Trump dressed up in a McDonald’s apron and pretended to work at a store (which had closed and enlisted supporters as “customers”). He spouted inanities in a Black barbershop; asked about getting health foods into their neighborhoods, Trump rambled on about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “So, Bobby Kennedy, right? Everybody likes Bobby Kennedy. And he’s so big into the healthy food and women things. Everything. He wants to do things and the environment, and he endorsed me.” Trump also turned down interviews where he might be pressed to answer serious questions. What is striking — aside from the horror that a candidate this unfit could actually win — is his reversion to reality show actor. He is playing roles that convince himself and his cult followers that he is more authentic and adept than his opponent (who did work at McDonald’s, does have real policies and has done a batch of mainstream interviews). I recently interviewed Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner, authors of “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune And Created The Illusion Of Success.” They reminded me that Trump’s wealth (exaggerated by false property valuations, according to a civil verdict earlier this year) is due almost entirely to his inheritance and a heavily edited reality show designed to make him appear competent and successful (plus the marketing deals that followed). His time in the White House was just as contrived. Even as president (who reportedly did not show up for work until late morning after “executive time”) he did not do the job (devising legislation, problem-solving, negotiating with allies, facing a pandemic head-on) but rather made appearances, posed, preened and soaked up the pomp and privileges of the office as if they were personal tributes. His “accomplishments” were fictional (I built the wall! Best economy ever!). Totally unequipped to govern — and impeached twice for violating basic precepts of his oath — he left in disgrace. Now, he plays the role of candidate, but not very well. (He lacks a skilled editor.) He faltered in the debate, unable to hold his ground against a serious opponent. He has made no effort to devise rational policies, preferring to fake his way through answers on issues such as health care, child care and the national deficit. Instead, he seethes with anger, lacks control over his vulgar impulses, incoherently rambles and rarely shows he can string together logical thoughts. (He could not even complete a Q&A at a town hall, preferring to rock to music for nearly 40 minutes.) He wants to “play the Garden,” although it echoes the infamous Nazi rally in 1939. And he lies over and overand over again. In lieu of tangible success, his delusions, fakery, grandiosity and denigration of foes (every accusation appears to be a subliminalconfession) feed his insatiable ego. But without the trappings of the president (as he had in 2020) or “The Apprentice” illusion as his introduction (as he had in 2016), the stage management falters. The signs of strain and decline are impossible to conceal. As Joan Walsh wrote for the Nation, “Mainstream news organizations suddenly became more blunt about Trump’s decline — and derangement.” It is about time. With his bizarre behavior now front and center, each new erratic and unhinged episode should prompt us to ask: Without any competent, responsible adults left inside Trump’s inner circle (all such people were cast out once they spoke up to warn America about his fascist inclinations and mental unfitness), who would really be running the show in a second Trump term? One comes to the uneasy conclusion that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) — more cunning, more ideologically extreme, more inexperienced, more openly misogynistic and, hence, more dangerous than Trump — will be driving the train with Project 2025 as his guidebook. I am hard pressed to think of anything more frightening than a figurehead Trump free to seek revenge on his enemies while Vance steers the country toward fascism. | 