Trump spent all Sunday night ranting and raving about his grievances on his failed social media site. Then yesterday he was up at the crack of dawn to continue with his obsession over how he’s getting a raw deal from Judge Tanya Chutkan. What he's trying to do— what he’s always trying to do— is define reality. And for weak-minded people who admire him, it actually works. There are tens of millions of them; it's like a zombie invasion. And it helps explain why he was so upset when his former Attorney General, Bill Barr, emphasized that Trump's verbal skills are "limited." Trump knows he’s getting old and that he's losing his ability to make sense, even to some MAGAts.
Two of his rhetorical skills— gaslighting and projecting—are key to his appeal and both seem to be increasingly on automatic pilot and less dependable during his comedy routines at his rallies. There are good reasons why he’s ducked televised debates with his Republican primary opponents— way too dangerous for an increasingly senile Trump.
Projection is a defense mechanism in psychology that Trump uses to attribute his own characteristics and shortcomings to an opponent. It involves ascribing to others the qualities, emotions and motives that he himself possessed but finds unacceptable and impossible acknowledge. He has routinely used the technique to undermine the credibility of whomever he’s taking aim at. His use of gaslighting is similar and related but not the same. It’s a form of psychological manipulation that he uses to make people— MAGAts— doubt their own perception, memory or sanity, not a very hard task when you look at his audiences. His use of this technique involves repeatedly denying the reality of events, making others question their recollection and of trivializing their feelings and experiences.
Yesterday, Michael Bender and Michael Gold reported how Señor T’s verbal slips are weakening his projectionist attacks on Biden’s age and mentioning that one of his new comedic bits features him impersonating the current commander in chief with an over-the-top caricature mocking Biden’s age. “With droopy eyelids and mouth agape,” they wrote, Trumpanzee “stammers and mumbles. He squints. His arms flap. He shuffles his feet and wanders laggardly across the stage. A burst of laughter and applause erupts from the crowd as he feigns confusion by turning and pointing to invisible supporters, as if he does not realize his back is to them. But his recent campaign events have also featured less deliberate stumbles. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance.”
On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, Trump wrongfully thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error.
It was strikingly similar to a fictional scene that Trump acted out earlier this month, pretending to be Biden mistaking Iowa for Idaho and needing an aide to straighten him out.
In recent weeks, Trump has also told supporters not to vote, and claimed to have defeated President Barack Obama in an election. He has praised the collective intellect of an Iranian-backed militant group that has long been an enemy of both Israel and the United States, and repeatedly mispronounced the name of the armed group that rules Gaza.
“This is a different Donald Trump than 2015 and ’16— lost the zip on his fastball,” Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida told reporters last week while campaigning in New Hampshire.
“In 2016, he was freewheeling, he’s out there barnstorming the country,” DeSantis added. “Now, it’s just a different guy. And it’s sad to see.”
It is unclear if Trump’s recent slips are connected to his age. He has long relied on an unorthodox speaking style that has served as one of his chief political assets, establishing him, improbably, among the most effective communicators in American politics.
But as the 2024 race for the White House heats up, Trump’s increased verbal blunders threaten to undermine one of Republicans’ most potent avenues of attack, and the entire point of his onstage pantomime: the argument that Biden is too old to be president.
Biden, a grandfather of seven, is 80. Trump, who has 10 grandchildren, is 77.
Even though only a few years separate the two men in their golden years, voters view their vigor differently. Recent polls have found that roughly two out of three voters say Biden is too old to serve another four-year term, while only about half say the same about Trump.
If that gap starts to narrow, it’s Trump who has far more to lose in a general-election matchup. According to a previously unreported finding in an August survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 43 percent of U.S. voters said both men were “too old to effectively serve another four-year term as president.” Among those voters, 61 percent said they planned to vote for Biden, compared with 13 percent who said the same about Trump. Last week, similar findings emerged in a Franklin & Marshall College poll of registered voters in Pennsylvania, one of the most closely watched 2024 battlegrounds.
According to the poll, 43 percent of Pennsylvanians said both men were “too old to serve another term.” An analysis of that data for the New York Times showed that Biden led Trump among those voters by 66 percent to 11 percent. Among all voters in the state, the two men were in a statistical tie.
…Trump’s rhetorical skills have long relied on a mix of brute force and a seemingly preternatural instinct for the imprecise. That beguiling combination— honed from a lifetime of real estate negotiations, New York tabloid backbiting and prime-time reality TV stardom— often means that voters hear what they want to hear from him.
…But Trump’s latest missteps aren’t easily classified as calculated vagueness.
During a Sept. 15 speech in Washington, a moment after declaring Biden “cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead,” the former president warned that America was on the verge of World War II, which ended in 1945.
In the same speech, he boasted about presidential polls showing him leading Obama, who is not, in fact, running for an illegal third term in office. He erroneously referred to Obama again during an anecdote about winning the 2016 presidential race.
Last week, while speaking to supporters at a rally in New Hampshire, Trump praised Viktor Orban, the strongman prime minister of Hungary, but referred to him as “the leader of Turkey,” a country hundreds of miles away. He quickly corrected himself.
At another point in the same speech, Trump jumped into a confusing riff that ended with him telling supporters, “You don’t have to vote— don’t worry about voting,” adding, “We’ve got plenty of votes.”
…Republican rivals have sensed an opening on the age issue against Trump, who has maintained an unshakable hold on the party despite a political record that would in years past have compelled conservatives to consider another standard-bearer. Trump lost control of Congress as president; was voted out of the White House; failed to help deliver a “red wave” of victories in the midterm elections last year; and, this year, drew 91 felony charges over four criminal cases.
Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old former governor of South Carolina, opened her presidential bid this year by calling for candidates 75 or older to pass mental competency tests, a push she has renewed in recent weeks.
On Saturday, Haley attacked Trump over his comments about Netanyahu and Hezbollah, suggesting in a speech to Jewish donors in Las Vegas that the former president did not have the faculties to return to the White House.
“Let me remind you,” she added with a small smile. “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”
Trump’s response? Calling his former UN Ambassador "Birdbrain," something he picked up from an Allen Ginsberg song before he left New York… and another clear example of Trump’s use of projection. Listen carefully:
It isn't important for trump or anyone in our "government" to know the difference between Hamas and hummus. It is important for voters to know. And they do not. And, based on both parties that we elect, very few voters even care.
If voters knew or cared, the political landscape would look a lot different.
and hatewatt cannot help himself again. projection is strong among those who hate the most.
well... thanks for confirming what should be obvious but nobody much understands.
Guestcrapper, My suggestion to you is to work on yourself becoming a more "fully formed human being" and doing something about your own obvious mental impairments due to age and anger before you project your shortcomings onto others.
Projection? Trump's cognitive impairment as unfit?
DWT employing the same kind of projection as trump here. Of the only two candidates allowed by the laws of physics, biden is pretty clearly the more impaired.
gawd forbid that 160 million american dumber than shits could possibly figure this out and puke up someone equally hapless worthless feckless corrupt neoliberal fascist and pussified... that just isn't so impaired by age. But if they could do that... might they be able to puke up someone who is a fully formed human being? ... um... no. haven't done that since 1980. only asking for baby steps here.
just another yan to DWT's yin.
Perhaps, moreso than any other, the inability of americans to do…