President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Feb. 24, the longest on record at one hour 47 minutes, didn’t offer much but we did get a clear picture of the state of the presidency.
Trump’s own words stack the deck in favor of the judgment that he is going crazy. The Democrats, he shrieked: “These people are crazy, I’m telling ya, they’re crazy.”
Nothing indicates crazy like claiming everyone else is crazy.
Rodney Kennedy
Trump lashed out at the Democrats as “sick.” He painted them as the party on the verge of destroying America, but “we’ve stopped it just in the nick of time.” He insisted they were cheaters and liars.
He claimed, “We have more jobs, more people working today than ever before in the history of our country.”
This is only one indication of how he lives in a different reality from the rest of the nation.
In The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare explores what you do when the monarch seems to go insane. The actions of the characters offer guidance on how to respond to madness. Hermione, the queen, argues ethical behavior and innocence will win over false accusations. Paulina, the queen’s maid, appeals to the king’s role as a father. In the face of the king’s cruelty, Polixenes advises patience, suggests the king’s madness may be divine intervention and the king should seek God’s face.
Democrats didn’t respond in any of these ways. Rep. Ilhan Oma, D–Minn., shouted, “You’ve killed Americans.” Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, waved a sign that read, “BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T APES.”
Katie Rogers, in The New York Times, described Trump’s speech as “spectacle as survival strategy.” The president insisted we are living in the “golden age” of America. In his addled mind, we are on the upswing with a strong economy he rebuilt from the “mess” President Joe Biden left him.
His refusal or inability to move on from the 2020 election underscores an even larger detachment from reality: “The cheating is rampant in our elections. It’s rampant. … They want to cheat.” Yet there is no credible evidence of cheating by Democrats.
Trump longs to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He repeated his false claim, “I ended eight wars.”
“The president will say anything to cling to power.”
His usual exaggerations kept popping up in his speech. For example, he claimed the Iranians have “killed and maimed thousands of American service members, and even hundreds of thousands, and even millions of people.”
His hyperbole extended to a falsehood about the almost complete elimination of crime in D.C. “We have almost no crime anymore in Washington, D.C.” And to an exaggerated claim of destroying Iran’s nuclear program. If this were true, why is Trump now preparing to attack Iran?
The president will say anything to cling to power. As he feels power slipping away, he loses more of his grip on reality. His vast insecurity shows up when he muses about giving himself the Congressional Medal of Honor and when he attempts to make deals for a new tunnel and airport if they are named for him.
To a crazy ruler, all other rulers are inferior. According to Trump, Venezuela can’t be trusted with its natural resources, so he must control the nation. Canada is a second-rate country incapable of defending itself, so Trump needs to make it our 51st state. Greenland is defenseless, so only the USA can rule Greenland.
No imagination is needed to know our “crazy” ruler believes all other nations, leaders and politicians are “inferior” to Trump, according to Trump.
Trump placards his name like a rancher branding calves. His name adorns his buildings, golf courses and the Kennedy Center.
The president didn’t become a clear and present danger to democracy overnight. He has been on this downward escalator for at least six years. I trace his descent into madness to Nov. 7, 2020, when Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election. The unraveling of Trump continued through the House of Representatives certifying Biden’s victory. The January 6 insurrection was a clear indication of Trump and MAGA going mad.
“We are eyewitnesses to a president going out of his mind.”
Trump’s madness manifests in his nightmares about swamp monsters, hordes of raping, murdering immigrants, multiple enemies, voter fraud, immigrants poisoning the blood and eating cats and dogs, American citizens as domestic terrorists, and Democrats as deranged haters of America.
We are eyewitnesses to a president going out of his mind.
I cling to the hope of redemption and restoration. Jeffrey R. Wilson says in Shakespeare and Trump, “Let’s not close off the possibility suggested by The Winter’s Tale: Redemption and restoration.”
He writes: “These actions and decisions from the play provide a framework for understanding how to respond when a king is mad. It emphasizes the need for intervention, the importance of family, and the need for divine guidance in times of madness.The tyrant, forced to reckon with the truth he has denied, has a moment of clarity and, guilt-stricken and grief-ridden, accepts responsibility for his villainies.”
I cling to the hope Wilson suggests because our nation needs an accountable, sane president to face a world on the edge of madness.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.