Trump Loses His Marbles

There's not a whole lot of analysis a person can add to the week Donald Trump just delivered as the post-convention nominee of a major party except to say that it is almost a dead certainty we'll never see another candidate go this crazy again. By way of comparison, famous gaffes in the past included Gerald Ford's claim that the Soviets did not control Poland, the Dean "scream," Dan Quale correcting a child by spelling potato "potatoe," and Rick Perry forgetting the third federal department he'd eliminate. The bar for gaffes was so high that when Al Gore sighed in a debate against George W., it was considered a massive blunder. Keep these benchmarks in mind as we rewind the tape on what happened in the days following the end of the Democratic National Convention.

Another quirk that might be unique to this moment is the habit of Trump's tweets, which seem to pick up during his agitated moments. He tends to have on days and off days of tweeting, but in a typical week, he'll average about six or seven tweets a day. From July 7-13, he posted fifty tweets.  In the week starting immediately after the DNC (Friday July 29) and culminating the following Thursday, the period of time encompassing the disastrous week, he posted 105 tweets. What's more, in the midst of his serious derangement, the tweets were coming in the wee hours (beginning at 4:10am on the 1st, 3:24am on the 2nd, and 2:14am on the 3rd), making me wonder how much sleep-deprivation was a factor in his bizarre behavior.

All right, to the tape. These may not be in chronological order, and I'm not indicating the dates or including links because of the sheer volume of gaffes to document.

•  Khizr Kahn, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, called Trump out at the DNC. Trump began by attacking Kahn personally:

I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2016

• He then suggested that Kahn's wife, Ghazala, was silenced during his speech for unknown anti-muslim reasons. (It turned out she was too distraught to speak.)
• After receiving a gift of a purple heart, said it was a lot easier to get one that way. This and the Khan stuff enraged many veterans and veteran organizations. 
• Told George Stephanopoulos that Russia would not invade Ukraine and was startled when George told him they had already annexed Crimea.
• Also Stephanopoulos that the NFL had sent him a letter complaining about conflicts between presidential debates and games. The NFL had sent no such letter and announced so soon after.
• Said he'd tell his daughter that if she were sexually harassed at work, she should quit.
• Accused two different fire marshals of keeping people out of rallies for "political reasons"--even though the campaign had already agreed to caps on attendance.
• He called Hillary Clinton "the Devil" (my fave).
• He warned that the election would "be rigged." Later, asked how he knew, said he "could feel it."
• When a baby started crying at one of his rallies, he began by praising her and children in general. A minute later, he kicked her out.
• He took a ton of heat from other Republicans for his Khan madness, and he returned the favor by saying he wouldn't endorse Paul Ryan, John McCain, or Kelly Ayotte. (He eventually did endorse them.) This was actually the final straw for GOP chair Reiknce Priebus, who melted down.
• Told Americans to pull their 401(k)'s out of the stock market.
• He declared he wouldn't necessarily back NATO partners if they were attacked.

But Al Gore sighed!

Great afternoon in Ohio & a great evening in Pennsylvania - departing now. See you tomorrow Virginia! pic.twitter.com/jQTQYBFpdb

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2016