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While network news shows and the political press at large continue treating the 2024 presidential race as if it’s a contest between two normal politicians, here’s a friendly reminder that it’s not. At all.
Those of us who closely follow former president and current criminal defendant Donald Trump regularly see not only how mean, unserious and unhinged he is, but also how truly weird the guy can be. And not the good kind of weird. More like the “Oh, lord, what is this guy on about?” kind of weird.
Too often, the things Trump says in rallies and in campaign videos gets truncated into short clips or quick quotes. That sanitizes the rambling nuttiness of his drawn-out, self-obsessed, always-aggrieved soliloquies.
And that’s a disservice. Voters should be fully aware of how much worse and how much more bizarre Trump has gotten after losing an election and living with the pressure of myriad legal issues.
Donald Trump, in his own weird and troubling words
Here is a full transcript of a video Trump posted Wednesday on his Truth Social page. It’s a response to an interview President Joe Biden did with late-night host Seth Meyers, one in which Biden needled Trump a bit about his age and quipped that Trump had recently forgotten his wife’s name. That didn’t actually happen, but Biden was on a comedy show and, in the grand scheme of things, who cares?
Apparently Trump cares. Deeply. Here, in all its oddness, is Trump’s full response to this grave and important issue:
“The radical left Democrats are at it again. They’re constantly making up stories about me because their candidate is a mental and physical basket case. There’s never been anything like it. He’s also the worst president in the history of our country. He went on a very poorly rated show last night, and he talked about Donald Trump and his wife, I don’t know the name of my wife.
Trump sneakers, really? ‘What are those?’ Trump’s gold high-tops show how out of touch he is.
“He was referring to the fact that at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), where I had a sold out speech, the biggest audience they’ve had in years, I think maybe ever. I made the statement that Melania was very popular because when I mentioned her name, the audience went wild. I then looked at the two people, man and wife, Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, and I said, ‘Wow, they really like the first lady.’ So this got taken as the fact that I thought Mercedes was the first lady, has nothing to do with that.
“These people are really dishonest. They are absolutely something. They have a horrible candidate who’s a horrible president. They make up things constantly. You take a look at when I use Barack Hussein Obama and I interject him into where it’s supposed to be Biden, and I do it purposely for comedic reasons and for sarcasm because a lot of people say that Obama’s running the country, not Biden, because he’s sleeping all the time. They say, ‘Oh, I don’t know the name of the president.’ Or when I imitate this guy getting off a stage, what they do is they say, ‘Oh, he had trouble getting off a stage.’ I have no trouble getting off a stage. Anybody that watches what I do at rallies would say, ‘Wow, that’s amazing. He can go two hours without a teleprompter, not making even a little mistake.’ Very few people, maybe almost nobody, can do what I do.
“So here’s the story. The disinformation of the Democrats is unbelievable. They do it because they have a horrible candidate.
“Don’t associate me with the mental midget that you portray because I want to tell you, he should not be leading this country. And hopefully on November 5, he’s not going to be. We’re going to have a big election, we’re going to have a big victory, and we’re going to make America great again.”
Listening to Donald Trump speak is painful, but revealing
That string of bizarro-world babbling nonsense is coming straight from the mouth of the man who a sizable swath of Americans think is the best choice to be president of the country.
Read those words. Watch that video. There’s nothing about any of it that’s normal. It’s the ranting of a thin-skinned man who believes himself to be all-powerful and forever without fault.
If the CEO of a major corporation was recorded saying all that, the company’s board would have him removed immediately and committed for his own safety.
Trump and Biden: Trump’s NATO threat gets less attention than Biden’s gaffes. Only one puts Americans at risk.
Sure Trump is in all kinds of legal trouble. He’s also super weird.
My point in sharing the full text of those comments is to remind people that when it comes to Trump, beyond the election denying, and the vast number of criminal charges, and the hundreds of millions owed in penalties for fraud and defamation, and the cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the endless lying, there is a profoundly weird and insecure man who has no business being anywhere near a seat of power.
You don’t have to like Biden or his age or his less-than-great oratorical skills or his policies. But you can’t read the transcript above and tell me this is a race between two politicians with differing styles. It takes staggering gall to question the 81-year-old current president’s mental acuity while sitting back and applauding a 77-year-old man who just burped up a rambling two-minute screed about how everyone is amazed by his stage stamina.
This is a race between a politician and a deeply strange and wildly narcissistic spoiled brat. Proceed accordingly.
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’s response to Biden’s Seth Meyers interview is actually painful
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