Mental fitness was a big issue in 2024, particularly after the Biden-Trump debate. As I pointed out at the time, Joe Biden sounded physically horrible while Donald Trump sounded healthy, but if you listened to what Trump actually said, you would quickly get the impression that the Republican candidate was delusional and was an inhabitant of Cloud Kuckoo Land rather than the real world.
This should have been apparent to anyone who listened to Trump at length during the campaign. For example, his riffs on sharks and batteries were unhinged, but most voters were too focused inflation to consider the sanity of a guy who repeatedly pondered at rallies about whether it was better to be electrocuted or eaten by a shark.
Fast forward past the election and three months into Trump’s second term as president, and it is becoming apparent that Trump’s grasp on reality is indeed tenuous. Volumes will be written by psychologists about Trump’s flubs, bizarre statements, and internet posts, but it would be impossible to list three months’ worth in a brief article. Nevertheless, I do want to spend a little time on Mr. Trump’s antics last weekend as a representative sample of his presidency so far.
The weekend got off to start of biblical proportions when the White House retweeted an AI-generated image of Trump dressed as Pope on Friday night that Trump himself had posted. As I noted last week, Lindsey Graham had endorsed Trump for Pope on Twitter last month despite the fact that Trump is not Catholic (I wouldn’t even bet on him being Christian based on his rotten fruit, but ultimately that’s between him and God).
After the ensuing backlash, Trump both denied posting the photo and attacked Catholics for being unable to “take a joke.” Maybe the joke was on Lindsey Graham, or maybe it was on all the Catholics who voted for Trump, thinking that he represented their beliefs and values. That joke might extend to pro-life Christians after the Trump Administration asked a federal judge to throw out a Republican lawsuit restricting access to abortion pills.
Claiming that a statement or a meme that didn’t go over well was a joke is a longstanding part of the Trump MO. It allows Trump and MAGA to have it both ways. The Trump faithful lap it up and cheer that Trump is once again making liberal heads explode, while Trump is able to back away without backing away and claim that his detractors misunderstand everything.
The irony is that the original Lindsey Graham post included a clip in which Trump said he would like to be Pope. I have no doubt that Trump really would like to be Pope, even though I doubt he understands much of what popes do. He probably just likes the inherent respect given to the office and all the gold trimmings of the Vatican.
I think a lot of Trump’s base would love to see Trump as pope. Even though a big part of Trump’s religious base is made up of evangelicals, I’m sure they would love to see Pope Donald the First. I’ve also noted a lot of hostility to Pope Francis from this group. This blurring of political and religious lines makes it that much harder to argue that MAGA is not a cult.
On Saturday night, the president posted a message on Truth Social that called efforts by “other countries” to incentivize international movie production “a National Security threat.” Accordingly, Trump decreed “a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”
Never mind how making movies abroad constitutes a threat to national security (maybe we should create a Strategic Movie Reserve), how do you even tariff a movie? Is it a tax on ticket sales, streaming charges, or do they get charged equal to production costs? Would that be only the costs outside the country if part of it was filmed within the US?
Lest you think this was another joke, the White House has not yet walked it back and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick retweeted the order, saying, “We’re on it.”
Yes, sir. Yes, sir, three bags full.
On Monday, Trump said in the Oval Office, “We’re going to meet with the industry; I want to make sure they’re happy about it.”
Right now, Hollywood is not happy about it. Jay Sures, vice chairman of United Talent Agency, spoke for much of the movie industry when he told CNN, “In its current form, the tariff doesn’t make sense.”
No, it doesn’t make sense at all, but Donald Trump is “a Tariff Man,” and when you only have a hammer (or you only know how to use a hammer), everything looks like a nail. And nails that stick up tend to get hammered.
On Sunday, the White House social media and AI teams were once again on the loose with a computer-generated image of a Schwarzenegger-esque Donald Trump holding a lightsaber, accompanied by a Star Wars-inspired rant. The Star Wars connection can be forgiven since it was May The Fourth (Be With You), but the genre of massively muscled Trump art is deeply weird, not to mention unrealistic. Since Trump didn’t post or say this personally, I won’t spend too much time on it, except to note that the red lightsaber carried by Trump is typically a weapon of the evil Siths. (The New York Intelligencer has a rundown on all the errors in the post that is worth a read.)
Instead, let’s focus on Alcatraz.
The legendary prison was the subject of a post by the Tariff Man himself on Sunday afternoon. Trump wants to rebuild and reopen the prison that once held Al Capone and use it to house “serial offenders,” although he also alludes to using the facility for “criminals, thugs, and Judges that are afraid to do their job and allow us to remove criminals, who came into our Country illegally.” [One of these things is not like the others.] Again, this is apparently not a joke, and it has predictably been praised in MAGA circles.
It may not be a joke, but it is still a dumb idea. I’ll tell you why.
Unlike Trump, I’ve been to Alcatraz, which is currently a national park. If you ever get the chance to take the tour, do it. It is really cool and the island has a fascinating history, aside from looking like a place that would be featured on Scooby Doo.
When you go there, one of the first things you notice is how small it is. The island is only 22 acres. The prison was small as well, with only 336 cells. It would fill up quickly, especially with the list of “Judges That MAGA Is Angry At” growing daily.
Something else you notice quickly is that the buildings are all deteriorating badly. As it turns out, the high winds in the channel and the salt from the seawater make it really difficult and expensive to maintain infrastructure on the island. San Francisco Bay is one of the few places where I’ve seen high winds and fog coexist. The unforgiving and destructive environment is a major reason why the island prison was closed in the first place. It’s just not an efficient place to house prisoners.
So, reopening Alcatraz is a dumb idea, but not necessarily totally crazy… until the news broke that Trump’s announcement came shortly after a South Florida television station aired the 1979 Clint Eastwood classic, Escape From Alcatraz. As The Independent and other outlets point out, “WLRN 26 – Miami’s local PBS affiliate – broadcasted Escape from Alcatraz on Saturday at 9 pm ET.” Trump, who was at Mar-A-Lago last weekend, made his post on Truth Social Sunday at 6 pm.
Trump even seemed to acknowledge the link between policy and movie, saying, “I was supposed to be a moviemaker. It represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order…Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate. Sing Sing and Alcatraz, right? The movies.”
This isn’t conclusive proof that Trump’s Alcatraz idea came from watching the Alcatraz movie (and I’m sure it would be embarrassing for Trump to be caught watching PBS), but strong correlations between television programming and Trump tweets have been noted in the past. It would be frightening indeed and (dare I say it?) crazy if the president’s policy agenda was shaped by whatever he happened to watch on television. It may be that Trump is a stereotypical boomer who sits and yells at the television, but he also has the power to make policy that shapes world events. Such a link could conceivably be manipulated by foreign actors with even more dire consequences than tapping into Pete Hegseth’s Signal chats. I can only speculate as to what might happen Trump watches Independence Day.
These examples represent only a small portion of the Trump’s zaniness, but if they had involved anyone else, the cabinet would be talking about the 25th Amendment. With Trump, “it’s just Trump being Trump.”
Republicans were deeply and justifiably concerned about Joe Biden’s mental fitness, but how much more do we have to see from Donald Trump before they get similarly publicly concerned?
It may be when Trump’s zany trade beliefs cause a recession that threatens Republican seats in Congress. Import activity in US ports is poised to drop by a third this week, and US exports are falling by similar numbers. The trade crisis is similar to 2020, except that this time, Donald Trump is playing the role of the virus and there is no cure in sight.
Trump revealed a very flawed view of trade when he told reporters, “There’s no trading, you can’t trade with 145-percent tariffs. We are, therefore, making, in a certain way, I guess, $1.1 trillion.”
Trump believes that we are getting richer by not trading with other countries so why would he want to negotiate trade deals that lift the tariffs? Given that Americans cannot sell to other countries either, Trump’s view is objectively delusional.
Trump obviously didn’t talk to Dan Turner of Turner Hydraulics, who was expecting a 25 percent tariff on a $49,000 piece of equipment for a steel mill that was ordered before Liberation Day. The tariff on the still-undelivered machine will now be more than 145 percent.
“So we are having to pay an $84,000 tariff on a $49,000 item,” Turner told The Dispatch. “We’re just hoping either the ship sinks or somebody comes to their senses before it hits the dock.”
I think Dan Turner understands that the trade war is not saving money.
If Republicans abandon Trump over the tariff recession, we can consider ourselves lucky. It might be that Trump’s delusional behavior leads him to attack Canada or Greenland (I don’t think he’s joking about annexing both). An aggressive nation could also try to take advantage of his weak and erratic conduct.
Most likely, we are stuck with Trump for the next 1,353 days (and counting), so we should all hope and pray that cooler, saner heads in the cabinet and Congress prevail. Trump’s yes-men are not doing the president, the country, or the world any favors.
The alternative is economic devastation, possible war, and President Vance.
