“Teaching, Anti-bullying Policies and Trump” was an op-ed piece in the Sunday paper in Westchester by Tony Monchinski, a local high school teacher. He states:

… the biggest issue I have with my fellow Queens native is that he’s a bully.

I have always located him in middle school as a seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck. Think of the pleasure he receives when he can act out in front of the class and say the words you are not supposed to say. Think of all the crass behaviors he exhibits.

Any of these behaviors exhibited by a student in my school would lead to disciplinary action and possible expulsion; any exhibited by a teacher would lead to an investigation, removal from the classroom, and probable termination of employment. All would violated my district’s anti-bullying policy.  

Think about it. On the one had due to his deteriorating mental necessities you would take the car keys from a parent or grandparent who displayed these behaviors. On the other hand, such behaviors would not be tolerated in the classroom.

Trump has always been this way and always will be.

“When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself , I’m basically the same.” 

Exactly.

In the book “The Toddler in Chief,” political scientist Daniel Drezner collect the over 1,000 instances in which Trump was described by those around him in terms befitting an impetuous child (Ezra Klein, “What’s Wrong with Trump?” NYT October 27, 2024, print). Klein then cites a few examples:

1. Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh described working with the President as “trying to figure out what a child wants.

2. Steve Bannon, co-conspirator in the January 6 attempt to overthrow the government said, “I’m sick of being a wet nurse for a 71-year old.”

3. James Mattis and John Kelly “often described themselves like babysitters; they made a pact to never be overseas at the same time, lest Trump do something truly deranged.”

Klein observes that under pressure he loses control of the ability to inhibit himself.

That is why he lost the debate with Harris so decisively. When he is pressured, when he is emotional, he cannot stop himself. He cannot stop himself. He can’t inhibit himself.

            The man cannot help himself. HE IS MISSING THE PART OF HIS MIND THAT TELLS HIM WHAT NOT TO SAY, WHAT NOT TO DO….. But he cannot control himself.

Exactly. Brain scans would show that the portions of the brain that would do that are missing. That is why a child psychologist should be one interviewed on the talk shows. There is the normal brain in adolescence that reflects the growing maturity of the child so that as an adult, he does know how to behave. Then there is the brain of the arrested development child who never matures into being a responsible adult. Go to a high school reunion and see if you cannot pick out the physical adult who still behaves like an immature child in middle school or high school.

For Klein, Trump’s age only makes things worse. Aging can make disinhibition worse.

The August 2020 edition of the journal Psychology and Aging was entirely devoted to research on how the ability to control our behavior appears, in many studies to decline as we get older.    

Trump rambles for even longer on stage today. It is not a sign of his continued vigor.

I think it it’s the opposite. I think his inability to stop rambling on stage is evidence that what little capacity he once had to control himself is weakening.

The Arnold Palmer incident is right out of junior high school.

Donald Trump is not cognitively fit to be president.

Unfortunately the Constitutional requirement to be at least 35 years old only applies to physical years. It never occurred to the Founding Fathers that the president should be tested for mental acuity to demonstrate the mental necessities to function as an adult. All the focus now on the age of the president disqualifying him to act as president, focuses on the wrong age in Trump’s case. He never had the mental necessities in the first place. In his administration, there were guard rails, not always successful, to ensure the immature child did not go off the rails in the first place. But now it is taken for granted there would be no such guardrails in the second administration. The more they are needed as he continues to deteriorate, the less checks and balances on his personal behavior there will be.

THE MAGA BASE   

Trump feeds off the energy of the MAGA base. He is even wistful because he knows this is his last hurrah. He will never run for president again. He would be a lame duck president from Day 1. Today, Monday, November 4, 2024, marks the end of the line for his campaign rallies. Yes, he would still make public appearances but he would not be campaigning for himself. Already the more he rambles and weaves right now, the more his audiences dwindle. They have seen the act before. They have heard his act before. They have read his tweets before.

And if he doesn’t win, the degeneration will be even worse. He will no longer be the center of attention except when he is in court and is advised by his lawyers to remain silent. Then at last peace will come to the shire. On the other hand, he could win and then all hell will break loose.

CONCLUSION

Why then should anyone vote for this immature child?

To return to Ezra Klein,

He is saying what many people want somebody to be saying. He’s saying what people are saying in private but often re not saying in public.

Trump is not an inauthentic candidate. He does not use algorithms to calculate what he is going to say. It is unlikely even knows where his mouth will take him during his rambling weave.

But there is something undeniably electric to watch someone unchained from the bundle of inhibitions the rest of us carry around.

He has no use for briefing books and position papers which he can’t read anyway.

“I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

 That same gut enables the con artist to connect with audiences in a way no other politician in the United States can do today. He is unique and it is not a talent that he can pass on to anyone. He knows what his audience wants and he knows how to exploit it. He can reaches audiences that no Republican has before and which Democrats are scrambling to retain with their more conventional candidate. If only Trump wasn’t an immature narcissistic criminal, he could be a powerful force for building a better tomorrow. But then he wouldn’t be Donald Trump.