'It’s time to stop pretending' Trump hasn't become 'profoundly unhinged': columnist

Reflecting on Donald Trump's comments in West Palm Beach this week about Israel, USA Today columnist Rex Huppke suggested that the former president is rapidly becoming more and more unhinged and is therefore increasingly dangerous.

Noting that Trump, in a speech in West Palm Beach on Wednesday, praised Middle East terrorists as "very smart" and lashed out at Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and combining that with other comments the former president made during the week – the columnist questioned Trump's mental stability.

Beginning, "Former president and current criminal defendant Donald Trump, the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary, is getting worse," he added, "I realize that’s a mighty high bar for him to clear, but he’s doing it, each day showing independent voters and Republicans who still value sane leadership why he should never be allowed within 10 square miles of the White House."

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Beyond Trump's Israel comments that CNN host John Avlon called "incoherent," Huppke pointed to the former president declaring, "We have the worst education almost in the large world, the world that people know about,” to which the columnist asked, "As opposed to the large world people don’t know about?"

As Huppke sees it, for Trump to stand any chance of being re-elected, he needs independents and younger voters. However, "How is he going to do all that when he's running around the country insulting an ally reeling from an unspeakable terror attack and generally sounding like his brain has turned to oatmeal?" he asked.

Setting aside Trump's outbursts that seem to indicate he has lost touch with reality, the columnist predicted, "His incitement of an attack on the U.S. Capitol, his election denialism and the 91 state and federal felony charges he faces, I have to ask independents and on-the-fence Republicans alike: Would you actually vote for that mess? Is that really the best the Republican Party can offer America and the world?"

He then added, "People will keep taking swipes at Biden’s age, though Trump is only three years younger. But if you listen and pay attention to the former president, you’ll see a profoundly unhinged man teetering on a full separation from reality."

"The ham has slipped off his sandwich. It’s time to stop pretending otherwise," he cautioned.

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