I don’t even need to name him, you all know who I am talking about. He’s challenging Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Jasmine Crockett to an IQ test, because he’s decided that the are ‘low IQ individuals’, on some basis. He’s also very racist.
Trump: "AOC — look. I think she's very nice. But she's very low IQ, and we really don't need low IQ. Between her and Crockett, we're gonna give 'em both an IQ test to see who comes out best. I took a real test at Walter Reed medical center and I aced it. Now it's time for them… pic.twitter.com/IlEUZd8Zlb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2025
You give her an IQ test. Have her pass the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. I took– those are really hard. They’re really aptitude tests, I guess in a certain way. But, they’re cognitive tests. Let AOC go against Trump. Let Jasmine go against Trump. I don’t think Jasmine– the first couple of questions are easy, a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe, you know. When you get up to about five or six, and then when you get up to ten and twenty and twenty five, they couldn’t come close to answering any of those questions.
He did not take an IQ test. He took a basic cognitive exam, which is very, very easy to pass, unless you have serious cognitive deficits. I don’t know that he passed it as he claims, because he has obvious age-related cognitive problems, and I doubt that he’s in better mental shape than either of two young healthy women.
He’s making these claims while on a diplomatic trip to Japan, embarrassing us all.
Good god, how much longer do we have to suffer with this fool in charge?
From what I read he did a MOCA. Name a picture of a horse or a duck, that kind of thing. He is lying constantly, also about his poll numbers, and this whole useless press pool just swallows it up.
Adding my face palm to the nation’s quota.
he’s an embarrassment to good people who suffer from cognitive decline. shut the fuck up, shitler.
It’s pretty obvious that Trump doesn’t know what “cognitive” means.
Considering he once suggested people drink bleach to cure covid, he falls squarely within the “low IQ” category as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps the folks at Walter Reed should include that on their tests!
I was sat there thinking “I’ve never heard of this Walter Reed University before”. A quick google reveals that it’s actually a hospital.
He also had a “perfect” MRI.
https://www.joemygod.com/2025/10/trump-reveals-getting-perfect-mri-at-walter-reed/
Because MRIs are routine. Sure…
More than one person who has worked with Taco have described him as an “idiot”. As such, and as a narcissist, he will always shoot off his mouth trying to make himself look good.
They should call his bluff. On national TV.
A little less than 1,181 days.
From CNN: “Trump has also faced scrutiny over regular bruising on his right hand that he’s appeared at times to cover up with heavy makeup. The White House physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, has attributed it to a combination of “frequent handshaking” and aspirin use, which can increase bruising.”
For Trump, handshaking is a competitive sport (whoever grimaces first loses) so he probably won’t cut it down. Tylenol, maybe? I mean, he’s not a girl …
Based on the original definition of IQ, I would not doubt that Trump has an IQ of 125 or more; a 79 year old with the mind of a 100 year old. (Apologies to all the centenarians out there who are in better shape than he is.). But if an IQ competition is in the works, can we get Charles Murray in there too, just to see where he is on the curve?
petesh @ #11 — Some have also speculated that he’s getting IVs which can cause bruising. However, I frequently have bruising on my hands and lower arms. I’m a little younger than Taco, don’t shake hands a lot, and I’m not getting IVs. Per my doctors, however, it’s not uncommon for older people who don’t have great circulation.
From dementia, several years yet.
From some health issue we can’t easily discern, who knows; he could drop dead tonight. Or he could be reasonably healthy until his brain kicks out.
I’d place a modest wager on more than 1 year (unless he dies) but less than 2 years. It’s obvious he’s now just being “cared for in the community” (as we say in the UK) by his staff (good grief) and even by foreign leaders, who have to humour his hatreds and his whims and pretend his demands and arguments are not complete gibberish. Any time they wanted, the staff could let his incapacity become so evident that clamorous and “bipartisan” alarm and despondency would make removing him by the 25th Amendment uncontentious. But Vance will probably want to maintain the possibility of having two full terms after enjoying* the remainder of Trump’s term, without the bother of changing or just tearing up the constitution. (I don’t doubt he’ll do the latter if necessary, but I have a hunch he will want to represent himself at first as a moderate, collegiate leader, and will slow or pause the slide toward outright dictatorship until he’s secure in power after the 2028 election – which of course won’t be free or fair.)
*To say “serving” here would be ridiculous.
One problem with your analysis is that it’s already evident.
I can believe Vance wants to keep him on as a distraction, so people don’t look too closely at the ickiness of JD.
@15 KG
That was the same situation with Biden, though, and he was in there for four years. Mental incapacity is no barrier to office.
I think you overestimate Vance’s chances at winning a presidential election, even if it’s not free or fair (they never were free and fair before Trump). The guy is an empty suit. I’d be more worried about Elon Musk running for office.
Biden wasn’t and isn’t senile to the same degree as Trump.
Not to the same degree, sure. Biden’s symptoms were much worse.
I get that Vance is considered an icky freak, but I think it’s still very possible that the GOP will choose to resort to him – or whoever contests him in the 2028 primaries – in lieu of riding on Trump beyond 2028. This path is possible if Trump is 25’ed soon after the midterms and January 20, 2027. There will be be time to normalize Vance as the incumbent candidate, get over the MAGA uproar and stabilize the chaos somewhat.
They don’t to take the risk that Trump dies or turns into a full-on vegetable relatively soon (assuming it won’t happen already by 2027). If they choose to break the constitution to help Trump stay in office past 2028, with or without an election, there will be a massive public backlash, risk of a counter-coup etc. If they don’t want that, there’s no point humoring Trump past January 2027.
“Biden’s symptoms were much worse.”
That perception is an extreme outlier outside MAGA type.
I just took a look and the consensus (around 3+ to 1) is that Trump has it worse.
I’d summarise, but then I’d be quoting a bot’s synthesis. I did verify the articles, however.
Here is one: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/05/04/trump-interview-abc-time-mental-decline/83391080007/
(There is no clinical opinion, since most quacks are ethical.
This one seemed promising, but it’s walled: https://www.statnews.com/2024/10/30/trump-cognitive-health-executive-function-biden-aging-president/ )
You notice that both of the people Trump is attacking as low IQ are…women.
That is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett.
In Trump’s world they are two fors.
He is a racist and a misogynist.
No surprise.
John @21: Never mind the bollocks. It’s been obvious to anyone paying attention that Biden at his worst was more coherent than Trump at his best since 2016. The problem has been the double standard. Trump doesn’t shit his pants in public? Victory! Biden stumbles? He’s incompetent!
Beholder’s (and Silentbob’s) intellectual and moral bankruptcy has been just as obvious.
Crossposted with the infinite thread.
Psychologist Dr. John Gartner, who recently went through the list of Trump’s biggest “gaffes” of the last few months and explained how each one can be linked to dementia.
Farron Cousins has a summary.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=7xvlodo-KIM
My doc stopped giving me the “clock test” after I started messing with him by drawing triangular clocks numbered in binary, a Fibonacci clock and a clock with a wormhole that took you to the other side of the paper. Then there were the animals: Horsie, humpyback camel mammal and hippoplatypus.
Silver lining: If you can get a majority in the House (and preferably the Senate) a year from now, you can block the worst excesses.
And if the couchf*cker becomes president he has less charisma (although I cannot understand the ones who think DJT has charisma) making him practically a lame duck.
Trump needs Neuropsychological testing. Unfortunately, Trump would never finish as they can take anywhere from 1 to 6 hours to complete. The time depends on who and what they are testing for. The prep usually includes eating a good breakfast and bring lunch.
When I worked for the VA, I sent many soldiers (who were returning from the middle east wars) for these. By the answers you give the doctors can accurately tell if you are telling the truth, faking it or lying.
What does a neuropsychological evaluation test for?
In a neuropsychological evaluation, your provider tests your mental functions, which may include:
General intellect.
Reading/reading comprehension.
Your ability to use language and understand what others say.
Attention/concentration. I would love to see how he fairs in this area.
How much time it takes you to receive, understand and respond to information (processing speed).
Learning and memory.
Reasoning.
Higher-level skills you use to organize and plan, manage your time, problem solve, multitask, make judgments and maintain self-control (executive functions).
Your ability to understand the relationships between objects and space (visuospatial skills). This includes things like drawing, tying shoes, making a bed, etc.
Fine motor skills.
Mood and personality.
@15 KG: There is also the issue that Trump’s cabinet know that they are out the window once Trump is gone, so they have a strong motivation to keep him in place. Vance will want to install his own head of defense, state and attorney general no matter what just to put somebody who agrees with him in those roles and a the clowns like Robert F Kennedy Jr are going to go.
Even if Vance wants to replace Trump that way he might have to wait for Trump to fail in public in a way that lets him argue for removing Trump openly. It won’t be an easy fight either. Even if Vance can convince enough of the cabinet to go along with him Trump will contest the issue and then it goes to congress. Getting the 2/3 majority in both houses required to remove Trump will be a problem.
I suspect Vance is just going to wait it out. If Trump tries to run again in 2028 he can make a move but until then why? There is a good chance Trump has a major medical problem and has to step aside, solving most of Vance’s problems. If it happens in 2028 Vance might even get a big sympathy vote.
I can’t say how much longer, but I can say with some confidence that things will get much, much worse. I was listening to a piece on NPR this afternoon where they discussed the administration’s plan to designate Antifa a foreign terrorist organization (foreign because there is no such things in law as a domestic terrorist organization.) One man was beside himself with the potential implications of such a designation. For one, Antifa as a hierarchical organization doesn’t exist, except in MAGA’s fevered imagination. The real threat is that they can claim anyone who opposes Trump’s policies to be an antifascist sympathizer. In other words, just about everyone left of center. The irony of declaring antifascists a danger to our nation shouldn’t be lost on anyone. The other irony is that Trump may not realize it, but he is admitting he and his movement are fascistic.
I think there’s something to Peter Zeihan’s view that first-term Trump was stymied by the “adults in the room” and therefore second-term Trump removed them and replaced institutional or professional competence with personal loyalty to him. Thus the frequent ritualised displays of loyalty we’ve been seeing.
One can also see how top echelons of government are now run by ideologues and incompetents, how the armed forces and the security forces and the intelligence forces in particular are now under the official and legal control of ideologues. And how Congress does nothing to impede this (for obvious reasons) given that the Republican party is now effectively the MAGA party, and how SCOTUS basically keeps enabling the process by either dilaltory or or permissive rulings.
—
Rob @23, sure. Just trying to be a bit more diplomatic, mirabile dictu. ;)
re John Watts @29:
Exactly. If you are anti-antifa, then you are by definition pro-fascist.
“If you are anti-antifa, then you are by definition pro-fascist.”
Ahem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
Trump could very easily run for a third term, if his handlers can keep him upright enough to get through it. He will ensure the Republicans have him on the ballot (since they are all Trump asslickers that will be easy), which will of course be challenged. SCOTUS puts a block on any lower court injunction and then makes sure the legal challenge gets slow walked until after the election, then they admit that its unconstitutional, but rule it’s too late now Trump is elected, so he is the president anyway.
Biden was less damaging in action. He should have dropped out of the race much earlier, but the shape of his deficit was more passive — he was mainly working to hide his failings, which meant his staff was covering for him, and they were mostly competent.
Trump’s senility is more aggressive. He gets louder and dumber as he’s failing, and he’s picked a mob of incompetents for his staff, who go along with his idiocy. That’s Trump’s temperament showing, where he tries to compensate by asserting his bad ideas more forcefully.
Biden wouldn’t have started dismantling the constitution and violating the norms of his office.
Antifa doesn’t exist.
It is an idea rather than an organization.
As an idea, it includes most of the US population. For now anyway.
Trump didn’t even win a majority of the vote. It was 49%.
His support has been falling steadily as he wrecks everything and impoverishes the US population while making the billionaires richer.
It’s been tried before in the USA.
The commies in the 1930s and again in the 1950s.
The anti-Vietnam war movement, which I was part of.
At the beginning, late 1960s were were demonized, insulted as Reds and Commies, and very seriously had the FBI after us. That was where I got my prized possession, my own FBI file. Which by now, they are updating.
It didn’t work then.
I can’t possibly say whether it will work this time.
How many people hate the US democracy enough to want to live as poor serfs in a dictatorship?
Trump, 79, Posts Deranged Medical Advice at 4 a.m.
Biden tried to deputise and listened to experts; Trump tries to micromanage and his “intuition” overrides the experts.
This focus on dementia should not ignore personality traits and, well, ability to delegate.
I know what makes Trump run.
He is greedy, angry, vengeful, rich, politically invulnerable, very powerful, and sick and dying.
He has absolutely nothing to lose.
I still have no idea why the MAGAts voted for the fascists and ultra rich oligarchy.
I wouldn’t want to live as a serf in a dictatorship.
Has anyone here ever lived for long under a dictatorship? Spain, Portugal, China, Vietnam, USSR, or whatever?
What was it like for most people? Or how horrible for most people?
I do have a friend who grew up in Asia when there was a Communist guerrilla movement. One day the commies invaded her village and everyone ran into the jungle.
She was a kid and woke up in the morning covered with leeches.
Not recommended.
Her cousin was assassinated, shot in the head.
She was glad to end up in the USA.
Professor Kelly who taught at Wharton has state “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamned student I ever had”. AOC graduate cum laud and Crockett easily passed the bar exam. Trump’s grades were so low he refused to allow his college transcripts to be publicly released and has threatened lawsuits if these are leaked. That tells us something and it isn’t pretty.
@38 raven
I take anecdotal anticommunist origin stories with a pound of salt. That one reads like a red scare tract.
[meta]
raven: “Has anyone here ever lived for long under a dictatorship? Spain, Portugal, China, Vietnam, USSR, or whatever?” [multiple examples]
beholder:
—
beholder, your retort collapses “dictatorship” into “communism,” rhetorially treating all authoritarian regimes as ideologically communist.
Obs, this is a category error; for example, Spain and Portugal under Franco and Salazar were right-wing dictatorships; conflating them with the USSR or Maoist China is either clueless or disingenuous.
(Typical of your modus)
I used to be a member of an Amnesty International group and we had an East German dissident come and visit. The GDR was an authoritarian dictatorship under Erich Honecker and only nominally “communist” (although frankly there was bugger all difference between the flavour of dictator).
The thing that stuck with me was that she said the majority of people just got on with their lives and it was only “politicals” or people who crossed the regime who had problems. So long as people had the basics and could get on with their lives the bulk of the population did just that.
I’m guessing it will be much the same in the USA with most people just keeping their heads down.
I suspect Trump’s fatal mistakes will be allowing people to go hungry and demonising so many groups that they will be forced into opposing the regime. The “successful” dictatorships (like the GDR) made sure the proles at least could eat and were very selective about choosing the out groups.
As for what will happen long term with when Vance will replace Trump – there’s such a flock of black swans circling (Donald’s heath, Russia, Taiwan, the Epstien files, etc, etc), that those sorts of predictions are impossible.
@17 & #19. Dishonest Trumpie tankie troll : Not to the same degree, sure. Biden’s symptoms were much worse.
Absurd nonsense that only MAGAts believe.
That & your continual obsession with Biden here are a big tell indeed.
I’m now more and more thinking that you directly rather than indirectly voted for Trump and are lying about voting for Stein given this sort of rubbish being spewed by you and your singular focus on attacking the Democratic party & their leaders. That you are a MAGAt pretending to be progressive is increasingly plausible given your statements like this. Care to finally admit it now you’ve been exposed, disingenuous Trump aiding, intelligence-insulting troll?
If “beholder” isn’t a MAGAt then it sure is weird how “beholder” sounds just like one and never attacks them or Trump only their opposition. (No Stein isn’t opposition but enabler. Very clearly so.)
False. There’s a level at which the 25th amendment comes into play.
Obvs a matter of degree but, yes, sufficient mental incapacity is a barrier to continuing to serve as POTUS – and notably this was considered in the case of Trump although NEVER suggested even by the Repugs in the case of Biden thus disproving the bad faith suspiciously MAGAt sounding troll’s ridiculous assertion in #19.
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#2021:_Trump_and_the_Capitol_attack
You think they’ll allow actual rather than sham elections now? They won’t. Thanks to you and those like you Fascists now rule the USoA. The elections before may have had some issues like the Electoral College, gerrymandering, lack of preferential voting ad nauseam but they were relatively free and fair as judged by international standards. The issues now will be vastly greater and super-sized and that’s undeniable. Even for trolls like you.
Musk lost his battle with Trump and is now an outsider not an insider. Felon Musk talked of starting a third party but lacking intellect as he is, he is more intelligent than “beholder” is and quickly realised that third parties stand zero chance of achieving anything and are a waste of time. Musk also discovered then that he as a person is deservedly horribly unpopular and stands little chance of winning anything like a popularity contest. Musk also has other priorities and whilst I can see him continuing to fund & support far-reichwing parties globally, I very much doubt he’ll ever attempt to run himself.
Her’s a suggestion; AOC, Crockett and Trump d the admission tests for MENSA and see who gets in. Of course if they win or he loses he’ll call it a fake test and have the assessors charged with fraud by his fake attorney general.
@34. PZ Myers :
Biden should have handed over to Kamala Harris halfway through his term I think.
Or maybe after that Trump traitor SCOTUS ruling which gave him the expanded power to do what he liked to his opponents and after arresting Trump and Trump’s there-by-deception lying SCOTUS injustices and calling out the mess they made as what it was. Use those powers once for good whilst calling them out, sort it out then resign and hand over to Kamala after that had been done.
Biden’s cognitive decline was never remotely as bad as Trump’s was and is. Biden was old and starting to show it admittedly but never as bad as Trump.
Of c Kamala had no such age related cognitive issues at all and she was the actual Democratic party nominee although she should have been POTUS and her being the incumbent would’ve helped her win last year’s election. Trump of c should never have been allowed to run and should have been in jail on Jan 7th 2020 and stayed there for the rest of his life. Too late now.
@10. bad faith probable MAGAt beholder :
Nope. Until he dies. Whenever that will be.
You have a dictator now – as you clearly wanted. You can’t say you weren’t warned beforehand.
38 raven – I still have no idea why the MAGAts voted for the fascists and ultra rich oligarchy.
I know. Trump is an entertainer along the lines of the WWE. I am always amazed by the number of people who watch pro wrestling and can talk about the specifics. When I listen to the wrestling conversations the people admit it is fake but still love it. Trump’s act (schtick) is on that level and that is why it appeals to the masses. They must have some cognitive dissonance going on because they are not making the connection of running a country like the US of A with results of Trump’s actions. T
I am on multiple blood thinners, and am in the midst of a job search, so: lots of hand shaking. No bruises here.
Misogynoir is SOP for the entire maga circus.
He is maliciously vindictive and in steep decline. I don’t think he is going to make it another year.
I don’t believe IQ tests are in any way a useful measure of most forms of intelligence – the only real counterexample being “the ability to do well at IQ tests.” But they don’t even pretend to measure knowledge of the law, or empathy – the two most important qualities, off the top of my head, for governance. So while Trump is almost certainly lying, as well as mistaken, its about an irrelevant and outdated measure that doesn’t even measure the qualities that he needs and clearly doesn’t have. At all.
I believe Charly (over at Affinity) has a series of posts about living in the USSR. Didn’t sound pleasant.
I think Marcus has brought this up in several comments and postings, but that test that orange asshole took, wasn’t to measure intelligence, it was to see if his brain was dangerously failing or not. FFS, part of the test is identifying line drawings of circus/zoo animals – this is stuff most toddlers who have seen a picture book or two can nail. If I was asked to take that test outside of some sort of medical emergency, I’d probably be too ashamed to admit to taking it publicly.
What a fucking disgrace…
andywuk@42–
The reality of East Germany was that even the average person on the street with no interest in politics whatsoever could not just get on with things. We have most of the Stasi’s records. Around 1 in 7 East German citizens was on record as a Stasi informer. Around 2% of the population were permanent collaborators. that is, they got paid by the state to spy on their fellow citizens. This does not include the 90,000 actual employees of the Stasi.
It is difficult to blame those citizens who became informers, because as little as being unco-operative with a Stasi investigation, even if you weren’t the target of the the investigation, would trigger a punishment known as Zersetzungsmaßnahmen, which is worth looking up. And, of course, the only judge of whether you had co-operated was the Stasi itself.
One of the most corrosive aspects of Zersetzung was that the victims were chosen not on the basis of actual opposition to the GDR, but on the basis that they might one day become dissidents, and collection of evidence was more for the purpose of creating kompromat than ascertaining the victims’ subversive activities. Also, the effects of Stasi operation did not just damage the targets, but the targets’ families, friends, work colleagues, and so on.
I would suggest, given the inescapable penetration of the Stasi in East German life, that avoiding politics and “just getting on with things” was a powerful psychological defence for citizens…and exactly what the Stasi was hoping for.
Back to the OP: Possible reasons could Trump pass a cognitive test such as MoCA or MMSE…
[1] It is a screening test designed to identify people at risk of cognitive impairment and is not in itself diagnostic (although its cheapness to administer and appearance of hard objective fact has made it a de facto diagnostic test in both health policy and the law).
[2] One has to have significant cognitive impairment not to pass.
[3] It requires the person administering the test to not give any prompts other than those expressly described in the test methodology, and to grade the results without fudging.
[4] People with cognitive impairment can have good days and bad days.
[5] Didn’t Trump do this test years ago? It’s seriously out of date unless he’s repeated it in the last year or so.
[6] He does not have cognitive decline, he has some other pathology mimicking it.
[7] He is in perfect cognitive condition and his critics are too stupid to see the 5D chess he’s playing!
chrislawson, confounding factor is that he plays it up in any case; a bit like, um, <s?Dino Martini Dean Martin and the boozing. Trolling. Feeding the chooks.
chrislawson @52-
You nailed it with that last paragraph far better than I managed!
Whilst 2% were permanent collaborators and 1 in 7 informed, 6 in 7 had powerful incentives to avoid politics. The dissident I met didn’t get that across since obviously she was very “political”, was very invested and didn’t get across the low level background fear of the bulk of the population.
Thanks for that.
Trump is now at the stage Mussolini was between 1922 and 1924. Fortunately he is too stupid and lazy to be a real Duce. Instead, you have to watch out for the Project 2025 fascists around him.
@ 54 John Morales
That was plausible when it came to Reagan. He played up the doddering old grandpa Simpson who didn’t know what was going on as a shield. While insiders say he knew exactly what he was doing.
But for fucks sake dude, at this stage of the game thinking the same about Trump can only be wishful thinking. The idea Trump is pretending to be a delusional narcissist is about as plausible as arguing the same about General Ripper. What would it take to convince you this looney is actually a looney and not just pretending to be a looney as part of his sophisticated cunning plan?
@ 56 birgerjohansson
I hate to break it to you, but it is the consensus of historians that Mussolini was both stupid and lazy.
@18,
“Biden wasn’t and isn’t senile to the same degree as Trump.”
But he knew he had metastatic prostate cancer with bone mets, and should have bailed out much earlier.
I am btw still not convinced that Trump actually has dementia, I mean here’s a guy who sued to not have to disclose his school results. Talking and writing like a 3rd grader when you’re 79 is not a sign of dementia, it’s a sign of a learning or intellectual disability. His criming faculties seem quite intact.
And that MRI could have been of his left knee or right elbow, we simply don’t know.
Silentbob @ 58
True but the Yellow Face takes it to another level.
It is the little mini-Benitos around him that – while hardly geniuses- have the motivation to introduce the new order.
Rorschach @ 59
I can believe he has learning disabilities on top of a shitload of other issues.
We should put him in liquid nitrogen for future study by experts. Next to the ark of the covenant.
Sure it’s evident, but evidently not evident enough to make (e.g.) congressional Republicans accept the evident evidence!
JM@28, Excellent points. But surely some at least of Trump’s staff might attempt to survive the transition – by helping Vance bring it about. And he in turn may just be eager for immediate power, and frustrated by Trump’s dangerous unpredictability and bizarre rants.
QFT. Also, Biden appears to have varied a lot from day to day, and across times of day or night. But none of that excuses the failure of those around him to press him to resign once his deterioration became evident – the US President has to be able to function coherently at a minute’s notice. (Phone call at 2a.m.: “Mr. President, an unknown enemy has nuked New York”.)
Silentbob@58,
Could you name some of those historians? If Mussolini was always stupid and lazy, it’s a bit of a puzzle how he managed to become Duce. He certainly made disastrous decisions later – but it seems likely long-term dictators do tend to deteriorate in this respect even apart from the effects of ageing.
Wikipedia on Mussolini cites a couple of historians thus:
See, I am of a bit of a different mind – If Trump dies, we end up with Vance, and people will excuse his insanity, because anything, even Vance, will look more sane than Trump. What I want to see is us actually get a majority, then immediately hit the bastard with an impeachment, make it stick, and do it on the now, undeniable, basis that he has committed multiple acts that violate the constitution, and is treasonous. Because, if, and sadly, I am not certain it will happen, but it needs to, then all of the idiots that he has working for him, in all levels of the government, including Vance are out of a f-ing job. It would be, imho, much better if his own party finally hit a point where they had no choice but to impeach him too, and they showed their complicity and cowardess “again”, to everyone, by back peddling, the second it became obvious that such an impeachment would bring forward clear evidence that it was treason, not mere incompetence, that was on the table – because then they would sink themselves even faster, and make it even more likely it would happen, once we did have a majority, or they would have no choice but to bury their own party, by signing on with it, and admitting what they where backing the whole time.
But, the bastard dying in office will just give MAGA a chance to hide everything under a rug, and pretend real hard that they where not at all aware of just how bad things where getting, while continuing to push forward most of the insane shit anyway, but maybe hide it better.
@63
my thoughts exactly – my fear is that this guy has less than 1 year to live (my gut tells me he had a stroke several months ago, he’s been on whatever meds ever since and the latest MRI/ cognitive test was because he had some other ‘event’ just recently) what I wish were true – is for him to live another 20 years…in prison, but alas, he’s 80 and declining, has circulation issues (cancles) whatever is causing the purple hand (from IV ? ) and look and how he meanders when he walks (red carpet in Alaska) – he just ‘ain’t right’… if our system survives past the next election (2026) and the elections go the way my rational brain tells me they will – bith houses flip, Trump gets impeached, and come 2028 when we don’t have a DOJ run by his cronies..trump get indicted (pick any number of crimes) and goes to jail…the reality might be trump passes BEFORE the 2026 election – JD is president…both houses flip…and ???
notaandomposter, wishful thinking.
Such hopes have been expressed since his first term.
Remember the recent hopes that he was dead because he was out of the news cycle front page for 3 days?
—
As for speculation about his mental health, well, it’s hardly new.
https://jaapl.org/content/46/2/267
↓
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Jerome L. Kroll
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online June 2018, 46 (2) 267-271; DOI: https://doi.org/10.29158/JAAPL.003750-18
@15, 16
Vance will want to keep Cheetolini on just past Jan. 20, 2027; if Cheetolini codes or is otherwise removed, the homunculus only gets one partial and one full term, as opposed to two full terms plus.
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-22/
@33 See above. Even assuming that Trump is on the ballot in all 50 states (unlikely), Congress still has to ratify the vote results. So he’s not getting a third term. If there is a civil war or a coup, then “third term” is meaningless; Cheetolini is dictator for life. For however long that is.
Overturning the 22nd Amendment would be required. This would require that 2/3 of Congress (both chambers) vote to approve the removal of the 22nd Amendment; the national archivist would then send the proposed removal to all 50 states for their votes; 3/4 of the states (not 3/4 of the voting population) would have to vote to remove it. Not going to happen.
Recap
Cheetolini runs for third term but will decidedly not be on the ballot in all 50 states (ie., the blue ones).
If he somehow manages to get enough electoral votes (write in ballot campaign on TS?) to win the presidency (against whoever the Republican and Democrat candidates–and there will be a Republican candidate, the GOP will not be interested in handing over the presidency unchallenged), Congress still has to ratify the vote. There will not be 3/4 of Congress agreeing to let the orange asshat be president. Congress will not ratify him as president, which means that the next highest number of votes will likely be the Democratic candidate, given that the two Republican candidates (one legit, one not) will have split the Republican vote.
So the GOP won’t let him run for a third term. Quite a few of them are just waiting for him to die as it is. Dude has no friends on Capitol Hill, only bought & paid for people.
I’m more concerned about a civil war or coup than a third term that isn’t going to happen.
Trump, 79, Gets Confused Explaining Water to the Navy
It’s a reprise of his “****ing magnets, how do they work?” schtick.
Reginald, nothing new there. He was confused long ago.
(Fancies himself an entertaining raconteur!)
cf. https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump-goes-on-bizarre-rant-against-magnets-give-me-a-glass-of-water-let-me-drop-it-on-the-magnets-thats-the-end-of-the-magnets/
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Trump Goes on Bizarre Rant Against Magnets: ‘Give Me a Glass of Water, Let Me Drop it on the Magnets, That’s the End of the Magnets’
by Charlie Nash Jan 6th, 2024
At a campaign rally in Mason City, Iowa, Trump railed against the magnetic elevator systems and electric catapults designed for U.S. aircraft carriers which was designed during his time in the White House:
He continued:
As Trump continued the rant for several minutes, he asked the audience, “By the way, this is more interesting than listening to teleprompter stuff, right? Don’t you think? Because it’s business, it’s like business.”
@66 silvrhalide
His administration has already reached the point where they are ignoring court orders, parts of the constitution, and SCOTUS is more often than not going along with it. What the F makes you think they won’t a) ignore the 22nd, b) put him on the ballot anyway, c) declare, no matter who wins on that ballot, that they election was rigged, and declare him victor anyway, and d) SCOTUS will go along with it anyway, and let him literally send troops in to enforce this? This is, imho, one of the major problems with the Democratic party, and has been for a while – they believe in the system, even when the its full of holes, the mast is falling, as storm is brewing, and the whole edifice is taking on water, and their “trust the system, because if we don’t, then we will be as bad as the bad guys!”, thinking has resulted in the election of some nut that is steering the whole thing towards a known reef. I am sorry, but at some point we need to wake the F up to the fact that, at this point, its not a case of, “trust the system”, but one of, “We need to fix the system, but in the mean time, we damn well need to keep it from sinking first, and maybe that means not assuming that the parts we think may still be working will keep doing so, until we throw the current lunatic overboard.”, and we need to actually do everything we bloody can to convince the crew, “i.e., the voters”, to bloody do this. And… frankly, looking at all the idiots around me, where I live, the sane(r) people in the country are doing a bloody shit job, as always, doing this. It doesn’t help that half of them literally do not watch any of the original news media any more, and when they do see it, its either clips that are edited to make it look as bad as their “new sources” can make it look for them, and that, even if they do, those media outlets are either a) owned by the very billionaires that are currently kissing his ass, so are treating Trump’s every idiocy as though its normal stuff, or b) are so scared to death of his threats that they refuse to actually hold him to account for jack shit. Heck, the “token, not actually a leftist, but willing to say bad things about the current president”, member of the talking heads show on Fox is practically the only ones not polishing his shaft every time they put something up about him on the news, and Fox has always had such a token “not really leftist” on such shows, as a way to pretend they are not actually kissing the ass of the Republicans the other 99.9% of the time, and are thus “fair and balanced”. Its damned ironic that, at this point, this is seen as, “Wow, even Fox is getting freaked out by the guy now, and kind of fed up with him!” – based, mostly on a) an inability to actually spin a lot of it like they used to do, all the time, and easily, and b) their “token”, not quite leftist, actually calling it like it actually is for once, without immediately doing what such people used to do, which was to sabotage their own points, by ending every sensible thing they where saying with unhinged right wing parodies of what leftists are supposed to all believe.
That last bit is, amazing. That Fox actually lets someone say it like it is, even if they are one person out of five or six on the show, all of the rest being pro-MAGA, and doesn’t have them intentionally sabotage themselves in the middle of trying to make their points. Its almost honest, if not for them being the literal token, “And now for a word from the other side.”, but the rest of the media… are making excuses, pretending this isn’t all actually completely insane, white washing some of the stuff he has done, and even when apposing him, are doing is in the sense of, “Well, here we have, yet again, another fairly normal right wing policy decision, which we kind of suppose is sort of controversial, but lets see what both sides say about it…” Argh!!!
And, again, we know damn well why. Most of them are in the pocket of the people that are profiting from kissing his ass, and/or those who know damn well that, as long as he is in office, he can, and has threatened to, end them, by any means, legal or otherwise, including fake lawsuits with rigged evidence, to end them.
So, sensible people are going to news sources that are not the mainstream. The mainstream itself is kissing his ass, while trying real hard to look “unbiased”, in hopes that people will forgive them, when its over (if it ever is), and everyone who is on the side of MAGA is getting their “news” from Turning Point, Trump’s X feed, etc., and doesn’t trust “any” other media, especially the independent, anti-Trump media.
And. what are most of the Democrats doing? Going on CNN, MSNBC, and other “traditional media”, to try to make their case, because, “We need to trust our systems.”, so some stupid shit, or calling the people that are making their case “on” some of the right wing media places, “Fools for going there.”, and the like. But, the ones that are, are dead right – its the only way 90% of the freaking MAGA supporters will ever hear anything from them, and then only if they don’t just look at who is being talked to, and go, “Yeah, I don’t want to hear what that Antifa Communist is going to say.”, and skip the episode.
Its madness. But, its madness that the right has spent decades “setting up”, so that their followers would be totally happy with some idiot “telling them” what those damn leftists said, or meant, rather than actually bothering to watch the damn leftists actual speech, and paying attention to what was actually being said by them – case in point, just about every single speech given by any Democrat in the last at least two presidencies when they where in office, by Fox, in which they literally talked over the entire speech, telling everyone, “This is what he is saying!”, while muting the actual audio of the speech. And, if anything, the other “news sources” where worse, often either not showing the speech at all, or only showing clips of Fox talking about the speeches, and lying about what was being said.
Point being, they killed the “press” long before the current nut threatened to simply have the Fed just outright end their right to air content. And, now they are doing the same thing for everything in the constitution that they find “inconvenient”, but the 22nd is supposed to “save us”, somehow, if they also succeed to throwing out election results (or just rigging things well enough), and prevent us from replacing their cronies in the house and senate? Right…
Jasmine Crockett Accepts Trump’s Challenge to Take His ‘IQ Test,’ Then Studies by Identifying Picture of Elephant
@69
Hmm… maybe the fact that SCOTUS doesn’t actually create the ballots, the states do? Or the fact that SCOTUS doesn’t ratify the vote or the president, Congress does? Also, SCOTUS doesn’t have any troops of any kind, the US military is strictly the province of the executive branch. A thing that had me concerned, given that Kegsbreath is busy turning the US military a lovely shade of alt right white but given the way his latest speech to his mandatory assembly landed, I’m now less worried. As one forced attendee put it “couldn’t this have all been in an email?” So I’m kind of doubting that the soused secretary has a lock on the military; likewise his boss.
No, most people want to hang on to the structure of our governmental systems because they don’t want all out civil war; it’s ruinous psychologically, physically and financially. Have you looked at Somalia lately? Because that’s what the US will look like if we have a second civil war. All of the government service agencies would be toast; good luck getting health care (or even having standing hospitals), manufacture and delivery of goods (like groceries, are you prepared to grow everything you need or want to eat? How about medications? You aren’t diabetic by any chance are you? Or anyone you love?), any form of justice or protection (be prepared to fight any fires in your vicinity with buckets; there aren’t going to be any police, fire or emergency services), forget things like disaster preparedness or rescue for things like hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, floods or forest/brush fires or god forbid, another pandemic or even an outbreak of measles; hell, while you’re at it, scratch off vaccinations as one of the things going bye-bye under those circumstances.
The US will look like some amalgam of the sixties anarchy, like the Weather Underground bombing everything that they don’t like on any given day coupled with asshat Proud Boys groups & other right-wing asshats harassing/hunting down anyone they don’t like combined with the seventies financial death spiral ala Argentinian inflation. As painted by Hieronymus Bosch.
Regarding the news media; how many original news outlets do have paid subscriptions to? Real journalism does not survive on air and compliments; it needs real money to do real reporting. I have two standing subscriptions to actual legit news media & tune into ABC & PBS for the rest. You sure do seem to spend a lot of time on Fox; my time is valuable and I don’t spend the little free time I have on posers and hacks masquerading as a news outlet.
https://www.pbs.org/show/stripped-for-parts-american-journalism-on-the-brink/