If people actually watched the press conference yesterday what they saw was downright terrifying. As James Fallows wrote:
Trump himself looked and sounded very bad. He slurred and slumped more than usual. His eyes fluttered many times toward seeming shut. He had trouble working his way through big words in the written script. His off-script riffs were from a very small span of his standard repertoire. (“We’re a respected country again, like never before,” etc.) Yes, he had probably been up all night. But even for him, he looked bad.
When answering one of the many policy questions that Trump shunted to him, Marco Rubio found himself saying, “It’s a country run by incompetent, senile men.” He was talking about Cuba. But even as the words came from his mouth, with Trump standing with drooping eyes behind him (as shown above), you could see Rubio wishing he had phrased the point a different way.
It was one of his worst performances and his incoherent rambling has caused a tremendous amount of confusion.
I guess this is a Rubio operation but we’ve had reports that it’s really a Stephen Miller op and Hegseth and Vance are also hovering around trying to get in on the action. There are as many different goals as there are Trump toadies manipulating the tired old man.
It’s a recipe for disaster.