• ...it would not be a total surprise to discover he had delusions of divinity.
LUDWIG BORNE, an early 19th c. German satirist, wrote "Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth."
Getting rid of Trump would certainly go a long way towards "getting rid of delusion" and getting at some Truth.
67
One has to understand Trump's ordinary brain. While dual loyalty is now commonly called "an antisemitic trope," most people believe in ethnic solidarity and don't hold it against its practitioners. Trump is echoing the simple, half-facetious way Jews talking among themselves react to news of unclear import: "Is that good for the Jews or bad for the Jews?" It's a joke, but a joke with positive semiotic overtones. We assume gentiles will deal with the general consequences of an event, so we can focus on how it affects us uniquely.
Trump approves of that orientation and wants Jews to know that The Squad's BDS is bad for the Jews. Whether The Squad is enough of a reason to believe that Trump is good for the Jews is another question. What's bad for America is bad for the Jews, as what was bad for Germany at Versailles was AWFUL for the Jews.
The same line of thinking applied to Judge Curiel, who Trump, not unreasonably in my view, expected might feel some ethnic solidarity with Mexicans. Trump did not suggest, as the MSM liked to say, that Judge Curiel "could not do his job" because he was Mexican. Rather, Trump ascribed to the judge the same human feelings a Nazi defendant might ascribe to a Jewish judge. Sure, the guy MIGHT be fair, but still...
One of the worst thing Trump has done is create rationalizations for intellectual dishonesty. This is war, and in war, truth is the first casualty. I loathe Trump, but I will not let him make me loathsome.
17
In 2 Thessalonians 2:3–10, the "man of lawlessness" (Anti Christ) is described as one who will be revealed before the Day of the Lord comes.
2Thessalonians 2:3-10
3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
18
if you view past videos of trump it is clear he has long been a narcissistic racist, misogynistic, xenophobe. what is terrifying is the decline in his use of language and rambling confusion. He clearly has dementia now-exacerbating his pathological narcissism. and he has his finger on the nuclear button. terrifying.
78
Trump is the Chosen? In mysterious ways, indeed.
"Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ have come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!"— 2 John 1:7 .
Can I get an amen?
27
Trump thinks he is “the chosen one.”
Cue Dana Carvey as The Church Lady: “Could he be chosen by...SATAN?!?”
67
The President also shared a tweet this morning that compares himself to "The King of Israel... The Second Coming of God".
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1164138795475881986
9
“when he’s alone at night....” Don’t be so sure Gail. It may not be Melanie or Melania, but he always has “The Speeches of Hitler,” to invigorate his juices. It’s his primer.
32
It appears from President Loco's (nickname courtesy of Ana Navarro, a Republican) rant that Barak Obama is still living rent free in President Loco's head.
45
God? Only in his grand deluded, narcissistic, megalomaniac, psychopathic brain. But can anyone bring him down to being human from his Godly perch? No! Except the 2020 election. Americans vote!
31
“... you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel.”
I heard Trump say this on the radio today, then immediately turned it off. But I continued to think about it, and in my mind I could hear him saying effectively, “You Jews should support your mother country, since you’re not really American anyway.”
36
The Danish woman on the television news commenting on his Greenland grab put it best and accurately: he's "stupid."
50
When God wanted to punish the unbelievers, He used to send frogs, bugs, wild animals, pestilence, boils, hail, locust, darkness, death...
This time the Almighty has chosen Trump as our punishment...
41
Trump is a pathological sociopathic narcissist (a psychological
disorder)
This is the view of ret. Harvard Professor Lance M. Dodes M.D.
Reference : last night's 10 PM interview of Dr. Lance M. Dodes by Lawrence O'Donnell MSNBC The Lawrence O'Donnell Show.
I hope that the NYTimes journalists rfealize that Trump is
incapable of being sane; Hence write about what are the
FACTS please journalists : Trump is getting more and more
insance and needs to be dismissed from office; Print
]the Facts please Gail Collins...reference what Dr. Dodes said
last night; as well as in his Letter to the NYTimes Editors
2/13/17....as a WARNING that Trump is a very psychologically impaired man:
State this FACT.....Please !!!!
33
If Donald is the Chosen One I guess that means Vladimir is God.
33
“...Nobody has been tougher on Russia than Donald Trump...
“...Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump...
So – who is this Nobody guy anyway...
Assuming it’s a guy...
Sounds Russian – is that short for Nobodny, or Nobodsky...
Do we have his birth certificate – am guessing Brighton Beach...
Time was – anybody could become President of the USA...
That is, anybody from Brooklyn or Queens...
But times have changed – so, guess it’s Nobody’s time at bat...
So – does Nobody want free Medicare for All???
Didn’t think so...
Gail, as recently as yesterday – thought nobody made more sense than Trump as president...
Today, feel the same way...
Perhaps even more so...
Especially now that I hear that nobody's seriously considering a woman for the VP slot...
5
He might think he's the chosen one but #NotMyChoice.
10
Evangelicals please take note from your own trusted source:
In the end times will come false prophets, even one who claims to be God.
You know this.. but will you do anything about it? If not.. then you are no better then the bull worshipers that Moses condemned for idolatry.
Then again.. has not the whole of Republican orthodoxy signed on with the idol in question here, and worshiping accordingly?
24
Two years ago, the white nationalists marching in Charlottesville chanted "Jews will not replace us!" Now the "Chosen One" is telling his supporters that Jews are traitors. The president of the United States is crazy, and he's fixing for a civil war after he loses the 2020 election. As Donny Deutsch says, authoritarians always tell you what they're going to do. Trump has put us on notice.
30
It takes a truly ignorant and tone deaf gesture to equally offend Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists and agnostics simultaneously Bravo Mr. Trump, Bravo, you managed in one inane comment to do what no other President has done before! Historic!
20
Watch ‘the Family’ on Netflix explains it all!!
11
Twenty-fifth amendment anyone? Please!
31
When Trump said "And we have great mental illness.” I have to believe he was using the Royal "we".
40
I have this theory that Trump thinks of himself as funny and as a great wit. This man who has spent his entire life surrounded by sycophants and yes-men who constantly reinforce this self-image. One frequently meets such people at parties. They are called "bores."
407
Ms. Collins, you’ve given the right-wing nut jobs the sound bite they’ve been looking for - “accept the idea that he was sent to us by forces from above”. This man is such a narcissist that he knows he was sent to lead his “people” out of the bondage of Obama-era regulatory Egypt and has visited his own version of the seven plagues upon his own people. The thing is that I’m not sure anyone has ever “tested” his bonafides on any religion but his own twisted “all hale me!” third-person savior delusion.
For the political cartoonists and satirists he’s the second coming. For the rest of us mortal sentient beings he’s just a nightmare.
22
The man you described is deeply mentally ill. And appparently our country is okay with leaving a mad man in the WH.
34
For God's sake (i.e., for the sake of the actual deity who saw fit to place this country in the tiny hands of an imposter) can't any member of the White House press corps challenge His Highness to produce even a jot of evidence to back up any one of his nonsensical assertions? "Where are you getting those figures, Sir?" "Which study are you referencing, Sir?" "Who told you that, Sir?" "When exactly did your predecessor do that, Sir?" "Where can we find the newly constructed pieces of the wall, you dimwit...I mean, Sir?" Instead of asking lame questions and having someone back at the station or the editor's desk fact-check his answers, why not take the trouble to (politely) insist that this "president" back up his grandiose claims and denunciations with specifics and hard evidence? Failing that the press deserves nothing more than the contempt that Mr. Trump routinely holds for its members.
32
I know what the Christian Right's stand is on taking the name of the Lord in vain. What's the stand on the vanity of impersonating the Lord?!!
But then I thought I knew their stand on womanizing, the sanctity of the family, lying, cheating...
36
Sorry, Gail, I mean I love you but....I just can't anymore. I'm SO at the end of my tolerance for even turning on the news or logging into The Times in the morning that I just....LADIES and GENTLEMEN, YOU know what I mean even though the words fail me, don't you?! How about this one word to sum it up: UGH.
9
Next he will claim that he parted the Red Sea. Is there any
doubt that he is mentally unbalanced and should be in therapy?
18
He routinely projects onto others what is true about him.
He is mentally incompetent.
He is the one that is nasty!
He is the one that is anti Semitic.
There are more of us that want him out so he will be gone in 2020. Then he can talk about crowd size as much as he wants.
20
Trump DOES know what happened to the LAST Messiah, right?
No, being Trump, he probably *doesn't.*
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
---
No, this isn't some sort of bizarre threat. Just an acknowledgement that Trump has been presenting himself as "Chosen by God" since the moment he walked out on the Republican Convention Stage all glowy-lit by fancy stage lighting as if in an aura. Probably before. The faithful were *primed* to believe that he was. So they'd been told dozens of times already.
The next day, I was having lunch at my local, small town McDonalds and two of my older pals, who were conservative, religious and, TBH, kind of simple minded, were transported with joy! Oh, you could tell by how the "light shone upon him!" Trump was "Chosen by God!"
I looked at them sourly and rolled my eyes. "You DO know that was *stage lighting,* right? It was a special effect. Like the movies?"
They looked at me with utterly vacuous, innocent eyes. First, they didn't know what stage lighting WAS. Second, they had actually thought HE WAS GLOWING! Third, they had been completely taken in. In a moment, they tossed aside my remark about objective reality, disproving their religious fervor for the sinner Trump and were fan-girling again. I let it go, after all, I liked them and our friendship, such as it was, was not built on politics. I didn't have too many friends in that small town.
14
it is long past time for Pence to invoke the 25th amendment. If he won't history will regard him as it regards those who surrounded and abetted Hitler or other demonic dictators throughout history.
10
trump is a pathological liar and a sociopath. he believes in nothing but the supreme importance of money and his own infallibility. that makes his recent bizarre pronouncements difficult to categorize. but the statement "I am the chosen one" is clearly over the line and reveals that his malignant narcissism has begun its inevitable transition to psychosis. he has to go. now.
23
Slightly off-topic, I am trying to envisage what the "Trump Presidential Library" will look like and what pearls of statecraft it might hold.
Might it look like:
http://www.olympia-greece.org/templezeus.html
Today, it is a tumbled-down pile of rubble; quite appropriate for Donald.
6
The evangelicals, drowning as they are in hypocrisy, have routinely couched their irrational support for the hateful,philandering president in divine terms. As if he were put here warts and all by God to end abortion. Trump, in turn, absorbs their fealty into his black hole of narcissism and then radiates it as truth. Were it fiction, it would be first off the publisher’s desk into the wastebin. Alas, we wallow in the absurdity of it all each headsnapping day.
11
We live in frightening times. This article was less humorous and more chilling. Collins' article should spur more outrage and encourage the sensible people in this country to act up, get politically involved and take back control of this political culture of grift. Ronald Reagan seems quaint compared to the morally bankrupt, thin skinned moron that somehow beat Clinton in 2016. So the public must take the sober approach and do everything necessary to defeat him in 2020.
17
Why do we even have to guess at the feeble mindedness of this unhinged mental case? This conjurer of evil, is unable to speak coherently unless he's reading from a scripted misinterpretation of the facts in a monotone voice devoid of even a single human emotion. Vote in 2020 to remove the stain that calls itself the Republican party out of office, along with it's toxic infantile lying traitor president.
14
This person is certifiably nuts. If this wasn't so serious it would be an SNL skit. He is unbelievably delusional. He thinks he can re-write the Constitution to suit whatever he wants on any given day. He's unhinged and almost everybody realizes that, yet no one in what's left of his party seem to care.
This must be the right time for impeachment, we cannot wait until 2020 to rid ourselves of this sick administration.
15
You guys do realize your President is a lunatic? I know it's been said one would have to be crazy to want the job of POTUS, but...
As for a miracle of nature? A slime mould is a miracle of nature. And it's more interesting. And coherent.
15
Does anyone remember the brief talk about Ivanka Trump's belief that she would one day be president??
Laughable, right?
Then listen to all the references Trump now makes to no need for an election because he'll win, maybe he should have a third term, fourth term, leave after another ten years.
And then think of Michael Cohen's testimony when he said he feared Trump would never leave office or transfer power voluntarily.
Pay attention to this.
He always tells us what he's going to do, and when it's especially
threatening, it gets dismissed.
Yet his history is that of telling what he'll do in full public view, and no one has stopped him. No wonder he equates himself with God.
Or as God's messenger.
Think of Stephen Miller telling us Trump is all powerful and not to be questioned.
He breaks laws with impunity, violates every norm of public service and the presidency, disrupted the world order, puts our nation at risk every day. We do nothing to stop him.
Instead we play psychiatrists and wallow in dissecting NPD.
Why did Bannon say the goal was to dismantle the administrative state? To what purpose? Why?
So that Trump, a born dictator, will be able to become one.
He has the power to declare marshal law, to suspend an election.
He has Barr for protection. He's rid himself of those held him in check.
God, messiah, chosen, whatever, he uses Hitler's playbook.
Listen to him. Listen carefully.
No, I don't live on the grassy knoll. I'm scared to death.
And Ivanka's in the wings.
29
If Congress won't do it--will no one rid us of this protofascist buffoon? Anyone? Anyone?
9
Now that trump thinks he is "King of the Jews" he will probably be moving back to Israel to assume his Kingship? Is there a way we can contribute to a one-way ticket for Trump to fly back to Israel to assume his Kingship? They might even put up a Trump tower in Israel!
https://twitter.com/search?q=%22King%20of%20Israel%22&src=trend_click&pt=1164169795727712256
16
"The man in the White House thinks he’s a miracle.".......
Throughout history messianic complexes haven't ended well for those so deluded........
Why should America's delusional wannabe messiah be any different?......
9
I just heard a rumor that our President will hold faith healings at his next rally. Can I get an AMEN??
4
I'd guess that he's getting from the Pences, the Pompeos, also more than a few of the Fox superstar opinionators he speaks to each evening, also from his outrageous "spiritual advisor" plus extensive other sources at a greater distance - daily boatloads of (1) mumbo-jumbo heretical pseudo-theology regarding God's decision (discernible to and widely promulgated by evangelical ideologues) to use corrupt leaders for good gains and (2) similar mumbo jumbo from the same sources about a nation state named Israel being pivotal to the end time fulfillment of God's eternal purpose.
They likely pray over him and utter this stuff. Rattle such stuff like that through a brain like Trump's and voila -- what more reasonably should come out but "I am the Chosen "One. How can "God" let this happen? Read ScrewTape Letters.
5
A megalomaniac with a Messiah complex.
It will be interesting to see how nervous he gets in the days before Easter.
My guess is - no travel plans to go to Jerusalem at that time of the year lol
10
Remember "I, Claudius"? Here we are, at the moment I've been waiting for. We now have a "god" and "goddesses" in the WH. Can't leave out Melania.
4
The media should stop using his name directly unless it a personal statement that specifically refers to him alone. Just say "this current administration", after it's as much their fault as it is his.
If he does, and he may, have mental illness then it's more the fault of those who don't and are part of his team. They are in the front line as is congress and need to control him and limit the damage.
When I was young and first understood enough of what happened under Hitler, I was left with How could they not have stopped him. If our democratic system can't do that, what will be our future?
18
I'm beginning think he is angling for an insanity defense
17
Shortly prior to dying, the Roman Emperor Caligula declared himself a god. Trump sees himself as a modern day Caligula — and so do all Americans who understand history and know the Roman Emperor was insane.
15
Obama was right. God, guns and gays. Let's see what he has planned to get the gay vote.
7
Then follows his Ascension to jail 21 January 2021. . .
10
The un- president is truly delusional!
2
The so called “Green” Party gave us this mess.
Just like they gave us W and the Iraq war.
A shameful bunch of Republican operatives and now Russian flunkies.
Fools.
11
Do they make straitjackets in our current president's size? Take him away!
6
Gail, you always make me laugh, but this really isn't funny.
The president of the United States has just claimed that he is the messiah. Think about that for a moment.
Seems to me that this is a clear sign that POTUS is crazy. REMOVE HIM NOW!
15
It's 25th amendment time... and while we wait for that don't drink any kool aide at the rallies ...
4
The real problem? The complete silence from the Republican Party, no matter the degree of stupidity T. displays. Honestly, is there no one in that party who etc.etc.etc.?
15
Again a "nasty" woman gets a dressing down by Trump, the outspoken Danish prime minister. If he went on to his state visit, he would have had to face another strong women, the Queen Margarete. That would have been too much for this coward and misogynist.
14
Calling Michelle Obama... your country needs you to run for President in order to save us from this lunatic currently occupying the Oval Office. There is no higher calling than this... none.
14
Did anyone else notice that the President referred to his predecessor's term as his reign? If that doesn't tell you how this emperor sans culottes sees himself, I don't know what does. Remember Nixon's uniforms for his imperial guards? (https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-press-was-not-impressed) If I was a betting man, I'd wager that's next on his Imperial Highness' list.
8
Please be fair! After all, when millions of American boys were rotating through the rice paddies, jungles and mountains of Vietnam, fighting an enemy who just didn't know how to give up, Trump was back home fighting the good fight against herpes, AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis and dozens of other implacable enemies of democracy.
The fact that he won (or seems to) is proof of his divinity!
8
Thanks be to god Vlad raining down stolen emails from heaven. And to the Republicans reborn in red water.
Which puts the majority of us in heathen territory.
7
I'm wondering what happens if someone goes up to him and tells him that you're not even worthy of shining Obama's shoes.
16
After 80 years of searching, I get it now: GOD stands for 'Good Ol' Donald'. What's next on Trump's obsession list, stolen strawberries? How soon will we watch him jiggle metal balls during a TV interview? When it is all said and done that GOD was unfit for the Office of POTUS, who will he blame for having stolen his marbles? I'm sorry, but far more serious attention and immediate action must be paid to the delusions and to the destructive course of this irresponsible President.
6
Good god Gail, this crazed and soulless human, so much smaller in so many ways than most, is going to put you out of business. It's just not funny anymore.
8
If God has truly visited this person upon us it must be as punishment for the 400 years of abominable acts towards the enslaved Africans brought here and systematically disenfranchised from full rights of citizenship.
14
If I had a 73-year old relative who displays the mental incompetence, messianic complex, severe narcissistic personality disorder and sociopathy that His Heinous does, I'd get him put into a locked psychiatric unit. I dream that one day justice will be served and he will be put into another kind of locked unit, wearing an orange jumpsuit.
19
Narcissistic personality disorder, narcissistic psychopath/ sociopath... we've heard the terms before and believe they describe him to a T.
But, as far as we know, no one with medical qualifications has been able to get near him to pin these things down. We CAN say is that he certainly seems a very, very sick individual; his condition will no doubt worsen quickly, and we all will suffer for it.
The past weeks of El Paso, Dayton, his reactions/stunts, his insults of the Squad, Jews and to Mette Fredriksen of Denmark, and his "Chosen one" comment are all the scarier because there is no one in his cabinet or administration wise or courageous enough to put a leash on him, to say "Stop. That's enough."
Almost all Republicans serving in the Senate and House act like subservient toadies with him if only to humor him and ensure they get what they're after. They make our federal government a travesty, a farce in every way. So perhaps we are moving toward the next moment of great change in this country. Because he has taken us so far off course, this nation will have to rise up either through elections or harsh deeds and set us on a new and better course.
That won't happen with him and his Republican allies. We are all going to have to find a way to wrench the power away from him and them. Soon. Or it will be too late.
9
What is missing in your description of our very own Ozmandias, is an account of the suicide pact which his "base", thought to be people of faith, have made with their graven haired idol. We need an old Testament prophet to wake them from the idolatry into which they have fallen.
Oddly, his self-identification as "The Chosen One". and "King of the Jews", hasn't produced great revulsion.. Maybe the Evangelicos identifyTrump as Keanu Reeves in the Matrix or Aragorn in the Return of the King. At all events, to Pilate's question, Christ replied "thou hast said it" while Trump reveled in the idea he was "King of the Jews"
2
Humor is not the subject of this article as more evidence of Trump's descent into an extreme form of megalomania that is both damning and frightening. The GOP's hold on the Senate and actions taken regarding climate change, nuclear agreements broken, tax cuts that cripple and add to the $3 trillion debt, playing footsie with Putin, Kim, Bibi and the Saudis regardless of their deplorable actions with the murder of a journalist and bombing Yemen draw a picture of a world and our nation endangered by this species of president. Vote Democratic in all elections and stop this madness of King Donald. Throwing tea in Boston Harbor won't do it. Vote Democratic and read and use your god-given brain!
11
Dear Gail: I finally found something I can agree with Donald Trump about ( in your brilliant, as usual, Op-Ed): “There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
4
Seems pretty clear the man is going off the rails, the elevator no longer gets to the top floor. Listening to his extemporaneous monologues is like listening to a demented babbling idiot or some who has mush in the squash, hardly the self proclaimed "stable genius." And... he's obviously been listening to Pence who we all know has some special divine gifts. The Oval Office and its present occupier... One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest updated version.
13
Always remember, people. If we escape this without a nuclear holocaust, we should consider ourselves lucky, and take the win.
8
I want to hear how Fox, Kellyanne and the rest of the crew spin this?
6
I’m starting to wonder when we’ll see pictures of Trump sitting in his bathrobe casting a fishing line into an empty pool like his idol Al Capone. He’s certainly headed that way.
6
The chopper chatter today was pure deflection as media were gathered for Trump backtrack on guns, insult the Denmark PM, talk about buying Greenland and how Jews should be loyal to Israel and by extension to him.
Notice what was absent in reporting: no Mueller, no impeachment, nothing regarding his con on health care, Russia’s interference in our elections( although he did talk about readmission of Russia to the G7 with blame on Obama, nothing on reason for booting Russia(his buddy Putin invaded Crimea and Ukraine)
He goes bonkers at chopper chatter and gets coverage for a man who believes in publicity, both good and bad.
2
This is the greatest comment ever posted anywhere by anyone. It's tremendous. You can see what great things are written here, how fantastic it is. It's terrible that some people don't recognize how brilliant this comment is. So sad. Democrats clearly don't want people to read these amazing words, and will do anything to destroy them. If you believe what the Democrats say about this comment, you're either ignorant or very disloyal. Nobody posts better comments than I do. Nobody. In the history of comments, this is clearly the best of all time. Believe me, folks, believe me.
6
I think Harry Potter would have something to say abut that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECzLYvbG9qM .
1
Sowing discord and undermining America's social cohesion and NATO's cohesion is Vlad Putin's instruction to his puppet. So any daily episode of Bolshoi Donald doing Putin's Theatre's bidding is bolshoi (great) for the both of them.
He is hardly courting the Jewish vote here, he is winking at and solidifying his Evangelical base where the numbers he banks on are, courting the likes of Jerry Merry End Times Falwell Jr. the Loonier and Paula White Privilege. They got the hots for the rapture to which purpose Israel has to rise and fall just for the pleasure of the chosen few true Christians who will be saved. It's in the prophecy...
The double loyalty revealed here is that of the Evangelicals and of those hellbent on their votes: it is a loyalty to accelerate biblical end times, postulated to privilege the chosen few, rather than to help create actual good times for us the people and actual good conditions for good times to come. That's quite a nasty double loyalty.
For the Evangelical belief tenet of the rapture to be able to happen, first the Third Temple must be rebuilt by the Jews in Jerusalem, and only an empowered Israel can make this come true, before it will sink into the abyss, that's how cynically pretend 'pro-Semitic' the Evangelical perspective is.
Time to bring end times to the power abuse of the end times bringers.
King of Israel? May the IRS really turn out King, bring us the holy Tax Scripture revelations, and cut this so-called King back to proportion.
3
He is the chosen one, chosen by Putin to eliminate American authority from the world stage; seldom has a plan worked so well.
8
Might we say Donald Trump, President is at the very least megalomaniacal ?.....
6
As the incarnation of the Greek god Narcissus, Trump the malignant narcissist, is Greek god's gift to mankind. Please do not question his 'divine' utterances and offer your gratitude to Narcissus...
4
It’s easy to make fun of Trump, but he deserves some pity. He is a moral imbecile, which is a kind of developmental delay.
2
Trump is preparing his excuses for not being re-elected. The “deep state” sabotaged him. First, it was the Danes who created the Greenland hoax. Next, it was the unloyal Jewish Americans who voted for Democrats. Lastly, it was the mysterious “FED” who refused to comply with his wishes.
4
Hilarious. It just makes you laugh out loud, doesn’t it? To watch the approaching fascist autocracy lock up innocent people indefinitely, and to see our beautiful planet being burnt to a crisp by corporate greed. Ha ha.
10
You forgot to mention that Trump is also "the least racist person in the world." Too bad he's not on LinkedIn. Would be a fun read.
7
The United States of America has been bewitched. Our hypocrisy and double standards are out there for the world to see. Imagine if Barack Obama had said that, joke or no joke. Just imagine the rebuke from all the "religious" leaders--Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Jewish, etc. We have normalized infamy.
6
The miracle has already occured. It was a miracle that this racist, misogynist, serial adulterer, con-man (oh, the list is too long, just add your own adjectives here ....) was elected.
It was a miracle brought about by the audacity of electing an African American President, followed by an outbreak of reactionary racism not seen since the end of Reconstruction, or after the great migration, or after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, (again, too many to list, add your favorite affront to the white "race" here ...) aided and abetted by the aptly named right wing propaganda machine.
Miracles do happen.
7
My consternation with the Greenland affair is not just the fact that he is acting like a modern-day colonialist but that he so cavalierly thinks he can throw around our money that way, like it is his and his alone. A ridiculous and wasteful wall isn't enough, now he thinks he can go buy the world's largest island??? The utter gall of this man.
472
Elect a clown, expect a circus.
28
And on the seventh day he went golfing.
27
The Chosen One.
I do believe with a soccer field of Brazil's Amazon rain forest disappearing every minute, 500,000,000 bees killed, ice caps melting, seas rising, populations exploding, arable land disappearing, species extinct, environmental regulations trashed that Rapture is upon us and DJT is the Chosen One to speed the end of times along.
The end of times of humanity on earth.
12
If this doesn’t get the Evangelicals to dump him, the U.S. really has gone nuts.
17
Gail, if you really want to freak out, read about the evangelicals and their idea that Trump is the new Cyrus, king of Persia that released the Jews from bondage. Just Google "Trump Cyrus" and turn up the wacky world. Love your column!
8
Sorry, Gail. His dangerous delusions stopped being funny long ago.
14
Trump is trolling all of us.
5
I like to comment here on the Times, but I’m pretty much getting to the point of speechlessness.
18
Gail you are great! You sure you don't write for Mel Brooks?
I love your column.
8
I think Trump is great. Definitely the best president in this century, aside Reagen. He is the chosen one and his many disciples will re-elect him for a second, and maybe, a third term. God bless America.
4
@lieberma - Please tell me you are being sarcastic. We are living a reality/horror show. We have become numb to the daily outrage. Perhaps that was the goal all along ...drown the media and the people in a torrent of mendacity, and they will become inured to it all.
We have lives to live ...we cannot stay obsessed with this circus. It is too depressing.
42
Uh, Reagan was not president in this century.
17
@lieberma
We've had but three presidents in this century thus far. Well, one legitimate one: President Obama.
13
Our godly, manly man ... " waffling like a breakfast special."
I gained two pounds thinking about that, this morning. Kudos!
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
10
I just sent in a letter about Trump being the Anointed One. Please don't use letter. Thank you, Dan
Before the 2016 election I thought Mr. Trump was the least qualified person to run for the Office in my lifetime. I underestimated his lack of qualifications. I should add that I'm well into my ninth decade and I've seen some real whoopers run for the Presidency. He is the ourlier by far.
19
I blame the NRA, the PACs, the Republican Party and Vladimir Putin. The word “absurd,” in relation to the Greenland debacle, is a mild discrimination. Most nations think POTUS has lost his mind.
19
Trump supporters: are you embarrassed yet?
Because it's only going to get worse.
20
The American most disloyal to America is Trump.
21
This Opinion piece is coverage of a news story and is labeled as opinion. Why not a headline on the front page such as “President Repeatedly Confused, Sentences Unintelligible”. Trump distracts, the news media takes the bait and we fail to focus on the perilous issue of a dangerous world with a totally incompetent demagogue at the helm of the US. Op-Ed after Op-Ed then discuss his defects almost as satire. When can the media report what we all see as unbridled stupidity, incompetence and potentially a deteriorating brain? That is news, not opinion. News that should be covered every day, not his purposeful distractions.
19
One cannot follow or understand Trump's pronouncements. They're nonsensicale.
And his calling yet another woman "nasty" is disgusting.
20
Trump is weak-willed, easily manipulated and a creature of shallow vanity, but also super-empowered. He is Darth Donald unwittingly doing the bidding of his Palpatinic Master McConnell.
7
Brilliant. Does this explain some of his base’s allegiance?
8
Do we really have to wait another 14 months enduring this sick, delusional, inept individual as POTUS? I guess this is what happens when you take voting and governing for granted.
12
Say it again: he's suffering from both megalomania and dementia. We got a serious problem.
21
Gail Collins is mistaken. Donald Trump is not a miracle, he’s a raving lunatic.
13
If trump was sent by God, it was certainly the Old Testament God who punished with hellfire and brimstone, who smote and demanded sacrifices and infested the land with plagues and locusts. Apparently, O.T. God has simply wrapped all that up in trump, quite possibly the worst plague of all.
13
" (“The wall is being built — we’re building tremendous numbers of miles of wall right now.”) Mere mortals might wonder where the heck he gets the idea that this is actually happening,"
He's fired or driven away the people who used to try to reason with him and replaced them with toadies and sycophants. They will soon have learned that telling Trump what he wants to hear keeps the paychecks coming.
So they tell him the wall is being built, China is paying the tariffs, and the crowds in London were cheering him. And, of course, that his new clothes make him look svelter than ever.
What an amazing country the USA is. I see now what you mean when you talk about American exceptionalism. Although I think Turkmenistan compares closely.
11
The only miracle is that Donald Trump got elected president. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, he secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bull rings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants. In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is important and what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for dirty tricks and destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of us all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
2
Why is he still there? Are we so broken as a society that we cannot amend our errors? This guy is one of the biggest mistakes we've ever made. What is wrong with us that we cannot remove him from office? And in 2020, what would be the power that re-elects this buffoon? Are we really that stupid, or do too many people stay home on Election Day? Clearly, it's the Electoral College we can thank for this fine mess. Any suggestions there?
13
It turns out that nasty woman from Denmark won the popular vote too a couple of months ago.
7
Aside from Gail Collins, does anyone notice Trump's limited vocabulary and his mental capacity. "Delusional" might be an accurate word to describe Trump.
8
The quote starting, "“But we are going to be filling in some of the loopholes, as we call them, at the border ...." In all seriousness this paragraph, impaired topical focus and all, almost sounds like Broca's aphasia. There's form, but no meaningful content, just a perseveration on certain key buzzwords like "loophole," "border," "nice".... We have become used to these concerning harbingers of decline. I still feel bad about having made fun of Reagan's word-finding near the end of his second term. At least he had Nancy who truly loved and watched over him.
Donald doesn't. I have been angry at the Republican enablers who "let" Trump do what he's doing. But truly, it's not just the country that Mitch, Lindsey and the boys don't care about. It's Donald Trump.
8
The lines from Yeats's The Second Coming are prophetic: "What rough beast...Slouches toward Bethlehem...?
5
It is unidicted coconspirator, not the chosen one. Excellent article.
6
"And we have great mental illness."
We certainly do, Donald, and nobody does mental illness better, quicker, or sicker than Donald Trump.
Smiling broadly while giving the third-grade thumbs up sign next to a newly orphaned baby whose parents were just slaughtered by a madman inspired by your race-baiting and Guns R Us public policy certainly qualifies as great Presidential mental illness on your part.
Take a bow, Donald.
Cancelling a goodwill trip to a trusted European ally and calling their Prime Minister 'nasty' because they refused to blindly hand over 800,000 square miles of property to pacify your mood swings and delusions of Greenland qualifies as great Presidential mental illness on your part.
Take a great mental illness bow, Donald.
Desperately badgering your staff for executive order bankrupting tax cut ideas, harassing the Federal Reserve into 0% interest rate submission and researching all Snake Oil possibilities to prop up your debt-laden trillion-dollar deficit economic charade until after Election Day when America is impaled on a Mt. Everest of debt qualifies as great Presidential mental illness on your part.
Take a crazy bow, Donald.
Flushing the Endangered Species Act and the Environmental Protection Agency down the drain while the climate collapses in slow-motion just so Gas Oil Pollution and filthy coal can trash the earth and all of its species qualifies as great Presidential mental illness on your part.
Make Mental Illness Great Again
Trump 2020
45
“he’s always watching.”....
Gee, just when I was finding re-runs of “I Love Lucy” more interesting than the media fascination with the Mussolini Wannabee, I find out I have all the more reason not to be able to sleep.
I suppose I could get a twitter account and give up sleeping altogether.
5
So where did this sudden attack of Godliness come from? As we know--certainly from his latest interaction with Wayne LaPierre--he believes whatever he has just heard. According to one report, he was watching Wayne Allyn Root's show on the conservative network Newsmax, and tweeted a quote from Root saying that "the Jewish people in Israel love [Trump] like he's the King of Israel. They love him like he is the second coming of God." So there it is. We all know how much he loves to be told how much he is loved.
4
"...and for Donald Trump’s very, very large brain.” Yup, a big brain which is completely vacant--he could rent it out as a studio apartment.
7
Oh, Gail, do you really believe he will "go away" after losing in 2020? Does God retire?
3
The idea that something you desire is automatically for sale is, I think, called prostitution. He knows all about that.
4
“I am the chosen one”. Donald J. Trump. Buckle up, the president thinks he is a prophesy. None of this is going to get better.
3
Perhaps the media, rather than reporting Trumps “comments” in which he lies and contradicts himself from one day to the next, should have a column, in small type, saying “Trump spoke from the WH lawn, flailing from one falsehood to another - nothing of any consequence.”
This man is a sociopathic liar with mental deficiencies and narcissistic personality disorder. He is unfit to be president. That is the only news story at this point.
8
Spotted at a MAGA rally.
A shirt that says:
“Follow Jesus. Vote Trump.”
Not making this up.
7
could it be time for the 25th Amendment please please please
4
We’re now in Crazyville. We’re in Dr. Strangelove territory. The man should be carried away in a straight jacket.
3
With Anti Semitic assaults on the rise across the globe, Trump is looking more and more like the poster boy for Israel here in the US. He agree to move the US Embassy, has backed Bibi at every turn and put the Squad on notice that their actions are unacceptable.
As the liberal left becomes more and more radical, Trump moves closer to center and become the best choice. He’s done more in the past 3 years for Israel than Obama did in in 8. Facts don’t lie Gail.
1
I don’t want to start any blasphemous rumors but I think that God has a sick sense of humor.
4
Oh, Gail, thank goodness we have you to point out all that is really absurd!
1
What is amazing is that no one has fact-checked his being the second coming.
Come on now, this would be like an infinity-long string of Pinocchios, if is not true.
But this might just be an ingenious test of faith with all the lies 45 has told according to the media, you either believe this or not, not possible to fact-check.
It would be a miracle.
As the NYT's Ross Douthat (https://nyti.ms/2YIFjvx) says "It would take the entire course in miracles to put Williamson in the White House", (Williamson's announced her new campaign song //youtu.be/kjxSCAalsBE (1)), and even The Almighty couldn't get de Blaz elected 46.
So maybe one miracle is not unreasonable?
(1) This is fake news.
1
"There has never been a President like Donald Trump."
And if we are wise and lucky, there never will be again!
Trump has always thought himself a miracle, without any justification but his own "private moments" dreams. Remember: he said that in HS, he was the best baseball player in New York, when a bunch of guys in the Bronx were winning World Series and breaking "unbreakable" records. You know, Mantle, Morris, Berra, Ford, and Howard.
This is the scary self-importance crazy we see from guys like Caesar, Genghis Khan, The Mahdi, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and, of course, Trump.
2
He is talking like a madman who is having
evangelical leaders, who consider themselves Prophets
'pray over him and prophesy over him'.
That is the way they speak.
It is delusional stuff.
I have been around such people....I once saw an evangelical 'prophet' tell a woman who was told by a doctor that her baby would be stillborn...that 'The Lord says to persevere in faith and I will reward your faith and you will have a healthy child'.
No Joke
The baby was stillborn.
3
The Israel thing is so critical to his re election. Like he cares about Israel one way or another. His inflated self image was creepy before and now it is down right scary. Let us say our prayers for the well being of the country.
2
This isn’t even amusing anymore. The “inmate” is turning my country into an asylum. I’m exhausted! Somebody - anybody - ride in on a white horse, grab him and lock him away in a tower somewhere. Please, please, I’m beggin’ you!
7
Donald trump Superstar?
I couldn't help myself but think that today's trump would fit in perfectly in a Saturday Night Live spoof of the Jesus Christ Superstar master piece.
To lightly paraphrase Tim Rice's prescient lyrics of the title song when I watched trump this morning on CNN giving his coherent and inspired message:
Every time I look at you I don't understand
Why you let the things you did get so out of hand
You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned
Why'd you choose such a [modern] time in such a [great] land?
If you'd come [in 4 BC] you could have reached a [clueless] nation
Israel in 4 BC had no [modern conception]
Don't you get me wrong
I only want to know
[Donald trump, Donald trump]
Who are you? What have you sacrificed?
[Donald trump] Superstar
Do you think you're what they say you are?
...
I can't help but wonder how trump would brag that his crowd was larger than any crowd any preacher of the time could muster, even the real Superstar of the time.
3
So Trump is not decried by the media as an anti-Semite for his anti-Semitic comments about loyalty. Double standard much?
1
Chosen one: as in, chosen by Putin?
I mean Vladimir does look great on horseback, but that doesn’t mean he is a god.
4
Republicans in the senate have become the true enemy of the American people. That they remain silent, or when speaking defend Trump in a cautious and circuitous way to explain his missteps and motivation, or hopelessly try to translate his idiotic statements, either on the helicopter expressway (the noisy, open air "press room") or his daily ,rambling tweets, we are witnessing an Orwellian prophecy becoming a stark reality.
This past week was a humdinger, even for Trump. The nonsense about wanting to buy Greenland and the angry reaction toward its prime minister ; the bashing of American Jews who "dare" to vote Democrat, and last but definitely not least, proclaiming himself "God" (cue the vomiting). There were even photos: e.g., the one attached and another one , showing his portly , self-satisfied self placed against a dark or stormy sky, hand raised as if ready to part The Red Sea a la The Ten Commandments.
To his base, he may be their Deity. To the rest of us , he is a lunatic escaped from the asylum but given a safe haven in the the Church Of The Electoral College. Memo to the Real God : Help Us All !
4
Evidently, Greenland preferred not to be renamed 'Trumplandia' and to be ruled by a dictator.
Ironic that POTUS was offended by the word 'absurd', when he himself is the #1 name-calling insulter-in- chief. In reality, cancelling the visit was a good excuse to avoid more crowd size comparisons (discrepancies?) with Obama who is scheduled to visit Greenland two weeks later.
2
Beware: Trump will have a little talk with God, then will start a frivolous war.
Innocents will die.
4
Scarier than trump's delusions of great godliness are the millions of "evangelicals" who excuse every vile thing he says or does because their "pastors" have helped them "understand" that this paragon of virtue fulfills ancient promises and predictions. They seem to conveniently forget that Jesus is supposed to have fulfilled those prophecies and, oh, incidentally, be THE Savior. They also manage to totally ignore the 99.99% of Scripture that they don't want to follow (too many rules and, really, it's inconvenient to have menstruating women live apart from everyone else). It's the same fundamentalist perversion of religion that has been at the root of basically every war in the world. As the clown-in-chief begins to realize that he is going to lose in 2020, expect him to become more and more bizarre. He's already told us that the economy will crash without him. Saddest of all are the millions of Americans who believe the vile garbage that comes out of his lying mouth every single day.
4
Nice sample of Trump's iniquities. But give him a break, as he can't help it; he is a sick man-child (a narcissist) that never grew up to become a responsible citizen, with feelingd towards others, let alone the wish to be of service to the ones he promised just that. Trump remains self-centered; and his constant lies obey to the fact that he has lost the ability to tell fact from fiction. Too bad his 'base' remains unwilling to think for themselves...and realize how stupid their 'savior' really is; besides being unscrupulous to the core. To him, and to them, reality is what Trump says it is (as his prior sycophant press secretary Sean Spicer used to say: Trump's lies are the truth...'period'!)
4
Trump is a sick person. No sane individual speaks as he does. I used to think he was just joking but I now think he may be serious in believing he is the next "coming". And to think he is the guy with the nuclear codes. Scary indeed.
4
Didn't the shooter in Pittsburgh who killed people at a synagog mention trump as his mentor? How pro-Jewish does that make trump? Weren't the white nationalist in Charlotte that trump called fine people yelling "Jews will not replace us"? I rest my case. trump only loves himself.
2
He thinks he is a divine Emperor like those in Rome, so naturally he uses the royal we and the 3rd person.
2
If our president is chosen in any biblical sense, it is the book of Revelations and He is the Antichrist. Instead of the Sermon on the Mount with the elevation of the meek, we have Charlottesville with the elevation of stiff armed salutes of "fine people on both sides". Instead of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, we have unsold soybeans left to mold in the fields and granaries. Instead of the calls of the Gospel to welcome the stranger and comfort those in prison, we have incantations of "Lock Her Up" and "Send Her Back" and children in cages. Instead of healing the sick we have endless calls to gut the ACA, hobble Planned Parenthood and demean "nasty" women at home and now abroad.
If we cannot send him packing before a second term, I pray the Chosen One will be called to the gates of heaven for a divine judgment. Let him ascend there and allow a just God to separate him and place him with the goats for all eternity.
4
He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy.
From Life of Brian by Monty Python
4
Thank you Ms Collins and the other Times writers for reviving the humor content of the daily press. Not having a "funnies" page, the Times definitely is beholden to the frightening one for its diversionary ink. Last week, with most of the bad stuff coming from Myanmar, Venezuela, and the like it was difficult to get into the news. Now with Greenland, anti-Semitic Democrats, imaginary walls, trillion dollar debt, and trusting the Taliban our Republican administration and its leader, the frightening one, have managed to revive the news with all the sick humor it can hold.
1
The only ones that this fool is miracle is Putin, Xi, and all other dictators, of course McConnell and his cohort.
2
Next thing you know he'll nominate "Seabiscuit" for the Senate.
2
There goes Reverend Trump and his traveling ministry of damnation.
Surprising that the best words ever spoken about that man don’t even come from our own country, but from a Palestinian grandma: “May God ruin him.”
16
This is the second time I have quoted this very famous story, Yertle the Turtle to describe a mental case of a president.
"That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,
Decided he'd taken enough. And he had.
And that plain little lad got a little bit mad
And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.
He burped!
And his burp shook the throne of the king!"
Your story ends happily. Thank you Theodor Geisel.
4
It's time for the Dems to drop the all-nighters spent refining policy details. Instead, they need to get a hold of some experts in cracking open their 2020 opponent's delusions and to learn ways of breaking the kind of spell he's cast on the supporters he so brazenly manipulates. And they especially need to get some advice on how tp win debates with (and hopefully, humiliate) a pathological liar and narcissist of Trump's magnitude. Forget the pollsters and the economists, just find the antidote to this nut job.
15
The combination of someone with narcissism personality disorder and religious fundamentalism is never a good thing. Millenialism, rapture theology, dominionism - all have a violent track record in history. Your former colleague Chris Hedges has published widely on this very issue. America would do well to read his work. thank you for identifying the height of all narcisism in Trump's condition - "god" - a very small "g" for an idol!
5
Sounds like the President is on the Hero' Journey....
1
Trump does hear voices and they do not all come from Fox News.He responds to those voices when he does his helicopter commentaries.The voices of the press asking questions rattles him and suggest to him all of the grievances he needs to air.It is truly bizarre and pathetic.The psychiatric term for his weird rants is “ word salad”.
4
Trump finally said something true. “We have a great mental illness”,
7
Republicans: have you no decency? Can you really not oust this mad man before more people get hurt? Can you really not see where this is headed? Can you really stomach it? Do you really hate what the United States of America has stood for all of our lives? Really? Is your hatred of folks that don't look like you, or believe as you do, or live according to your rules really such a driving force for you that you can't call this off? Can't you just say "Nope, we're not doing this..."?
It's just so sad.
17
Philip Roth wrote that Trump speaks in a language that seems to be not English, but Jerkish. After yesterday the only phrase that come to mind is "get the net".
15
Not above. I thought he came from below.
7
As long as he's "normalized" -he is God-like. Today on CBS Gayle King talked with parents of gun victims-Sandy Hook Mom was especially compelling recounting ceramic toilets annihilated by gunfire-imagine little children. After segment Tony Dokoupil stated Trump "considers guns a national emergency"? What the What--Trump just did a 180 yesterday. Why is Mr. Dokoupil rendering Gayle Kings whole segment benign? Absurd
4
And then the media thinks Joe Biden has a "gaffe" problem.
14
There are many people who have delusions of grandeur.They are basically harmless.
But the President has his finger on the nuclear button.
He is not harmless.
Use the 2th amendment to remove him from office and take away his power to do immense harm.
4
One needs to understand that after a lengthy period of manifesting erections around the world and purifying women with the mighty powers of his seed, even Donald Trump was exhausted. He needed help. So one day he created God in his own image. Grateful, God, in turn, remade Donald Trump into his own species. Surely, messiah and chosen one are very weak names for such a magnificent entity.
4
"And we have great mental illness."
Um, yes we do.
8
The president announced to us yesterday that he is "The Chosen One". Gail, Donald Trump isn't "a miracle". His ignorant base chose him to be the full catastrophe of America.
The Prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, called out Donald Trump to the world yesterday by saying he is "absurd". Trump cancelled his royal visit and called her "nasty".
Our president is as mortal as a flea. He refers to himself in the third person. Every time he opens his mouth, he lies. Do we need any more examples of his megalomania?
8
Yeah, "always watching" television.
6
Sent by “forces from above” ? Some people I know are beginning to wonder if he was sent from below.
3
It's time to write another 25th Amendment ticket. Trump is no longer fit to uphold the Constitution, or himself for that matter. Punishment: To be shown out the door with a crying towel.
May he return to his office at Trump Towers in New York on Obama Ave...I mean 5th Ave.
4
Unhinged. Time to start using the right words here, and in other editorials. Unhinged, dangerously mentally unstable.
It is no longer funny, if it ever was.
8
Gail,
Your insight, your wit, and your talent continue to expose the failings and foibles of this horrible clown show that has taken over the US Government. Thank you for helping us retain at least some of our collective sanity.
3
In my dear departed aunt’s Florida retirement village, there were several senior men suffering from dementia who would, on occasion, disrupt exercise classes or theatrical events by ranting loudly against their Black and Latino caretakers, handymen, gardeners, and van drivers, ordering them to “go back to where you came from”! Sometimes, their language and violent behavior would so disturb the other residents that the ranting old men would have to, literally, be carried off in a padded ambulance to a more restricted facility, where they could do no harm to others or themselves. Watching the rabid antics of our “Chosen One” President makes me wonder how long it will be until that padded ambulance is called to take him away.
5
When are people going to figure this clown out? You want the press to stop talking about the economy? Look toward Heaven and say that you are the chosen one? You want to take the attention off of ICE raids, environmental de-regulation, reductions in vital social services and a looming trade war with China? Have a rambling press conference that leaves everyone scratching their heads wondering what just happened, then post some absurd brain vomit on Twitter to make the smoke screen a bit thicker. Yes, Donald Trump is a megalomaniac. Yes, he has deep rooted emotional and psychological problems. Yes, he’s really not a very intelligent person. However, he’s a genius at throwing the hounds off the scent while he prostitutes himself and his administration out to people with very bad agendas in exchange for their unyielding loyalty and affection.
4
“The gun doesn’t pull the trigger, a person does. And we have great mental illness.”
Yes, we do. Evidently in the White House.
5
The emperor has never been more naked. The most disturbing part is all the sycophants who are still pretending he is fully clothed and looking great. He may have an excuse for his problem but they don't.
5
Gail has failed to answer and address the critical question.
Why is Trump our president?
The answer is truly tragic: because the Democrats have failed to impeach him!
Why did they fail to impeach Trump?
They were as incompetent as the incumbent, so incapable of gaining the control of the House and the Senate in 2018.
Why?
They are the sore losers without personal stamina, courage, toughness or intelligence!
That’s also a reason why the Democrats lost the presidential elections in 2016.
Instead of publically admitting their personal sins that led to the election of a total outsider to the White House, the Democrats declared a half of country as the deplorables, racists, xenophobes and sexists.
That’s really extremely inefficient and stupid way to make the friends in this world. Who is also guilty of identical behavior? Only president Trump!
The Democrats lost and instead blaming self they kept insulting a half of America.
All of them - the Democrats, the GOP and Trump are directly responsible for polarization and antagonism!
Blaming Putin and Beijing for the schism will never solve the problem!
1
“And we have great mental illness.” Is that a royal ‘we’?
4
Quite honestly I feel that Trump has flipped his pancake, the man is in need of psychiatric help. The messiah complex was probably always there, plus we know his self centered me me me ego is amazingly massive. He's a threat to us, make no mistake. Why the GOP is whistling in the wind and looking the other way is beyond belief. Considering this nonsense gets worse and worse each and every day, where do we go from here? What comes after a messiah complex?
6
That God so loved the world that he gave unto it his begotten son, Donald Trump, to lead it first into perdition and then into disrepute.
2
Trump is an amalgam of the worst individuals I have ever known, magnified by the prerogatives of the office, the status of the nation, the silent acquiescence of the Republican party, and that part of our democracy which depends on things that are not spelled out in the Constitution or the letter of the law. To the unhinged and untethered, Trump is the white supremacist god par excellence. To sane, skeptical, honest, clear-thinking Americans, Trump is an agent of chaos and corruption, division and delusion, misogyny and racism, distrust and dishonesty, resentment and rage, envy and out-and-out entropy.
4
In one single day, Trump proclaimed himself “the Chosen One”, attacked the Prime Minister of Denmark as a nasty women after she called his effort to purchase Greenland absurd, and declared that Jewish Democrats were disloyal to their “people” and to Israel.
Just one of these absurdities uttered by another president would have been considered reason enough for a full-frontal journalistic attack by the media and both parties calling for a thorough mental health assessment.
Our future is in the hands of someone who needs to be institutionalized. It’s time to stop pretending this madman is just a little quirky. We are heading for the cliff and no one has their foot on the brakes.
9
"And we have great mental illness.”
There you have it, in the first-person plural of Genesis, who says "Let us make humankind in our image. . . ."
4
“China has total respect for Donald Trump and for Donald Trump’s very, very large brain.”
Why does America have an insane president?
We can thank Hillary Clinton who could not defeat a celebrity clown.
So we read and laugh, because Trump is utterly absurd. The terrifying fact remains, however, that he is out of his mind.
In the long term, the fact that Americans elected this lunatic will hurt us with our allies. Even if we remove him in 2020, what guarantee is there that a large portion of the American public, who appear to be as crazy as he is, will not elect another Trump? What nation will enter into a treaty with us, knowing that in four years or eight years, the same crazy people who elected Trump may elect another incompetent, unstable president who will toss that treaty out a window?
Donald Trump is doing permanent damage to the nation’s reputation, not merely because he is out of his mind, but because he suggests that a large portion of the American public is unstable and unreliable.
Trump is unraveling and may do permanent damage before he leaves office. That is in the short term. The long-term damage he has already done is immeasurable.
The GOP needs to act now to remove him from the 2020 ticket. Trump is unraveling and may do permanent damage before he leaves office. The long-term damage he has already done is immeasurable.
Is Mitch McConnell corrupt, or is he both corrupt and a bumbling, inept fool? Is the GOP venal and self-serving, or paralyzed?
There are competent Republicans who can head the ticket. Trump is about to implode. He will not win in 2020. It’s time for damage control, McConnell.
3
Colonel Kurtz was more sane and fit for office than Trump.
4
Trump wants to occupy Greenland for its rare earth minerals. It's simple greed and a desire to serve his masters, the corporations and shysters like the Koch brothers.
4
You do know, don't you, that unless the Democrats get their act together pronto and come up with a program that seriously appeals to the un-served center in the USA, Trump WILL be be re-elected come 11/3/2020? It's all very nice, heart-warming and fulfilling to pen this kind of articles, but in the real world, this isn't doing anything at all. And its not like the chosen one (without capitals, for the moment) and his cronies are going to be sitting by. Prepare for the onslaught of the combined evangelical - alt.right - neo-fascist - nativist - ... toll armies.
3
Watching the news today, with the president regaling the journalists about his accomplishments and his superiority as "the chosen one," it occurred to me that it can't be much longer before he starts carrying a scepter and wearing a crown. Not that his dedicated Base wouldn't love it, but maybe the rest of the electorate would finally realize the extent of his unhingedment.
4
I agree that, "There has never been a president like President Trump."
In an age when we can invest video game avatars with the most egregious qualities, I doubt that anyone has come up with this precise blend of self-centeredness and mendacity.
Were he the village idiot wearing knee breeches, swaying back and forth, and spouting the nonsense he broadcasts daily, it's likely that his professional CV would include dodging eggs and rotten fruit.
However, rather than occupying the appropriate job of pathetic entertainer, he has been gifted by Governor Gerry and his delusional flock with the task of looking after our economy and national security. That's bad enough; the truly Marvel Comics part is that most of those who plan to remain on Earth only until the Rapture might get to jam this human sausage into the Oval for another four years.
He is their Chosen One, all right, but rather than lead them to Jonestown he has been allowed to lead the entire country to ridicule and weakened so many of his countrymen with his tariffs, which can be likened to the economic equivalent of bleeding the patient until he improves. Remember, there's no fiscal ague that can't be treated with just a few more leeches.
As an Irish-American, should my chosen candidate, Elizabeth Warren, assure me that I can't be for Ireland if I don't vote Democratic, I would find another candidate. Anyone that unbalanced would frighten me. Not you, GOPers?
One day we will look back on this and laugh. One hopes.
4
Chosen indeed. Chosen to divide the country, drive us further into debt, lock children in cages, fuel the fires of racism and antisemitism, insult our allies, tear up treaties and on and on. We have a choice in 2020 and we should make it clear to this egomaniacal, self-aggrandizing buffoon that we will not choose him.
3
Still mad at Mommy and desperate for Daddy's approval. A piece of work.
4
Trump thinks he's a miracle sent from god, but we know he's just a nightmare we have to endure for another few months that crawled out of the deeper regions of Hades. The bible told us to beware of false Prophets. And low and behold.
4
When you pray for sunshine someone else is praying for rain. Go figure.
1
How much longer before Franklin Graham declares that Trump is actually the second coming of Jesus Christ?
4
We do indeed "have great mental illness" - in the White House. I'm surprised here that Gail did not cite the most recent tweets in which Trump proclaims that the Israelis see him as something like "the second coming of God" - "second coming" being common Christian language re Jesus Christ. The man's grandiosity is truly pathological - and, yes, his referring to himself in the 3rd person is and has always been creepy.
7
Well Ms. Collins on this he’s (thankfully) correct. There never has been a “Donald Trump” like this “Donald Trump” and (hopefully & thankfully) there never will be another.
2
Mark 13:20 “If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
2
Oh dear lord “I am the chosen one”. I worked in psychiatry and it was not uncommon to have people admitted due to their religious delusions and delusions of grandeur. This is a whopper of a delusion.
4
Today Greenland, tomorrow the Temple Mount.
Just watch.
3
There is a fraction of the religious right who hold that Donald Trump is the secular equivalent of Cyrus the Great, the Persian Messiah who delivered the Jews from captivity. Perhaps this has been shared with him, hence the "Chosen One"?
1
Hey fellow NYT readers - I can't be the only one who immediately thought of the final movement of Stravinsky's, "The Rite of Spring," after commander knucklehead declared himself, "the chosen one." This ballet score was and still remains the most shocking orchestral piece written in the 20th century. First performed in 1913, it started a riot in the theater and Stravinsky himself had to crawl out a back stage window and flee for his safety. Yep, they don't write 'em like that anymore, but do keep in mind that the final movement, climax of the orchestral piece is labelled Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen one). The chosen one dies at the end.
4
I'm sure more than a few Republicans in Congress suspect how ill and dangerous their president Trump is, and every single day they prove how utterly useless they are to this country by failing to act. The party as a whole facilitated this disaster, and is indeed as Noam Chomsky said, the most dangerous organization on the planet for having done so in service of their own ambitions and utter lack of concern for the effects of climate change and the welfare of the rest of life on Earth. Every congressional Republican is unbelievably greedy and deliberately ignorant - a particularly enraging quality, considering how many opportunities they've had in life, and the responsibilities they sought and accepted. I'm sorry they'll be dead when their children and grandchildren start to really suffer in the wake of their unforgivable inaction.
9
The only good thing Trump has done for this country is wake a lot of us up! I only hope it’s not too late...
5
"America first" is not "America first." It is "Trump first." Denmark has not mistreated America. It is Trump who is offended. America did not snub Denmark's Queen. Trump did. While Trump brags about the great things he has done, and the great policies that he will establish, we shake our heads with disbelief. Has he drained the swamp? There has never been a crooked cabinet like his. Has he created a great economy? Or rather has he sustained one nurtured by Obama's presidency after GWB sent it reeling. And we await yet another "infrastructure week" hoping that this time a plan will emerge instead of being submerged again by self-created crises. Will he flash Nixon like V's with his small hands as he takes his last helicopter ride after impeachment, resignation, or lost election? However he leaves office, Trump will praise the large crowds (the largest ever?) cheering his exodus. Will he mistake those cheers of relief as cheers for his greatness?
4
Trump is the living embodiment of person who has lived his life immersed in the 7 deadly sins. But Republican "faithful" ignore that in favor of his words today, not his lifetime of misdeeds. Yet the big book mentions a rich man having a better chance going through the eye of needle than getting into heaven....
4
Well, there never HAS been a president like Donald Trump. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
2
There are many on the conservative Christian Right who do, indeed, see Trump as ordained by God to be president. They say so, directly. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was quoted saying the very thing. Everyone needs to wake up to the growing megalomania of this *president* — and never forget that megalomania and paranoia go hand in hand. We see both in Trump’s own words, each and every day. The growing fascism of this administration should be frightening to everyone. The growing psychological decompensation should be terrifying.
5
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
Well, that's true enough. For which we thank God fasting. If there had been, we probably wouldn't be in our current pickle. If the country had survived.
3
Trump was born at home plate and believes he hit a home run. Where is the Republican Benghazi outrage? Where is the Republican Tea Party deficit spending outrage? Trump has mesmerized the Republican Party and the world. Hopefully, Trump will go away in 2020 and then be indicted for his crimes.
3
For all you evangelicals who support Trump, if he says he’s God, and you continue to follow him, you do understand you’re following the ‘false’ leader foretold in Revelation.
Read that chapter again.
9
Donald Trump has confirmed that he is mentally unstable. Impeachment proceedings need to begin TODAY.
3
I eagerly await “Jesus” Trump’s attempt to walk on the sea and it’s predictable outcome. Someone please talk to his people and see if we can’t set that up asap.
7
The president announced to us yesterday that he is "The Chosen One". Donald Trump isn't "a miracle". His ignorant base chose him to be the full catastrophe of America.
The Prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, called out Donald Trump to the world yesterday by saying he is "absurd". Trump cancelled his royal visit and called her "nasty".
Do we need any more examples of his megalomania, Gail?
2
When Trump was elected several members of the American Psychiatrists Association posted a letter on the NYT warning the nation and world that Donald J. Trump is profoundly mentally ill and very dangerous. Since that time, there has been a universal failure to get right to the point with President Trump's obvious mental illness. Why are people so naively suggesting the man has simple moral issues or is corrupt. He is PROFOUNDLY MENTALLY ILL--SAY IT OUT LOUD! Foget asking for his physical health records--has he been evaluated in the past by a psychiatrist? Probably not but irregqrdless if those records could ever been found, the giant neon fact is the man is unstable, uneducated, and very, very dangerous. That Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans would allow a profoundly dangerous mentally ill person to hold the reins of power simply so they can push there gun, abortion and federal judgesip agenda is unconscionable. History will never forget or forgive the people who helped Trump and the RP ruin the greatest democracy in history.
4
He definitely was not sent to us by forces from above. I can't imagine the forces from above apologizing for this blunder.
He was given to us by the NRA and the antiquated Electoral College which have to be eliminated in this day and age.
3
the bzzzz of a plague of mosquitoes in northern Maine in mid summer is preferable to listening to him speaking in front of the chopper
3
Can we get rid of the photographs of DT that accompany every article - please replace them with kittens or puppies. Or normal humans. My favorite is a Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation billboard with workers holding puppies.
8
Trump's most recent expression of his grandiosity, edging into religious tones is just a "normal" marker onlong his path of self-delusion. In that, his flogging the NRA's mental illness trope has a special irony.
But, while he can "plead insanity" to excuse his destructiveness, the deeper sin is that created by the people who see it, know it, have the power to stop it, but corruptively use it, Mitch McConnell topping that list, to keep their desperate grip on power, are the truly, mostly deeply flawed sinners.
3
The sad thing is there ARE people who actually believe he was sent by their god to do their bidding: evangelicals. He is obviously beginning to believe it too. We do need a wall, to separate church and state once and for all.
5
The indications are that Trump is really scraping the bottom of the barrel for his next distraction. If this is correct, look forward to ever more antic lunacy in the future. Perhaps The Chosen One can sell Alaska back to Russia and boast about what a great sale price he got over the 1866 purchase price of Seward's Folly.
Sadly, the President of the United States has become progressively more & more unhinged. Even more sadly, the 25th Amendment won't be triggered by his henchmen and minions. We're stuck with him until we vote him out of office.
3
You got it wrong, Gail. He said 'I am the CHOSIN one, ' not chosen one. He was referring to the Oct 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War, where he was critically wounded in his bone spurs.
3
I keep waiting for someone - especially on the right - to acknowledge something: If he is the 'chosen one', wasn't Obama the 'chosen one' before him, and W the 'chosen one' before him, and Clinton before him, and so on?
4
For the last ten years, the Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress. But they still blame the Democrats for not fixing our disastrous immigration problem. There is a pretty easy fix, make the E-Verify Program mandatory with criminal sanctions for any employer who hires illegal aliens. Without jobs, the vast majority of illegals would not come here,. But the President and the Republican Congress refuses to make E-Verify mandatory.
3
I'm hoping that, after the 2020 presidential election, our long national nightmare will be over.
2
At long last we have a “mental illness President.” I pray he brings this important issue the attention it deserves, if mostly as a cautionary tale.
3
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
And if we all exercise our right to vote in 2020, we can make him a sordid, cautionary footnote in American history.
Remember when Smokey Bear stated, “only *you* can prevent forest fires?” Think of voting in those terms: only *you* can prevent the erosion of democracy and constitutional rights being waged by this administration. No excuses. It's that important.
Vote!
1
Is it just me or do others hear Randy Newman's "Political Science" playing in the background every time Trump speaks?
"They all hate us anyhow..."
What if Trump held an "impromptu" news conference and NOBODY CAME? Now that would be a miracle.
1
Just remember: "It's not the mouth that is shooting off gibberish and sowing confusion. It's the person moving the mouth."
1
THE BEATLES are more popular than Jesus - John Lennon.
1
Trump is careening faster and farther around the bend each week he is in office. All he is doing each day is producing his own "reality" show, where he casts himself as the star. To him, being President of the United States is just another opportunity to produce a TV mini-series, with a new upending, disturbing episode each day.
Unfortunately for us, the rest of the world and the planet, Donald J. Trump long ago zoomed past his level of competence. But his gargantuan, insatiable ego has kept him going day and night like the Energizer Bunny beating his own drum, living in his own fantasy world, frenetically seeking media attention, and entertaining his niche base in the hinterlands and on Fox's alternative news network.
Apparently, the pressure to ratchet up the outrage and come up with something shocking, provocative, and exciting each day is taking a toll on Mr. Trump, as Gail's column documents. His synapses are misfiring, and his ego has ballooned out of control into delusions of grandeur.
Trump's behavior is increasingly bizarre, and he is willing to go to the mat or maybe threaten war with Denmark, whose Prime Minister dared to call his absurd Greenland New Deal "absurd."
How do we pull the plug on Trump's presidential mini-series before he pulls the plug on our country? This is serious, and we are all headed for disaster engineered by a madman.
Can it get any worse? You betcha!
2
Here's a good ploy for those of us with the Derangement Syndrome. Think of someone you know--c'mon, we all know somebody with terminal narcissism--and think about how you deal with them. That crashing bore you just don't invite to the party. Deal like that.
What makes it difficult, of course, is that this is the guy we elected Pres. That elicits outrage. Understandable. But it in a little over a year, he'll be sloughed off like Drunk Uncle.
Then we'll just have to see if the guy, out there in disgrace and divorced by an immigrant, still spends money on full-page ads in the Failing New York Times. And what will those ads say? "I Am the Chosen One"?
Trump is so far from 'godly' it is laughable. And I agree with a reader today from MA in that I wish the White House press corps would stop asking him questions. Just gives him more air time for more falsehoods, lies and crazy ideas, i.e. Greenland.
"Take your pick, people. You can accept the idea that he was sent to us by forces from above, or you can pray that he’ll have to go away in 2020..."
as usual your convenience frames the choices you allow us...truth is, (you could look it up), trump was sent by you, the media and, alas, those cadres of the declining democratic party (though warned by the old line) who failed to see his potential for victory AND the shambles that would follow as trumprage took over the national bicker (even in hollywood, where gossip about movies and stars day each day as trump moves into his key light)...clearing the way for the emergence of subversive political, media (nyt's own stated commitment to advocacy goes way past lenin's best hopes) and academic elements, their anti-american voices now heard in the halls of the congress.
thank's for your contribution.
1
Update on an old joke:
What’s the difference between God and trump?
God doesn't think he’s trump
( and exhales a big “whew” in the process)
5
Our Only President has declared that "mental health" is a huge problem in this country and is sufficient reason to do even virtually unthinkable things like taking away someone's gun.
Is it sufficient reason to remove a president? This guy is clearly nuts, and nuts are dangerous to themselves and everyone else. He says so himself, doesn't he?
3
The only miracle is that Donald Trump, a person without a brain, a spine and a soul was elected president of the United States, albeit by a slim 77,00 vote electoral college margin. What's not a miracle is that Donald Trump is exponentially worse than imagined.
3
He's right; we're building new walls all the time - but they're in new subdivisions in some anonymous state in this country.
You can even buy one is you want to. (and have the small change)
Too bad donald couldn't have shared his thoughts of blasphemy for political gain with the late John Lennon.
I'd give a cup of coffee for a chance to listen to John explain to donald how declaring the Beatles "more popular than God" worked out for not only John but the Beatles as well.
It probably took a whole skyscraper full of "Mad Men" to fix that gaff. It's always seemed like blasphemy could put almost anyone on "thin ice" worldwide. I know one thing. All my religious friends are not happy about all this.
3
The 25th Amendment requires a mutiny of his Cabinet, and that is most unlikely to happen, but a severe physical illness, accident or incident would surely mean that he would be hospitalised until he was fit again to undertake his duties and the Vice-President would take over as, for example, happened when Reagan was shot. Crucially this would happen for his own good, whether or not the President was in a fit state to agree to hospitalisation. Mental illness is as debilitating as a physical illness and if severe enough means that the sufferer needs hospitalisation for his own good.
9
We need to consider the greater import of his pronouncement. The (arguably) most anticipated event of the last 2,000 years has finally come to be: The Second Coming, in the person of Donald J. Trump!
And as is the case with such things, it has failed spectacularly to live up to its hype.
3
People have to start taking Trump seriously. He is a master of distraction. Every day he says something outrageous to distract people from the real calamities taking place, like putting immigrants in permanent detention.
This man is deranged evil Bond Villain, and he is going to absolutely destroy this country, one step at a time.
And, trust me, that is NOT BY ACCIDENT!
8
“(They) can’t treat the United States of America the way they treated us under President Obama.”
This, unfortunately, is true.
8
Trump and his minions have helped me understand that "middle earth" actually exists. It is populated by those who have no understanding of how this country has been robbed by illogical statements and fascism. The results of 2020 will either confirm or deny that.
3
What a joke. What a sad, sad joke this period in history is.
15
Dear Gail, It's hard to be funny about Donald Trump. That's because he's funny, not in the "Funny Ha Ha" sense but in the "Funny Peculiar"sense. In fact, he's beyond "Funny Peculiar": he's "Oddly Scary".
7
This would be very funny, if it wasn't actually real. When he is firmly rejected beyond electoral college reach, he will no doubt refuse to leave the White House.
3
"“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
The President is right in saying so.
9
"We have great mental illness."
Check.
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
Double-check, and thank god, and may there never, ever be another, or even close.
15
Louis Black said from the day this clown was sworn in that "you can't make this stuff up." If his family had any respect for him, they would get him into mental health treatment before it's too late. The Strangelovian incidents manifest daily. Greenland is but a prelude to other bizarre ideas. Buying the Isle of Man; selling Puerto Rico to Russia; passenger service to a planned community on the moon.
It's no longer just a joke. A madman is at the controls.
20
Pop was a Baptist preacher, and one of his preacher pals used to say, "If you want to know what the Good Lord thinks about money, just look at who he gives it to."
Amen.
9
It may well be that Trump has been sent to us by God, but since He is unknowable, we don't know His reasoning for DJT's presence among us. I have been thinking that Trump is like the Biblical flood or the firestorm that incinerated Sodom and Gomorrah to punish mankind's wickedness. Perhaps the Almighty has been so frustrated with our cruelty to our fellow men and women and our rape of His creation of earth when we were told to be its guardian, that he has sent Donald the Destroyer as the Angel of Death to wipe this planet clean and create a better species the next time around?
5
Everything Trump says and does comes from his narcissism. He has no core principles, no genuine beliefs, no opinions beyond his self absorption, his greed, his fragile ego. He truly has arrested development- got stuck in late childhood/early adolescence. He is sad specimen of human and a clear danger to our nation and the world. The GOP enablers are actually worse because they recognize his dangerous actions but are too cowardly, too worried about 2020 elections to stand up to Trump. I am daily reminded of 1950s typing class exercise --"now is the time for good men (people) to come to the aid of their country."
17
This stuff isn't funny anymore. It'd be mostly sad and pathetic, if Trump weren't the POTUS. Instead, it's incredibly bizarre and scary -- the wreckage already done and whatever is left to come will be affecting the our society and the greater global community for decades.
This is ugly stuff. We can do better. In 2020 we'll find out it we want to do better.
Vote!
20
When Margaret Thatcher resigned 'Ding Dong the witch is dead' from The Wizard of Oz rose to second place on the music charts in the UK and remained there for weeks. This reader can't help thinking the early sixties novelty tune, 'They're coming to take me away, ha, ha! They're coming to take me away, ha, ha!' ought to be going viral on social media right now and that somewhere over the rainbow a padded cell with Trump's name on it is being prepared for his arrival.
14
I worked in adult mental health for many years. trump's "...obsession with himself as savior..." is beyond creepy. It appears to be a step closer to an all-out psychotic break. This man is frightening and dangerous in his delusions and he seems to be escalating. Who knows what he might do in that state of mind? Unfortunately, it seems there is no family member or aide who is willing/able to step up and intervene to prevent this man from going right over the edge and perhaps taking us all with him.
11
If it causes our stomachs to flop when we hear trump declare himself the chosen one, rest assured that for many millions of Americans, it sets their hearts a-flutter. This is our reckoning: a strong quorum of our democracy thrills to the words of this bloviating, misanthropic narcissist. He is the best thing that ever happened to them.
8
He has made a mockery of our system of government long enough. We are not amused.
Impeach him.
Jail him.
Take away his phone.
The United States government was not set up to be a show case for his corny reality circus.
8
The way to get rid of this guy is to either stand up to him, or to ignore him. Make him irrelevant!
6
Here's the solution to the megalomania problem:
Rename Bear's Ears National Monument to "Trump's Ears." Then it will be easy to expand it to the biggest, most incredible wild area in the country, maybe the world...no the universe.
Rename The Affordable Care Act "The Trump Healthcare System." It should be the best any country has ever had and will take care of everything, eliminate illness, end death probably.
Call the Dreamers "The Trumplets." Of course they will be happy to stay in the best country and offer their superior skills to make America great again.
Rename The United States of America.....you take it from here.
5
He verbalizes any nutball notion that flits across his brain and then gauges the reaction. Like any good entertainer, he is attuned to the reaction of the crowd.
It will be interesting how this zany period in our history is treated.
4
Why Trump’s claim he is “The Chosen One” comes as a shock to anyone is baffling to say the least. With his deep seated sense of superiority and narcissism of course it’s not a stretch to see why he is saying this.
For most informed readers of the Times this is old news. Sarah Sanders in a January 2019 interview with CBN said “I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president, that’s why he’s there.”
Both the Christian Right and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu have also claimed Trump is a modern day King Cyrus, the 6th Century Persian King who proclaimed that the Jewish exiles in Babylon could return to their homeland and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Likening Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem as God’s will and a sign of from heaven that Trump is indeed God’s instrument on earth to guide us through these troubled times.
What’s more troubling of course is the millions of Trump supporters who believe this nonsense. It’s the duty all right minded citizens to vote him out in 2020.
12
It isn't just Trump who thinks he is divine, the heads of the Catholic Church and of course our beloved Evangelicals believe so as well, there can be no doubt about that. The reason is simple, Trump is delivering on the anti abortion, anti gay, anti transgender front and they worship him for that, despite the fact their own faith tells them to beware the person who claims to be a messiah, because they could very well be the devil incarnate *sigh*. Religious leaders as a whole are complicit, while the evangelicals are open in their worship of the man, the leaders of the other churches are prominent in their silence.
6
Gail, I absolutely love your columns, they always help me to smile about our current occupant in the WH. I only want to comment on your use of the term "Jews". I know what you meant but to my ears it would have sounded better to refer to Jewish Americans since non-Americans by definition are ineligible to vote in American elections. Keep up the great work!
1
This is more evidence that Trump has a classic narcissistic personality disorder. "The word narcissism in its most fundamental sense means a tendency to self-worship."(The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists). What is scary is that this incredibly narcissistic individual is making major decisions that affect the climate, immigrants, the economy, and the rest of the world.
6
Those who do and have done great things keep quiet and let people notice. Those who do not and have not done great things talk about them . . . a lot.
The almost unbelievable insecurity of a statement like, "China has total respect for Donald Trump and for Donald Trump’s very, very large brain,” is so pathetic.
But cheer up, Folks. Trump is not trying to convince us; he's trying to convince himself; he just doesn't know it.
6
It may well be that Trump has been sent to us by God, but since He is unknowable, we don't know His reasoning for DJT's presence among us. I have been thinking that Trump is like the Biblical flood or the firestorm that incinerated Sodom and Gomorrah to punish mankind's wickedness. Perhaps the Almighty has been so frustrated with our cruelty to our fellow men and women and our rape of His creation of earth when we were told to be its guardian, that he has sent Donald the Destroyer as the Angel of Death to wipe this planet clean and create a better species the next time around?
5
Since other countries have mental illness (and video games) wouldn't his "very, very large brain" figure out the variable is the excessive number of guns???
He's God's gift? Absurd.
5
Through the Epoch Times, the newspaper of the Falun Gong, a Chinese religious cult dedicated to the destruction of the Chinese Communist government, declared that Trump is “the Chosen One” to destroy Communism in China. It seems that Mr. Trump has somehow heard this and has come to believe it. As he called himself “the Chosen One” to confront China on trade, he turned away from his audience, and looked upwards towards the sky, like a true believer.
3
If Trump is the chosen one, the criteria must have included being, white, male, born in the 1940’s, ignorant, shallow, incompetent, without a trace of empathy for anyone but himself.
4
My prayer? That there won’t be a Second Coming of donald trump.
8
Gail, if he is being biblical, then there's some good news here. Usually the chosen one does not get to the promised land
3
Beautifully put as usual, Gail. Very funny stuff.
But also ...
2
Trump veers between self-reverence and paranoia. On the one hand he's the chosen one, chosen not only by the GOP but also by the Falun Gong to defend our 401Ks from Chinese Communists and Israel from Netanyahu's female foes in the U.S. Congress. On the other hand, everyone is against him -- the media, even Fox News polls, Obama, Hillary, Denmark, Democratic economists who refuse to believe his rosy growth projections and Germans destroying their own economy -- all plotting to ruin his re-election campaign with a worldwide recession.
4
Sick. In a matter of days another Scandinavian female not buying into absurdity, Nobel prize candidate and climate activist Greta Thunberg, will arrive in New York for the 'Climate Action Summit'. The 16 year Swede will undoubtedly make Trump feel like the small, insecure and despicable person he is and he will most certainly lash out in his usual fashion. We all know where this will lead. Greta, be prepared to fend off these attacks from his holiness and the sea of ignorance he represents and remember that the entire world respects you and your cause.
8
Yes ! Indeed he is the chosen one ! God wanted Americans to experience what it feels like to live in a country where the leader calls all the shots and the rule of law applies to everyone else but to the mighty leader.
4
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
And, God willing, never will be again.
9
This column reads like the entire, lifelong psychological profile of a person suffering from delusions of grandeur. And we’re just looking at one week.
3
Great column but the column proves again this thing is mentally
sick and in dire need of help and should NOT be president!
For America, wake up republicans!
3
It's been said before, many times, probably here. It's not an emperor with no clothes - it's an emperor with no morals, no sense of right and wrong, no conscience, no soul. Half the country cries out, knowing this - but the people who have the power to shut him down refuse to listen. What is it going to take?
8
What hasn't been addressed (at least directly) and must be is the fact that Trump is emotionally unstable and suffers from a mental disorder that threatens our nation and its founding principles as well as its survival, e.g., climate change.
Narcissism, delusion, utter contempt for the truth and the willingness to act impulsively according to his worst instincts, however destructive, solely to assure himself that he is the Chosen One with the biggest brain, crowds, etc., are more than deeply disturbing, they present an existential threat to this nation and its standing in the world--all the more so given his access to the nuclear "button".
7
Perhaps more than any other event in Donald Trump‘s presidency, this one has shown the mental instability of the current occupant of the Oval Office like no other.
We need to ask seriously whether this man is fit to continue occupying the office of the presidency. While these cowardly Republicans in Congress who feel that they can pass their agendas through Donald Trump have remained silent, there are those of us who refuse to remain silent in the face of this outrage.
The truth is we may be witnessing a president who is suffering from serious mental illness, and while no one feels happy about this possible affliction that the president sustains, it is nevertheless time to do something about this problem before it becomes one that we will regret for the rest of our lives.
14
@RD: There is no need to “ask seriously” if Trump is fit for the Presidency. It’s been obvious for a very long time that he is not. But the billionaire owners of the GOP still find him useful in promoting the dismemberment of government and rallying the 45 percent of voters glued to Fox, Trump tweets, Hannity & Limbaugh, and alternative facts.
5
In at least some interpretations of Christian eschatology, the Beast is the inversion of Christ, put forward by Satan to beguile the people, including many who believe they are worshiping Christ when they worship the Beast. Further, the Beast will be proclaimed by many who claim to speak in Christ's name but are in reality, as Christ Himself called them, ravening wolves.
When I look at Trump's actions and consider how many self-professed Christians and evangelical preachers seem in thrall to him, all I can think is that this interpretation of eschatology might be correct. Maybe these are the end times. All things are possible.
2
I have no doubt that Trump is a malignant narcissist. However, one wonders if this is part of his general strategy to hold onto power. Rather than the art of the deal, he specializes in the art of distraction. We constantly focus on his megalomanic talking points and tend to lose sight of his absolutely horrible policies and apparent self-dealing corruption.
I hope whoever opposes him in the election hammers home his complete incompetence, repeatedly and with specific examples so voters can see what he has actually accomplished: nothing constructive.
12
Where are the Republicans who have a spine and, presumably, possess a sense of duty to our country? If you exist, please say something about the ridiculous quest to buy Greenland, and Trump’s obnoxious reaction to the Danish Prime Minister’s reasoned response.
Republicans, your silence is deafening.
11
Every aspect of our society, whether it be education, religion, politics, etc. has been significantly diminished by a thirst for entertainment. It’s largely why we must contend with the rants of the current occupant of the White House.
I will consider it fitting when Donald Trump is consigned, for the balance of his life, to being publicly mocked as a disgrace wherever he goes, a living reminder to our country of what happens when a maleducated electorate falls prey to a selfish, narcissistic maleducated con man.
5
If the old adage, "Pride goeth before a fall" is true, then Donald Trump is headed for a catastrophic crash that will jolt the planet.
I am reminded of Percy Bysshe Shelley's great poem below - with a modification:
"I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Trump, The Chosen One;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Sadly, we may find ourselves buried underneath those "lone and level sands."
4
25th Amendment?
5
Hindsight is 2020!
5
My ears perked up when he used the phrase "the chosen one." Because I had just read about the Epoch Times and the Falun Gong peddling the notion that he was chosen by God.
4
Will this nightmare ever end?
6
So he canceled a state visit because he felt dissed by the prime minister. If we dis him here in Ohio, will he stay away? It didn't keep him away from Dayton, even though he felt dissed by the mayor and Senator Brown. But maybe that was because they didn't speak out (in terms of respect, by the way) until he'd already made his visit. Apparently just being a Democrat talking about him is disrespectful. Unfortunately, the people of Ohio seem to be moving to the right, perhaps as a result of Stockholm syndrome from our gerrymandered legislature and congressional reps. So chances of getting the head of the state to dis him seem remote although the (Republican) guv did put forward some mild suggestions for gun safety (that our legislature will undoubtedly not take up) that might be construed as disrespectful.
4
One of my favorite BBC productions from the 70’s is “I, Claudius” which is about the later days of the Roman Empire. Lately I feel like we are living through just such a moment complete with leaders like Nero and Caligula. In one episode Caligula announces that he’s a god and kills anyone who doesn’t show him enough reverence. The entire program is witty and very entertaining- it’s not so funny in real life.
7
"Trump envisions a future in which all Americans will appreciate how much he’s suffered for their salvation."
OK, I give in.
Thank you, Mr. President, for actually spending a weekend or two at the White House rather than taking our jet to one of your golf courses. You may remember that terrible time of your personal, and very, very great, sacrifice. It was during the shutdown you caused, and it ruined your Christmas trip to Mar a Lardo. You complained, but probably less than the federal employees who were going without paychecks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/us/politics/white-house-government-shutdown.html
13
Another tiresome column. The planet is a pretty diverse place with more than 7 billion humans and plenty of plant and animal life, and yet day in and day out, this columnist and others write tirelessly about Trump. This all consuming vision of reality has grown as tiresome as Trump.
1
I know, she’s completely ignoring daisies!
Tiresome yet you read it!!
There are indeed billions of people on this planet, yet how many with the ability to affect all Americans as much as the President . Indeed this is a man who literally, not figuratively, has our lives in his hands!
So pointing out that Trump is saying things that indicate he believes he’s the “Chosen One” and retweeting a comment which says he’s thought
of like “King of Israel” (so King of the Jews?) might indicate further mental deterioration, yet writing it, as Ms Collins does, with a leavening of humor, is not at all tiresome.
You, sir, have the option of not reading any article that contains the word Trump. If you find those articles so tiresome, take that option !
2
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
That's for sure.
9
I feel for the intelligent political satirists and op-ed contributors. I think we will be able to look back at the summer of '19 and say this is when it kinda was not funny anymore. I love Ms. Collins lighthearted yet poingient and slicing observations...but its just not funny anymore. Like when you are at a party and someone says something in jest but is really embarrassing. The guy is clearly not fit for the position. Let him run some big corporation somewhere; let him feel important and liked; give him shiny objects...anything but please can we keep him from running our country! He does NOT speak for America.
12
Tragically, Trump's arrogant, disrespectful behaviour towards US allies is literally throwing them into the arms of the growing world powers. Trump is promoting the demise of the US as a world power. Don't Trump supporters understand this? Do they really like this idea? Who are the US allies now, under Trump? Instead of making America great again, Trump is destroying it. I just wish his supporters could understand this. How can they not understand this?
14
“We have great mental illness.” For once, Trump speaks the truth, if you interpret the “we” as being of the royal variety (which only seems appropriate here).
14
Trump considers the Danish prime minister's use of the word "absurd" to be an insult to the United States. He called her "nasty" for using a word that was actually totally appropriate to describe his hair brained idea. I am looking forward to seeing a political cartoon showing the words Trump has used to denigrate other countries and their leaders. I do not recall any other country's leader whining about a personal affront or insulting Trump or equating themselves with their own country. When are Republicans going to want a real grownup for president rather than this spoiled adolescent?
11
Maybe, Denmark should offer to buy Guam.... let’s see what Trump’s response would be!
Or China could make a bid for Long Island!
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
And lets make sure there never will again.
14
Why isn't Trump in jail? Does he actually have to really shoot somebody on 5th Avenue before before justice is done?
The man (and I use the term loosely) is a disgrace.
12
Yes, we need to get rid of the megalomaniac.
I wish the Democrats would consistently and constantly call him out for what he is. The words we need are close to hand, they just have to be used time and time again. If we can unthrall a tiny percentage of his worshipers, he will lose in a landslide:
"Stupid"
"Ignorant"
"Lazy"
"Liar"
"Pathetic"
and above all
"Loser"
Can anybody name one thing he's accomplished in his dreary life?
Been a good person? Two thousand lawsuits in 40 years.
Elected President? He lost by 3 million votes to the single most demonized and second most hated politician in America.
Businessman? In 45 years he's lost half of daddy's money.
He's got the thinnest skin in human history. He's verging on losing it completely. When he does, the Trump party will have to reinvent itself as something else, maybe the Republican Party will come back.
Dan Kravitz
14
In truth ...
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.”
And, I for one, hope there never again will.
9
The antics of the self-adulating Trump do make one wonder whether the antique Jewish solution to self-proclaimed chosen ones might not entirely lack merit.
It is perhaps less of a mystery why those Trump faithful who insist they are loyal to the Christian tradition are so eager to deny basic human rights, including the right to life, to those who have different opinions: that is merely the usual tradition of that Middle Eastern sect since if invaded the West.
2
Crucifixion was a Roman form of punishment, certainly not Jewish. Remember Pontius Pilate
1
Isn't it time for everyone to stop pretending that he is mentally sound? He is out of his mind, and he needs to go.
17
Jesus was a socialist, and today he would be a Democrat. He didn’t tell me this personally, I saw it on Twitter. As we all know, all “tweets” must be one hundred percent true. Right, Donald ?
Thanks, GOP. 2020: Start praying NOW.
6
What is the key difference between Jesus and Trump?
The former was the chosen one, the latter isn’t.
Jesus personally ended up on the cross. Trumps has publically crucified hundreds of his aids as incompetent and disloyal although he chose them personally.
Jesus served the others. Trump is serving his own ego.
Jesus sacrificed to protect the others. Trump sacrificed the others to protect self from any responsibility.
Trump’s claim that he is the chosen one is the biggest lie of the third millennium.
Reelecting Trump would be the proof that we weren’t even a banana republic but just going bananas...
4
I served as a Parish Nurse.
News for you. Donald J. Trump is NOT the “chosen one” and he never, ever, ever was and he never, ever will be.
How insulting to faith and reason.
5
Gail,
Can you clarify if there is a pecking order like the angelic hierarchy?
There is Trump as President and self proclaimed “chosen one”. Ted Cruz was proclaimed “the anointed one” imbued with special powers and destined to be President. This was foretold by his father the father Rafael Cruz, Minister to the stars.
Does being “chosen” trump “anointed” and are either considered a POTUS prerequisite?
1
Does Mitt Romney have nothing to say about Captain Queeg? His senate seat is secure for another five years and three months. It shouldn’t all be on “The Mooch” to call out the insanity. Surely Susan Collins could say she’s “concerned” and then not do anything about it, as always.
8
Just the thought that he was sent here by forces from above is enough to convince us all to become atheists!
6
If anyone called themselves the "chosen one" family members and others would have him examined for mental illness. He is clearly insane. We need to use the 25th amendment because he is not fit to serve.
6
“One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don't go into government.”
–– Donald Trump
3
Another witty and nuanced takedown of his highness and his 'delusions of divinity.' Ms. Collins nails it every time. Brava.
3
As my mother would say, "He's a couple of peaches short of a peck." How can people not see what he is doing. He is long on blame and short on shame. He is making America into a fool's paradise and never accepting any responsibility for his actions. Please vote for full pecks only.
7
I totally believe God must be a conservative to have anointed Trump as president to be a constant irritant to Gale.
1
@Jerry Davenport God is a liberal and gave us Gale to help us get through hades with some humor and to point out the harm of our electoral college system.
2
It might be a mystery why the US chose the "chosen one" when they really needed an American President who could protect and uphold the tradition of greatness that had been being built, but such was their choice, with which they must now live a little longer.
Meanwhile, while the commitment to reason of the founding fathers of the US must be preferred, the antics of Trump do make one wonder whether the antique Jewish solution to self-proclaimed chosen ones might not entirely lack merit after all.
3
Does anyone remember when Christians destroyed their Beatles records after John Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus? My, how times have changed!
5
If the only way to get rid of Trump is for him to ascend into heaven, then I say unto him: Please do it.
5
There is a parallelism between that quote and when Jesus died. First at all, Christians for long time accused and punished Jews for no recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and for not have chosen him over the other zealot during the trial. Second the inscription INRI or Jesus king of the Jews during his crucifixion. Both elements are in that quote. First when trump argued that American Jews are dishonest, and second, when that guy call him king of Israel. The other label the chosen, I think is more like messianism. In other words i think that the author of that quote is calling trump the modern messiah of Israel rewriting the Christian story in more modern terms.
Trump missed his calling as a televangelist.
4
As a person with interest in how cults and how cult leaders operate on their followers, I welcome more analysis on how Trump’s delusional narcissm and the adoration he recieves from his base is analagous to a cult.
Is Trump’s messianic disorder in line with men like Jim Jones, David Koresh, L. Ron Hubbard/David Miscavage & the like?
2
Personally I think he has had a few to many rides on the crazy train.
3
This column should be the first item submitted as evidence in the 25th Amendment discussion. Good job, Gail
6
What can you say? Donald Trump hasn't seen left field in years! May the force be with us.
1
“And we have great mental illness.” Best line of the entire article, Trump says it all himself.
3
There's nothing more beautiful than basking in the glow of those in power who wear the badge of victimhood.
1
Trump is, indeed "Godly", but in a very blasphemous way.
1
The one thing I would dispute is that “the nation is still reeling from that tragic weekend of mass shooting.” I think the nation is so numb from relentless mass shootings that it can’t reel anymore.
2
The “chosen one” schtik isn’t new. Remember, “I alone can fix it”. His narcissistic personality disorder knows no limits. I think it is in fact the source of his power over his diminishing authoritarian craving base.
4
Donald Trump talking about Jews. Even your average barely educated American should be able to see the parallel with a certain German historical figure. The comparison has always seemed obvious, but far fetched. Getting less far fetched all the time.
1
With Trump the phrase, "less is more," is never going to be true. With this president, less is really less. We can even count some of the ways: he is thoughtless, clueless, tasteless, graceless, heedless, faithless, gutless, and careless (don’t be afraid to add your own).
He declares himself to be smarter than the generals, more knowledgeable than any of our national intelligence officers or secretary of state, and can readily outplay our trading partners and China into getting better deals ("trading wars are so easy"). Despite all the evidence to the contrary, he states emphatically that he is the least racist person ever to occupy the White House. No wonder he claims to be "the chosen one." The unnerving truth is that having Donald Trump as our president is like having the Tasmanian Devil do your brain surgery. There is little to no chance this will end well. Fortunately, there are strong signs that a cohesive opposition is forming to pick a candidate that can, in time, will make right what has gone wrong - God willing!
3
“I went to the hospitals ....'' Can anyone explain why they didn't keep him?
2
If we wish to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, should we allow Trump to own one?
2
Gail's comments portray reality but while reading them, I keep dreaming that this is a science-fiction story about an alternate universe where a Dementor had been elected President.
1
" the only problem is mental health" He's got THAT right - and the BIG mental health problem is HIS. Yes, it is time for the 25th Amendment - before this lunatic gets us into a real, on-our-shores shooting war that we can't come back from
3
perhaps if we impeached him it would distract this mad man
from his daily imbecilities. We must do something!
3
Gail, I usually enjoy your columns for your witty and often humorous look at current events. This time I am just saddened by what is in the Whitehouse and what our nation has become. You remind me of how truly ignorant the intellectual lightweight in the Oval really is. SAD!
1
Trump thinks the word "absurd" is nasty (poor baby got his ego pinged...by a woman no less). What do all his absurd words and ideas ("let's checkout buying Greenland") day in and day out mean to us and the rest of the world? Congress, do your job and save us from this horror show before it's too late.
2
I really do not like Trump. But should I hate the "sin" and not the "sinner?" In my analysis of the last 2 years, Trump is sick. He's undeniably losing his mind. He's saying insane things. He's not doing what president's do.
Do I blame people with illnesses for their sickness? No. I blame those that are responsible for letting the illness bloom and grow, Edelweiss-like.
The Senate is a group of greed-filled, power-hungry enablers. Although maybe the word should be encouragers that are enabling supporters of Trump's dementia. All for the goal of staying in power and further destroying our democracy, our civility, and our environment.
2020 is about kicking THESE bums out. And Trump.
3
Gail, As witty and sharp as your writing is, this piece shows that just quoting Trump verbatim is the best satire. But his increasingly bizarre and unstable behavior is making it harder to laugh.
3
Finally something DT & I agree on: "There's never been a president like President Trump!" And all I can say is thank goodness that's true & may we soon get past it.
2
Imagine if you will, that Trump was a Democrat. A thrice married philanderer that cavorted with Playmates and porn stars. Imagine if a Democratic President had taken advantage of Russian meddling in our elections. Imagine if a Democratic President installed his daughter and son-in law as top advisers in the White House. Imagine a Democratic President courting favor with Russia, North Korea, or Saudi Arabia. Imagine a Democratic President starting trade wars or denigrating our traditional allies.
If Trump were a Democrat, he would have been impeached already.
Republican tribalism, Fundamentalist Christianity, and conservative racism/xenophobia is taking us down the road to ruin. I never in my long life thought the American people would ever vote for such a charlatan. We are in deep.
4
What---WHAT--will it take for mainstream Republicans to speak the truth about this raving lunatic? He seems one step away from mandating that Americans worship him.
2
Why is it that when Kim called Trump a dotard, Trump went to visit him and said they "fell in love," yet when a woman prime minister says the idea of buying Greenland is "absurd," Trump calls her "nasty," has a hissy fit, and calls off his visit to the Queen of Denmark?
4
"He is now waffling like a breakfast special." Amazing.
2
Say what you like about the Trumpster. I say he is the best US President since... Barack Obama.
The people of the Jewish faith have been waiting on the Messiah for over 3500 years. God sends this president to fulfill the prophecy ? I don't think so. Trump is not "the chosen one", the popular vote of 2016 proved that much.
1
People like strong leaders and father figures to make them feel protected. I guess claiming to be "chosen" is a notch better than saying "Who's your Daddy."
1
I just can't laugh anymore.
2
How the corporate executives at the top of the American heap allow this lunatic to stay in power is beyond me and, de facto, as insane as he is. Why in the world do they not send the word down their political chain of command that this maniac must be separated from the nuclear codes today is beyond me? A nuclear war could really hurt their stock options.
1
You're leaving out a lot of information. The Israel Prime Minister has been helping Trump with his appeal to evangelicals, announcing that Trump is the reincarnation of a Biblical king, Cyrus the Great. Since he supposedly has the soul of a divinely favored king, he must rule the US by divine right, not by law. Cyrus was referred to as "messiah" in the Bible and so Trump can claim to be the messiah, displacing Jesus from the role. Of course the evangelicals lap it all up, and never mind that they're not even supposed to believe in reincarnation.
6
@Charlesbalpha
facts don't count , and reincarnation was in early versions of the bible a book which has seen approximately 34 different editions in its history. The version now mostly used is the King James version. Why because he changed it to suit his aims. Word of God ? more like the word of Kings and Tyrants
I do sort of agree with DJT's third statement: "there's never been a president like President Trump." Let's hope we don't get one ever again.
8
I’m disappointed. I thought when the messiah came he/she might be a wise, kindly, knowing soul. Instead I get Trump.
6
the problem, dear Gail, is not that Trump thinks that he is a Godly miracle, but that close to 63 million Americans, voters, think he is close to a Godly miracle.
12
Some evangelicals think trump is the Second Coming. But he thinks he is the First Coming,
1
In a great column such as this, my favorite comment is that he "speaks in tongues" Up until Gail pointed that out, I thought I was losing my ability to understand English.
By the way, he is correct in referring to himself as the "Chosen One". He just neglected to say that he was chosen by Putin.
14
the evangelists "advising" trump have told him that he was sent from god. and he does believe it. and they believe it too. sad...
4
It is beyond obvious at this point that this person is delusional, and his utter unfitness for the office is demonstrated every day. And yet from the Republican sycophants and enablers there is never a word of complaint or criticism. So, they're all ok with all of this? It's all so utterly insane. The remedy for this is to mobilise and vote, vote as if the future of American democracy depends upon it, because it does.
13
Do you blame God for Donald Trump? No. For the record, I blame Donald Trump, the King of Israel (as he has recently been tagged) for Donald Trump. At this point in his current incarnation, he has been most ably assisted by the Senate Majority Leader but this isn't about "Machine Gun" Mitch. Donald Trump is our constitutionally elected president. Trump is furious that our Constitution also allows people in this country to point out that he is a ham handed huckster with a hyper-inflated sense of importance. That about covers it for me.
6
Wouldn’t it have been nice if Fred Trump has said “I love you, son” to Donald even once when he was growing up? Or if his mother (not born in the US) could have wrapped her arms around him a few times when he was scared and needed reassurance? I hate to blame the parents but it appears as if they truly, epically failed.
1
The multitude of these ridiculous editorials state the obvious. Anybody with any common sense knows that Trump is out of his mind. He’s a clear danger to the United States and the world.
I think the editorials need to say that the man needs to be impeached and removed from office. If enough people read things that demand his impeachment or removal under the 25th amendment, the tide of public opinion can be swayed.
4
He may "have great mental illness" but it's effects ain't that great for either America or the rest of world.
3
If an aging member of your family displayed the erratic behavior of potus, he or she would be in the neurologists office for testing of possible brain dis function. Not used as ababy sitter for your child. But this is what is responsible for a country.
7
No doubt about it: Donald Trump is delusional. What other explanation is there for his saying, “I am the chosen one”?
For his thinking that the present gun control system is “very strong”?
For his mixing up the border problem with gun regulation?
For his phantom vision that “tremendous numbers of miles of wall” – pardon the murder of the English language – are being built “right now”?
For his treating a sovereign foreign nation as a piece of real estate up for sale?
For his portraying as bad everything good his predecessor did?
For saying that the victims of the El Paso mass shooting “love their president”?
For his belief that “China has total respect for Donald Trump and for Donald Trump’s very, very large brain” whereas the fact is that China detests him?
And so on.
I don’t want to bore the reader repeating everything Ms. Collins has said in this column to prove the point that the “man in the White House thinks he’s a miracle.” I would go a step further and say that anyone who thinks that he is a miracle or “the chosen one” is a mental patient. I have said it a few times before while commenting on earlier articles in nytimes.com. I am happy to see that a few psychiatrists also have started saying the same thing lately.
A mental patient is unfit to be the head of state of any country, let alone the most powerful country in the world. Fortunately for us, there is a constitutional provision to remove such a person from office. What are the lawmakers waiting for?
8
Having a delusional neighbor or co shopper in Walmart but having a president with the delusion that he is the chosen one and that his lies are all true is dangerous for the country and the world. Musing about wiping Afghanistan off the face of the earth is a reflection of the godlike power he thinks he has which could be quite real if Trump were to unleash nukes on an offending nation. We cannot afford the luxury to see if he is serious or delusional especially with new nukes launched in seconds which is no joking matter.
4
The man will be swept away by his swelling delusions. He will not run for a second term. As to his fantasy of third and fourth terms, he'll declare them won, had he not declined his second term.
He will further declare the nation punished by being deprived of him because of too much "nasty" from women office holders, non-Republicans, and leading journalists.
He will be Nixonesque is his two-armed farewell wave. Melawho will wear her I-really-don't-care jacket.
And so it goes.
5
Mr. Trump's assertion that we have 'great mental illness' is perfectly personified by our president. Indeed, there is none greater. And he is the Chosen One. Having been convinced of that by his evangelical supporters and 'spiritual advisor' Paula White.
After all, evangelicals are saying that the 'Lord often chooses imperfect instruments' to work His will. And you can hardly find a more imperfect instrument for the presidency than Donald Trump. After all, if Barrack Obama seemed perfectly suited for the position, the Lord had to seek someone who was imperfect to make up for that seeming perfection.
With regard to Trump's current love affair with Israel, we can thank the evangelicals and Bibi Netanyahu for the messianic thrills that Donald is feeling. He is, by his own admission, persecuted by 'enemies of the people' aka the free press who are clearly a bunch of heathens.
So Donald's petulant response to the 'nasty' Danish PM shows that Trump's imperfection means he's not willing to pick up his cross and follow that OTHER messianic figure that set the example for humility a couple of thousand years ago.
What happened to THAT guy was not nice. HE was crucified by HIS critics. Donald has no intention of letting that happen to him. This time, the Chosen One is very rich with a real army at his command...and biker gangs too. THIS Chosen One won't be depending on the better angels of anyone's nature to make that point.
6
It's increasingly impossible to discuss Trump's "diplomacy" or domestic "policies", without focusing on his malignant narcissism and his slide into dementia. He is a slave to his ignorance and megalomania. This is not a quality a sane nation should tolerate in a President.
We can all laugh at the underlying sickness demonstrated by the Greenland/Denmark foolishness. His entire presidency has been an unending SNL "cold open". But a person unable to grasp reality and control his emotions should not be allowed to control the world's largest military and nuclear arsenal.
The man is not well. Trump will be a future case study for removal via the 25th amendment. And the GOP's "keep moving, nothing to see here" sycophantic denial about Trump's unfitness for office is a case study in the death of a political party as a serious governing entity.
It would be nice if the case studies do not end in a fireball. 517 days left.
9
63 million people voted for this very crazy person. He’ll probably get re-elected yet he’s a disaster of historical proportions. What on earth is wrong with the American electorate? I thought we were an honorable, reasonable, peaceful people who sought life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He pursues just the opposite. His opposition must take off the gloves and counter his bizarre behavior and assertions. Show him to be the liar, criminal and snake oil salesman he is. Stand up to him, develop commercials that ridicule his antics. Forget the 120-point healthcare plan. Forget the gory details on tuition aid. Talk about his epic failures on immigration. Talk about the developing recession. Talk about the dire consequences of our healthcare systems and how he’s only making things work. He’s cozied up to our enemies and alienated our friends. Do we want more him?
7
After Trump is out of office the 25th amendment needs to be re-evaluated. The bar is too high If his behavior has not triggered the process for removing a mentally unfit leader.
10
These ‘impromptu news briefings,’ with yelling over the sound of helicopter noise, are not doing it. They are simply stages where he gets free campaign speech time. Trump changes answers each time, sometimes in the same sentence, or just outright lies or ignores the question. Either trump starts holding White House news briefings again where we can get direct answers to direct questions or you press should just stop reporting on, or recording, these obviously egomaniacal staged events.
6
Insanity governs the US. How could you let this happen? Does it take more than the fact that this deeply immoral and mentally unstable person became the POTUS to show that the US cannot be the greatest nation on earth?
5
@Wolfgang
You should take a closer look at U.S. electoral laws (especially the Electoral College) and the roles of Citizen's United, Facebook and Russia to answer that for yourself.
And just for the record.
The MAJORITY of Americans didn't vote for Donald Trump.
1
That, whatever it was today, was the most bizarre and at the same time disgusting display of Trump’s mental condition to date. Why is congress not in session protecting what’s left of this country?
5
Every week for the past 100 there have been new instances of bizarre and aberrant behavior by Trump. We have run out of outrages and descriptions of the obnoxious and unacceptable actions.
The Denmark/Greenland fiasco is more than embarrassing, it is evidence of mental illness. Open up an asylum just for him and save the nation.
4
I once considered what it would take for evangelicals to abandon Trump. By my count and without their apparent objection, he was a very familiar acquaintance of sins against all but three of the commandments: murder, honor your parents (let's give him the benefit of the doubt) and no false gods.
Now we can make that all but two of the commandments. Is murder the only tripwire?
1
@Larry He didn't honor his parents (certainly not his Father, Fred) because he colluded (oh, that word!) with his siblings to steal tens of millions of dollars from his father's estate.
1
“Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.” Frederich Schiller
7
Tyrants often go mad and think of themselves as God. Not unusual here with Trump.
4
Either we are all losing a sense of humor OR the POTUS needs to be in one of the mental institutions he wants to renovate or build anew pronto.
3
Trump lies so often that it is hard to tell when he is not lying. Even when we try it is hard to tell his lie from a small exaggeration. And for some people the ability to tell the difference might be gone. The media has an obligation to deal with facts and expose lies. But if every incorrect statement Trump makes is followed by a reporter stating that his statement is a lie, news broadcast would double in time.
So... a simpler solution.
In the video tapings of every Trump talk there will be a smallish red sign in the corner that reds "NOT TRUE" whenever his words are a lie or serious exaggeration. And in the audio recording there will be inserted two short bursts of a horn blowing. This way, as we listen or watch him we will be constantly reminded about the frequency of his lies.t
2
Republicans have a greater sense of wardrobe than Democrats. Afterall, they can actually see DJ Trump wearing clothes. Democrats just see him naked.
The real question is how history books will see him.
2
I am among those literally praying every day for the removal of Trump from the oval office.
6
@Boomer
You might want to up the ante on that since it's now being reported Trump sees himself being in office longer than the usual two terms.
Apparently his former lawyer Michael Cohen was right to say his biggest fear was that there would be no peaceful transition if Trump wasn't reelected.
2
Funny, irreverent, but scary on-point.
This very ill president has a god-complex!
How quaint!
Can we (yawn) replace him already?
1
To be fair, the president does not ALWAYS spout nonsense. "There's never been a president like Donald Trump." Too true.
2
"The Second Coming of God..." as he retweeted about himself. No wonder Pence gazes upon Trump in such rapt adoration.
3
It was not a joke. Not even sort of.
He believes this, and so do his True Believer evangelical "christian" followers.
I find that terrifying.
6
If President Trump miraculously saw his likeness appear on his toast tomorrow morning, would anyone in his party tell him it is just burnt?
The silence is deafening...
3
There has never been a President like Donald Trump. I pray that there is never again a President like Donald Trump.
4
I am begging the Trump family to get him some professional help for his sake, their sake, and most importantly, the sake of this country.
3
“And we have great mental illness.” Another example of referring to himself in the third person.
3
“They way they treated us under Obama...”. I seem to recall massive crowds all over the world cheering and waving American flags whenever Obama visited.
3
Please, please, give the man the credit he is due. When President Donald Trump says “There’s never been a president like President Trump.” he is absolutely correct. There never has been a president like Donald Trump, unless we go back forty years to Idi Amin.
2
I prayed to Donald(the Chosen One), for the Mets to come back in the 9th inning and it worked. Tonight I’ll try Jesus as a control test.
1
My wife’s immediate response was, “Wouldn’t it be something if this were the first president to leave office in a strait jacket?” Yes. Yes it would.
6
Ms. Collins’ mention of NPD does not go far enough. It is very clear that our president has severe mentally illness and is demonstrating a total break from reality. He is becoming and more dangerous every day. Why is this not being talked about with more urgency by reporters in stories like this that sum up the quickly escalating “crazy” of this man every week?
4
If members of the cabinet had any sense or spine, they would be discussing the invocation of the 25th Amendment at this moment. The POTUS just looked skyward and declared himself the Chosen One. This may appear fun and kooky, but it's not wise to have a mentally ill person in charge of a nuclear arsenal.
5
It’s the preposition “under” that needs to be explored. The president serves America. America is not under the president.
3
I keep wondering if we are witnessing a person suffering with some sort of new, narcissistic-dementia syndrome.
Nothing else makes sense to me.
5
All this proves is God has one heck of a sense of humor. God help us if Trump gets re-elected.
No.
He was not making a joke.
He has no sense of humor.
4
Conman Trump -
A small little man supported by small little people - they deserve each other.
However the rest of us and our country deserves much much better.
VOTE
4
There are no grown ups in the White House. It makes me so sad.
4
Truth is our govt is now out of order. Trump is clearly insane. Pompus is awaiting his 'rapture' whatever that is. The Senate is clearly in Putin's hands. Trump's cabinet is useless and corrupt to boot. Who can now trust our intelligence community which leaves us open to anything our enemies chose to throw at us.
So, it is up to Speaker Pelosi and her team to make sure this is all disclosed and on TV daily. But, they are on vacation. The climate won't wait for them. The D's are not stressing the danger but simply responding to Trump's insults.
6
Watch The Family on Netflix. The cabal behind the National Prayer Breakfast actually do think he’s the Chosen One. A heady endorsement! It then logically follows that any criticism is blasphemy.
4
“The gun doesn’t pull the trigger, a person does. And we have great mental illness.”
OK, that one takes the cake. Every time I hear our so-called “president” speak I’m reminded of how great our mental illness is. The greatest.
5
Look, a crazy tyrant can only succeed if he has a sufficient number of true believers behind him. Trump did have just enough of them in 2016 to pull off one of the greatest political hoaxes of all time but now, those numbers seem to be dwindling so it is not surprising that Trump is resorting to the God card predicting world catyclysm if he is not re-elected.
3
"The man in the White House thinks he’s a miracle."
Rule #1: The Boss (Trump) is always right.
Rule #2: If the Boss (Trump) is wrong, see Rule #1
--------------------------------------------------------------
I hope that the nation can learn from Boss Trump's insanity.
After Trump leaves, we can find ways to strengthen democracy.
I hope that the NY Times will discuss a new democracy wave.
(See the "Democracy" song of Leonard Cohen (1992)).
"Democracy is coming to the USA"
-------------------------------------------
3
Trump,
1.) Has narcissistic personality disorder.
2.) Is a sociopath.
3.) Has convincing signs of dementia (I've lived through it with my mother).
These traits, combined with the position he holds and those he has recruited, are leading to local, regional, national and international chaos.
Please, GOP, invoke the 25th for the good of us all, including our international allies.
7
"There's never been a president like Donald Trump.'
Well, there's a statement that I can agree with whole-heartedly. We've never had a president who's told 12,000+ lies.
We've never had a president who has had nearly all of his Cabinet resign and is working with Acting Cabinet heads because he can't get replacement nominees confirmed.
We've never had a president who has put us trillions of dollars in debt and is looking to increase that further.
We've never had a president who has trashed our international reputation so badly that there are balloons of him in a diaper, clutching a cellphone, waiting to be deployed wherever he goes.
We've never had a president who works so little and does virtually nothing.
We've never had a president who has managed to offend nearly every constituency across the board, other than his 'base', who don't represent enough votes to re-elect him.
I could go on, but why bother?
3
Alas, my nickname for the president, "King Minus" isn't grand enough for "the chosen one". I can't even laugh. This is no laughing matter.
2
so now he's playing a televangelist? Maybe he is setting himself up for his next job after being voted out of office.
3
Loved the column, but the final thought? Trump was more likely inflicted upon us from "below" rather than sent from "above".
2
"we have great mental health" - so much so that 40
Too bad that there's no conversion into Hindu(ism); otherwise, the Chosen One could have declared himself an avataar and be totally accepted by Mr. Modi's government and his people.
2
Please, continuing to characterize Trump's inane proposals as "jokes" is dangerous. I feel for Ms Collins having to produce humor satire in an historic moment when this President really isn't funny at all. This whole situation is like when someone uses abusive language and then when he/she is called on it, quickly states that "Can't you take a joke? Where's your sense of humor?" We have to stop covering for this man's detachment from normalcy. He is not well, he is incompetent, he is not healthy, he is ignorant. He is an existential threat to these Untied States, and to the world. Imagine any other president claiming they were chosen by God, or imagine a CEO or a boss in your office announcing that he/she is impressed with being called the King of the Jews by a fringe group and then states that he is the chosen one. How long, really, how long do you really, really think that person would be remain in the position without a serious threat to their employment. Please stop reporting Trump's insanity as a joke. This is a dangerous moment in our history.
4
So now Trump is attempting to resurrect the "Divine Right of Kings"? How medieval.
3
The most powerful person in the US is the one who manages his medication.
4
“There’s never been a president like President Trump.” Finally a Trump statement with which I can agree.
4
In the 1850s, Christian churches twisted themselves into pretzels to justify slavery. Today they twist themselves into pretzels to outlaw abortion. All other moral norms fall before their single minded determination to end abortion.
Every immoral choice DT makes can be laid at the feet on the moral less evangelical churches of the United States.
What does Jesus think of the horror humans have wroth of his teachings?
8
"Jesus wept"
1
If having a god complex and similar self-delusions aren't covered under the 25th Amendment, they should be.
7
Let's hope he is the chosen one in 2020. We need to keep making America great.
Trump’s bizarre, unhinged White House driveway rant yesterday was scary. Referring to himself as the “chosen one” and glancing upwards at the sky was a new low even for him. I believe we are in plain view of a person who has serious mental health issues and the stuff of 25th amendment consideration.
7
I read somewhere ,in times past that Evangelists (some ) believe that Trump is indeed the second Messiah ..
But if you read your Bible (which I don't as a habit ) the line goes that before the second Messiah comes to save the day that a false Messiah will precede him . the son of Satan , a great battle will ensue and the true second Messiah will prevail .
Maybe the Crazy Evangelist mob (within Evangelism ) believe that Obama was the son of Satan ,otherwise their clearly deluded rationale is ,to put it mildly ,somewhat suspect ..
3
Well,he did say all the mental institutions closed down. I guess he knows this by firsthand experience.
2
Funny, but three million more voters chose Hillary.
5
Oh, how I wish our allies would turn against him. Literally, turn their backs to him, ignore him completely when he goes to this next G7. Do not listen to his word salads. Do not give him any kind of civility. If he says something completely inappropriate they should point and laugh.
It's clear that Republicans will not protect us from him. It's time for our allies to be honest and strong and ignore 'the chosen one'. The world is at stake. He needs to know he has no allies except Mr. Putin, Mr. Kim and all the other wannabe dictators. America needs a hard knock to the head so we can come to our senses and get rid of this man who, I think, is not sane.
4
The truly scary thing is that this works for sooooo many people
3
Apparently the brain of Albert Einstein weighed less than the brain of a person of average intelligence, although apparently no one knows exactly what significance brain size might have. But if Trump the Imposter wants to claim that he has a very, very large brain, who am I to judge?
1
@Miriam -- Neanderthals had quite large brains. Didn't stop them from being wiped out by a species that was capable of evolving further, though.
2
From landlord to Lord - a small step for a man...
2
This would be funny if it wasn't so terrifyingly real.
1
Thinks? When did THAT start?
3
“Nobody has been tougher on Russia than Donald Trump.”
“Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump.”
Who is this Nobody person? Can we elect him or her President? Can't be worse than who we've got...
6
The whole world is watching. Supporters of this sick man will be held accountable. Today action by WE THE PEOPLE is called for.
4
Maybe it is time to stop reporting his every rant? That's exactly his objective. There are more important things to cover, I'm certain.
2
Maybe Trump really is the chosen one.
But chosen for what? To expose the hypocrisy of the modern evangelical community or the greed and depravity of the modern Republican Party or the damage done by the hyper partisan and willfully deceptive network known as Fox News?
After all, the Lord does work in mysterious ways.
5
When is he going to be carted away? Truly he is a danger to everyone. He is completely unhinged--and it's escalating beyond belief.
5
“But we are going to be filling in some of the loopholes, as we call them, at the border and will be speaking about it at the border. It would be really nice if the Democrats would indeed fix the loopholes because it would be really nice. But despite that, I want to thank Mexico. They have 26,000 soldiers at our border and they’re really stopping people from coming in. So what happens is with background checks, we’re dealing with Democrats, we’re dealing with Republicans. …”
This is what psychiatrists call "a word salad"--"unintelligible, extremely disorganized speech or writing manifested as a symptom of a mental disorder (such as schizophrenia)."
Plus, can anyone really follow Trump's decision-making process? Exhibit A after 3 mass shootings in 1 week: Gonna have background checks so the people who shouldn't have guns can't buy them. Phone rings. "Wayne, how are you?" Hangs up phone. Not gonna have background checks or stop the purchase of automatic weapons. Why? So the people who shouldn't have guns can buy them. Follow the logic?
Suppose President Obama or Hillary Clinton talked like this and made muddle-headed, bewildering decisions like Trump. And we don't think Mitch McConnell and the GOP would be demanding a Democratic president taking and acting this way would be asked to resign, be impeached, or perhaps committed to a psychiatric hospital??
The miracle is Trump is allowed to remain POTUS, no matter what! Truly mind-boggling & amazing. Not all miracles are +
4
@PB. This president cannot construct a full sentence. He cannot speak without a teleprompter. He is unable to stay on topic. From day one he has been in over his head dancing to the tunes of his puppet master.
His rhetoric makes me speechless.
2
When you are at a Comedy Club and the comedian is saying wildly outrages things for laughs it's funny.
But when a president of the United States is publicly saying the things in your editorial it is not funny...and YES it's very "creepy".
'Is there a doctor in the House?'
1
Trump probably got his idea to refer to himself as the "chosen one" from a recent Netflix docuseries where he is referred to that way. Watch the last installment of "The Family." The series attempts to explain how the religious right voted for Trump and continue to support him. He is the "imperfect vessel doing God's work," according to the docuseries. And he also knew that it would drive the rest of the country bananas. But he may actually believe it.
2
Trump's got Gail spinning, and the rest of the media.
There's a cartoon out there somewhere picturing Trump playing a "media" fiddle. So apt.
In the meantime, the media continues to "interpret" for us what's in Trump's head, "sort of."
The Republican Party constantly accused President Obama of acting like a dictator during his eight years in office. Now we have a President who claims the second amendment allows him to "do anything I want", a President who looks to the heavens and anoints himself as the "chosen one", and has openly "joked" about ruling past the 8 years the law provides. He has been quite clear about the admiration he has for dictators like Putin, Kim, and various anti-democratic regimes in the middle east. We have never had a President who so openly flirts with concepts that are so opposite of our Democratic values.
6
Maybe "the chosen one" is onto something. While he is uniformly seen as a hilarious moron in the United States, he has nearly 100% praise in the Holy Land.
Someone help us out here, how do we account for this?
1
This often feels like a very dark cartoon we are living through or, perhaps one of those surrealistic novels. But cartoon characters pop up after the boulder falls on them. Our response will not be so effortless. I'm holding my breath, waiting to vote.
3
There's certainly no disputing the truth of the third assertion of his that's listed at the end of the article.
And I thank God that "there's never been a president like" him.
Counting the days to Inauguration 2021, when I hope he will be summarily evicted from the White House, and not attempt to call troops to stop whoever has "stolen the election" from him from being sworn in.
And I don't care what "reasons" people might spout to the contrary, anyone who doesn't vote for whatever candidate the Democrats ultimately nominate will be responsible if he is re-elected.
6
Trump’s “chopper talks” (in place of press conferences, when’s the last time he did one of those?) are aptly named: his mangled use of language represents a systematic and intentional degradation of all of us, of the bonds that unite us, of family and home. Of truth, most of all. Mahatma Gandhi understood how threatening Truth was to tyrants; apparently so does Trump.
3
Trump's relationship with divinity is, how shall I say this, ... confused. That probably explains why Evangelicals like him so much. It doesn't have to make any sense. The logic, and I use the word generously, goes like this: All humans are divine creations of God. Ergo, their interpretations of God's word and intent are therefore also divine. Your freewill is a representation of God's will. However you personally choose to interpret the Bible is right.
I'm not making this up. This is how the prosperity gospel not only exists but thrives. People make up whatever is convenient for themselves and call it divine. That summarizes Trump's, and by extension his supporters', relationship with religion quite well.
Call me Catholic but that's not how I was taught to approach theology. The fact that I use the word "theology" when discussing religion should be telling. A systematically developed theory concerning the nature of God and religious beliefs. The Pope has to concern himself with pretty rigorous academic precedent before declaring an edict. Even the word "rabbi" means scholar. Both as teacher but also as student of scripture.
You can call Trump many things but never a scholar. I trust his opinion on divinity just about as much as I can throw him. Less actually. That goes for anyone foolish enough to buy into his rhetoric.
"Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save." Isaiah 45:20.
8
He ran on just these claims in 2015, and his followers believe him.
4
"Take your pick, people. You can accept the idea that he was sent to us by forces from above, or you can pray that he’ll have to go away in 2020. But remember, he’s always watching."
Pray, perhaps. But vote, absolutely.
5
With all the storms that hit DC this summer, I was hoping for a lightning bolt yesterday when he turned his head upward.
6
When I was a child (back in the stone age), I had my mouth washed out with soap for using "terrible words". "Absurd" definitely did not belong to the list of terrible words we had cataloged at home.
5
Was this Chopper Talk intended to demonstrate what "great mental illness" means?
In that case, it was a great success.
6
“(They) can’t treat the United States of America the way they treated us under President Obama.”
For once I agree with Demented Donald, although I take the words to mean something rather different. Instead of Obama's leadership, its "Try not to laugh."
Now about this Greenland thing: It does not really take a shrink to deduce that Trump has narcissistic personality disorder. Sometimes diseases are so obvious that anyone can figure it out. But now we are dealing with something new. Trump is crazy to want to buy Greenland--but what kind of crazy? This is different. Is Trump's mind deteriorating? Sometimes mental disease will first present itself when the person walks into a room and says something crazy. I remember a case where a husband out of the blue accused his wife of having an affair with his brother. Brother had been dead for 20 years. Husband went downhill rapidly after that. Trump?
4
@Mark T I know, it was disturbing on many levels. Re his aggressive nastiness with the NBC reporter: Mr Alexander was broaching a completely reasonable topic. Donald Trump mentions Biden's gaffes and ... That was as far as he could get before Trump's rage erupted. He knows perfectly well that if a reporter were allowed to speak for more than 10 seconds before being cut off, that person could rattle off dozens of bizarre gaffes DT has made (saying "oranges" for "origins" more than once in a speech), as well as outright provable lies.
I suppose it might not make any difference, but I would love to see billboards in every swing state with an endless loop of every Donald Trump gaffe and every blatant lie, the latter on a split screen with the documented proof of each falsehood, e.g. a videotape of the president of Finland saying that Trump did *not* in fact speak to him. This, to me, would have more impact than the $20 million Tom Steyer spent for his Times Square impeachment ad—in a state in which Hillary Clinton won 59.1% of the vote.
7
Straight up trade: djt, pence, mcconnel, the cabinet, the trump family, all of its debt, in exchange for Mette Frederiksen. Just as long as she agrees to fill out the remaining days of his unfortunate term. Many thanks to the fine people of Denmark and Greenland. The world is in your debt.
6
The press -- including Ms. Collins -- is trying to nail our savior Donald to the cross. But he will never cease his sermons or miracles. And remember: Even if he is defeated by a Democrat annointed by the devil, he will rise again. To haunt us in our nightmares. So saith the Trump.
1
Yes, there's much humor in these pre-flight flights of fancy, but I am also alarmed at the increasingly erratic ramblings of our egomaniac POTUS.
Good Lord folks, this is the man who has the power to launch missiles, perhaps at Iran or ... Denmark?
I suppose the bright side is that each of these unhinged performances should make his reelection less likely, but just that possibility gives me chills.
Great column, Gail. But they almost write themselves these days, don't they? Just quoting Trump verbatim is a hoot.
3
I miss the good old days, Nixon in the White House conversing with past presidents’ portraits after a few drinks seems quite pleasant right now. It was a simpler time for deranged presidential types. This is all to much.
5
To anyone for whom his behavior is not terrifying, I have no words. When is enough enough? When will someone demand that sanity be brought back to this country? Why aren't brilliant minds demanding that he be taken out of the White House in either a strait jacket or chains? Our former presidents need to come together and make a statement that our current president is severely mentally challenged and should no longer be allowed to continue to try to run this country. Offer to buy another country and then accuse the person who had a normal reaction of being "nasty?" We are living in insane times.
6
I can’t believe I’m laughing in horror, can’t believe this great satire is an actual real president of the United States or that the Media lets it slide!
Painful. But true.
Say it ain’t so Gail!
5
So Trump is a god now.
It's time for a really serious discussion about the separation of church and state.
6
Sycophants and enablers are required for a delusional leader to roll on unchallenged. The shorthand for that is the Republican party and the self centered legions of lobbyists, and the power loving minions that surround him. It's a systemic problem.
7
One can't help thinking of emperor-to-be Claudius, portrayed by Derek Jacobi, suddenly coming to the realization that Caligula has transformed into a god and groveling at his feet, thus sparing his head for another day. When Trump appoints a horse to the senate and declares war on the god Neptune, will the GOP still not invoke the 25th amendment?
4
I disagree with comments below that Trump is "losing it" or "unravelling". He's always been like this.
2
Invoke Amendment XXV of the Constitution. Or call for men in white coats bearing a straight jacket. If it was any other Head of State in the world, he would have been removed by now.
3
Whatever happens come 2020, you can bet your bottom dollar that #45 won't go calmly into the night.
3
Trump's beatific countenance and the spiritual glow emanating from his pure and contrite nature should convince any skeptic that this country's glory days are fast approaching.
Ivanka sits at the right hand of the father.
1
What about his idea to institutionalize more people with mental illness so they will not commit mass shootings?
2
Just once I’d loved to see Mr. Trump step out for one of his lawn rantings and have the press not show up.
3
I don't believe there is any up above.
I do believe Trump is out of control and losing it.
25th amendment anyone?
Please?
2
Anybody hear of the cult within Evangelicals that believe Trump was pre-ordained to be president and lead Christians into the Promised Land? They believe Trump IS the chosen one. Didn't Pence say in an interview once that Trump was meant to be president and there was something Divine about it? I guess they all told Trump that too and he actually believes it. Downright bizarre. Pence in that cult?
2
I've been disappointed with presidents in the past and have felt kind of sad that their supporters refused to see things the way that I did. But when I see this insult to the presidency and in fact humanity behave in such a depraved and pathological way (can the press stop using the word "norms?"....he is so beyond that designation and besides his followers love the idea that someone's going against "norms") for the first time in my life and I'm not young my whole view of our fellow humans has changed. That some 40% of the people who are around us day after day look at this sick aberration and think he is deserving of support depresses me beyond belief. There is a world around us that is inhabited by people I don't understand. And we don't need any more books making excuses for them.
4
It's time to start asking two simple questions:
• Is our President crazy?
• Are his supporters (crazy)?
His behavior becomes more bizarre and irrational with each passing day and has reached the point where we really need to know, as a country, the answer to at least the first question.
1
Finally, the apotheosis we've been expecting.
"... there’s that long, long history of referring to himself in the third person:
"We have great mental illness."
Exactly.
3
Trump'su unscripted remarks show more than minor confusion. That's the scary part. A man whose brain is losing normal function is a man who will mistakes. In Trump's case, those mistakes could be lethal for the rest of us.
2
Gail: ... all very amusing! But, where is the serious consideration that Trump’s recent ranting is a further sign that he is mentally unstable, mentally ill, and that congress should determine whether he is medically fit or not to continue as president.
1
He knows it was a miracle (unholy at that) that he became president. He thinks he is the Father, the Son, and is ghastly if not also an unholy Ghost. when he departs he will live on theough Cain and unAble.
When a narcissist gets on the sundown train, it's definitely time for the melatonin & antipsychotics.
1
Maybe "chosen" but certainly not by God. Could there be another power at work?
3
Well true, there’s never been a President like Donald Trump, and if we’re lucky, there’ll never be one again.
2
This is really playing out like the film, "A Face in the Crowd".
2
If Trump was chosen from on high, then the Lord truly works in very mysterious ways.
Until God makes clear why He chose such a sleazy, lazy, cruel, and amoral man, we morals must deal with the evidence before us:
Trump is making a mess of this country, with his divisiveness, his impetuousness, and his focus on what is good for him in the short term to the detriment of the long term welfare of the country. And his speech pattern indicates a man who has trouble staying focused.
There is something really wrong with the man. I believe God would want us to take advantage of the laws at hand to rein this dangerous man in.
2
I'm not one for spiritual or religious takes on the world, but how Trump came to be President does make me wonder about the possibility of a devil or an underworld. Well, at least a dark underbelly in the voting population egged on by Fox News.
1
It has been obvious that Trump has narcissistic personality disorder. But he now appears close to insane. If anyone said he was the chosen one, and that he wanted to buy Greenland, we would call a psychiatrist. Where are the Republicans with character? Are Bill Weld and Anthony Scaramucci the only ones?
3
If you watch “The Family” on Netflix, it begins to make sense where this divine right of kings idea with Trump comes from. Although watching it, I could never quite figure out what the actual “good” is in serving Jesus. It appears to simply stand for something to legitimize and consolidate power and greed.
1
I respect all who seek the truth; and I trust no one who says they have found it.
3
We know 45's narcissism and grandeur would be comedic -- if he were a stand-up comedian. As is, he's a sloppily effective autocrat with a higher calling to lead the U.S. to the lowest depths ever.
45 uses religion and its believers as a bolster for his ego, a convenience and conveyance to place him on as high and unreachable a pedestal as possible. He even uses America as a tool to promote his mania for greatness -- law, history, tradition, justice are all to be bent to serve his elevated status. Meanwhile, the country and its people are on an adjacent elevator plummeting at a rapid rate to a crash in the basement.
1
This absurd show never ends! It is so terribly disheartening. The 1st president I really remember is Jimmy Carter, a truly God-loving and humble man, who was reviled for telling the country the truth.
The contrast is so extreme that it is baffling. And then we had eight years of the Obamas being the moral compass for our country.
Sadly, the country didn't want a moral compass. They didn't want any compass. What will become of us? The institution of the Presidency and the gravitas of the best politicians is broken.
4