President Donald Trump posted 67 times on social media on the night of July 5th-July 6th — and an expert says it is because he is increasingly insecure about his future.
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“I mean, that’s one way to look at it,” political analyst David Rothkopf told The Daily Beast’s chief content and creative officer Joanna Coles on The Daily Beast Podcast on Monday. “To me, this is just neurotic.”
He added, “This is Trump sitting there going, ‘No, I’m a good president, I’m doing all these good things. Here’s a list of the good things in case you don’t remember them.’ But almost every single one of them is based on a lie or a misinterpretation of the facts.”
From there Rothkopf pointed out something he found particularly notable about Trump’s more than five dozen posts.
Rothkopf told Coles, “This is the thing that is so striking is that Trump thinks he is reaffirming, but he is actually undermining, because the facts don’t add up for him. And that is what is keeping him awake in the middle of the night, and is why he is sending these 67 things.”
Earlier in the conversation, Coles asked Rothkopf about how Trump had put out “a list of all the things that he’s done that he thinks are, I guess, going to get him reelected.” The posts, which occurred shortly after the July 4th festivities at Trump’s under-performing state fair, included everything from family photographs and attacks on a federal judge to a list of 75 “accomplishments” that included his controversial Iran war, his designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction and his tariffs, even though they were ultimately declared unlawful.
“There’s too many to read, but what’s sort of fascinating is what he thinks is important and how he prioritized them, and he prioritizes it with Iran,” Coles said.
Rothkopf later told Coles that, despite widespread apathy toward Trump’s behavior, it is important for the public to remember that he is showing signs of instability.
“But The New York Times is bored with it. I mean, can you imagine The New York Times saying. ‘Oh, there were 67 Truth Social posts?’” Rothkopf told Coles. “No. They don’t. Because this is boring. This is beneath them. But this man is going nuts, in real time, online, in front of everyone.”
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He added, “To the rest of the world, you’ve got to say: Oh my god. This guy is the president of the United States, and he’s pumping out these crazy memes, and they’re all about racism and hate and his personal vendetta against a former president. It’s a sign of mental illness, right?”
Rothkopf has a history of criticizing Trump’s mental state. In June he pointed out that the Supreme Court’s ruling that he must pay former Elle Magazine editor E. Jean Carroll the $5 million he owes her after being found liable for sexual assault would particularly sting the president because of his pride.
“It’s now gone to the Supreme Court, and so, it now stands,” Rothkopf told Coles. This is a matter of law: Donald Trump is a sex abuser. That’s going to sting because Trump is ego, ego, ego.”
Rothkopf added, “The president was arguing, ‘I’m the president, I am important.’ In fact, this was an amazing argument because it was kind of like, ‘I’m a very important president doing a very important presidency’ — like that makes it special — and therefore, I shouldn’t be bothered with this old stuff.’ Well, they said, ‘Nope, we’re not even going to hear it’…. You know, Donald Trump and rich people, they treat and view courts differently.”
He concluded, “They feel they can hire as many lawyers as they want for as long as they want to come up with delaying tactics. Because every time they go and bring a new case or come up with a new tactic, they know that the other side’s got to write a check. The other side’s got to pay for it. And so, it becomes a way of punishing people, even if they know the case isn’t gonna go their way.”
On another occasion in June, Rothkopf told Coles that Trump is 80-years-old and that this seems to be impairing his performance.
“He’s had a good life, and he should be at Mar-a-Lago sitting by the pool, having a margarita, talking to his friends about things he used to do,” Rothkopf told Coles. “Unfortunately, he is a disturbed, sick lunatic who holds the most powerful job in the world and is at a stage of his existence where, because he’s a narcissist, the only thing he cares about is himself. And if every single one of us ceased to exist, he wouldn’t care, because the world is him.”
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