As President Donald Trump’s health continues to decay, so too do his grim delusions of grandeur, argues political guru David Rothkopf.
Appearing on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, the political analyst offered his take on the 79-year-old president’s health and erratic behavior in the wake of his visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last week for his (semi) annual physical examination.
“What about the madness of Donald Trump?” host Joanna Coles asked Rothkopf. “He says that he passed the cognitive test perfectly, absolutely perfectly, and that his health is absolutely perfect. Yet, we can see that it’s not actually perfect, that he’s entering his ninth decade in two weeks, and he appears frenzied.”
“He doesn’t sleep much. He has a terrible diet. He takes no exercise,” she continued. “You’ve studied presidents, you’ve worked alongside presidents, you know the stress of the job gets to people. He seems very stressed at the moment with his frenzied tweets or Truth Socials. What do you think about this visit to Walter Reed?”
“We know that people normally go once a year. He’s going every few months,” Rothkopf replied. “We know that some of the things that are said in the medical report are obviously lies.”
“When they say he’s 6′3″ and 230 pounds, all you have to do is Google what a 6′3″, 230-pound athlete looks like,“ the political expert continued. ”Trump does not look like that.”
MS NOW host Michael Steele highlighted the ridiculous comparison in a The Weeknight segment last week, pitting the president up against NFL athletes of similar sizes.
Trump, seen side-by-side with Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf, 28, and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, 28, looked much different than the athletes despite their similar measurements.
“We know that the assertion that he has bruises on his hands because of handshaking is ludicrous,” Rothkopf added. “And we know that Trump’s assertion that he is the only guy who’s had to go through all these cognitive tests and he passed them with flying colors is silly because you don’t get cognitive tests unless the doctor thinks you’ve got a problem with your cognition.”
As he has repeatedly boasted throughout his second administration, Trump bragged about his “fourth such” cognitive exam that he got a “PERFECT” score on in a Truth Social post on Sunday.
“It is very rare that anyone gets a Perfect Score, especially when achieved four times in a row,” the president, who turns 80 on June 14, said about the MOCA exam, which is a dementia screening tool.
Reached for comment on Rothkopf’s remarks, White House spokesperson told the Daily Beast in a frequently recycled statement: “David Rothkopf is a far-left loser who clearly suffers from a severe and debilitating disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
“We’ve got that as evidence, but we’ve also got evidence of the behavior‚" Rothkopf said, noting the president’s 52-post Truth Social marathon this weekend that included an AI-generated photo of himself horseback riding with George Washington beside a NASCAR race in front of the White House.
Trump also posted another AI image depicting himself as a Revolutionary War-era military commander with body armor and fighter jets soaring behind him, captioned: “You’re getting discombobulated.”
“Who does that?” the political expert said about the absurd “discombobulated” post. “You wouldn’t share it with your friends because you know they would think you were nuts.”
Rothkopf also noted how Trump’s lack of a filter in public, his increased use of profanity, and his difficulty controlling his emotions are all warning signs of dementia.
“We know that his behavior is erratic. We know that he’s doing irrational things. We know that he’s ignoring rational advice,” he said. “Look, you don’t have to be a psychiatrist to know that this guy is behaving in an erratic, irrational way for whatever the organic reason is. You don’t have to be a doctor to know that this guy is physically unwell.”
Rothkopf highlighted how Trump was seen having difficulty standing while visiting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last month, along with his long-winded, rambling speeches whenever he’s put in front of a microphone.
“He’s 80! He’s had a good life, and he should be at Mar-a-Lago sitting by the pool, having a margarita, talking to his friends about things he used to do,” the political guru said. “Unfortunately, he is a disturbed, sick lunatic who holds the most powerful job in the world and is at a stage of his existence where, because he’s a narcissist, the only thing he cares about is himself. And if every single one of us ceased to exist, he wouldn’t care, because the world is him.”
Rothkopf explained that Trump’s excessive defense budget geared for nuclear weapons development, coupled with his “Golden Dome” proposal and White House ballroom/underground bunker complex, are both prime examples of his “dark fantasies” made manifest.
“This guy’s got some dark fantasies, and in all of those fantasies, the role we play is victim,” he concluded. “And that’s scary as s--t, regardless of what the final diagnosis of Donald Trump is when you and Michael Wolff go and perform the autopsy and really, finally, once and for all, get inside Trump’s head.”
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