection to the types of impeachable offenses for which Trump and his administration are now under investigation by the House of Representatives exists only in the addled recesses of the president’s crumbling mind.
The word salad above was the most definitive example of the embarrassing statements made by Trump as he spoke with journalists today, but it was at times difficult to separate the actually loony from the calculated lies and Trump’s lazy inability to remember the facts of statistics, as his comments on the Chinese economy demonstrated.
August 2018: "$15 trillion"
Also August 2018: "$20 trillion"
April 2019: "$17 trillion"
November 19: "$24 trillion"
November 20: "Probably $25 trillion"
November 22: "Probably…$30 or $35 trillion"
Today: $32 trillionhttps://t.co/rK4Rmy0dDJ— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 3, 2019
The most important question that Dale’s commentary on Trump’s erratic economic figures raises is whether the “nonsense” is generated by dementia or by a cynical political calculus that his presidency has rendered actual facts and reality obsolete and irrelevant.
Whatever the reason for the president’s increasingly bizarre comments, the embarrassment our nation suffers from seeing Trump sitting next to normally functioning world leaders who are more blessed with intelligence, poise, and manners than our leader has ever exhibited in his lifetime is painful to suffer.
You can watch Donald Trump go off on his strange NATO impeachment rant in the video clip below.
TRUMP: "Hopefully in the very long distant future you'll have a Democrat president. You'll have a Republican House. They’ll do the same thing. Because somebody picked an orange out of a refrigerator and you don’t like it, so let’s go and impeach him.” #wut pic.twitter.com/6ZTn7aptIn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 3, 2019
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
