Scaramucci says Trump 'has declining mental faculties.' Trump's latest rally bolsters that case.

published 16 August 2019

This is how The New York Times summarized President Trump's campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Thursday night: "Typically rambling, veering on and off script seemingly at random over an hour and a half, he repeated points he had already made earlier in the evening as if he did not remember already making them." And this is how Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's short-lived communications director and newly minted critic, described Trump to Vanity Fair's William Cohan in an interview published early Friday:

I think the guy is losing it, mentally. He has declining mental faculties; he's becoming more petulant; he's becoming more impetuous. Okay, you see just by the way he's sweating, his body's not doing well. It's obviously not a guy that takes care of himself, right? ... This is an observational objective thing: the guy's nuts. We've gotta defeat him. Everybody in the Republican Party knows it. They don't want to lose their mantle of power and their mantle of leadership, so let's primary the guy. [Anthony Scaramucci to Vanity Fair]

The Mooch has some nice things to say about Trump's policies, and some sharply negative thoughts on Trump's tariffs and tweets. But the issue that finally pushed him off the "Trump train," Scaramucci said, "was the racism — full-blown racism." It's not that Trump's a racist, he added. "He's actually worse than a racist." He elaborated, colorfully:

He is so narcissistic, he doesn't see people as people. He sees them as objects in his field of vision. And so therefore, that's why he has no empathy. ... And by the way, if you and I were in his field of vision and he had a cold and the two of us had to die for him to get a Kleenex, you're f--king dead. I mean, there's no chance. You understand that, right? [Scaramucci, Vanity Fair]

Read the entire interview, including Scaramucci's very specific prediction that Trump will quit the race, at Vanity Fair.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.