Republicans worry Trump is having a ‘public nervous breakdown’

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 719 points – Republicans worry Trump is having a ‘public nervous breakdown’
independent.co.uk

‘Donald Trump is losing his marbles,’ former Congressman and Republican Adam Kinzinger said

Republicans are concerned that party leader Donald Trump is having a “public nervous breakdown” after he made a series of offensive outbursts about Vice President Kamala Harris as he slips behind her in the polls.

The former president has made a number of  insulting personal attacks against his Democratic rival since she moved to the top of the ticket. Last week, Trump questioned Harris’s racial identity  at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. Over the weekend, he accused Harris of having a “low IQ.” 

New polls indicate Trump is slipping behind the vice president in the popular vote and races are tightening in battleground states. 

“This is what you would call a public nervous breakdown,” Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump state department appointee, told Politico.

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They're only worried that it will happen before the election.

Well, they probably also realize that if it happens after he wins, and he can't continue in office, then no couch in the country is safe.

Vance's first presidential decree: All couches shall from now on be referred to as loveseats

I am worried about his homosectional agenda.

And the internet has been won by.... A squid, ladies and gentlemen.

Damn fine comment.

he can't continue in office

Based on Reagan's second term, nothing short of actually being dead would meet that criteria.

Nah, Vance is more self serving. He'll 25th Amendment himself into the job as soon as he has an excuse.

He has his eyes set on that sweet, sweet, oval office couch.

He can take away my vote, but I'll be dammed if I accept jus primae noctis with my furniture.

Headlines like this have existed for the entire time Trump has been in the political spotlight.

Do not trust conservatives will see this and agree. Do not get complacent. Vote. Encourage friends and family to vote.

At this point the people who are already Trump supporters will not be swayed. He was always nuts, he was always weird, he always spewed out nonsensical word-salad. The fight is for independents who are still on the fence, and everyone on both sides considers them gullible idiots, and campaign strategy will reflect that.

Everyone correctly considers them gullible idiots when it comes to politics.

All those people will have other areas of individual expertise as well.

Also the supporters who aren't diehards. Most races are won largely by just how motivated likely voters are to show up.

Largely why Hillary lost.

My concern with Harris running is all the positivity will get people complacent due to the polls.

Polls don't mean shit. Get out and vote. Tell everyone to go vote.

The Republicans will cheat, swindle and intimidate to win this election. They will break every rule they can, and they don't even need the popular vote in order to win. Trump might be shitting the bed but this is still far from over. The only way to keep him out of the white house is if people vote against him in vast enough numbers to counteract their cheating.

They're not wrong, it's just that being in a breakdown/meltdown state is normal for him.

It's called a Narcissist Shame/Rage Spiral.

There's only a handful of people in the world trump could beat in an election...

And he never imagined Biden would actually get out of the way, so he has no idea what to do now that it's not Biden.

I am absolutely convinced that Trump's entire election strategy was to just coast to victory on "Biden old" and "I got shot". By the time of the republican convention he was confident that he had it in the bag and didn't need to keep trying, so when Biden dropped out it completely shattered his plan and he's got nothing to replace it. He does not have the cognitive ability to pivot against Harris/Walz and his ego is way too big to actually listen to his campaign strategists (if he even has any that aren't just yes men).

* this should not be interpreted as complacency. It is definitely not a sure thing that Harris will win

Harris isn't a guaranteed win, but she'd have to royally fuck up to blow this election.

trump just isn't as popular as he used to be. The last two elections there was trump shit all over my red state. I haven't seen a single trump bumpper sticker. Not even old ones from prior elections.

If there's one thing I've learned in my life, though, it's to never underestimate the ability of a Democrat to royally fuck something up.

She's got a long list of stuff to fix that will require both houses of congress. If we give her a majority of non-moderate Dems there's hope. Obama didn't fuck up too bad besides trying to compromise with Rs for "bipartisanship" until they retook the House and Senate at which point they kneecapped him politically. He was too much an idealist imo. She seems wise enough to not fall for that. Maybe I'm giving her too much credit but being media quiet while VP has allowed her to more easily distance from Biden's shittier policies like Israel-Palestine and push for more on climate/women now that she has a campaign lead by herself.

Since I know and support many of her stated policy stances the biggest question for me is how to reform SCOTUS, regulate voting rights (e.g. RCV or France style) and stop media disinformation without infringing on the 1st amendment.

The only reason anybody has ever put out a Trump flag, bumper sticker, worn a red hat is because they want to bait people into a confrontation. It turns out, it's just a way of telling people not to talk to you because you are just looking for a confrontation.

That shit is still everywhere where I am. Vote as if he's a popular as he ever was, because in some areas he sure seems to be.

I think this is something that is hard to overstate. Back in 2016, I went out to northern Pennsylvania to see a friend out there, and the amount of Trump shit I saw blew my blue state mind. Then I did another trip down to North Carolina and saw so much.

In 2020, I went out to both of those places again and there was a bunch of 2016 stuff out there, but not as much new stuff.

I haven’t been up to see my friend in a few years now, but driving through parts of North Carolina I don’t see anything, new or old. I think the rank and file are getting sick of him.

And on top of that, I think Democrats are genuinely excited about Harris Walz. Everyone I know in my blue state went from quiet resignation in voting for Biden to energized. Obviously it only matters if you actually vote, but hopefully everyone feels like they have a good reason this time to vote for someone instead of just against someone. It’s not enough to just win the presidency, we need to run up the numbers and take congress.

I get the rage but shame? That's not a thing Trump has

narcissists don't shame themselves, they try to shame non-loyalists.

I think he feels shame, but not about things that would make a normal person feel shame. Like, I'm pretty sure losing or appearing weak make him feel shame, but hurting people doesn't.

No, I don't think those things make him feel shame, either, just anger.

If he wins, his legal troubles go away. If he loses they come back with a vengeance.

Looks like this weird old man is starting to get nervous and lash out.

Please continue.

Finding out the Supreme Court isn't going give him unlimited power might've blown a gasket.

On top of what you said if Harris wins a prosecutor who Trump constantly insults will be president, and Biden, who Trump also insults and put his son in prison, will have 3 months to do whatever the fuck he wants. Lol

All true except Biden had nothing to do with his son being prosecuted. At most, Biden will allow him to go to prison by leaving office without pardoning him (which I believe he will do, because it's the not-corrupt thing to do.)

No, he absolutely should pardon Hunter. He should acknowledge the hypocrisy in a public statement, though. He should note the broad power the Supreme Court has given him to take Official Actions like this with impunity, and double-dog dare Congress to do whatever it takes to rein in abuses like that.

This would actually be pretty cool, and might even work to restore some balance to the scales of justice. Alas, I don’t think Biden has the requisite cojones.

Since it involves his kid, though, he might find the juice to do it.

I don't think it's a matter of having the chutzpah or not.

Biden at his core is a pretty solid straight lace public servant. He listens to the majority of the people and tries to do what's best for the country. While that move would be great for the country, it goes against his straight lacedness.

It's not an abuse, or at least not a new abuse. Presidents always had pardon power, and trump himself pardoned his friends. Nothing to do with the SC ruling.

But he can now highlight it as an "official act", which means that he can do whatever he wants, no backsies.

He can further drive the point home by publically stating that Hunter gave him a $5 "gratuity" afterwards, and daring Mike Johnson to impeach him over it.

I mean, this is what I’d do.

I try hard to hold onto my moral compass and practice what I preach, but when it comes to my kids I probably could go hard. Especially if they were facing a future in a cage. If I had the power I just wouldn’t let it happen.

Biden should direct the ATF to pull Marijuana Receipts and IDs from dispensary logs. Then compare that against FID card dates and charge the lot of them.

Conservatives would howl about prosecution, then he can just pardon all of them, including his son.

Amazing how quickly things can turn around. I was getting worried when Biden was still in the race. Now it's open season on those peculiar far right oddballs.

They forgot that this is exactly how he operated in 2016. My amateur theory is that he decided the safe and respectable route is what cost him 2020 and is going to cost him 2024, so he’s going back to what he believes ultimately made him win.

Meanwhile the Republicans are looking at the last eight years of near nonstop national defeats but don’t have a way of dealing with this bull in their party-equivalent of a China shop

“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it.” - Lindsey Graham

Important to note that what Lindsey meant was that they would get "destroyed" in the election (which obviously did not happen), not that the party itself would be destroyed. But I hope that second meaning comes to pass regardless.

Has his behavior changed? Trump seems to be spouting the same kind of nonsense he always has. This just seems to be more of the same weird rants.

The best time to wake up to that Donald Trump is a weird racist who should be ignored was 1988. The second best time is now

“I think we’re starting to see the old Trump that a lot of Republicans got tired of in 2020, got tired of defending him,”

Oh are they tired of defending a traitorous rapist conman? They’re tired of defending a sociopath and grotesque manbaby for the singular purpose of jamming through the most regressive laws and judges anyone could imagine? Awwww. Poor lot of republiQans.

Let's not be fooled. They defended him because he could help them. Now that he's not polling as favorably, trump has less to offer for their support

Is that better than cultishly believing his obvious lies?

Why should they be tired? After scouring the nation for the person who most accurately represents them, conservatives have consistently chosen Trump as the one who most closely reflects their sentiments. He is their accurate reflection.

They've re-affirmed their leader for eight solid years now. They get to own this and they should never be thought of apart from him. Just as nazis are always associated with Hitler, Republicans should always be associated with Trump. Always.

It's rich that he is claiming she has a low IQ when he got gentlemen Cs while at Penn. One of his professors called him his worst student ever.

He said "Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had"

Missing some inflection

"Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had."

-Dr William T Kelley, numerous times over the course of 3 decades.

Also his obsession with those two cognitive tests he didn't fail isn't a great sign for his IQ either.

Maybe I'm the dumb one, but a "cognition test" sounds to me like something they do after someone has received some head trauma to make sure it didn't break their brain or for an old person to see if they are going senile. Like a test where "tell me your name" is part of the test rather than part of the supporting paperwork.

Though maybe his handlers told him it was a genius test or something like that and no one has had the heart/guts to break it to him since.

You are correct. A cognition tests look to see if you are having severe mental cognitive issues. The questions are extremely basic like doing connect the dots or identifying a lion.

Over the weekend, he accused Harris of having a “low IQ.”

How about this: instead of a debate they both take an IQ test created and administered by a neutral party. Recordings of them taking the test will be released to the public once they are both finished.

For a conservative, only a conservative qualifies as "neutral". Everyone else is "the extreme left".

For some Republicans, even some other Republicans are "the extreme left".

I want them to take a test on basic US history, and/or the intelligence test from idiocracy.
I'm actually pretty curious about how trump would do with matching the shaped blocks to the corresponding holes.

I'm like 50/50 on if Trump knows the year, just the year, the US was founded on. Even if he gets the tip ''Philadelphia has a Basketball Team''

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Nah fuck it have the test fully made by the opposing party and "Kamabla" would still whoop him

That... Might actually be a better option. They could throw whatever nonsense at Kamala and she'll still do well, and he'll get basic questions relevant to government and fail abysmally.

Question 1: "Who legally won the 2020 US presidential election?"

Even better: after both parties submit their questions, they are told the candidates will have to answer both tests.

I wonder how one would find an actual neutral party with one of the most polarizeing people in history involved.

As long as they were provided with the same test, the same answer key was used, and we are able to watch each of them take the test, it really shouldn't matter. Even if the test was "name Trump's children" Kamala would score higher.

Doesn't matter, it's not like he'd ever agree to publicly displaying his actual, measurable, level of intelligence.

There aren't any people who are neutral on the politics of the most powerful country in the world

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.... But they will vote for him anyway, because doing otherwise is basically admitting you were wrong all along, and they would never do that.

This article is bullshit.

Republicans don't actually think that.

And, I dont understand how he could, now, be having a public nervous breakdown, if he wasn't before. He always made personal attacks.

When narcissists become triggered they have a fight or flight response. Trump is having that same response every day of his life. He was having it during the coup, he was having it when he was raping, he was having it when he got convicted. The observation that Trump is mentally crumbling is true. But it's something that he does daily.

Just think how contorted someone's thinking must be I'm order to derive their self worth from a poll.

Yeah, it's just one of the Never Trumpers who doesn't even have a seat anymore, Kinzinger. The others have either kissed the ring or been kicked out of office.

Theoretically, what would happen if this close to the election, the stress causes a blood vessel to burst and Trump just strokes out?

I mean, besides the post-jedi levels of celebration, would Vance just be inserted into the ticket if it's too far along to have a new primary?

A bigger question is, how could we tell that even happened?

Edit: I mean short of him dying or becoming a drooling vegetable. The man is already deeply deranged and exhibiting significant mental declind

Once the individual state filing deadlines have passed, it's likely that Trump/Vance would have to remain on the ballot. But this is one instance where the Electoral College helps, because the election is not for the candidates themselves, it is for electors who support the ticket. And the final certification of electors is up to each State Legislature.

So, if God exercises His Ultimate Veto on Trump's Presidency, it will be commonly understood that Vance would take over the ticket. He will pick a new VP, and any former Trump/Vance electors would likely cast electoral votes for Vance/Chesterfield instead. While it is possible that State Democrats might challenge this, it's also absurd to force electors to vote for someone who can no longer take office, so it's likely that States would give their blessing to the substitution. Particularly if Harris is the overall winner regardless, and the Republican EC votes are simply for the historical record, and have no effect on the outcome.

Vance/Chesterfield

First VP with a sexual harassment claim against their boss?

His cult would still vote for him if he's got a pulse.

Based on what I've seen Republicans claiming online, prompted by recent changes in the Democratic ticket, such a change would be very dangerous to our democracy and therefore we should go forward with Trump being President despite the minor setback of being dead.

after the Yub Nub festival, presumably Vance should step up, but, given his shocking unpopularity, the RNC could nominate someone entirely different.

nobody knows. it has never happened before, so it would be new territory.

Cry baby snowflake felon is little cry baby snowflake felon - big shocker here

Remember when Amber Rose said she would back Trump because he was a "real man"?

Lol

It’s almost always just power plays imo. On both sides.

I think a big problem we have is that our populace is so large. We have a lot of culture and lifestyles to embrace, so politicians in order to appeal to the broad audience wash out most of who they actually are and end up with these surface level generalists who still have personalities below that we won’t see.

Hard to be a singular representative for a large populace and stay popular.

What exactly is "both sides" here? You're getting pushback because that's a loaded phrase and is basically never used in good faith. But show us this is an exception, if you can.

I was just expressing that I believe shallow politicians can exist on both sides, and do to some extent. Not drawing any specific statistics. To be clear, that means I’m also not saying both sides exhibit this characterization at an equal rate of occurrence, just that it is and has been happening on both sides.

Politicians, like it or not and regardless of party lines, sometimes are just in it for the power and the glory.

Again, this doesn’t happen at an equal rate on both sides, and I’m sure it does happen at a disproportionate rate, but it’s an overall problem that comes with positions of power and authority that I think should be tackled outside of party-specific focus. You could argue burning houses as rationale to target, but if there’s fires in both houses and you’re able to, you should take both out or the other will be just as bad at some point.

“Donald Trump is losing his marbles”

Yeah, that’s been obvious for a while.

I wonder if the republicans want to do a copycat switcheroo of the Dems replacing Biden and replace Trump with someone younger and more quietly fascist. But oh well, this is the monster they created. They’re stuck with him.

Pretty sure they can't at this point, some Ohio deadline, which they need to win.

Could just be his old man dementia finally surfacing. He's fucking old, the oldest presidential candidate for sure. He's done, he should just drop out, it's pathetic. #donewithdementiadon

So, based on this- he’s been having a nervous breakdown for the past four years following four year of…. [Checks notes] a four year nervous breakdown.

Mad (wannabe) king, with his subjects all in diapers, fixated and all chanting along in unison as he deteriorates "the nurses are all stealing the desert off my food tray!!! The nurses are all stealing the dessert off my food tray!!! The horses are all feeling the dress shirts on my good day!!! The morsels are healing my farts and the dogs gay!!!"

All the grifters surrounding their grifter in chief are going to "Weekend at Bernie's" his old, weird deteriorating body and mind so hard.

Hasn't this already been happening for the past 8 years?

Republicans worry Trump is having a 'public nervous breakdown'

No, Trump is just preparing his insanity defense for when he loses.

To be fair, there's a lot of bad blood between Kinzinger and Trump.

Is there anyone he does not have bad blood with

I mean, there's not an open feud with most Republican senators. Kinzinger essentially retired because he was anti Trump, like most anti Trump Republican congresspeople.

How come when this guy has a public nervous break down it's big news, but when the rest of us have one it's "suck it up and get therapy?"

I want people to get worried about the country when I have a nervous breakdown.

How is your nuclear engineering? You could potentially make folks quite nervous, indeed.

I have no certifications, but I do understand more than I need to about PWR and BWR plants. I mean, I couldn't run a plant myself, I don't know what all the buttons do, and I don't know the various smaller parts and components.

I mean if you gave me time and low enriched nuclear fuel, a machinist, an electronics technician, and some money to buy other components and generators I could probably get one built. Would it be safe? Unlikely, but it would work.

But that's also sort of the same lines as, yes technically I've worked on a flight control computer for commercial air craft, or heart pumps. I've definitely been capable of working on missile control systems but I decided I didn't like the idea of building weapons.

So I mean, in all, how worried I make other people is entirely dependent on what makes people worry.

Being commander in chief seems to make a lot of people worry without a lot of effort

Had Trump not regularly insulted people who seek out therapy there might be a bit more sympathy for the situation he finds himself in.

He's way to old to be running for president. He should drop out

Would have been interest if Nikki Haley was the Republican candidate.

That means a person of color woman would be president of the US with almost a 100% certainty. Also the for first Indian American.

Yeah but Haley would have a serious problem getting the Republican nomination, because she isn't white or a guy.

Mental instability should be automatic disqualification from federal service

A lying psychopath would pass the test while an honest anxious person would fail. More rules on who we can elect will work just as well as the age minimum does.

At least 20 years too late on that "worry."

I think almost dying really rattled him. He seems very unthrilled about being out in public now.

He was SHOOK at the RNC days after the attempt - it would have been the funniest thing for someone to pop a balloon right as he walked out

Donald Trump is losing his marbles

We all know that. For years.

He never had any marbles to lose. He doesn't read and has a short attention span. He's only interested in enriching himself and gaining power, he doesn't care about anyone else, he doesn't care about this country. He doesn't care about people's beliefs, they are just a tool he uses as a means to an end.

Pretty sure he lost his marbles years ago, if he even had any to start with...

In less than two months Trump will be able to sell his shares in Trump Media/Truth Social. The value of those shares are artificially inflated. Put yourself in his shoes. Sell while the price is still high and stab everyone in the back or wait until the election which he risks losing and possibly see the stock crash hard. If he loses, his political career is certainly over and the GOP will know his brand of politics can't win national elections. They'llbe lookingto sweep him under the rug. If he cashes in early all that money could buy a lot of lawyers to drag out the trials he faces and that's been his strategy so far.

That's just his personality when he doesn't get what he wants. He always has gone off the rails. He's a rich, entitled brat that never had to grow up because he has always been able to just get rid of anyone who didn't do everything he wanted.

His Olympic-level mental gymnastics abilities are starting to fail at keeping him convinced that what is happening to him isn't someone else's fault.

What a fucking useless article. "Just write anything about Trump, we need the clicks". Fucking "journalists", absolutely complicit in the downfall of the US and the turn towards fascism.

Republicans only have themselves to blame for throwing their weight behind a narcississt crook rapist who is losing his marbles and his entourage of more crooks and enablers. Imagine how much they might have accomplished if their candidate was competent and surrounded by competent people.