Former McCain aide on Trump: 'I'm not a psychiatrist, but there is something wrong with [the] guy'

Mark Salter, who was a top aide to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the the 2008 presidential election, is convinced there are some screws loose in Donald Trump's head. "I think he could come apart, you know, in some kind of visible way," Salter said of the presumptive GOP nominee on Politico's "Off Message" podcast this week. "I think that's quite possible. ... I'm not a psychiatrist, but there is something wrong with [the] guy."
Trump's "unstable personality," Salter says, is one of many reasons he will be voting for a Democrat for president for the first time in his life in November. "I'm sure 10 minutes into Hillary Clinton’s inaugural address I’ll sort of be disappointed," Salter said. "... But she is the more conservative choice and the least reckless one. She won't — or at least she hasn't said that she would — take the U.S. out of NATO. She hasn't encouraged other nations to get their own nuclear weapons. She hasn't threatened to slap a 45 percent tariff on imported goods."
Listen to the podcast, and the rest of Salter's digs on Trump, below. Becca Stanek
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
How Putin misunderstood his past victories
In Depth Though Vladimir Putin has led Russia to a number of grisly military triumphs, they may have misled him when planning the invasion of Ukraine
-
Crossword: August 18, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
Sudoku medium: August 18, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Border agents crash Newsom redistricting kickoff
Speed Read Armed federal Border Patrol agents amassed outside the venue where the California governor and other Democratic leaders were gathered
-
Man charged for hoagie attack as DC fights takeover
Speed Read The Trump administration filed felony charges against a man who threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent
-
Trump BLS nominee floats ending key jobs report
Speed Read On Fox News, E.J. Antoni suggested scrapping the closely watched monthly jobs report
-
Trump picks conservative BLS critic to lead BLS
speed read He has nominated the Heritage Foundation's E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics
-
Trump takes over DC police, deploys National Guard
Speed Read The president blames the takeover on rising crime, though official figures contradict this concern
-
Trump sends FBI to patrol DC, despite falling crime
Speed Read Washington, D.C., 'has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,' Trump said
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monuments
Speed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seat
speed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors