Trump staff ‘terrified’ because ‘mentally incapacitated’ president thinks he's winning wall fight: Howard Dean

Former physician Howard Dean --who went on to become the governor of Vermont and a Democratic presidential candidate -- said on MSNBC on Sunday that Donald Trump is delusional and has convinced himself that he can win the battle for his border wall.

Speaking with MSNBC host Francis Rivera, Dean reiterated one more time that he thinks the 72-year-old Trump is "mentally incapacitated."

"As I said before, I actually think the president is mentally incapacitated and I have thought so for quite some time," Dean explained. "He says things that he knows aren't true and that somehow he thinks people are going to believe, and they just don't."

"So essentially you can't really make a bargain with somebody who is irrational, because they won't keep it, and Republicans have been quoted off the record as saying such a thing," Dean added before warning, "Republicans and the Democrats in Congress have got to do the best they can in the absence of a chief executive who is really a chief executive."

Pressed on how White House aides are dealing with Trump who has shut down the government over his wall, Dean said they have their hands full and appear to be terrified at how little the president can be influenced.

"As you know very well, his own staff is terrified of what's happening here," Dean told Radford. "This guy is a completely irrational person."

"Here's the fascinating thing about this, because Trump put his finger on it when the government shut down before he was in office," he recalled. "The president always gets the blame. If the stock market tanks -- which it will at some point if this goes on for any length of time -- Trump is going to get the blame, whether it's his fault or not."

"That's what happens in politics; the top guy always gets the blame. He's going to have to figure out a way out of this. The longer it goes on, the more problems for Donald Trump," he concluded.

Watch the video below via MSNBC: