Alan Zendell, August 16, 2024

Suppose we go back over the first half of 2024 and review the attacks leveled against President Biden’s perceived inability to win a second term as president, much less be able to perform effectively for four more years. Then we’ll apply them to Donald Trump’s attempt to become the second president in history to be re-elected after being defeated as an incumbent, and see what that tells us.

For months, those of us who revere and respect Biden, who have followed his career of public service for more than fifty years, struggled to convince ourselves that he could still do the job, until it became clear that that was no longer the issue. The priority was doing whatever was necessary to assure that Donald Trump never got near the White House again. Biden did exactly that, and he showed us yesterday that he is still the man we knew now that the pressure of running a re-election campaign is off the table. His joint appearance with Kamala Harris in Maryland displayed a stronger, healthier-looking Biden who spoke effectively and clearly.

That he was the same man who stumbled so badly during his debate with Trump in June makes the case that serving as president while running for re-election against someone who turned the debate into a full-on assault is too much to expect of someone who will be 82 before Election Day. But Biden showed us something else, yesterday, as well. Having to drop out of the race was a terribly humbling and humiliating experience. He was angry and frustrated, and felt betrayed by people like Nancy Pelosi with whom he’d be allied for decades. Yet, the Biden we saw yesterday had clearly overcome all that and accepted the reality that Harris will likely win where he probably wouldn’t have.

Like the Biden we’ve known all these years, it took him only a few weeks to overcome his fury and disappointment, and once again put his country and party ahead of his own needs. His appearance with Harris was filled with genuine love and palpable optimism which brought the crowd of about 2,500 to its feet cheering, “Thank you, Joe.” He showed the class, integrity, and humility he’s always been known for, and in doing so, unintentionally cast an unforgiving spotlight on Trump.

Trump’s press conference from his New Jersey golf resort, the same day, was a stark, shocking contrast with Biden’s appearance in Maryland. Where Biden was fully engaged and coherent, and showed no signs of the torment he experienced for several months, Trump appeared to have almost completely unraveled. His act was old and tired. There wasn’t a single thing that was new about it, except that he was even more undisciplined and incoherent than usual.

I’m at an age at which I see cognitive and physical decline all around me. We all recognize the symptoms: inability to remain focused, constant repetition, misremembering names, dates, and places, irrational flashes of rage, a complete lack of behavioral filters, and most sadly, the lack of recognition and acceptance of what’s happening by the persons in decline themselves.

That’s what I and millions of other Americans see every day in Trump. I wonder if even his committed base sees it, if they wring their hands hoping he’ll improve the way the rest of us agonized over Biden’s decline last Spring. We accepted reality before it was too late, and in Kamala Harris, we have a candidate we can vigorously support. But Trump’s base is more like a cult of true believers, because that’s what he demands them to be. As Trump declines, they interpret his deranged rants and inability to focus on the things that could still win the election for him as just another act in his unconventional approach to politics. Now they’re stuck with him to the end.

Trump, at 78, walks better than Biden and doesn’t stutter. He doesn’t trip over words the way Biden sometimes does, but his cognitive decline is apparent in other ways. His command of the language is pitiful for a man in his position, and that’s clearly a sign of age, because speeches given by a younger Trump were mostly intelligible and coherent, where today’s Trump seems unable to finish a sentence without veering off into craziness. He lies so routinely that even people close to him question whether he’s even aware that he’s lying or he’s simply losing touch with reality.

In his remarks at his so-called press conference, yesterday, he raved about how unintelligent he thinks Harris is and claimed he had every right to attack her. He admitted that he was angry at her for upsetting his campaign against Biden and turning the tables on him. But he concluded his attack by saying, “and she’ll be a terrible president.” Clearly, he meant she would be if she were elected, but as Trump is wont to do from time to time, his uncontrolled anger allowed his inner truth to show.

Trump knows he’s going to lose and it’s driving him to a very dark place.