Trump is so 'unmoored from reality' he can't act as a defense witness: 'Art of the Deal' ghostwriter

Now that former President Donald Trump has been indicted for his alleged $130,000 hush payment scheme in 2016, he will need to mount an effective legal defense against Manhattan prosecutors.

Unfortunately, argued his "Art of the Deal" co-author Tony Schwartz on MSNBC's "The Beat" Friday, Trump is too delusional and detached from objective fact to do this effectively.

"I think what's happening right now is that he moves between rage and literally a blend of delusion and disassociation," said Schwartz. "I think his grip on reality is incredibly thin a lot of the time. When he is not out of touch with reality, he is just angry. What's he angry about? I've been caught. I could be caught. I could end up in an 8-by-10 foot cell, I don't think he thought about that. I don't think he has the capacity to imagine himself inside a cell. We know from a lot of reporting that he is concerned he was concerned about getting indicted."

"You dealt with developing a narrative, as they call it, a story about himself, which he then super-sized, you talked about that," said anchor Ari Melber. "You have given money to charity and talked about that illusion of that. You didn't want him to become president. A story he would tell in this trial, would it be effective would it be different than the story his lawyers will try to tell?"

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"You know, I think he is so unmoored now, if you look at just, for example, his last speech, the one he did in, I think, Texas, last week — I mean, he is so unmoored from reality that I don't think he is a great witness," said Schwartz. "He would never be a great witness with a whole jury. Many of them would go, 'I don't believe you.'"

"In the past, I think he could have come off effectively with at least one or two," added Schwartz. "I'm not sure that — unless it's an absolute devotee, I'm not sure he can hold himself together enough to be in any way persuasive."

Watch the segment below or at this link.

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