Public Notice is running a story by Stephen Robinson headlined “Trump’s Brain Is Gone.” It begins,
Donald Trump’s recent interviews with Time and The Atlantic revealed a president who is completely unhinged and incoherent. Sadly, that’s not news. But what stood out is that Trump is consistently confused and disconnected from reality even on issues that are supposedly in his wheelhouse.
Trump has always been an ignoramus who masks his intellectual shortcomings with bombast and declarations of his own brilliance, but his rambling nonsensical responses in these latest interviews should set off alarms — especially in light of all the media attention and scrutiny Joe Biden received after his disastrous debate performance or when Special Counsel Robert Hur described him as “a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”
Trump gets graded on his own curve, unfortunately. Robinson goes on to highlight sections of the recent interviews in which Trump, clearly, was untethered from reality. Well, there was more today.
First of all, let us remember that nobody in Trump’s family ever served in the U.S. military, even though Trump’s German grandfather arrived here in bleeping 1885, He fled Germany to avoid military conscription, btw. Second, it’s beyond crass to claim the U.S. alone won the victory. It’s stuff like this that makes people in those other countries dislike us. Third, November 11 is already a national holiday, dumbass. And fourth, bleeping World War II wasn’t over in May 1945. That was just the war in Europe. The War in the Pacific had not ended. The Battle of Okinawa was ongoing on VE Day. I sincerely wish someone would grill the moron to find out if he knows anything at all about the Pacific War.
It’s perhaps odd that we don’t have a national annual commemoration of the end of World War II, which ended for us officially on September 2, 1945, with the surrender ceremony on the U.S.S. Missouri. But it just irks me beyond all tolerance that someone who is inhabiting the office of President of the United States, however incompetently, would have so little knowledge of, or apparent interest in, American history.
PBS television and NPR radio weren’t around when Trump was a child, but maybe if he’d been exposed to some of their programming at a young age he wouldn’t be the sucking black hole of ignorance and tastelessness he is now. Late yesterday he issued an executive order to end all public funding for NPR and PBS. He doesn’t have the constitutional authority to do that, but since when did he ever read the Constitution? Or read anything beyond a third-grade level, especially when there are no pictures?
Back in 2023 Republicans in Congress proposed cutting all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Even before that, in 2021 Ted Cruz had a meltdown because Big Bird told children to not be afraid of the covid vaccine. And before that, Mitt Romney’s proposal to eliminate funding for the CPB in 2012, when he was running for president. Which probably didn’t help him politically. But the Republicans keep trying.
And then this morning Trump went back to declaring he was going to strip Harvard of its tax-exempt status, which he also doesn’t have the constitutional authority to do. He’s basically waging war on knowledge and intelligence at this point.
Okay, so now I’m just venting.
Update: Here’s another one. When asked what the Declaration of Independence means, Trump said, “Well, it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it’s something very special to our country.” So he’s never read it and has no idea what’s in it.
His brain is gone. That is what Stephan Robinson wrote, backed by extensive quotes from recent interviews. This is not news. All the mental deterioration was apparent and discused in this blog during his first term. It has progressed as predicted and is now beyond sane-washing. Word salad was version I version II has progressed to rancid word salad. What are we going to call what we get as this continues to progress, as is the predictable course. It is already near permanent residency in la-la-land. The man of Mar-a-Lago surrounded by a legion of Sancho Panza types on a quest.
What quest? The cartoon is quite descriptive. His brain is mostly gone, certainly dying. Whether he knows it or not that is his quest or destiny if you will. He craves company in his destiny and quest to all things in the realm of Thanatos. How much of planet earth will he drag with him?
"He’s basically waging war on knowledge and intelligence at this point."
Yes and this is of course nothing new, the GOP has been waging this war for decades. But now it seems supercharged. Here in Indiana our GQP governor now has the ability effectively control the boards and curriculum of all public Universities. So he and our legislator have pulled a mini Trump right here at home. The GOP knows they are on the wrong side of history, science, truth and education so they are just going to tear it all down and build back dumber!
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/04/30/indiana-budget-bill-contains-sweeping-higher-ed
Canada and now Australia have elected left of center thanks to our bad example it seems. This could be the dawn of a new world order with a backlash away from our rush to de-evolve. We could still pull a Poland and do a 180, but there is no guarantee we can pull it off. As we fail at leading, we must improve at following. Thanks to the heads up from the down-under. We need it.
Step back a moment. Trump is doing interviews and rallies. (The most-recent a half-full one in Michigan.) Why campaign now? Because his numbers are seriously declining in his first 100 days. And the economic you-know-what doesn't start to hit the fan until next month, possibly hitting the wall of American consumers like a slap in the face full force in June.
How much and how bad we'll find out but the ships from China are not unloading in the West Coast ports – only a few smaller freighters in transit through the Panama canal will unload on the East Coast. There's nothing in the pipeline – if Trump completely relented today, it would be (my guess) two months before frieght from Chinese warehouses could hit US shelves. I'd bet big that when the flow of goods resumes, it will ALL be at higher prices so China can recoup losses. Inflation is baked in also into next year.
Trump's numbers are in decline because of the expectation of bad economic news. His popularity won't go up with the reality of inflation and higher unemployment. The odds are better than 50-50 that Trump will take control of the Fed in 2026 if not before and Trump will slash the prime during a period of high inflation leading to hyperinflation by mid-2026.
And then we are in the mid-terms.
I'm not a historian of WWII but I'm a Vietnam-era Navy vet. Military ships took incredible damage in the Atlantic and Pacific. Many of them refused to sink and were repaired and back in service long before the end of the war. (By 'refused to sink', I mean that by heroic efforts by the crew, flooding was controlled and the ships limped into a port for repair.) If the voting public refuses to give up on Democracy, and if the power in Congress shifts in the mid-terms and if the courts continue to hand down just verdicts REGARDLESS of the administration's obedience, we will survive. I'm beting that the military will not prop up an illegitimate government by doing domestic police work if/when the courts reject the legality.
I've never been in that spot but it's a frightful thing to see a torpedo headed to the ship your feet are standing on. Taking a hit does not mean you are sunk.