Ronald Reagan’s son, Ronald Reagan Jr., on Wednesday reacted to recent reports that people around Donald Trump are concerned about his mental fitness, telling CNN’s Don Lemon that regardless of any clinical diagnosis one may give the president, it’s clear “there’s something wrong.”
“I have been saying since he was nominated, perhaps even before, that this is a man who is unfit for office,” Reagan Jr. said. “This is not a psychological diagnosis. I’m not particularly interested in what pathologies he may or may not have. It's a question of character, it’s a question of personality.”
“His behavior is erratic, it’s impulsive,” Reagan Jr. continued. “He doesn't seem to be really familiar with issues. He attacks people lower than him on the food chain, punching down. He has behaved in a way that I would describe as treasonous regarding the Russia investigation and he may be guilty of criminal activity.”
“I would say that his mental status is up for question, but I don't say that as a psychiatrist,” he continued. “I’m not interested in that. I'm a human being. I can watch another human being and say, ‘There's something wrong.’ And there is something wrong.”
Reagan Jr. went on to list some of Trump’s “troubling,” “erratic” and “impulsive” behavior, including that he “doesn't seem to be familiar with the job he's been called to do” and “says things that are untrue all the time.”
“This is the sort of behavior that you might call delusional,” Reagan Jr. said. “And again, I’m not saying that as a psychiatrist, just as an observant human being.”
Asked about Trump’s tweet over the weekend, where the president described himself as “like, really smart” and argued that pundits also painted former president Ronald Reagan as mentally unwell, Reagan Jr. declared, “there's really no comparison to my father.”
“Listen, presidents have maladies at time,” Reagan Jr. said. “… President Trump came to office unfit. He did not develop a malady at some point that rendered him unfit. He is characterologically, if not pathologically unfit, and that is apparent for all to see. We're not used to talking about presidents this way. It makes us all a little bit uncomfortable. But we have to get used to, I think, the reality of what is happening and face it forthrightly. This is not a normal man, normal president, in this White House now. And it's a danger to the nation.”
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