On Thanksgiving Day, Donald Trump dispensed with gratitude.
While most of us were trying to enjoy a holiday dinner, Trump spewed a torrent of hateful slurs and threats across Truth Social — blather that would have triggered 25th Amendment calls for any of his predecessors. It was Trump at his grossest, which is saying something.
He called Minnesota Governor Tim Walz “seriously retarded.”
With no provocation, he savaged Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for having been born in Somalia, saying she was “always wrapped in her swaddling hijab” and calling her birthplace a “decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation.”
Then, the president of the United States declared that he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and demanded “REVERSE MIGRATION” to expel millions.
Let me repeat that.
The president of the United States declared he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and demanded “REVERSE MIGRATION” to expel millions.
It was barely a news story. Trump’s mental illness is obvious. Maybe we should be reflecting on how it has numbed us as well.
He ended: “HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for.”
His White House staff zombies called it “one of the most important messages ever released by President Trump.”
But Trump also delivered important messages in person. When CBS News reporter Nancy Cordes asked why he was blaming the Biden administration for the Afghan shooter when Trump’s own Department of Justice Inspector General reported that vetting for such refugees had been thorough, here’s what he said:
“Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
Somehow, Trump’s mushed brain didn’t function quickly enough to treat Cordes to his customary physical insults of women reporters — like calling Catherine Lucey (Bloomberg) “piggy” or calling Katie Rogers of the New York Times“ugly.”
All very recently. And in no single instance did a single member of the White House press corps have the courage — or even basic decency — to utter a single word of pushback or protest in the presence of the president.
Again, Trump’s illness is one part of a horrific story. The rest of us playing along might be just as bad.
Our lexicon is littered with examples of Trump’s mental imbalance. Americans have been conditioned just to roll their eyes at references to the late great Hannibal Lechter or windmill cancer or sharks vs. electrocution or the awkward 39-minute rally sway to music or people flushing toilets 10 or 15 times or that creepy reference to the size of Arnold Palmer’s schlong.
But we Americans have a long tradition of tolerating old men saying stuff like that on street corners. We just move along and tell the kids to pay no attention.
To the contrary, medical experts recognize the kind of behavior Trump has more recently exhibited as a hallmark of certain forms of dementia—particularly Frontotemporal Dementia, which strips away social filters and impulse control.
This is far worse than “cruelty is the point.” Trump is a sick man.
The U.S. truly swims in uncharted waters with this guy. Fortunately, though, a recent body of political philosophy and strategy has emerged to prepare the nation for this sort of nightmare scenario.
It was introduced to us by Republican politicians during the waning days of Joe Biden’s presidency, which had its troubling moments to be sure. But swap Biden for Trump in any of the current president’s displays of mental illness and … well, you can’t.
So let’s focus on solutions.
On the duty to resign:
- Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY): “If [the president] can’t run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve ... He must immediately resign.”
- Then Sen. JD. Vance (R-OH): “If you can’t run, you can’t serve. He should resign now.”
On national security:
- Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT): “I am formally calling on [the president] to resign ... I no longer have confidence that [he] can effectively execute his duties as commander-in-chief.”
- Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH): “[The president’s] continued presence in the situation room is a national security threat.”
On mental Ccapacity:
- House Speaker Mike Johnson: “I do, I think most of us do” believe the president is experiencing cognitive decline. “That’s reality.”
- Nikki Haley: “Don’t be surprised if you have someone that’s 80 in office, their mental stability is gonna continue to decline ... we can’t have someone that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this.”
On the constitutional crisis:
- Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Eric Schmitt (R-MO): “[The president’s] mental incapacity” raises the question of “who was running the country.”
- 62 House Republicans in signed letter: “The American people continue to question [the president’s] mental and cognitive abilities and lose faith in [his] ability to lead this country.”
Every single one of these statements targeted Biden in 2023 and 2024. Every concern was framed as a constitutional crisis and a threat to the republic.
Trump is 79 — a year older than Biden was when Republicans started demanding his resignation. He exhibits the same symptoms they claimed made Biden unfit: confusion, memory lapses, physical stumbles, rambling incoherence.
But Biden never showed meanness like Trump’s, nor the total loss of impulse control that inflicts such pain.
That’s what America faces now.
And for once, Republicans have laid out the solution to a problem.
- Ray Hartmann writes on Substack at Ray Hartmann's Soapbox
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