TRUMP IS BATSHIT CRAZY, BUT IN TWO SEEMINGLY CONTRADICTORY WAYS

If Kamala Harris needs to give voters more evidence that Donald Trump is unfit to serve as president, Trump seems to be helping her out by serving that evidence up on a platter. The problem is, he's serving up two kinds of evidence, and they risk canceling each other out.

Last night, this happened:

Trump sways and bops to music for 39 minutes in bizarre town hall episode

The town hall, moderated by South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R), began with questions from preselected attendees for the former president. Donald Trump offered meandering answers on how he would address housing affordability and help small businesses. But it took a sudden turn after two attendees required medical attention....

“Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?” he said.

For 39 minutes, Trump swayed, bopped — sometimes stopping to speak — as he turned the event into almost a living-room listening session of his favorite songs from his self-curated rally playlist.

He played nine tracks. He danced. He shook hands with people onstage. He pointed to the crowd. Noem stood beside him, nodding with her hands clasped. Trump stayed in place onstage, slowly moving back and forth. He was done answering questions for the night.

That's from The Washington Post. Watch the Post's supercut and try to keep your jaw off the floor. Then show it to everyone you know who's not a committed supporter of Kamala Harris:

Donald Trump’s town hall began with questions from preselected attendees for the former president. He offered meandering answers on how he would address housing affordability and help small businesses.

But it took a sudden turn after two attendees required medical attention.… pic.twitter.com/7PuQoKf8ZZ

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 15, 2024

I think a lightly edited version of the Post's video could be a Kamala Harris campaign ad, maybe even with no commentary, or with a single word at the end: "Weird" or "WTF?"

But here's the problem: This image of Trump seems to contradict another side of Trump that Harris and Tim Walz are trying to warn voters about in the closing days of the campaign.

CNN reports:

Former President Donald Trump suggested using the military to handle what he called “the enemy from within” on Election Day, saying that he isn’t worried about chaos from his supporters or foreign actors, but instead from “radical left lunatics.”

“I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics,” Trump said told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen,” he added.

At a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Harris lit into Trump in response to this:

“He considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will the enemy, an enemy of our country. It’s a serious issue,” Harris said Monday night. “He is saying that he would use the military to go after them. ... We know who he would target because he has attacked them before: journalists whose stories he doesn’t like; election officials who refuse to cheat by filling extra votes and finding extra votes for him; judges who insist on following the law instead of bending to his will.” ...

“Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged. And he is out for unchecked power. That’s what he’s looking for,” Harris said.

In Wisconsin yesterday, Tim Walz reminded his audience who else is on the target list:

Donald Trump, over the weekend, was talking about using the U.S. Army against people who disagree with him. Just so you’re clear about that, that’s you. That’s what he’s talking about. This is not some mythical thing out there. He called it “the enemy within.” And to Donald Trump, anybody who doesn’t agree with him is the enemy. I tell you that not to make you fearful or anything. I tell you that because we need to whip his butt and put this guy behind us.

Walz is right. Did you join in a peaceful women's march after Trump's inauguration in 2017? Did you join a silent, prayerful vigil after the death of George Floyd in 2020? The next time you exercise your First Amendment rights that way, the guns might be aimed at you.

But how do you get wavering voters to reconcile these two Trumps -- the doddering dancer and the bloodthirsty would-be tyrant?

Trump is both of these people. History shows us that you don't need full control of your mental faculties to be a tyrant. You just need rage, unlimited power, and goons to do whatever your whims demand.

I don't think Trump is experiencing full-blown dementia yet, but in that town hall his mental battery had clearly run down by evening. He might be in the condition that people close to President Biden have described -- he's far less able to function at night after a few days of exhausting work or travel, but he's more or less his old self at other times. A Trump in this condition could still do a lot of damage.

But you can understand why, as Shawn McCreesh of The New York Times told us yesterday, there are Trump supporters who don't believe Trump's most inflammatory pronouncements:

Mary Burney, a 49-year-old woman from Grosse Pointe, Mich., who works in sales for a radio station ... did not believe the former president would really persecute his political opponents, even though he has mused about appointing a special prosecutor to “go after” President Biden and members of his family. “I don’t think that’s on his list of things to do,” she said. “No, no.”

Tom Pierce, a 67-year-old from Northville, Mich., did not truly believe that Mr. Trump would round up enough immigrants to carry out “the largest mass deportation operation in history.” Even though that is pretty much the central promise of his campaign.

“He may say things, and then it gets people all upset,” said Mr. Pierce, “but then he turns around and he says, ‘No, I’m not doing that.’ It’s a negotiation. But people don’t understand that.”

That nice guy doing the two-fist dance? He wouldn't hurt a fly!

Republican propagandists know how to serll this kind of double message. They've persuaded their voters that Joe Biden is both a dementia case who can't find the bathroom unaided and the mastermind of a global criminal enterprise. I hope Harris and Walz can communicate a similar idea, because the sometimes addled Trump is still able to keep a sharp mental focus on the people he hates, and if he's elected, he'll have the means and the will to do them -- us -- a lot of harm.