‘A BRIDGE TOO FAR’

Why Trump Is Entering His Worst-Ever Doom Spiral: Political Guru

David Rothkopf previews what awaits the president after Tuesday’s election.

President Donald Trump could be headed for a drawn-out meltdown as he confronts his waning political power and his own mortality, according to political analyst David Rothkopf.

On The Daily Beast Podcast, Rothkopf said the 80-year-old president’s behavior over the coming years will be shaped by his advancing age and the prospect of losing political power in Washington. On the eve of the midterms, Republicans face a battle to retain control of the House, while Senate seats once considered reliably Republican have become increasingly competitive.

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“The page is turning,” Rothkopf told host Joanna Coles. “This is the beginning of absolutely lame duck Donald Trump. This is the beginning of Donald Trump grappling not just with his mortality, but hearing the clock tick, tick, tick on the wall.”

“All of his behavior is going to be driven by this: ‘How do I remain relevant? Am I relevant? How do I use the power that I’ve got?’” he explained.

If Congress is no longer controlled by Republicans, Rothkopf believes Trump will seek other—possibly dangerous—ways to keep himself in the spotlight.

“Particularly if Congress is taken away from him as an option, it’s all going to be whatever goes on inside his head,” Rothkopf said. “We’re already watching the decay of this mind. I mean, there are all these early signs of dementia and everything else, but the next couple of years are going to be like watching a nuclear meltdown: the Chernobyl inside Donald Trump’s head.”

And Rothkopf warned that the risk of Trump using nuclear weapons, including against Iran, could increase as he grows more concerned about his relevance.

“Trump has a relationship with nuclear weapons that should scare the s--t out of us all because he does consider it. He does want to think about it. And there are other stories of [him] saying, ‘Well, why don’t we use nukes?’ And military people saying no.”

“I think there are military people who are already deeply fed up with Trump and have seen the damage... he and Hegseth have done to the military in manifold ways, who would resist,“ Rothkopf said. ”I really do think that’s a bridge too far.”

“Well, if that doesn’t get people to the polls,” Coles replied, “I don’t know what does.”

The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

Trump held his final speech before the midterms Monday afternoon, highlighting the renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The troubled project, which faced delays and a price tag several times higher than the president initially projected, is now complete, Trump said.

But neither that project nor other beautification efforts in and around the capital have been nearly as important to voters as affordability concerns, which the president has dismissed as a “hoax,” or the ongoing Iran war, which he has claimed dozens of times has already been won.

“It’s the golden age of America,” Trump insisted. “We have a country that we can be proud of again. We were laughed at all over the world for four years. We were laughed at like we were stupid people.”

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