Ah, but the strawberries....
by Tom Sullivan
Premature maybe, but Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson is already surveying possible replacements for President Donald Trump atop the Republican ticket in 2020. From Trump Loyalists to “True” Conservatives to Collaborationist Critics to Trump Kids to Neocon Revivalists, there isn't much there to inspire Trump's con-fed, resentment-stoked base should MAGA hats end up remaindered on eBay.
But it could happen. The Trump train and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's impeachment train are on a collision course, and the wheels are already coming off Trump's. The acting president's political legs have quickly gone wobbly. His already limited verbal ability has sunk to fourth-to-sixth-grade level. News outlets on Wednesday had to verify with the White House that the street corner-language letter Trump sent to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on October 9 was not a hoax.
Trump's White House meeting with Pelosi and top congressional Democrats on Wednesday came after a House resolution rebuking Trump for his withdrawing U.S. troops from northern Syria passed 354-60. The meeting went so haywire, a Republican source inside the meeting told CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel afterwards attendees were “shaken” and “shell-shocked.” Trump, the source said, “is not in control of himself. It is all yelling and screaming.”
A Republican source inside the Trump-Pelosi meeting described attendees as “shaken” and “shell-shocked” by the President’s demeanor.
— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) October 17, 2019
“He is not in control of himself. It is all yelling and screaming.”
—@jamiegangel reports pic.twitter.com/OMxR0o7sTX
Hasty decisions like this have not only put your people in terrible danger, they make the situation for our soldiers there on the Syrian-Turkish border much more difficult. My husband was with you on that border not long ago and I can't imagine what our soldiers' families are feeling right now.Tony Schwartz, Trump's writer for "The Art of the Deal," explains in the Washington Post this doesn't get any better:
And it's not just safety. It's hard to imagine how difficult it is for American soldiers to hear a partner and ally's calls for help and not be allowed to answer them. It's also hard to imagine you having to turn to Putin or the Assad regime for support because you could no longer count on Americans to keep their promise.
When Trump was elected, some critics held out hope that he would grow in office, as other presidents have. No one believes that’s possible anymore. After Mick Mulvaney took over as Trump’s third chief of staff last December, he let it be known that his approach would be to “let Trump be Trump.” Mulvaney was simply succumbing to reality. As Trump himself has said, he is essentially the same person today that he was at age 7.Dr. Bandy Lee, an assistant clinical professor at the Yale School of Medicine, edited "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," a collection of essays by mental health professionals on Trump's mental health "(or lack thereof)," Andrew Feinberg writes in The Independent. Based on conduct reported in the Mueller report, Lee and a group of experts believe Trump "doesn't have the mental capacity to carry out his duties."
US officials tell me ALARM BELL RINGING among diplomats in DC that U.S. could one day be held responsible for Crimes Against Humanity for ethnic cleansing of Syrian Kurds by opening the door to it, watching it, encouraging it (Trump's tweets and statements) and not stopping it.
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 19, 2019