Think I’m being rhetorical, eh?
Listen, don’t take my word for anything. This is from the horse’s mouth: “If you’re an adviser to him, your job is to help him at the margins,” said one Trump confidante. “To talk him out of doing crazy things.”
(For context, go here, a Politico article in April 2017, although you don’t really need any context when writing about Trump.)
It wasn’t me who used the word “crazy” to describe the 2024 GOP nominee. That was one of his White House aides, back in the early days of his presidency, when things were just starting to go off the rails.
As credible eyewitnesses go, next in line to the sane people working for Trump are reputable journalists who follow him around watching, listening, and reporting. One of these reporters is MSNBC‘s Steve Benen.
Benen didn’t use the word “crazy” to describe Trump’s Nevada campaign speech on Sunday, June 10, 2024; he preferred to call it a “weird rant.” This was when Trump talked about sharks and electrocution. (For context, go here, an MSNBC article published that day.)
Benen, who’s spent a lot of time covering Trump speeches, wrote that “once in a while, Trump will say something so strange, it’s difficult to know not only what he’s talking about, but why in the world he said it in the first place.”
Benen’s take is Trump has “conversations … in his mind.” Author Stephen King noticed Trump’s strangeness, too, tweeting, “This is like listening to your senile uncle at the dinner table after he has that third drink.” However you chose to describe it, it’s abnormal.
If you’re an unserious voter who doesn’t think a serious person is needed for the world’s most serious job, then go ahead and vote for him. Just keep in mind that who you vote for says a lot about you, too.