This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard
If it’s possible to forget for a moment that the “president” of the United States has both the nuclear codes and the apparent belief that Joe Biden is a clone, that the “real” Joe Biden was executed five years ago, there is one good thing that can come from it. It is going to further demolish — put the final death blow to — Jake Tapper’s failing, despicable book.
Yes, I know, we have to go a long way these days to find that blasted silver lining in a horizon full of brooding, cumulonimbus clouds. But we take what we can get. Tapper’s book, “Original Sin,” a disgraceful piece of journalistic trash, is full of unsourced and discredited lies about the former President’s “slipping” mental acuity. It occupies a well-deserved 7,725th place in books on Amazon. That place necessarily is going to slip further.
Now, I don’t know if Trump actually believes that Joe Biden is a clone. I’m not sure the question of what Trump does or does not believe even makes sense. What does a turtle believe? I don’t know and neither do you.
But I do know this. Trump didn’t just insouciantly repost a preposterous Q-Anon conspiracy theory and quickly move on, he fiddled with it. He added an enhanced picture of himself to it. He added hashtags. He lovingly took time over it. The repost and enhancements are the actions of a deeply, deeply sick man.
Joe Biden, a good man and a great President, is a couple of steps slow these days. He’s in his 80s. But he can still form coherent sentences and display expert knowledge about how the government works. The fact that he’s slowing down a bit is NOT news. The fact that he’s dying and we ought to be a nation joined together in mourning but are not, should be.
The news also should be that Trump (apparently) believes the dumbest goddamn conspiracy theory I’ve ever heard of in my entire life. It’s so preposterous it makes flat earthers almost look sane. And I repeat: Trump has the nuke codes. Is anyone else in the mainstream media worried about this? Are you gonna write a book about Trump’s mental acuity, Tapper, you traitor?
I repeat. Trump “thinks” (whatever that means) that Joe Biden is a clone, that he was executed five years ago. The president of the United States is telling people that his predecessor is a robot. The guy with the nuclear codes is saying this. And many people, possibly millions, now believe it. Why isn’t this bigger news?
I’ll tell you this much. The sane among us, those of us who know that what Trump reposted is bullshit, are still in the majority. They may have the guns, as Jim Morrison once put it, but we have the numbers. If we can hang in there and keep the faith, we will win. Eventually. But God Almighty, how in the name of hell did things come to this?
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.