Donald Trump is Not Well

Donald Trump is not well.

I’m not speaking cognitively; as I’ve written previously, there’s plenty of reason to question the former president’s cognitive faculties by the very same standards so many are eager to apply to President Biden alone.

I’m speaking spiritually. Psychologically. His unwellness in this respect was painfully evident to every honest person paying attention during his 2016 campaign. Those terrible instincts were made worse during the four years after he won the election and became the most powerful man on Earth. And they’ve become worse still now that he’s out of power and scrambles to return to it.

In the past few days alone (but not for the first time), Trump has signaled a desire to execute our nation’s top general, Mark Milley, who has served both Trump and President Biden as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley, Miller’s former boss (and Trump’s former Secretary of Defense) Mark Esper, and others have expressed the sentiment that Trump will seek to punish them if he ever wins reelection.

In the same period (but, again, not for the first time), Trump has vowed to use the vast powers of the White House to investigate and punish elements of the mainstream media for what he regards as “treasonous” behavior.

That these public—and constant—proclamations are not only tolerated but endorsed by the allegedly “pro-military,” “pro-liberty” party is intellectually and morally indefensible. Powerful, radical elements of the GOP, including many elected officials, will clearly sacrifice anything to anoint Donald Trump dictator.

And yet the country Trump once “led,” and now seeks to “lead” again, is a constitutional democratic republic. It was founded by flawed men after they shrugged off the yoke of a distant monarch whose legitimacy was conferred not by consent of the governed but by the so-called divine right of kings.

The United States was established with the explicit purpose of rejecting anything vaguely monarchical. The founders intended our chief executive to be a civil servant of We the People, whose authority was considerable, yes, but carefully constrained by an intricate system of checks and balances and separation of powers.

Donald Trump is a very different man from his successor, Joe Biden, and his predecessors—going all the way back to President George Washington. Even the previous poster boy for Republican corruption, Richard Nixon, would blanche.

By every important metric, Trump is perhaps the least qualified candidate for high office in the history of this country. And in case you forget, just visit Truth Social and give him 5 minutes.

He’ll be sure to remind you.