So Breitbart's crackpot shtik about a coup and Trump being held hostage in the White House by "the generals" seems to have faded away, at least for now. Instead, we have Alex Jones' latest conspiracy theory, a kind of corollary-- the generals or someone has Señor Trumpanzee drugged up. So this goes beyond what we already know about his addiction to snorting chopped by Adderall when he's stressed (something his cosmetic surgeons in West Palm taught him how to do years ago).Everyone I know-- from my friends, relatives, casual acquaintances to psychologists, psychiatrists and the kid who bags my groceries at Gelson's-- says Trump is crazy or in some significant way mentally impaired. Even Jones, an admirer, admitted Trump seems out of his mind. On his lunatic fringe InfoWars comedy show he claimed "high level" sources confirmed a plot to control Señor T through drugs, He insists Señor is being sedated. (As you know, Trumpanzee and the Ramones, who all died mysteriously and prematurely, were neighbors in Queens.)Jones wants everyone to be clear that he doesn't blame Trumpanzee for being a basket case. "They drug presidents," he confided in the lunatic who listen to his show, "because the power structure wants a puppet. The president [he meant the Trumpanzee] needs his blood tested by an outside physician he trusts." Travis Gettys at Raw Story on Monday:
The 71-year-old Trump has a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, and analyses have found he showed some symptoms of age-related cognitive impairment-- including observations that he shows symptoms of late-day confusion known as “sundowning.”“I’ve talked to people, multiple ones, and they believe that they are putting a slow sedative that they’re building up that’s also addictive in his Diet Cokes and in his iced tea, and that the president by 6 or 7 at night is basically slurring his words and is drugged,” Jones said. “Now first they had to isolate him to do that. But, yes, ladies and gentleman, I’ve talked to people that talk to the president now at 9 at night, he is slurring his words, and I’m going to leave it at that. I’ve talked to folks that have talked to him directly.”Jones compared Trump’s behavior to former President Ronald Reagan, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease that likely started during his time in the White House.“Ladies and gentlemen, I was told this by high level sources and it was evident and especially after [Ronald] Reagan was shot in his first year in office when he was acting like Trump, and doing the right things, that he never really recovered,” Jones said. “They gave him cold blood, and his transfusion that causes brain damage. They slowly gave him small amounts of sedatives. It’s known that most presidents end up getting drugged. Small dosages of sedatives till they build it up, Trump’s such a bull he hasn’t fully understood it yet.”This isn’t the first time one of Trump’s associates has attempted to explain away rumors about the president’s mental health.Roger Stone, a Jones associate and longtime Trump ally, previously acknowledged whispers in May about the president’s possible mental decline by claiming the rumors were intended to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president from office.
And my pal Roger Stone?
"He is slurring his words on various times, and that’s what's concerning. Let’s be very clear: I have a source at The New York Times, a reporter who expressed to me a concern that in a conversation they had on the phone with the president that he was slurring his words. The president does not drink. The president certainly does not do drugs. The president is sharp as a tack. Now, let’s give some credibility to... Now, in the president’s defense, could he be exhausted? Yeah, he works very hard for the country. He is passionate about his desire for an economic revival, for a boom. He said it to me, “Wait and see. You’ll see. When I get my 15 percent tax rate this economy is going to cook like nothing you’ve ever seen, it will be the greatest advance in job creation this country’s ever seen.” He is deeply committed and passionate about this. But I have now heard not from one, but two different sources, that he seemed disoriented and was slurring his speech in conversations. To me this is a tip off that he may be being medicated. Is General [John] Kelly above this? No."
And this isn't the first scare about Señor Trumpanzee's mental competence from the loony right. In early July, Kali Holloway started the speculation about his sundowning problem. Trumpanzee, she wrote, got off Air Force One after a golfing excursion to Bedminster but instead of getting into the flag-festooned limo waiting for him at the bottom of the staircase, wandered off in a different direction, getting several steps off course until a Secret Service person redirected him to his car. It was a moment in which Trump briefly appeared "befuddled and out of sorts." Watch.
Sundowning, according to the Mayo Clinic, “refers to a state of confusion occurring in the late afternoon and spanning into the night...that may affect people with dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease.” Though numerous commentators have suggested Trump’s behaviors correlate with well-known dementia symptoms, he has not been publicly diagnosed with dementia or any other mental health conditions by a medical expert. Growing concerns about Trump’s mental state are speculative, and based on a pattern of potentially worrisome behavior illustrated by the following incidents.1. He wandered off in the middle of a foreign press event.Trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference in May. In the middle of the event, as Netanyahu stood for photos, Trump got up from his chair and wandered away from the Israeli leader. A few seconds later, staffers ushered him back toward where he should have been standing. 2. He forgot to sign an executive order at an executive order signing press event.Back in April, Trump invited media to watch as he signed two orders focused on trade. He gave brief remarks at the event, then left the podium before signing the documents. Then he absentmindedly opened a door and headed for another room. Mike Pence had to tap the president on his way out to remind him about the unsigned orders. After a brief discussion, Trump continued walking, and Pence followed him out the door with the paperwork.3. He didn't realize Rudy Giuliani was sitting directly in front of him.At a press event highlighting Trump's executive orders on cyber security, the president was seated directly across from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. After a brief speech, Trump introduced Giuliani-- who again, was sitting right in front of him-- and began searching confusedly around the room. “Where’s Rudy?” you can hear Trump asking in the footage, as Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly directs his attention in the right direction.4. He couldn't correctly name the country he’d just bombed.Trump discussed the moments leading up to the U.S. bombing of Syria in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. Describing a dinner with Xi Jinping, Trump informed Bartiromo that he told the Chinese president, "We’ve just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq.” When Bartiromo corrected Trump on the country, he paused for a beat, then seemed to recognize his error.
Trumpanzee is well-known for projecting his own neurosis onto everyone else. Here he was during the campaign accusing Hillary of being on drugs: