commander-in-tweets

Trump complains about 'Fake Book,' likens himself to Reagan

January 7, 2018

.polaris__post-meta--date { display: none; } .polaris__post-meta--date.no-script { display: block; padding-left: 45px } January 7, 2018

Getty Images

President Trump followed his Saturday declaration that he is "like, really smart" and "a very stable genius" with a pair of Sunday morning tweets boasting of his weekend accomplishments at Camp David and again bemoaning Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House:

Leaving Camp David for the White House. Great meetings with the Cabinet and Military on many very important subjects including Border Security & the desperately needed Wall, the ever increasing Drug and Opioid Problem, Infrastructure, Military, Budget, Trade and DACA.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018

Trump's announcement that he will handle questions of his mental capacity in the style of former President Ronald Reagan is an odd choice, explains a Washington Post analysis, given that Reagan revealed an Alzheimer's diagnosis soon after leaving office: "The news media did indeed question Reagan's mental health at times, but such questions were at least somewhat validated" by the diagnosis, the Post notes, as well as "his son's 2011 claim that Reagan displayed symptoms of the disease while in office."

By comparing himself to Reagan here, Trump thus unintentionally suggests he is, in fact, concealing mental decline.