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Monday, June 6, 2016

Is Donald Trump mentally Ill?

I am not a Trump fan. I am not a Hillary fan.  For the first time in my voting life, starting in 1972, there is not a presidential candidate that I want to be my president. That thought alone makes me sad.  That thought alone make me frightened for the future of our country.  I initially thought Trump was an uninformed showman and dismissed the possibility that he could be the Republican nominee for president let alone that he could possibly be the president of the United States.  Now it is apparent that he will be the Republican nominee and there is a good chance he will be elected president. I no longer think Trump is a joke.

Trump may or may not be a racist.  He may or may not be uninformed about foreign policy.  He may or may not care about constitutional rights for minorities.  He may or may not care about the rule of law.  Each of those things scare me but more and more I am thinking that Trump is unbalanced, maybe even mentally ill.

It seems that every day his asserted positions change from those he expressed the day before.  Not only does his position change but he claims he never said what he previously said. 

When Trump was in New Mexico last month for a rally, the Republican Governor of New Mexico (Susana Martinez) did not attend the rally.  That caused Trump to go on a bizarre rant during the rally about Governor Martinez allowing large numbers of Syrian refugees into New Mexico and that she was not doing her job as governor.   Over and over he said “she was not doing her job” as Governor. He said that “maybe he would run for Governor.”  Apparently, since Martinez has been governor only ten Syrian refugees that have come to New Mexico but her sin was not coming to his rally.  Nine days later Donald Trump says he wants Governor Martinez’s endorsement. He stated

“I’d like to have it,” (her endorsement) the presumptive Republican presidential nominee told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Thursday. “I respect her. I have always liked her.”

Does that sound like he likes her or has always respected her? Did he forget what he said at the rally?

Over and over again, Trump has said something and then reversed his position, sometimes several times in 2 or 3 days and then claimed he never said what he said. It is not a mere point of a person having a heart felt change of a position after thoughtful consideration, he has claimed that he never said what he previously said. 

Is he a liar or is he in fact delusional?

In the middle of a campaign Trump has continued to take time to allege that a federal judge presiding in a civil fraud case against Trump is unable to fairly preside in the case because the judge is “Mexican” and Trump wants to build the wall. In fact, the judge is an American citizen born in Indiana.  Trump followed that up by saying that if the judge was Muslim he too would be biased against Trump.  If Trump is elected president, who would he nominate as judges, old orange men with goofy hair?

Trump’s behavior is not merely “just politics”.  I believe he has some problem. If your son, daughter, friend or spouse, over and over told you something totally different that he or she previously said and then claimed he or she never previously said what they in fact said, you would wonder if they had a memory problem or a psychological problem. 

Are they a serial and pathological liar or are they mentally ill?  It would seem to be one of those options.  Which would be worse for a president of the United States to be; a serial and pathological liar or mentally ill. 

Trump does not talk about coherent policy positions rather he personally insults and attacks people.  In the last year how many times have you heard Trump insult and personally attack someone that did not totally support him or agree with him? Dozens of times, maybe hundreds of times? 

Liars, cheaters, criminals, losers, involved in the Kennedy assassination, sleazebag, blood coming out of “wherever”, Mexicans” are rapists, let’s kill the family members of terrorists, regardless of international law I will make the military do what I tell them. John McCain is not a war hero “I like people that weren’t captured.”

It is not just that I might disagree with Trumps’ political positions, I disagree with most of my friends, I genuinely believe something is wrong with Trump.  As people used to say about strangely acting people, he is not right in the head.

Conservative, Republican Columnist Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal has referred to Trump as a “Crazy Man”.  

This week, TV journalist Mika Brzezinski said Trump looks “Unhinged”.

Delusional? Crazy Man? Unhinged? Mentally ill?  I don’t know for certain, but to my untrained eye it certainly feels that way.

If Trump were your six year old son, you would put in him time out.  If he were your grandpa would you be thinking about putting him in a home?  Maybe.


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