Gary Sargent in The Plum Line is trying to understand President Trump’s behavior in the wake of the removal of former CIA Director Brennan’s security clearance, because it appears that Trump decided to contradict the statement put out by the White House:
The latest example of this: In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday night, Trump openly declared that his revocation of former CIA director John Brennan’s security clearance was actually about the Russia investigation.
The detailed statement that the White House released Wednesday to justify this act only referred obliquely to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe, insisting Brennan had misrepresented the importance of the “Steele dossier” to the investigation. …
Why does Trump keep admitting to his real motive in such cases? The best answer is that Trump sees nothing whatsoever wrong with trying to derail the investigation.
And that may indeed be the reason. But I’d like to return to an earlier interpretation of his behavior.
Dementia.
Honestly, his actions, his unwillingness or inability to learn, his lack of impulse control, his inability to follow through, and his fascination with irrelevancies, such as his reported inclination to continually bring up his electoral victory in 2016, all point to a man whose mental faculties are deteriorating. His willingness to lie, especially about his health, also correlates with such a conclusion.
And an elderly man with dementia and his hands on some of the biggest levers of power around is a frightening thought.
