James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist and perennial Trump critic, is making a stark prediction, The Daily Beast reported on Thursday: the president won't be in office by next year.
Speaking on Politicon's Politics War Room, the 81-year-old former Bill Clinton associate didn't mince words about what he's observing in the 79-year-old commander-in-chief. "I just don't see this guy being President of the United States by this time next year," Carville said. "And I increasingly believe that we're on a much shorter leash than that."
The "rate of deterioration," Carville insisted, is evident to anyone paying attention. "I don't have to be a neurologist, anything like that. I mean, we've all seen it. And you're looking at it right in front of your eyes. And it's not wishful thinking, it's not projecting. It's just what's happening."
But there's more to it than just Trump's physical and mental health, Carville added — it's also the fact that Trump's words and antics don't command the attention they have for years.
"People are giving less of a [expletive] of what he says," said Carville. "Foreign leaders, voters, politicians. It's not the same job he had a year ago, and it's clearly not going to be the same job come November."
Over recent weeks, Carville believes the situation has reached a critical inflection point. "I think that he's turned a corner, and turned a corner in a really substantial way," he said. "It's a bad situation right now, and honestly — I've cried wolf so many times, but I think this time it's really the wolf. I really do."
Trump has repeatedly claimed he doesn't have any significant cognitive issues, and bragged that he "aced" the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) — a simple screening test used to evaluate people already suspected of dementia.