Not even ‘Fox and Friends’ can hide Trump’s dementia

Former President Donald Trump on Fox & Friends on October 18, 2024 (Image: Screengrab via Fox News / YouTube)
John Stoehr
October 18, 2024

Some of Donald Trump’s highly visible supporters seem concerned that their man is losing his mind and everyone can see it.

The former president was scheduled for an early-morning interview today, a regular thing for a presidential candidate. It was even more regular for someone like Trump. The show was “Fox and Friends.”

But to hear them tell it, it was unbelievable!

"He never stops," one said. "It is really amazing."

“The GOAT [greatest of all time] is a machine!” another said.

“This man is on a MISSION!” one said.

Same one asked: “How does he do it?”

Another said Trump has “unreal stamina!”

Yet another nearly gave the game away:

“Dude is in his late 70s and out-working people half his age.”

In truth, there’s nothing out-of-the-ordinary about a candidate staying out late the night before and showing up for work early the next day.

That’s called running for president.

But you might be motivated to make the ordinary seem extraordinary if you are worried about the candidate’s mental health. Fact is, Trump’s state of mind has deteriorated dramatically since the start of the week, when he swayed and bopped on stage to music for 39 minutes, as if he’d temporarily forgotten that he was campaigning for president.

That’s when you hype even harder.

Dude is out-working people half his age!

Unfortunately, for his rightwing supporters, the “Fox and Friends” interview didn’t go well. Like other media he did this week, it badly exposed what I’m calling his deepening descent into dementia.

Aaron Rupar posted the whole thing, but here’s what stood out:

• He revealed without meaning to that “a couple of people at Fox” wrote some of the “jokes” he told at last night’s Al Smith Dinner.
• He failed to pick up on a cue from a co-host. He was supposed to say that he’d love to have Nikki Haley stump for him in the hopes of winning over Republicans who voted for her in the GOP primary. Instead, he talked about how “badly he beat her.”
• He gave up trying to keep track of the conversation when he started talking about “the old days.” Back then, he said, there were “no negative ads” on Fox. I think he meant ads promoting his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris, but I’m not sure. I’m not sure anyone else on “the curvy couch” was sure either.
• Co-host Brian Kilmeade seemed to realize Trump was losing his mind on live TV, so he scrambled to cover up for him by bringing up “the weave.” In reality, the weave is when Trump flits from one thing to another, without any apparent reason for doing so. By referring to his dementia as “the weave,” Kilmeade tried making a mental disability look like a clever rhetorical device.

The weirdest moment was when he responded to a child’s question about his favorite farm animal. Trump said he loves cows. But, he added, “if we go with Kamala, we won’t have any cows anymore.”

This was met with laughter, but his face seemed to register confusion, as if to ask: why are these people laughing? So he said it again, seeming to ensure that they knew he wasn’t joking. “According to Kamala, who’s a radical-left lunatic, we won't have any cows anymore.”

There was less laughing the second time.

It was so bad that one of his maga-bros felt the urge to cheerlead even louder than usual. Trump was “sharp, tactful, encouraging, presidential,” with special stress on “sharp” and “encouraging,” as if his conspicuous mental deterioration threatens to dampen enthusiasm.

His campaign seems to understand what a conservative pundit said recently – “the more Trump speaks, the more Americans are reminded of his deficiencies as a candidate, both in character and coherence.” So his staff has canceled previously planned appearances with “60 Minutes,” CNBC, NBC and smaller media outlets. Trump won’t do a second debate with Harris. His campaign pulled out of an NRA rally.

This morning, Politicocited two people familiar with conversations between the Trump campaign and The Shade Room, a podcast popular with young, Black professionals. Harris made an appearance there recently. Talks fell apart, however, according to Politico. “A Trump adviser told The Shade Room producers that Trump was ‘exhausted and refusing [some] interviews but that could change’ at any time.”

“Exhaustion” is probably the most common euphemism for mental health issues used by celebrities and other highly visible people. In Trump’s case, the issue is pretty clearly some form of dementia. The condition runs in his family. His dad died of Alzheimer’s. Trump often says he “aced” two cognitive tests, but he’s known to have dictated his medical reports to his doctors when he was president. Harris released her health records before blasting Trump for not releasing his.

Indeed, the Harris campaign has bird-dogged the topic of Trump’s mental decline for weeks. On Tuesday, spokesman Ian Sams told CNN: “I’m not entirely sure what [the weave] is besides rambling and meandering. So it does raise the real question of ‘are you fit for the job? Are you up to the task?’ This is a very serious moment in a very serious time for our country. And you think about the decisions that a president has to make. Are you physically capable of doing it?”

Trump’s campaign denies he’s “exhausted.” A spokesperson told Politico that he’s “running laps around” Harris. Even so, his staff is clearly concerned about voters viewing Trump in the same way that they viewed Joe Biden after the June debate between them. His people are trying to minimize his exposure by restricting him to friendly media.

But Trump still has to perform well, no matter how friendly the media. As today’s “Fox and Friends” segment showed, he can’t do even that.