XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: flwp@in.valid   
      
   President Trump's battery is running low.   
      
   'Unhinged and unwell': Apparent degradation of Trump's mental state raises   
   alarms   
      
   Despite his wild bravado about his stamina, recent reporting from The New   
   York Times highlighted just how much Trump's aging is showing.   
      
      
   Nov. 27, 2025, 6:00 AM EST   
   By   
   Hayes Brown   
      
   President Donald Trump is older than the Internet. He also predates   
   microwave ovens and color television. Last year, at 78, Trump became the   
   oldest person to be elected president of the United States, snatching the   
   record from the septuagenarian he defeated, Joe Biden. Yet Trump, now 79,   
   presents himself to his followers as a paragon of masculine strength and   
   virility.   
      
   A New York Times article this week highlighted how that image is at odds   
   with the reality of Trump's advancing years. Although Trump has never been   
   one for early mornings in the Oval Office — even during his first term —   
   the Times analysis found that the president is starting public events later   
   and holding fewer of them. Trump has spent a lot of time overseas in this   
   first year of his second term, but his total number of official appearances   
   "has decreased by 39%. In 2017, Mr. Trump held 1,688 official events   
   between Jan. 20 and Nov. 25 of that year. For that same time period this   
   year, Mr. Trump has appeared in 1,029 official events. "   
      
   This president happily brings up his age but only in the interest of   
   boasting about how far beyond the norm he is compared to his chronological   
   peers.   
      
   In addition to analyzing Trump's schedule, the Times report drew attention   
   back to the opacity of Trump's overall health status. For instance, the   
   president underwent an MRI at Walter Reed military hospital in October, but   
   he provided no details of why the scan was done, only telling reporters   
   that the evaluation "was perfect. " In July, Trump was diagnosed with   
   "chronic venous insufficiency" after noticing swelling in his legs. He   
   applies makeup to his hand to cover bruising that, according to the Times,   
   "his physician and aides say is caused by taking aspirin and shaking so   
   many hands. " During his most recent physical, also in October, his   
   physician said the president "continues to demonstrate excellent overall   
   health" — but one assumes that's relative to his age. It can be hard to   
   ignore the images of Trump appearing to doze off during public events.   
      
   Aside from the physical issues, some of which are visible, there is the   
   question of Trump's mental fitness. As my colleague Zeeshan Aleem noted   
   during last year's presidential race, Trump's rambling style of discourse —   
   which the former reality star refers to as "the weave" — effectively   
   distracts from a litany of errors, meandering or repetitive statements, and   
   other cognitive lapses that would be controversial with other public   
   figures. Trump has defensively pointed to a screening test he took during a   
   physical in April as proof of his mental fortitude: "I had a perfect score.   
   And one of the doctors said he's almost never seen a perfect score. I had   
   a... had a perfect score. I had the highest score. And that made me feel   
   good. "   
   Donald Trump in Nov. 2017; Donald Trump in Nov. 2025.   
   Donald Trump in Nov. 2017 and Donald Trump in Nov. 2025. Oliver   
   Contreras/Win McNamee / Getty Images   
      
   Despite the dispassionate framing of the Times report, Trump posted an   
   explosive response on Truth Social. He began by listing his usual litany of   
   accomplishments, then pivoted into an attack on the Times and a demeaning   
   shot at the story's main author (at least his third denigration of a female   
   journalist in the past two weeks, but hey, who's counting? ). In a   
   statement to the Times included in the article, White House Press Secretary   
   Karoline Leavitt dismissed questions about the president's health: "Unlike   
   the Biden White House, who covered up Joe Biden's cognitive decline and hid   
   him from the press, President Trump and his entire team have been open and   
   transparent about the president's health, which remains exceptional. "   
      
   Two years ago, when it was Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. , whose health and   
   age were in the news, I wrote: "American society on the whole fears aging.   
   It is a culture that works overtime to stave off death, even while having   
   one of the lowest life expectancies in the world compared to the amount   
   spent on health care every year. It is considered taboo to bring up age in   
   a variety of contexts, including whether or not someone is still hardy   
   enough for the rigors of public service after more than eight decades on   
   the planet. "   
      
   I would add a caveat when the age discussion is about Trump. This president   
   happily brings up his age but only in the interest of boasting about how   
   far beyond the norm he is compared to his chronological peers. In   
   Wednesday's TruthSocial post, he came close to conceding that age is a   
   reality that comes for us all — but then swerved back into delusion: "There   
   will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone, but with a   
   PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST ("That was aced")   
   JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now! "   
      
   Whatever Trump wants to say, there is no escaping the reality of entropy.   
      
   In 2017, the New Yorker reported that Trump believes that "a person, like a   
   battery, is born with a finite amount of energy. " The idea that someone   
   can have good days and bad days as they grow older falls outside of this   
   ideology, leaving only a before and after the tipping point of decline.   
   This binary way of thinking about health and age can account for only so   
   much, though, while with each passing day Trump simply grows older.   
      
   To be fair, this president is not the first American leader to be cagey   
   about his health. While not nearly as hyperbolic, Biden and his aides   
   sought to showcase him as a man who could still handle the demands of the   
   presidency despite his own advancing years. Other presidents well before   
   Biden have hidden their illnesses or disabilities, becoming enough of a   
   trope to spread into fiction. The presidency itself is no normal role but   
   an official position in which, arguably, admitting weakness could have   
   detrimental effects on the nation. The unusualness of the role and the   
   strains of the office are precisely why all U. S. presidents undergo   
   regular physicals and the public is told about the findings.   
      
   But Trump stands out for his insistence on his superiority in the face of   
   time – regularly making an argument that appears to be part of his   
   political brand and core personality.   
      
   There's more than a little bit of pride and ego at work here, both from   
   Trump and from the people who have tied their political fortunes to him.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)