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Right Wing Europe Rebels

Published by digby on April 15, 2026

Giorgia Meloni hits back after Donald Trump makes explosive remarks about Iran and nuclear war.

Trump: “She’s the unacceptable one; she doesn’t care if Iran gets a nuclear weapon and blows Italy to bits in two minutes.”

Meloni: “As far as I know, nine nations possess nuclear weapons, and only one has ever used them. That nation is the United States.” “Mr. Trump needs to tone it down. No one throws around nuclear threats like Washington does, and he should watch his words.” A European leader directly calling out Trump like this – in these terms – is rare.

This is quite extraordinary, showing how much Trump is uniting Europeans on all sides 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 him Elly Schlein, Leader of Italy’s largest opposition party, (herself 50/50) furiously condemns Trump’s attacks on her opponent Meloni. The whole Chamber stands up to applaud the whole time.

“Italy is a free and sovereign country. Our Constitution is clear – Italy repudiates war. No foreign Head of State has the right to attack, threaten or disrespect our country or government. We are opponents in this Chamber, but we are all Italian citizens and Italian MPs. We are asking for unanimous condemnation of these attacks and threats”

Meloni and the Italians are not alone:

Donald Trump could be dubbed the kiss of death following the defeat of far-right darling Viktor Orban on the weekend.

The ouster of the Hungarian prime minister marks the third European election in which the White House has tried to influence the democratic processes and outcomes – only for the voters’ verdict to swing the other way.

[…]

Orban’s defeat will accelerate a trend already underway, with far-right political figures recognising that aligning with Trump may no longer be the winning ticket it once was. The seemingly haphazard approach to war in Iran and the economic carnage it has wrought have become the breaking points.

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has even downplayed the closeness of his relationship with Trump, telling The Financial Times last week, “I happen to know him, but that’s by the by”Weidel has reportedly told her German colleagues to pull back on visits to the US to cultivate ties with MAGA-land allies of Trump. AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla has described Trump’s interventions in Iran and Venezuela, and his designs on Greenland as “wild west” thinking.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, dubbed the Trump whisperer because of her closeness with the president, has also been critical over Iran as well as tariffs. Meloni suffered a bruising referendum election last month, which some viewed as a proxy vote against her closeness to the US. In a parliamentary speech last week, Meloni said: “As is normal among allies, we must clearly say even when we do not agree.”

Even Polish President Karol Nawrocki, who was granted an Oval Office audience with Trump as a candidate ahead of last year’s election, has begun to distance himself. Two of Nawrocki’s top advisers have made comments criticising Trump in recent weeks over the war in Iran and the president’s attack on Pope Leo.

French elections next year, headlined by the presidential race to succeed the centrist Emmanuel Macron, loom as the next litmus test. The potential candidate for the far-right’s National Rally, Jordan Bardella, is leading in the polls, but he, too, has taken a sharper line against Trump.

Not that Trump really cares at this point. He likes King Charles and enjoyed having his boots licked but in reality, he considers Europe (and everyone except for Russian and China) to be inferior nations that should literally be American vassal states. This does not bother him.

But it should bother us. America is not omnipotent and needs allies. At this moment we literally have none, not even Hungary whose people roundly rejected his buddy Orban last weekend and, in effect, the United States. We are on our own, which Trump actually prefers because he’s a fool and doesn’t understand how the world works.

Maybe the post war world order had run its course. But we could have reformed it without destroying all of our alliances in the process. Instead we elected a monstrous cretin who thinks he runs the world by his own broken instincts and non-existent morals.

Dazed And Confused

Published by digby on April 15, 2026

He’s very addled these days and is having a lot of trouble expressing himself clearly. I suspect he meant to say that she should have retired before Obama’s term was up and instead ended up saying something that sounds like someone else was president in 2020. It’s happening a lot.

More weirdness:

Those who think this is normal need to have their heads examined too. Cognitive tests all around!

He Just Can’t Help Himself

Published by digby on April 15, 2026

“child sacrificing monsters…”

Speaking of the Epstein Files:

“You have the authority to go ahead and release more [of the Epstein files], do you not?” Blanche was asked Tuesday on Fox News. “And you have the authority to go to Congress, perhaps?”

“No, we have released everything,” Blanche replied. “So listen, we reviewed six million pieces of paper. What we released with anything that’s associated with the Epstein file. So we are not sitting on a single piece of paper.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing that should be released. If we find something else tomorrow, we’ll release it. I don’t anticipate we will. So the misguided assumption that there is more to be released is because we reviewed millions and millions of pages within the department, millions of which had nothing to do with Epstein.… If we didn’t release it, it’s because it was not responsive to the law, and therefore not part of the Epstein files.… By law, we had to make certain redactions.… But we said to Congress, any congressman can come in and spend as much time as they want looking at everything unredacted.”

Yeah right.

Pirro Pulls Another Stunt

Published by digby on April 15, 2026

She needs to put a lid on it:

Prosecutors working for Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., made an unannounced visit to the headquarters of the Federal Reserve on Tuesday. Three officials from Pirro’s office arrived at the Fed’s headquarters construction site in downtown Washington and said they wanted a “tour,” Robert Hur, the central bank’s outside counsel, told Pirro’s office in an email, which was seen by NBC News.

Pirro’s deputies also said they wanted to “check on progress” in the yearslong renovation of the Fed’s historic buildings overlooking the National Mall, Hur said. Hur indicated in his email Tuesday that investigators were turned away from the site. The attempted visit was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The surprise move by Pirro’s office came as its investigation into Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony last year about the Fed’s renovation project has been rapidly losing steam. The probe first broke into public view in January, when Powell announced that subpoenas had been served to the central bank.

[…]

On March 13, Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., agreed with Powell. In a ruling, Boasberg blocked the subpoenas that Pirro’s office had served on the Fed, saying that “the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime.”

On Tuesday, Hur pointed to Boasberg’s ruling in his email. “As you know, Chief Judge Boasberg has concluded that your interest in the Federal Reserve’s renovation project was pretextual,” he wrote. “Should you wish to challenge that finding, the courts provide an avenue for you; it is not appropriate for you to try to circumvent it.”

Pirro suggested in a statement Tuesday night that the investigators were justified in having tried to inspect the renovation project despite the judge’s ruling. “Any construction project that has cost overruns of almost 80% over the original construction budget deserves some serious review,” she said. “And these people are in charge of monetary policy in the United States?”

Oh have another glass of Two Buck Chuck and STFU, Jeanine.

I still can’t believe she’s the USAT for DC. It’s a joke but sadly par for the course. If there is a more obvious sign of the decline of our country than that, I don’t know what it is.

Meanwhile:

News of the unannounced visit by prosecutors comes as Trump has again threatened to fire Powell, if the Federal Reserve Chair decides to stay on the central bank’s governing board after his term as chair expires next month.

“Well then I’ll have to fire him, OK?” Trump said when reminded that Powell has said he won’t leave the Fed while the Justice Department investigates a $2.5 billion renovation project at the bank. Powell has also said he will remain as chair of the Fed’s rate-setting committee until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate, following the precedent of previous chairs.

[…]

Trump’s threat to fire Powell comes as the Supreme Court is weighing the president’s effort to remove another central bank governor, Lisa Cook. Lower courts have so far allowed Cook to remain in her job while her legal challenge to the firing continues. The Supreme Court also seemed likely to keep her on the Fed when the court heard arguments in January. A decision could come any time.

The issue in Cook’s case is whether allegations of mortgage fraud, which she has denied, is a sufficient reason to fire her or a mere pretext masking Trump’s desire to exert more control over U.S. interest rate policy.

The Supreme Court has allowed the firings of the heads of other governmental agencies at the president’s discretion, with no claim that they did anything wrong, while also signaling that it is approaching the independence of the nation’s central bank more cautiously, calling the Fed “a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.”

It’s hard to know exactly how the Supremes will come down on this but if I had to guess, this is likely to be one of the cases where they defy him, simply because it affects the economy directly and they seem to be at least a little bit concerned about how that might affect business.

Janet Yellen, an actual expert and former Treasury secretary, had some thoughts on Trump’s looney insistence on lowering interest rates at a time of rising inflation:

Speaking at HSBC’s Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong, Yellen sounded the alarm on monetary policy independence, saying that she has “never seen a threat of this level to the Fed before”. “How often does the president of a developed country express the view that the interest rate should be set to reduce the debt service cost?” she said. “This is what you hear in a banana republic.” Managing interest rates for the sake of the government budget, she said, has led to “hyperinflation” in such countries.

[…]

She predicted that Trump’s nominee for Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, would struggle to establish “credibility” with colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee if he argued that productivity gains from artificial intelligence justified lower interest rates.

Alongside other members of the administration, Warsh has compared the current macroeconomic moment to the 1990s, when Alan Greenspan, then the Fed chair, gambled on holding rates steady amid a productivity boost from the emerging IT sector.

“[Greenspan] looked at evidence in a different way than many economists do. But I think he was very much respected for his economic expertise on the FOMC. And people listened to what he said very respectfully and took it seriously.” “I don’t think that Warsh walks in with that level of credibility,” said Yellen, who participated in those debates as a Fed board governor from 1994 to 1997.

Warsh has a bit of a problem on his hands:

When asked by Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo about Warsh’s chances in the Senate, Trump said, “We’re going to have to find out.” “He might not, but that’s why Thom Tillis is no longer a senator,” Trump said. “He quit.”

Tillis, despite announcing plans to retire from Congress at the end of his term this year, is still an active U.S. Senator and would have full voting rights if Warsh’s confirmation comes up for a vote before January 2027.

[…]

Tillis’ beef isn’t with Warsh specifically — a point he has reiterated on several occasions — but with the DOJ’s investigation into Powell’s testimony last year about the Fed’s renovation of its two historic main buildings on the National Mall.

“I love the candidate. I won’t spend my five minutes [in committee] asking him about his credentials, because he has them,” Tillis said. “I’ll spend five minutes talking about a bogus investigation that’s going to cause me to vote no, unless they end the investigation.” “There’s no way to sugarcoat this,” he continued. “There’s one way out of the box, canyon, and they’ve got to decide whether or not they’re going to do it.”

Good luck Kevin. Jeanine is full speed ahead.

The Nerve

Published by digby on April 15, 2026

He knows better.:

The great Christian thinkers St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas gave us just war theory, reconciling Christian ethics with the existence of evil in the world and the necessity of warfare.

According to this view, which is embraced by the Catholic Church, a war can only be fought for a just cause and has to be waged in keeping with moral standards minimizing harm to civilians. 

Leo has wrongly made it sound as though no war can possibly be just — and regardless, his opposition to the Iran war isn’t dispositive or binding on anyone else. 

The pontiff might consider that Trump first talked of attacking Iran when the regime was in the midst of slaughtering thousands of protesters in the streets.

And if the current government fell and gave way to one with more respect for the rights of its people, it would be a boon to Iranians and a large step toward a safer and more peaceful region.

The great theologian Rich Lowry lectures the Pope on Just War theory. Lol.

Update — you can’t make this shit up:

Update II —

FFS:

Mike Johnson on the Pope: “If you wade into political waters, you should expect some political response & the Pope has received some. Frankly I was taken a bit aback by him saying something about ‘those who engage in war, Jesus doesn’t hear their prayers’ or something. There’s ‘just war’ doctrine.'”

“As Congress May By Law Provide”

Published by Tom Sullivan on April 15, 2026

Raskin submits bill for a commission

It’s been clear for months that Donald Trump is unfit for office. I declared him mentally unbalanced in late 2015 or early 2016 over dinner with my parents, fergawdsakes. Democrats on Tuesday finally decided to get the net. Or at least create a process for building one.

Heather Cox Richardson writes:

With the House back in session today, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill to establish an independent commission to evaluate the president’s mental state. The Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution establishes a process by which either a majority of the Cabinet or a majority of a body created by Congress to evaluate the president’s fitness can declare that a president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” In a press release, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee expressed concern about “Trump’s escalating erratic conduct.” The bill has fifty Democratic co-sponsors.

Rasking is leaning on this wording from Section 4 of the 25th Amendment (emphasis mine):

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Raskin’s press release elaborates:

“The Constitution explicitly vests Congress with the authority to create a body that will guarantee the successful continuity of government by responding to presidential incapacity to discharge the powers and duties of office. We have a solemn duty to play our defined role under the 25th Amendment by setting up this body to act alongside the Vice President and the Cabinet. This body should have been set up [by] Congress when the 25th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1967. We have 535 Members of Congress but just one President and this body is a necessary element of successful continuity of government. Congress should act now to establish a permanent and standing Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office.“

You know why we need one and why now:

“Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations, unleashes chaos in the Middle East while violating Congressional war powers, aggressively insults the Pope of the Catholic Church and sends out artistic renderings online likening himself to Jesus Christ. We are at a dangerous precipice, and it is now a matter of national security for Congress to fulfill its responsibilities under the 25th Amendment to protect the American people from an increasingly volatile and unstable situation,” said Ranking Member Raskin.

Richardson adds:

Trump’s deteriorating mental state has become impossible to overlook, but Republicans are making excuses for it. Cabinet members, who owe their positions to Trump and who likely recognize they will never rise to such power again in a merit-based system, will probably not question Trump’s mental acuity. But Raskin’s measure will force Republicans in Congress either to vote for an independent commission to evaluate Trump or to own his increasingly erratic behavior themselves.

Not exactly. Republicans having to vote assumes this bill ever sees the light of day in a Trump presidency. This isn’t the first time Raskin has filed such a bill. He filed one on May 1, 2017 and again on October 9, 2020. Both died in committee.

House Republicans will again kill this bill in the cradle. Even if by extraordinary circumstances House Republicans don’t, Senate Republicans will. Even if by extraordinary circumstances Senate Republicans don’t, it would have to survive a Trump veto in both chambers. Even if by even more extraordinary circumstances the bill becomes law, a concurrent resolution of Congress is required to activate the Commission, the president must agree to submit to the examination, etc.

Then there is this last paragraph of the 25th Amendment:

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Don’t hold your breath. Raskin will get one day’s worth of press from this move. The country won’t get one nanosecond of relief from the lunatic in the Oval Office.

The MAGA Media Matters

Published by digby on April 14, 2026

Dan Pfeiffer says that the MAGA influencers turning on Trump actually does matter:

The clips of Trump getting ripped by his former allies have gone viral on social media and become a source of schadenfreude for Democrats and others disgusted by Trump.

It finally feels like the walls may be collapsing around him.

But the press and pundits have been quick to rain on our parade, pointing to polls showing that MAGA voters are sticking with Trump, with nearly 9 in 10 supporting the war in Iran. I think this analysis misses the point, misunderstands how the modern media ecosystem works, and understates the short- and long-term damage to Trump.

He looks at the voters’ reaction to the Iran war:

The assumption is that MAGA Republicans are America First isolationists in the mold of Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson, while non-MAGA Republicans are traditional establishment types who love Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and anyone with the last name Bush.

It’s more complicated than that. MAGA is not a philosophy or a worldview — there is no specific ideological agenda. MAGA is now a proxy for loyalty to Trump. It means you wear the red hat, figuratively or literally. This explains why these voters stick with Trump even when he violates the most essential principles of his own agenda. They were against forever wars when Trump was against them, and they’re for forever wars now that Trump has started one.

This is correct. However:

Democrats always wonder how Trump gets away with saying and doing things that would fell any other politician. It’s not as complicated as it seems. Trump doesn’t have magical powers or sell his soul to the devil (he never had a soul to sell).

Trump’s political protection racket is powered by a massive media apparatus that amplifies his message, attacks his critics, and never finds fault with anything he does. It rushes to his defense, hammers anyone who steps out of line, and helps him communicate not just with his base, but with the less overtly political voters who powered his 2024 victory.

This media apparatus lets Trump tell his story to his people on his terms and dictate the terms of the political debate. That aggressive media loyalty has been the signature feature of his political success over the last decade.

That is gone now. Trump is taking heat from some of the loudest, most influential voices on his side. It means he has to watch his flank. It means other critics will be emboldened, and negative views of Trump will reach large swaths of Americans who have tuned out traditional media.

This level of intra-party dissent also makes it harder for Trump to get the troops in line to pass difficult legislation — like the hundreds of billions in funding for the war — and will almost certainly dampen GOP turnout this fall. This seismic shift in the MAGA media will have political consequences far beyond a short-term effect on Trump’s polling. His greatest strength has become a weakness.

He points out that while many of Trump’s most loyal followers may stick with him no matter what Kelly or Carlson say, there are those who are casual or occasional supporters who don’t like Democrats of the mainstream media who are exposed through clips and viral pieces who may very well be persuaded by those people who they believe are “in the know.”

He believes this is a real problem for Trump. I hope he’s right.

Better Late Than Never

Published by digby on April 14, 2026

This essay on Fox news is by a once very powerful conservative:

America’s self-proclaimed national conservatives spoke of Orban’s Hungary as an oasis of traditionalism amid the wasteland of an ailing, liberal and decadent postmodern Europe. And some American politicians appear to have bought into the myth.

To be clear, it is a myth. Orban’s champions on this side of the Atlantic may well consider his illiberal court-packing, crony capitalism or restriction of free speech an acceptable price for their desired social utopia. Yet for all the talk of reviving faith and family through statist intervention, Hungary’s religious participation and birth rates under his rule have declined right alongside the rest of the West.

Of course, had any of the breathless pronouncements of Hungary’s unique virtue been true, they’d be a reasonable basis for personal affinity … but not for U.S. foreign policy. Shared values can be a useful entrée into deeper cooperation with allies and partners. But to the extent that values have played a central role in successful U.S. foreign policy, it has been in service to, and aligned with, our strategic interests.

Clearly, Orban’s fawning servitude to authoritarians doesn’t reflect American values. But far more importantly, his government’s fealty to Moscow, its willingness to be a gateway into Europe for China’s predatory machinations, and its deepening ties with Iran run counter to America’s interests.

These allegiances ought to matter a great deal to American conservatives who, quite rightly, expect European allies to carry a greater share of the burden of deterring threats to our shared Western interests.

The Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy observes that America “will need a strong Europe to help us successfully compete” with strategic adversaries. But Europe’s tremendous progress toward greater burden-sharing on defense has come despite Hungary’s defense budget shrinking by 6% last year and Orban’s active opposition to European Union support for Ukraine. While other allies have decreased their reliance on Russian energy, Orban has doubled down on Hungary’s dependence on Russian gas. And in 2024, he struck an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership” with America’s foremost strategic adversary, the PRC.

Orban’s Hungary offered America little in the way of strategic alignment, let alone “moral cooperation.” Today, the highest shared value between Americans and the people of Hungary is the right to choose our own leaders, freely and fairly, without foreign or domestic interference….

— what seems to have motivated Hungarian voters is a distaste for the crony capitalism and corruption that have weakened Hungary’s economy and the image of its ruling party. Their next prime minister is, after all, a product of that ruling party who campaigned on addressing Hungary’s economic woes rather than just scapegoating them. I suspect Hungary’s voters will, in turn, judge his government on whether he succeeds in doing so.

Watching this from Kentucky, it is hard to understand how some on the American right thought that staking U.S. influence on the outcome of a parliamentary election in a small, central European country was putting America’s interests first. To the extent that what happens in Hungary matters to America, it is a question of whether its actions on the world stage — not its social policies — align with America’s strategic interests.

The future course of U.S.-Hungary strategic alignment under the new government remains to be seen. But to the extent that Hungary’s next leaders behave with less obeisance toward our adversaries and a more serious focus on our shared interests, Washington may be wise to welcome this change.

Who wrote that? None other than the gravedigger of democracy himself, Mitch McConnell.

I won’t belabor all the reasons why he should be begging for forgiveness for all he did to destroy our democracy at home. But perhaps there are some out there whose consciences will be pricked just a little bit to read that by one of the most powerful leaders of the GOP of the last half century. Maybe…

Trump Joins The Pantheon Of The Notorious Nutcases

Published by digby on April 14, 2026

Axios reports:

Over the last two weeks, Trump has tested the loyalty of MAGA’s Christian base with a series of extraordinary provocations.

  • It began on Easter, when Trump threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges in a profanity-laced Truth Social post, and signed off with “Praise be to Allah.”
  • Two days later, he warned Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight” — appalling some of his closest former allies, including Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones and Candace Owens.
  • On Sunday night, Trump attacked Pope Leo XIV — the first American-born pope — as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” furious that Leo had condemned his threats against the people of Iran. Within the hour, Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like figure — healing a bedridden man, flanked by bald eagles and the American flag.
  • The image drew rare condemnation from MAGA loyalists, including allegations of blasphemy and even demonic possession.

Trump’s attacks on the pope — who is far more popular than he is — could prove self-destructive in the midterms.

There’s more about the rest of his coalition falling apart but the attack on the Pope is worth looking at more closely. He said in his post that he doesn’t think the Pope should criticize the president. But he went further in a phone interview with CBS News:

“He’s wrong on the issues,” Mr. Trump said of Pope Leo. “I don’t think he should be getting into politics. I think he probably learned that from this.” 

[…]

The president also remarked that he believes he has “done more for the Catholic Church than any president in the last hundred years.” He said, “During COVID I gave them billions of dollars. They were gonna go under. I gave them billions of dollars for education and that’s not the right way to treat somebody that’s been so good.”

The Catholic Church was going to go under if he didn’t step in? What in the world is going on here? As he’s descending into dementia and panicking about his presidency failing on every front, his mendacious narcissism is becoming more and more audacious and absurd.

This is not unprecedented in history although we haven’t seen it quite this bad in a long time. Consider the following leaders:

Caligula (r. 37–41 AD): Known for extreme megalomania, he declared himself a living god, demanding to be worshipped. He allegedly ordered soldiers to collect seashells as “spoils of war” after a botched campaign against Neptune and humiliated the Senate by dressing as various deities, including Venus.

Domitian (r. 81–96 AD): He was the first to formalize his divinity, requiring subjects to address him as Dominus et Deus (Lord and God).

Commodus (r. 180–192 AD): Paranoiac and deeply narcissistic, he believed he was a reincarnation of Hercules. He fought in the arena as a gladiator and demanded the city of Rome be renamed after him.

Diocletian (r. 284–305 AD): Ended the pretense of republican government, forcing courtiers to prostrate themselves before him (kow-tow) and wear elaborate robes to establish himself as an Eastern-style god-king. 

Charles VI of France (r. 1380–1422): Suffered from “glass delusion,” believing his body was made of glass and would shatter. He wore specially reinforced clothes with iron rods and forbade people from coming near him, forcing his courtiers to act as if his fragility was reality.

Princess Alexandra of Bavaria: Believed she had swallowed a glass piano as a child and would move sideways through doors to avoid breaking it.

King Ivan IV (The Terrible) of Russia: Known for severe paranoia, he often forced his boyars and subjects to engage in erratic, sadistic behavior to demonstrate loyalty.

I think this is where we’re going. He’s certifiable.

Update — It gets worse:

Bash: President Trump is attacking the pope in a phone call with an Italian newspaper. He said this about the pope: he doesn’t understand and shouldn’t be talking about war because he has no idea what’s happening. President Trump went after Giorgia Meloni. She had said that his attacks on the pope were unacceptable. President Trump responded, saying it’s her who is unacceptable…

Yikes…