Trump knows exactly what he's doing — and that's what makes him dangerous

I’ve heard more than enough from people who are attributing Donald Trump’s hourly low-grade filth and evil to some alleged bout with dementia, or any of the other terrible effects from Alzheimer’s disease.

I’m not sure why so many feel the need to ascribe dementia to a lifetime malignant narcissist, who has tragically lived his entire nearly 80 years on this planet serving exactly one person: HIMSELF.

I think it is important to be precise about what this repellent man is, and what he isn’t.

What he is:

Trump is dead inside, and best we can tell, this goes back to close to the point of his birth to a mother who couldn’t stand to be around him, and shipped him away the first good chance she got.

Here is what else he is:

Blaming dementia for Trump’s inhumane actions comes dangerously close to rendering him a sympathetic victim — a guy who has no control over where he goes, what he says, and what he does.

Trump knows exactly what he is doing, people.

His evil is calculated, and effortless.

Just look at the filth he has very intentionally surrounded himself with: The two Stephens, Bannon and Miller, JD Vance, Russell Vought, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kash Patel, and his odious, snotty sons, and son-in-law. Then of course there are the revolting trio of Supreme Court Justices he appointed, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, who along with the reprehensible Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas, and the feckless John Roberts are the most lawless group of people who have ever disgraced that chamber.

All these men (besides the doe-eyed Barrett) didn’t just happen to fall into these positions by mistake. They were carefully selected and loaded with purpose into the magazine of Trump’s weapon of mass destruction, which is otherwise known as his presidency.

These irresponsible claims of Trump’s dementia are also insulting to the tens of millions of people who have dealt with this terrible condition. My mother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s when she was 62. She officially died at the age of 70, but had left this earth at least five years before that.

She was locked inside a world I know she hated, and surrounded by people who loved her, but were unable to reach her and set her free from her terrible bondage.

If you have dealt with this, or worse, are going through this now, you have my profound regards, and sympathy. Nobody should have to deal with this, and count me as a person who advocates for a peaceful, painless way out after the mind has long ago exited. I know this is what my mother would have wanted.

That is what compassion truly looks like.

Look, Trump may have dementia-like symptoms, but none of this is at all new.

He’s just an old, angry bigot, who is taking out the pain that courses through his trash can of a body on everybody else. He is a physical mess of a man, who harrumphs around on his swelling ankles looking for the next helpless victim to tackle.

He’s a miserable person, who relishes taking everybody down around him, and the latest proof that money can’t buy happiness.

When he has finally and blessedly taken his last breath, he will be remembered as one of history’s most evil, destructive men — that is, if he doesn’t drop the bomb first after a particularly tough day of screwing things up. Nobody can say with a straight face that this isn’t possible, and why he needs to be removed from office.

For now, and until then, let’s be careful about rendering Trump as a man who has no control over what he is doing, and instead call his condition what it really is: HATE.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.

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