Listen to the man. Trump is losing it.

The right wing in our politics wants to say there's something weak and senile about the president we've got. Come on, folks -- a guy who can make the trip to Tel Aviv in wartime try to wrangle Benjamin Netanyahu, who is as much of a terrorist as Hamas militants, is not mentally depleted. Biden is old. But experience might even have made him wiser. Whether the slaughter of innocents can be contained, we will learn soon enough.

Meanwhile, the guy who will be his opponent next year is flat-out demented.

Kevin Drum records a catalogue of recent Trump bleats which ought to convince anyone who is not super-MAGA that Donald is losing it.

September 16: Says you need ID to buy a loaf of bread. (No you don't.)

September 18: Claims that under Biden, we would be in World War II. (World War II already happened.)

September 18: Says he beat Obama in 2016. (He beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.)

September 26: Tells a rally audience that Jeb Bush invaded Iraq. (George W. Bush led us into Iraq.)

October 8: Says Hannibal Lecter was a great actor. (Lecter was a fictional character played by the great actor Anthony Hopkins.)

October 13: Thinks Obama is currently president. (Joe Biden is the current president.

October 14: Says Republicans "eat their young" when they attack him. (The teleprompter probably said "eat their own.")

Drum concludes:

These aren't examples of routine Trump crackpottery. He says crazy stuff all the time. These are examples of Trump flatly forgetting or confusing things that he once knew. He's losing it.

We need to shove these sorts of breaks in front of the voters. Maybe, as some commenters suggested, Trump is just being lazy or tired. But if he wants to be president again, make him work for it.

And then, there is the even worse aspect to Trump's appearances: he actively encourages violence by his (often unhinged) supporters. We heard a little about his desire to execute General Mark Milley for crossing him when he was president. But there provocations are part of every public appearance.

Graphic by Z. Hagen

Legal commentator Jeffry Toobin is worried: 

The temptation with Mr. Trump, for President Biden and others, has always been to ignore the former president’s more outrageous statements in favor of the high (or at least higher) road. But that restraint is a disservice to the public and, in all likelihood, bad politics, too. If Mr. Trump isn’t called out for his encouragement of violence before it actually takes place, that will bolster his proclamations of innocence when the worst happens; he shouldn’t have that opportunity. Mr. Trump’s statements represent an immediate danger to the targets of his rage and the public at large; it’s Mr. Biden’s responsibility, as well as a political opportunity, to issue that warning.