"Donald Trump is not well"

[TitanTiger 20,483]

 

Quote

 

Donald Trump is not well

President Trump launched personal attacks against us Thursday, but our concerns about his unmoored behavior go far beyond the personal. America’s leaders and allies are asking themselves yet again whether this man is fit to be president. We have our doubts, but we are both certain that the man is not mentally equipped to continue watching our show, “Morning Joe.”

The president’s unhealthy obsession with our show has been in the public record for months, and we are seldom surprised by his posting nasty tweets about us. During the campaign, the Republican nominee called Mika “neurotic” and promised to attack us personally after the campaign ended. This year, top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked. We ignored their desperate pleas.

The president’s unhealthy obsession with “Morning Joe” does not serve the best interests of either his mental state or the country he runs. Despite his constant claims that he no longer watches the show, the president’s closest advisers tell us otherwise. That is unfortunate. We believe it would be better for America and the rest of the world if he would keep his 60-inch-plus flat-screen TV tuned to “Fox & Friends.”

For those lucky enough to miss Thursday’s West Wing temper tantrum, the president continued a year-long habit of lashing out at “Morning Joe” while claiming to never watch it. During his early-morning tirade, Mr. Trump spit out schoolyard insults about “low I.Q. Crazy Mika,” “Psycho Joe” and much worse. He also fit a flurry of falsehoods in his two-part tweetstorm.

Mr. Trump claims that we asked to join him at Mar-a-Lago three nights in a row. That is false. He also claimed that he refused to see us. That is laughable.

The president-elect invited us both to dinner on Dec. 30. Joe attended because Mika did not want to go. After listening to the president-elect talk about his foreign policy plans, Joe was asked by a disappointed Mr. Trump the next day if Mika could also visit Mar-a-Lago that night. She reluctantly agreed to go. After we arrived, the president-elect pulled us into his family’s living quarters with his wife, Melania, where we had a pleasant conversation. We politely declined his repeated invitations to attend a New Year’s Eve party, and we were back in our car within 15 minutes.

Mr. Trump also claims that Mika was “bleeding badly from a face-lift.” That is also a lie.

Putting aside Mr. Trump’s never-ending obsession with women’s blood, Mika and her face were perfectly intact, as pictures from that night reveal. And though it is no one’s business, the president’s petulant personal attack against yet another woman’s looks compels us to report that Mika has never had a face-lift. If she had, it would be evident to anyone watching “Morning Joe” on their high-definition TV. She did have a little skin under her chin tweaked, but this was hardly a state secret. Her mother suggested she do so, and all those around her were aware of this mundane fact.

More significant is Mr. Trump’s continued mistreatment of women. It is disturbing that the president of the United States keeps up his unrelenting assault on women. From his menstruation musings about Megyn Kelly, to his fat-shaming treatment of a former Miss Universe, to his braggadocio claims about grabbing women’s genitalia, the 45th president is setting the poorest of standards for our children. We were heartened to hear a number of Republican lawmakers call out Mr. Trump for his offensive words and can only hope that the women who are closest to him will follow their examples. It would be the height of hypocrisy to claim the mantle of women’s empowerment while allowing a family member to continue such abusive conduct.

We have known Mr. Trump for more than a decade and have some fond memories of our relationship together. But that hasn’t stopped us from criticizing his abhorrent behavior or worrying about his fitness. During the height of the 2016 presidential campaign, Joe often listened to Trump staff members complain about their boss’s erratic behavior, including a top campaign official who was as close to the Republican candidate as anyone.

We, too, have noticed a change in his behavior over the past few years. Perhaps that is why we were neither shocked nor insulted by the president’s personal attack. The Donald Trump we knew before the campaign was a flawed character but one who still seemed capable of keeping his worst instincts in check.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-is-not-well/2017/06/30/97759ee0-5d0f-11e7-9b7d-14576dc0f39d_story.html?utm_term=.f347cfe7db0c

 

 

I'm honestly starting to wonder if he's developing some sort of dementia or something.  His behavior is just so odd - and it goes way beyond the typical excuses people make for him such as "he's not a politician" or "he's using Twitter to bypass the biased media."  Perhaps if his tweets were substantive and offered thoughtful critiques and gave us greater insight into his thoughts and plans such arguments would hold some water.  If his only sin was to speak more bluntly than we are used to, perhaps I'd consider that a legitimate excuse.  But he uses Twitter to spout off the kind of petty, passive-aggressive nonsense you'd expect of a 13-year old girl feuding with someone in middle school.  Half the time it's total, non-factual bull**** and most of the rest is just the sort of thing that a grown man should be above ranting publicly about.

I don't know what it's going to take for his defenders to stop giving him a pass on this, to stop framing it as some sort of brilliant strategy on his part and call it what it is:  childish, disturbing, reckless and inane.

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

Trump is a man with a fragile ego and anything that bruises his ego is ultimately attacked. This latest tweet storm isn't any different that the rhetoric he used during his campaign. Remember his attacks on the other GOP candidates? He even attacked Ted Cruz's wife Heidi. 

Trump is also uneducated and willfully ignorant. Who knew healthcare was so complicated? Being president is harder than I thought . I just got back from the Middle East ( said while in the ME). He is a man that has always had money to pay people smarter than him to make decisions. He lacks the capacity to make educated informed decisions. He is reactionary rather than cautionary. He lacks the ability to consider consequences of what a POTUS says and does and that is alarming.

His behavior is being normalized day in and day out. While it's heartening to see several within his party condemn his latest tweets, I don't have faith that it will last. Excuses like he is new to politics, new to the job, should not be a defense for his ignorance and lack of human decency. He is six months in and we are still not functioning with a fully staffed government.  He has no clue what he is doing and possesses no desire to learn. 

Trump's lack of impulse control is frightening. People normalizing his behavior is disturbing. I just hope America survives him. 

[AU64 10,122]

Trump's lack of impulse control is frightening. People normalizing his behavior is disturbing. I just hope America survives him. 

So true...but for Joe and Mika to talk about mental health issues is hilarious .....Trump has them totally under his control and they are the ones going off the rails with their daily diatribes.

As for American surviving....we've survived lots of bad presidents over my lifetime...figure this is just another one to live through and not let it get me all worked up.  The checks and balances thing usually works out.  

But I will say, I knew that when Congress let Obama get away with so many Executive Orders that circumvented establish laws that their inaction would come back to haunt them.  When Obama by-passed so many immigration laws, he set the pattern for a President using EOs to go where congress was not willing to go. 

I'm afraid that once the pattern was established, Trump and whoever follows him will think they have carte blanche to do what they want by EO. That to me is the real risk for this country....not a guy with an intemperate mouth.

[TitanTiger 20,483]

3 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Trump's lack of impulse control is frightening. People normalizing his behavior is disturbing. I just hope America survives him. 

So true...but for Joe and Mika to talk about mental health issues is hilarious .....Trump has them totally under his control and they are the ones going off the rails with their daily diatribes.

Explain why it's hilarious.  Have Mika or Joe demonstrated any evidence of mental health issues?  Discussing the POTUS most days on a program that frequently discusses politics doesn't count.  Discussing a POTUS that does as many childish and off the wall things as Trump certainly isn't.

 

[alexava 6,973]

[edited] You're gonna put this on Obama?

[SaturdayGT 719]

   I wish he would stop some of these tweets myself. I think the tweets he sent about Mika and Joe are very unpresidential.  With that said, I have grown to expect that this is what he does, so there is no shock value here for me.  I don't think Mika or Joe are shocked either. Its a little strange to me that this gets so much hype now. Afterall, there's loads of clips of mika and Joe dishing it out to the president, and now its like some one tweet knockout below the belt so everyone cries foul? So yes its shameful that our president resorts to tweets like what we saw, hes not the only childish one of all three involved, but its nothing that we all havent observed from the three of them before. 

[TitanTiger 20,483]

Just now, SaturdayGT said:

I wish he would stop some of these tweets myself. I think the tweets he sent about Mika and Joe are very unpresidential.  With that said, I have grown to expect that this is what he does, so there is no shock value here for me.

And that's part of the problem.  We aren't shocked, but we should be.  It's called 'normalizing' and we need to fight it.

 

Just now, SaturdayGT said:

I don't think Mika or Joe are shocked either. Its a little strange to me that this gets so much hype now.

Because he needs to be called out when he does this, not just shrugged off.

 

Just now, SaturdayGT said:

Afterall, there's loads of clips of mika and Joe dishing it out to the president, and now its like some one tweet knockout below the belt so everyone cries foul? So yes its shameful that our president resorts to tweets like what we saw, hes not the only childish one of all three involved, but its nothing that we all havent observed from the three of them before. 

They are calling him out on his behavior as president.  That is the role of the press - to report and comment on the things our political leaders say and do.  You cannot equate their actions and his.  They simply aren't on the same level or about the same kinds of things.

He is being childish.  They are doing their jobs.

[SaturdayGT 719]

  I see your point Titan, and they are good ones and hard to argue. I still think Mika and Joe have made some childish remarks, but your right, its much more acceptable in their positions.  There is just something over the top with it all....I cant put my finger on just why, it just seems like this shouldn't get this much attention. Maybe I wish there was another way of calling them all out without making it feel like a soap opera. I know this doesn't dupe what you said, its just where Im at I suppose.

[AU64 10,122]

33 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

Explain why it's hilarious.  Have Mika or Joe demonstrated any evidence of mental health issues?  Discussing the POTUS most days on a program that frequently discusses politics doesn't count.  Discussing a POTUS that does as many childish and off the wall things as Trump certainly isn't.

 

Just thinking that Joe's diatribes are far more intemperate than DT's ...but Joe is paid to draw an audience and nobody but the few that watch that show are impressed by what he has to say and if MSNBC had an professional standards for talk show hosts, he would be gone.  

I wish someone would take DT's tweet button away from him...but looks like it ain't gonna happen so in my view, the next best thing is to not pay attention to it.   It's like with Joe....the solution to my disagreements with him is called the "off" button. 

And for Joe to talk about mental health issues...wouldn't that be practicing medicine without a license?  

[TitanTiger 20,483]

2 minutes ago, SaturdayGT said:

  I see your point Titan, and they are good ones and hard to argue. I still think Mika and Joe have made some childish remarks, but your right, its much more acceptable in their positions.  There is just something over the top with it all....I cant put my finger on just why, it just seems like this shouldn't get this much attention. Maybe I wish there was another way of calling them all out without making it feel like a soap opera. I know this doesn't dupe what you said, its just where Im at I suppose.

Even if I agreed that Mika and Joe have been childish (on occasion), it doesn't explain all the other times he does this to other journalists and news orgs when they are asking legitimate questions and reporting things that should be reported about.  

This is not a "everyone is acting childish" problem.  It's a "President Trump" is acting childish and irresponsible" problem.  The fact that on a few occasions the person he's attacking might have acted a bit immature doesn't mitigate that.  And on top of it all, those people are not the face of the United States of America to the world.  They are not the highest elected official in the land.  Whether he likes it or not, more is (and should be) expected from the office he occupies than anyone else he's dealing with.  It's one thing if a late night talk show host or a commentator on a news channel acts out.  The POTUS has to be better than that.

[TitanTiger 20,483]

4 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Just thinking that Joe's diatribes are far more intemperate than DT's ...but Joe is paid to draw an audience and nobody but the few that watch that show are impressed by what he has to say and if MSNBC had an professional standards for talk show hosts, he would be gone.  

I wish someone would take DT's tweet button away from him...but looks like it ain't gonna happen so in my view, the next best thing is to not pay attention to it.   It's like with Joe....the solution to my disagreements with him is called the "off" button. 

I disagree with your first point, but even if I did, Joe Scarborough is a morning news talk host.  Donald Trump is the president.  He holds the highest office in the land and is the face of the United States of America to the rest of the world.  All presidents have to deal with folks in the press and entertainment fields taking (often unfair, but not always) shots at them.  Adults who've held the office learn to ignore most of it, and respond pointedly but maturely when needed.  Trump needs to develop this quality and people need to stop defending or making false equivalencies for his current behavior.

And as an added note, he needs to completely stop commenting on the looks - good, bad or indifferent - of females other than his wife.  It's creepy.

[AUDub 11,149]

Funny how his sycophantic fans see him as some sort of alpha male. He's the picture perfect example of fragile masculinity.

[wdefromtx 3,159]

His aides need to put some type of twitter lock that he has to work out a math problem. I am thinking it needs to have imaginary numbers since he likes to talk about fake news. LOL

[TitanTiger 20,483]

6 minutes ago, Bigbens42 said:

Funny how his sycophantic fans see him as some sort of alpha male. He's the picture perfect example of fragile masculinity.

Exactly.  Alpha males don't have to lash out.  The confidence they have allows them to ignore most petty insults and simply not care.  

It's kinda like the thing in junior high and high school.  The dude was was bragging the most about all the sex he was having was usually the one having the least.  The need to preen and talk ad nauseum about it is overcompensating to put forth a front.  

That's pretty much Trump - straining so hard to look and sound alpha shows he's pretty much all beta. 

[homersapien 11,379]

Trump has not changed with age.  His supporters just haven't bothered to learn about his past.

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

"This year, top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked. We ignored their desperate pleas."

 

This is the part that really caught my attention. Trump had the WH call and threaten these people by using the National Enquirer? The leader of the free world had time to be this petty? Beg or else? He is disgusting. 

[SaturdayGT 719]

1 hour ago, TitanTiger said:

Even if I agreed that Mika and Joe have been childish (on occasion), it doesn't explain all the other times he does this to other journalists and news orgs when they are asking legitimate questions and reporting things that should be reported about.  

This is not a "everyone is acting childish" problem.  It's a "President Trump" is acting childish and irresponsible" problem.  The fact that on a few occasions the person he's attacking might have acted a bit immature doesn't mitigate that.  And on top of it all, those people are not the face of the United States of America to the world.  They are not the highest elected official in the land.  Whether he likes it or not, more is (and should be) expected from the office he occupies than anyone else he's dealing with.  It's one thing if a late night talk show host or a commentator on a news channel acts out.  The POTUS has to be better than that.

    You are right, but one thing to say here is that the media as a whole has way more influence over the people than any president does. Heck, just Michael Moore or Rush limbaugh have more influence than the president. Throw in all the news channels, news papers, talk radio, tv shows, movies, books, sports, music etc..they all have the power of suggestion behind them whereas, when you hear the same thing over and over again, from so many people, you gotta fall inline because your just weird or abnormal. The president just has a speck of that sort of power. What power he does have in influencing people is relayed to the people by non other than...the media! So it seems to me, in regards to all of that,  we could at least hold the same standards from our media as we do our president....or maybe hold our president to the same standards we hold our media,..or meet someplace in the middle?  Joe and Mika may not be the face of america to the world, or hold the highest seat in the land, but they are part of something very powerful...Again, I dont like what Trump tweeted, but I dont like how the media goes after Trump, I dont think Mika and Joe are innocent bystanders being bullied by something much more powerful. They will get a lot of fame from this and alot of fodder for their agenda.... I suppose that's part of why I get that "ehh...big deal" sort of thing going here

[gr82be 14,425]

1 hour ago, wdefromtx said:

His aides need to put some type of twitter lock that he has to work out a math problem. I am thinking it needs to have imaginary numbers since he likes to talk about fake news. LOL

Amen to that although to be completely fair there has been fake news on both sides of the fence, no pun intended. Using a golf term I wish we could all have a Mulligan on this and nominate a better candidate for each side. I voted for him but it was like me choosing broccoli over cauliflower. I'm not a fan of broccoli but I can't stand cauliflower so there I stood. I can take a little comfort knowing that I did not vote for Trump in the primary but that really doesn't matter at this point. Still wouldn't vote for Hillary. This whole thing makes me sick to think about it. 

[homersapien 11,379]

3 hours ago, SaturdayGT said:

    You are right, but one thing to say here is that the media as a whole has way more influence over the people than any president does. Heck, just Michael Moore or Rush limbaugh have more influence than the president. Throw in all the news channels, news papers, talk radio, tv shows, movies, books, sports, music etc..they all have the power of suggestion behind them whereas, when you hear the same thing over and over again, from so many people, you gotta fall inline because your just weird or abnormal. The president just has a speck of that sort of power. What power he does have in influencing people is relayed to the people by non other than...the media! So it seems to me, in regards to all of that,  we could at least hold the same standards from our media as we do our president....or maybe hold our president to the same standards we hold our media,..or meet someplace in the middle?  Joe and Mika may not be the face of america to the world, or hold the highest seat in the land, but they are part of something very powerful...Again, I dont like what Trump tweeted, but I dont like how the media goes after Trump, I dont think Mika and Joe are innocent bystanders being bullied by something much more powerful. They will get a lot of fame from this and alot of fodder for their agenda.... I suppose that's part of why I get that "ehh...big deal" sort of thing going here

"The media" is not an entity and shouldn't be discussed that way. Or in other words, the media now consists of an almost infinite number of sources. There can be no collective accountability.  Each source must be held accountable individually.

[TitanTiger 20,483]

39 minutes ago, SaturdayGT said:

    You are right, but one thing to say here is that the media as a whole has way more influence over the people than any president does. Heck, just Michael Moore or Rush limbaugh have more influence than the president. Throw in all the news channels, news papers, talk radio, tv shows, movies, books, sports, music etc..they all have the power of suggestion behind them whereas, when you hear the same thing over and over again, from so many people, you gotta fall inline because your just weird or abnormal. The president just has a speck of that sort of power. What power he does have in influencing people is relayed to the people by non other than...the media! So it seems to me, in regards to all of that,  we could at least hold the same standards from our media as we do our president....or maybe hold our president to the same standards we hold our media,..or meet someplace in the middle?  Joe and Mika may not be the face of america to the world, or hold the highest seat in the land, but they are part of something very powerful...Again, I dont like what Trump tweeted, but I dont like how the media goes after Trump, I dont think Mika and Joe are innocent bystanders being bullied by something much more powerful. They will get a lot of fame from this and alot of fodder for their agenda.... I suppose that's part of why I get that "ehh...big deal" sort of thing going here

I'd say Beyonce and Demi Lovato have more influence over public opinion than the president does.  But I still expect, by virtue of the office he holds, a higher standard of conduct from him than either of those two.

[homersapien 11,379]

And the media is not "going after" Trump.  Trump repeatedly shoots himself in the foot or craps his pants and the media just does what they do.

Hell, considering the graft going on and the cynical way Trump and company are "moneytizing" the presidency shooting himself in the foot may be a diversionary tactic.  

[GiveEmElle 1,559]

4 minutes ago, homersapien said:

And the media is not "going after" Trump.  Trump repeatedly shoots himself in the foot or craps his pants and the media just does what they do.

Hell, considering the graft and the cynical way Trump and company are "moneytizing" the presidency shooting himself in the foot may be a diversionary tactic.  

I'll be honest, it has crossed my mind that all his crazy tweets just might be setting up an insanity defense. Covfefe

[TitanTiger 20,483]

Mark Twain said that you should never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.  I don't think it's any less applicable when the medium is live TV.  Especially when you're making things up to begin with.

[TexasTiger 12,897]

4 hours ago, AU64 said:

Trump's lack of impulse control is frightening. People normalizing his behavior is disturbing. I just hope America survives him. 

So true...but for Joe and Mika to talk about mental health issues is hilarious .....Trump has them totally under his control and they are the ones going off the rails with their daily diatribes.

As for American surviving....we've survived lots of bad presidents over my lifetime...figure this is just another one to live through and not let it get me all worked up.  The checks and balances thing usually works out.  

But I will say, I knew that when Congress let Obama get away with so many Executive Orders that circumvented establish laws that their inaction would come back to haunt them.  When Obama by-passed so many immigration laws, he set the pattern for a President using EOs to go where congress was not willing to go. 

I'm afraid that once the pattern was established, Trump and whoever follows him will think they have carte blanche to do what they want by EO. That to me is the real risk for this country....not a guy with an intemperate mouth.

I'm glad we clarified Trump's ridiculous, impulsive behavior is actually Obama's fault. I was beginning to worry there would be no accountability.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

Maybe some fingers should be pointed toward Scarborough. Some act if he is completely innocent inall this. I wish Trump would knock off the tangent tweets too and stick to tweeting about issues. But iI think I would react too if some idiot made untrue claims about me and my family

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/30/trump-kushner-never-blackmailed-scarborough-source-says.html

1 hour ago, TitanTiger said:

Mark Twain said that you should never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.  I don't think it's any less applicable when the medium is live TV.  Especially when you're making things up to begin with.

George Orwell said "the more a society drifts from the truth the more it will hate those who speak it," That very true in today's polarized society where it's sometime hard to tell who is telling the truth.