Much attention has been paid to Donald Trump’s insistence that he refuses to protect NATO allies he deems “delinquent”, and even that he may do so. Encourage Russia attacks them. Many of the conversations I heard focused on the policy implications: what it would mean for the US to abandon its treaty obligations and treat NATO as a protection racket.
These impacts are important and concerning. But in my opinion, we’re not paying enough attention to what President Trump said and what that says about his perception of reality.
To be honest, I would like to spend this campaign talking only about policy. Mysterious places are my happy places. But it seems many politicians have decided to make this election season an exercise in amateur long-distance geriatrics, focusing more on President Biden’s age and appearance than on his background, so we’ll take a closer look at his opponent. Let’s take a look.
That’s because Trump often gives the impression that he lives in his own reality. He lies, but I’m not talking about the fact that he lies a lot. Rather, my point is that he often cannot distinguish between self-aggrandizing fantasies and what actually happened.
So let’s take a look at how President Trump’s rejection of NATO was resolved. He did not make the simple, potentially debatable argument that we spend too much on defense while our allies spend too little. Instead, he said: Story: “One of the presidents of a large country stood up and said, ‘Well, if we were attacked by Russia without paying, would you protect us?’ Didn’t you pay?” Are you in arrears? …No, I won’t protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever they want. ”
In the language of intelligence assessment, it is highly unlikely that this conversation or anything like it actually happened.
But as CNN’s Daniel Dale pointed out, President Trump really likes to tell the story of a big, strong man coming up with tears in his eyes and calling him “sir.” There is little corroborating evidence, and it is certainly true that very few of these stories are recorded as actual conversations.
Similarly, it is highly unlikely that, for example, Emmanuel Macron or Angela Merkel would have called Trump “teacher.” It is also highly unlikely that NATO leaders asked what would happen if their country “didn’t pay.” Even if President Trump doesn’t, European officials know that NATO is an alliance, not a club that collects dues from member states.
By the way, European countries probably spend little on their own defense, but many are grappling with the challenge of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Notably, Lithuania, which President Trump singled out as a fair chance for President Putin, spends six times as much of its GDP on aid to Ukraine as the United States does.
So what’s going on here? Trump is either telling a particularly nonsensical lie or is confused about past events.
It wouldn’t be the first time. As mentioned earlier, it is not certain whether President Trump’s many “Sir” stories are the product of his imagination, but one source has confirmed that, contrary to President Trump’s claims, police officers and court officials I know I said, “I can’t be crying.” ” he apologized to President Trump at his arraignment in Manhattan court last spring.
Let’s clarify what’s at stake here. Never mind the talk about political analysis and public perception and how that will affect horse racing in 2024. What we should focus on is how a candidate’s mental capacity affects their decision-making.
What’s notable is that despite all the enthusiasm about Biden’s age, I haven’t seen much suggestion that he made bad decisions because of impaired judgment. It’s almost all speculation about the future. Yes, he made mistakes, but his two most criticized decisions, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and massive spending, actually seem justified in hindsight.
But these mistakes, even if they were mistakes, were of the kind that even the most young and energetic president could make.
Meanwhile, consider how President Trump has responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans have been surprisingly successful in acting as if the Trump administration was over before the pandemic took hold. But that wasn’t the case. In December 2020, the last full month of President Trump’s term, more than 77,000 Americans died from the coronavirus.
And as the pandemic spread, President Trump responded with “denial, misgovernment, and magical thinking,” as the Washington Post reported. Essentially, he was unwilling to acknowledge inconvenient realities and continued to minimize risks while expanding bogus remedies. Remember when he said the coronavirus would disappear? Remember the “Disinfectant” press conference? Remember hydroxychloroquine?
Oh, and in case you forgot, Trump still refuses to admit he lost the 2020 election.
Unlike Biden’s missteps, Trump’s mishandling of COVID-19 and denial of the election is uniquely Trumpian and not what he wants, regardless of what you think it was. These were the actions of a man who didn’t want to accept reality.
Does anyone think he’s improved in that regard over the past three years?