Joe Scarborough frets about Trump's mental state, compares him to his mother with dementia

Joe Scarborough thinks Trump is acting similarly to his mother, who has dementia.

(Image credit: YouTube/Morning Joe)

published 2 May 2017

Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough could not quite believe his ears after President Trump's strange series of comments, interviews, and flip-flops Monday. Quoting presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, who described to Politico the president's "confused mental state," Scarborough said he had read the transcripts from Trump's interviews and "it was really, really shocking."

In Trump's interview with CBS's John Dickerson, for example, Scarborough noted that Trump "was mumbling, he was rambling around, incoherent, and then just sort of quit talking. Walked off."

Scarborough also zeroed in on Trump's curiosity about why the Civil War began. "My mother's had dementia for 10 years," Scarborough told historian Jon Meacham. "That sounds like the sort of thing my mother would say today … That's something that a 5-year-old might ask, but that is not anything that any grown-up that I have ever been around in my entire life would ever let pass from their lips." Jeva Lange

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.