Ahead of Donald Trump\u2019s campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night, one of his senior advisers signaled to reporters that this event would be a little different from most. Specifically, Jason Miller let journalists know that the former president would preview<\/a> the Republican\u2019s \u201cclosing message\u201d as Election Day drew closer.<\/p>\n

Miller went so far as to tell the media that Trump\u2019s remarks would be \u201c important<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a way, the words proved prophetic, but probably not in the way the GOP candidate\u2019s campaign had in mind. NBC News reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Trump spent 12 minutes at the beginning of his roughly 90-minute speech telling stories about [Arnold] Palmer, the late professional golfer for whom the airport was named. At one point, he suggested that Palmer had unusually large genitalia. \u201cHe was strong and tough, and I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there they said, \u2018Oh, my God. That\u2019s unbelievable,\u2019\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
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The former president has spent months<\/a>, on a nearly daily<\/a> basis, telling anyone<\/a> who\u2019d listen that he\u2019s not at all \u201cweird.\u201d<\/a> But when candidates for the nation\u2019s highest office ramble for 12 minutes about a deceased golfer, culminating in comments about his genitalia, I think reasonable observers can agree that\u2019s incredibly weird.<\/p>\n
At the same event, Trump also said, in reference to Vice President Kamala Harris, \u201cWe can\u2019t stand you. You\u2019re a s— vice president.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Harris campaign spokesperson asked soon after<\/a> whether someone has \u201cdone a wellness check\u201d on Trump, and given the circumstances, that was more than just a pointed response.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the Democratic nominee also said on Saturday<\/a>, in reference to her GOP rival, \u201cHe\u2019s becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged. The American people are seeing it, witnessing it in real time. The American people deserve better than someone who seems to be unstable.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that was hours before<\/em> Trump spoke publicly about a deceased golfer\u2019s private parts.<\/p>\n
As the electoral finish line comes into view, Democrats are increasingly invested in the idea that Trump isn\u2019t just a reactionary criminal with an authoritarian agenda, he also seems to be a mentally unstable<\/em> criminal with an authoritarian agenda.<\/p>\n
The day before Trump\u2019s event in Latrobe, for example, Barack Obama headlined a rally in Arizona where he told locals<\/a>, \u201cI do have to point out that along with his intentions, there is also a question of his competence. Have you seen him lately? I mean, he is out there, he\u2019s giving two, two-and-a-half-hour speeches. Just word salads.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me explain because I\u2019ve done a lot of town hall meetings,\u201d Obama added. \u201cThe point of a town hall meeting is to take questions. He just decided, you know what, I\u2019m gonna stop taking questions and then he\u2019s swaying to \u2018Ave Maria\u2019 and \u2018Y.M.C.A.\u2019 for about half an hour. Folks are standing there, not sure what\u2019s happening. Can you imagine if I did that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Democratic president concluded<\/a>, \u201cYou would be worried if your grandpa started acting like this. … The point is we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s probably no point to referencing every example of the former president\u2019s recent breakdowns \u2014 there are simply too many to chronicle<\/a> in a single blog post \u2014 but for those concerned about the Republican\u2019s mental acuity and cognitive fitness, Trump adds fresh fuel to the fire with unsettling frequency<\/a>.<\/p>\n
And given that he\u2019s hiding his medical records<\/a> for reasons that have not been explained, it\u2019s tough to blame Harris and her allies for issuing these warnings to the public.<\/p>\n
The day after his event in Latrobe, Trump participated in a Q&A in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in which he tried to address the matter. \u201cI have no cognitive,\u201d the Republican boasted<\/a>, adding: \u201cThere\u2019s no cognitive problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
How reassuring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Steve Benen<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of\u00a0MaddowBlog\u00a0and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Ahead of Donald Trump\u2019s campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night, one of his senior advisers signaled to reporters that this event would be a little different from most. Specifically, Jason Miller let journalists know that the former president would preview the Republican\u2019s \u201cclosing message\u201d as Election Day drew closer. Miller went so far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}