another day in america
Administration aides reel after Trump's nonsensical 24 hours: 'He just seemed to go crazy today'
Monday was … strange. President Trump spent the day questioning the cause of the Civil War, doubling down on his praise of Andrew Jackson, claiming he would be "honored" to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, admiring controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, disparaging the current iteration of his party's health-care bill, suggesting breaking up big banks, wobbling both ways on a gas tax, and abruptly walking out on an interview after a reporter pressed him on his renewed allegations of being wiretapped by former President Barack Obama.
"He just seemed to go crazy today," one Republican aide told Politico.
The short period was one of Trump's most accessible days in office as he gave interviews to Bloomberg, SiriusXM, and Face the Nation, but administration officials winced as the president's comments repeatedly came out of left field. "They were not helpful to us," one official said of the interviews. "There was no point to do all of them."
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley went a step further. "It seems to be among the most bizarre recent 24 hours in American presidential history," he said. "It was all just surreal disarray and a confused mental state from the president."