‘Donald Trump is losing his marbles,’ former Congressman and Republican Adam Kinzinger said

Republicans are concerned that party leader Donald Trump is having a “public nervous breakdown” after he made a series of offensive outbursts about Vice President Kamala Harris as he slips behind her in the polls.

The former president has made a number of  insulting personal attacks against his Democratic rival since she moved to the top of the ticket. Last week, Trump questioned Harris’s racial identity  at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. Over the weekend, he accused Harris of having a “low IQ.”

New polls indicate Trump is slipping behind the vice president in the popular vote and races are tightening in battleground states.

“This is what you would call a public nervous breakdown,” Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump state department appointee, told Politico.

  • @NewNewAccount@lemmy.world
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    1829 months ago

    Headlines like this have existed for the entire time Trump has been in the political spotlight.

    Do not trust conservatives will see this and agree. Do not get complacent. Vote. Encourage friends and family to vote.

    • @nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      At this point the people who are already Trump supporters will not be swayed. He was always nuts, he was always weird, he always spewed out nonsensical word-salad. The fight is for independents who are still on the fence, and everyone on both sides considers them gullible idiots, and campaign strategy will reflect that.

      • @eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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        189 months ago

        Everyone correctly considers them gullible idiots when it comes to politics.

        All those people will have other areas of individual expertise as well.

      • @ripcord@lemmy.world
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        119 months ago

        Also the supporters who aren’t diehards. Most races are won largely by just how motivated likely voters are to show up.

        Largely why Hillary lost.

    • @Landless2029@lemmy.world
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      219 months ago

      My concern with Harris running is all the positivity will get people complacent due to the polls.

      Polls don’t mean shit. Get out and vote. Tell everyone to go vote.

      • The Republicans will cheat, swindle and intimidate to win this election. They will break every rule they can, and they don’t even need the popular vote in order to win. Trump might be shitting the bed but this is still far from over. The only way to keep him out of the white house is if people vote against him in vast enough numbers to counteract their cheating.

  • Nomecks
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    9 months ago

    It’s called a Narcissist Shame/Rage Spiral.

  • @IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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    1039 months ago

    If he wins, his legal troubles go away. If he loses they come back with a vengeance.

    Looks like this weird old man is starting to get nervous and lash out.

    Please continue.

    • @IllNess@infosec.pub
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      429 months ago

      Finding out the Supreme Court isn’t going give him unlimited power might’ve blown a gasket.

      On top of what you said if Harris wins a prosecutor who Trump constantly insults will be president, and Biden, who Trump also insults and put his son in prison, will have 3 months to do whatever the fuck he wants. Lol

      • @lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        379 months ago

        All true except Biden had nothing to do with his son being prosecuted. At most, Biden will allow him to go to prison by leaving office without pardoning him (which I believe he will do, because it’s the not-corrupt thing to do.)

        • @dhork@lemmy.world
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          329 months ago

          No, he absolutely should pardon Hunter. He should acknowledge the hypocrisy in a public statement, though. He should note the broad power the Supreme Court has given him to take Official Actions like this with impunity, and double-dog dare Congress to do whatever it takes to rein in abuses like that.

          • @crusa187@lemmy.ml
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            199 months ago

            This would actually be pretty cool, and might even work to restore some balance to the scales of justice. Alas, I don’t think Biden has the requisite cojones.

              • @toasteecup@lemmy.world
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                159 months ago

                I don’t think it’s a matter of having the chutzpah or not.

                Biden at his core is a pretty solid straight lace public servant. He listens to the majority of the people and tries to do what’s best for the country. While that move would be great for the country, it goes against his straight lacedness.

          • @theangryseal@lemmy.world
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            79 months ago

            I mean, this is what I’d do.

            I try hard to hold onto my moral compass and practice what I preach, but when it comes to my kids I probably could go hard. Especially if they were facing a future in a cage. If I had the power I just wouldn’t let it happen.

        • @Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          39 months ago

          Biden should direct the ATF to pull Marijuana Receipts and IDs from dispensary logs. Then compare that against FID card dates and charge the lot of them.

          Conservatives would howl about prosecution, then he can just pardon all of them, including his son.

      • @IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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        89 months ago

        Amazing how quickly things can turn around. I was getting worried when Biden was still in the race. Now it’s open season on those peculiar far right oddballs.

  • @SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 months ago

    They forgot that this is exactly how he operated in 2016. My amateur theory is that he decided the safe and respectable route is what cost him 2020 and is going to cost him 2024, so he’s going back to what he believes ultimately made him win.

    Meanwhile the Republicans are looking at the last eight years of near nonstop national defeats but don’t have a way of dealing with this bull in their party-equivalent of a China shop

  • @snooggums@midwest.social
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    769 months ago

    Has his behavior changed? Trump seems to be spouting the same kind of nonsense he always has. This just seems to be more of the same weird rants.

    • @borf@lemmynsfw.com
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      9 months ago

      The behavior hasn’t substantially changed, but the narrative is shifting. Trump took office on the back of a wave of sardonic, nihilistic memes. He was constantly excused for being bigoted and unintelligible because his dork enlightenment cronies could cynically spin everything as nine dimensional water backgammon. The fact they weren’t making sense was a plus, not a minus.

      Biden dropping out and team Kamala stepping up so hard so fast on the meme front has completely taken the right by surprise. They weren’t mobilized to defend against this. So now they’re on the back foot, the memes from the mainstream left are sharper and meaner than Trumpworld has ever had to deal with before, and the messaging is laser focused.

      Spouting nonsense only works if it looks like you’re winning by doing so. Don just keeps showing how old, tired, and weak he really is, so the cracks are forming. Just think of all the political capital he’s spent trying to make diapers cool, and then he makes a VP pick who Snopes has confirmed literally fucked a couch on live video.

    • The Quuuuuill
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      389 months ago

      The best time to wake up to that Donald Trump is a weird racist who should be ignored was 1988. The second best time is now

      • Optional
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        149 months ago

        “I think we’re starting to see the old Trump that a lot of Republicans got tired of in 2020, got tired of defending him,”

        Oh are they tired of defending a traitorous rapist conman? They’re tired of defending a sociopath and grotesque manbaby for the singular purpose of jamming through the most regressive laws and judges anyone could imagine? Awwww. Poor lot of republiQans.

        • @Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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          79 months ago

          Let’s not be fooled. They defended him because he could help them. Now that he’s not polling as favorably, trump has less to offer for their support

          • Optional
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            9 months ago

            Is that better than cultishly believing his obvious lies?

        • @Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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          59 months ago

          Why should they be tired? After scouring the nation for the person who most accurately represents them, conservatives have consistently chosen Trump as the one who most closely reflects their sentiments. He is their accurate reflection.

          They’ve re-affirmed their leader for eight solid years now. They get to own this and they should never be thought of apart from him. Just as nazis are always associated with Hitler, Republicans should always be associated with Trump. Always.

  • SeaJ
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    649 months ago

    It’s rich that he is claiming she has a low IQ when he got gentlemen Cs while at Penn. One of his professors called him his worst student ever.

      • Sippy Cup
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        219 months ago

        Missing some inflection

        “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.”

        -Dr William T Kelley, numerous times over the course of 3 decades.

    • @Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      149 months ago

      Also his obsession with those two cognitive tests he didn’t fail isn’t a great sign for his IQ either.

      Maybe I’m the dumb one, but a “cognition test” sounds to me like something they do after someone has received some head trauma to make sure it didn’t break their brain or for an old person to see if they are going senile. Like a test where “tell me your name” is part of the test rather than part of the supporting paperwork.

      Though maybe his handlers told him it was a genius test or something like that and no one has had the heart/guts to break it to him since.

      • SeaJ
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        9 months ago

        You are correct. A cognition tests look to see if you are having severe mental cognitive issues. The questions are extremely basic like doing connect the dots or identifying a lion.

  • @CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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    529 months ago

    Over the weekend, he accused Harris of having a “low IQ.”

    How about this: instead of a debate they both take an IQ test created and administered by a neutral party. Recordings of them taking the test will be released to the public once they are both finished.

    • @JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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      189 months ago

      I want them to take a test on basic US history, and/or the intelligence test from idiocracy.
      I’m actually pretty curious about how trump would do with matching the shaped blocks to the corresponding holes.

      • @CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        As long as they were provided with the same test, the same answer key was used, and we are able to watch each of them take the test, it really shouldn’t matter. Even if the test was “name Trump’s children” Kamala would score higher.

        Doesn’t matter, it’s not like he’d ever agree to publicly displaying his actual, measurable, level of intelligence.

      • @CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        That… Might actually be a better option. They could throw whatever nonsense at Kamala and she’ll still do well, and he’ll get basic questions relevant to government and fail abysmally.

        Question 1: “Who legally won the 2020 US presidential election?”

        Even better: after both parties submit their questions, they are told the candidates will have to answer both tests.

    • @FarFarAway@startrek.website
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      109 months ago

      And, I dont understand how he could, now, be having a public nervous breakdown, if he wasn’t before. He always made personal attacks.

      • @smayonak@lemmy.world
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        39 months ago

        When narcissists become triggered they have a fight or flight response. Trump is having that same response every day of his life. He was having it during the coup, he was having it when he was raping, he was having it when he got convicted. The observation that Trump is mentally crumbling is true. But it’s something that he does daily.

        Just think how contorted someone’s thinking must be I’m order to derive their self worth from a poll.

    • Yeah, it’s just one of the Never Trumpers who doesn’t even have a seat anymore, Kinzinger. The others have either kissed the ring or been kicked out of office.

  • @dhork@lemmy.world
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    479 months ago

    … But they will vote for him anyway, because doing otherwise is basically admitting you were wrong all along, and they would never do that.

  • Hemingways_Shotgun
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    279 months ago

    Theoretically, what would happen if this close to the election, the stress causes a blood vessel to burst and Trump just strokes out?

    I mean, besides the post-jedi levels of celebration, would Vance just be inserted into the ticket if it’s too far along to have a new primary?

    • @lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      9 months ago

      Is being alive a qualification to be elected? I have no doubt Trump’s people will try to pull an Air Bud “there’s no rule that says a dog can’t play basketball” move.

    • @HWK_290@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      A bigger question is, how could we tell that even happened?

      Edit: I mean short of him dying or becoming a drooling vegetable. The man is already deeply deranged and exhibiting significant mental declind

    • @dhork@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Once the individual state filing deadlines have passed, it’s likely that Trump/Vance would have to remain on the ballot. But this is one instance where the Electoral College helps, because the election is not for the candidates themselves, it is for electors who support the ticket. And the final certification of electors is up to each State Legislature.

      So, if God exercises His Ultimate Veto on Trump’s Presidency, it will be commonly understood that Vance would take over the ticket. He will pick a new VP, and any former Trump/Vance electors would likely cast electoral votes for Vance/Chesterfield instead. While it is possible that State Democrats might challenge this, it’s also absurd to force electors to vote for someone who can no longer take office, so it’s likely that States would give their blessing to the substitution. Particularly if Harris is the overall winner regardless, and the Republican EC votes are simply for the historical record, and have no effect on the outcome.

    • @limelight79@lemm.ee
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      79 months ago

      Based on what I’ve seen Republicans claiming online, prompted by recent changes in the Democratic ticket, such a change would be very dangerous to our democracy and therefore we should go forward with Trump being President despite the minor setback of being dead.

      • It’s almost always just power plays imo. On both sides.

        I think a big problem we have is that our populace is so large. We have a lot of culture and lifestyles to embrace, so politicians in order to appeal to the broad audience wash out most of who they actually are and end up with these surface level generalists who still have personalities below that we won’t see.

        Hard to be a singular representative for a large populace and stay popular.

          • Just trying to understand - are you saying that it’s not both sides?

            I personally think that republicans are more likely to go back on their word, but dems do it as well

            To address the problem we need to have the problem in full in front of us if we’re to eradicate the problem and not just swing a pendulum back and forth endlessly until the planet boils us alive

            • @Iunnrais@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              Person A quietly swipes a pen off your desk.

              Person B robs a bank at gunpoint, and it goes bad, murdering 12 people in the process, including kids.

              “Obviously both sides must be talked about with the same weight of seriousness.” “That was my favorite pen, how dare he!!!” “They’re both thieves, and there’s no difference between them.” “They’re both the same.”

              Fuck that.

              • Not even a little bit what I meant, and you’re drawing false dichotomies

                I’ve said repeatedly in my comments in reply to this post that I don’t think it’s equal.

                Explicitly stated. I’ll take the optimist approach and assume you couldn’t be bothered to actually try and understand what I meant.

  • @RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    169 months ago

    “Donald Trump is losing his marbles”

    Yeah, that’s been obvious for a while.

    I wonder if the republicans want to do a copycat switcheroo of the Dems replacing Biden and replace Trump with someone younger and more quietly fascist. But oh well, this is the monster they created. They’re stuck with him.

  • @DarkDecay@lemmy.world
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    139 months ago

    Could just be his old man dementia finally surfacing. He’s fucking old, the oldest presidential candidate for sure. He’s done, he should just drop out, it’s pathetic. #donewithdementiadon