I've followed American politics since the 1970s and the Watergate scandal which The Sunday Times (not under Murdoch then) covered extensively. I really can't remember any candidate for POTUS since having their sanity questioned. Their policies, character and age have often been subject to scrutiny but nobody has been accused of mental illness, as far as I know.
But it's impossible not to agree with their analysis.
"There’s no need to resort to armchair psychology to interpret what’s apparent. If victorious, Trump would be the oldest president ever inaugurated. In recent weeks, he has canceled an increasing number of public appearances, with Trump’s own campaign citing the candidate’s exhaustion. When he does appear publicly, Trump struggles to complete sentences or sustain coherent thoughts, and has shown a pronounced difficulty concentrating and a tendency to repeat himself, sometimes within the same sentence.
"At a recent rally in New Hampshire, for example, Trump began to discuss infrastructure and wound up segueing into a disjointed monologue about loyalty and perceived injustices against him, ending with a bewildering comment about windmills causing cancer."
"This is not an isolated incident. A recent analysis by The New York Times noted that Trump’s rally speeches over the past eight years have become darker, longer, more profane and increasingly unfocused and unhinged — a troubling sign that he is no longer able to articulate ideas or reason in ways we expect of our leaders. This makes him prey to manipulations by his own staff or, worse, the control of foreign adversaries.
"He shambles about aimlessly, slurs his words and sometimes speaks gibberish. Always an effortless liar, now that his speeches are nothing more than a series of lies tangled in a mass inside his head, it appears he no longer even knows he’s lying."
This is a damning description of a candidate for any role in any organisation. Who would employ anyone at any level who can't articulate ideas or reason things out for themselves? Yet he is being considered for the most important and powerful job on earth, as the de facto leader of the free world. The first time around, voters and the GOP had an excuse, nobody knew what he would be like in the Oval Office in 2016. There was a hope he would govern more pragmatically and that he was more reasonable in private than he was in public.
We know now he could not. He was just as crazy if not more so in private.
The editorial says Trump has never had the 'moral compass' to lead the USA but now he doesn't have the 'mental facilities.' In my opinion, it's questionable if he ever had that either. Anybody who thought injecting bleach into your body was a cure for Covid-19 is surely not all there.
But whatever he was like in 2020, he has certainly declined both physically and mentally.
The LV Sun's editorial board say:
"If history has taught us anything, it is that democracies are fragile. America’s founders designed the presidency to be a stabilizing force. Trump’s instability, paired with his and Vance’s increasing willingness to trample democratic norms and visible contempt of anyone not like him, has transformed what might have once been seen by conservatives as an uncomfortable leadership style into an existential threat to American democracy.
"For those who believe in a country governed by checks, balances and the rule of law, a return to Trumpian leadership is dangerous in its own right. But to do so with an impaired leader who cannot govern competently and a fellow authoritarian waiting in the wings is perilous."
Trump doesn't understand the US Constitution, the concept of checks and balances, the rule of law, international trade, diplomacy or the value of friendly allies. He is a dangerous man, but in a week's time could be president-elect.
Think about this. Over 70 million Americans think a mentally unstable 78-year-old is going to 'Make America Great Again. It is perhaps the greatest straw ever clutched. We shall soon see.
