Banning pictures of Donald Trump from First Draft’s home page has made us more creative in our featured images. I’ve employed a series of stand-ins including Baghdad Bob, Thomas Nast’s The Brains, and Tommy Flanagan, SNL’s pathological liar. Nigel Hawthorne as Mad King George joins this pitiful pantheon. I think the Kaiser of Chaos is more likely to fondle his phone than a crown. The latter would get him in far less trouble.
I usually ignore the Insult Comedian’s social media rantings. They’re typically performative, not substantive. But the volume and vitriol of his mad messages have exploded since he decided to bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.
My countryman Tom Nichols pays closer attention to the social media madness of President Pennywise than I do. He believes that Trump has moved from trolling to something more dangerous:
This is not the behavior of a stable, healthy leader. Pope Leo, for his part, said he has “no fear” of the administration and will continue to preach the messages of the Gospel. The rest of us, however, should be very worried about a commander in chief who is trying to govern the country between social-media binges, who attacks religious leaders in narcissistic frenzy, and who imagines himself as a deity. If an elderly parent did such things, most people would be concerned. The president doing such things is far more alarming.”
I’m about to poach on Cassandra’s territory and comment on the Insult Comedian’s papal shtick. Calling the Creole Pope “weak on crime” is only explicable because he’s from Chicago and we all know what that windbag Trump thinks of the Windy City. It’s also one of the stupidest things any American president has ever said and George W Bush was preznit for 8 years.
Does the Kaiser of Chaos understand that ALL POPES ARE PEACENIKS? He thinks he can get away with attacking a liberal pope because MAGA Catholics worship a false idol. Pope Bob is the first American pontiff and remains popular with US Catholics. Trump’s attacks on the Creole Pope are not only misguided, they’re politically imbecilic. It’s as if Barack Obama attacked Pope Benedict for being a peacenik and expected liberal Catholics to fall in line instead of being offended. Oy, just oy.
Repeat after me: All Popes are peaceniks.
That brings me to the post title. America has a mentally ill and cognitively deteriorating president. The 25th Amendment was designed for someone like Trump: He has the nuclear codes for fuck’s sake. I have no illusions that Trump’s sycophantic cabinet will try to remove him BUT it’s a helluva issue for the mid-term election. All GOP candidates should be asked about the president’s mental condition and if they believe the 25th Amendment should be invoked. They will, of course, say NO but that gets them on the record as thinking that this manifestly unhinged man is fit to be POTUS.
POTUS is mad. It’s time for an intervention, 25th Amendment style. How much worse can it be than the wise guy intervention on The Sopranos?
There’s no one of the stature of Paulie Walnuts in the Trump 2.0 cabinet.
House Democrats have come up with an interesting approach to our 25th Amendment dilemma:
House Democrats on Tuesday proposed creating a commission that would work with JD Vance to remove Donald Trump from office under the 25th amendment, should they determine he is no longer fit to serve.
The measure, introduced by Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, follows a series of statements from Trump, including his recent warning that Iran’s “whole civilization will die” if it did not capitulate to his demands, and a social media post that depicted him as Jesus Christ.”
The language of the amendment supports this approach. House GOPers never will but this legislation keeps the topic in the spotlight.
Repeat after me: POTUS is mad. It’s time for an intervention, 25th Amendment style.
I’ve believed that Donald Trump was mentally ill since his first term. There was some 25th Amendment activity from a few of his cabinet members at the time but they blinked and decided it was too hard. Fear of Trump’s reaction was one reason cited for the failure of this effort.
Fear is often cited by GOPers as a reason for not turning against Mad King Donald. Funny thing that neither Marge Green nor Thomas Massie has been assaulted or indicted since turning against their false idol. Threats are empty unless followed by action. The worst thing Trump has done to his Republican critics is to threaten to primary them: Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, Mark Sanford, and Mitt Romney are still alive and kicking after denouncing Trump. Defeat is only a fate worse than death if you’re a politician who believes in nothing.
Repeat after me: POTUS is mad. It’s time for an intervention, 25th Amendment style.
The last word goes to Aimee Mann:
