At 3:54 pm Donald Trump emerged from the White House with freshly colored hair and makeup, as Marine One’s engine roared in the background. He walked directly over to the waiting press, threw his hands out in front of him, gesturing at the empty ground in front of him, while he squeezed his legs together and arched his torso forward, yelling to the reporters, “This is the way the White House is supposed to look. Not asphalt. Broken, dirty asphalt. Look at it.” He then paused, frowning as he looked over his left shoulder, and continued, “The finest stone you could buy anywhere in the world.”
The gathered press said nothing, confused by his odd behavior. The President then took three steps forward and appeared to remember why he had come outside in the first place. “Okay. So, I’m heading to Alabama, a place that I won all three times. Record votes, like Texas, like Oklahoma, like a lot of them. And we’re going to give a little speech, and I hope they like it.”
For the next 6 minutes and 52 seconds, we watched the President struggle to answer questions, follow the conversation, and even walk in a straight line. Donald Trump is gravely unwell, and whatever is behind his serious decline appears to be rapidly accelerating.
I don’t say that with any joy or pleasure. The presidency is the most important office in our government, and the entire world is at risk with him in the Oval Office. But what we are watching can’t be normalized.
Peter Doocy from Fox News started the questions by asking Donald Trump about the growing possibility of a third impeachment if Democrats take back the House, while reminding him that he’d already been impeached twice.
The President’s answer to such a serious question was to say, “Well, I don’t know, but I’m getting good at it. And… It’s a fake impeachment. And we could have done that with Sleepy Joe, but we didn’t do it because it would have been appropriate. I could have done that with Hillary Clinton, as you know. I just had the chance to do it if I wanted, and I said that would be inappropriate, but with me they like to do it.”
The President of the United States joked that being impeached had become something he was “getting good at” after having gone through it twice. His words were again slurred, making it difficult to know whether he said impeaching Biden “would have been appropriate” or “inappropriate.” He also claimed he could have impeached Hillary Clinton, even though private citizens cannot be impeached under the Constitution.
Maybe he doesn’t understand that impeachment is not a criminal charge, that it is the constitutional process used to remove a sitting president or other federal officeholder from office. It would not have applied to Hillary Clinton, and it would not have applied to Joe Biden after he left office either. Whether Trump confused impeachment with criminal prosecution or simply lost track of what was being discussed, either possibility is deeply concerning.
Regardless of how he acted, like trying to make what could happen seem like it was no big deal, he does care. This time around, he knows the consequences, including hearings and investigations, could make his life very uncomfortable. He is right to be concerned. There is a path, one I’ve talked about before, where if we achieve a blue wave of epic proportion, and every single piece lines up, this could go further than just oversight and investigations. It could lead to impeachment and removal. And if there ever were a time for that, it is now. Donald Trump loves being number one and being the first. Maybe we could actually make him the first President removed from office. It’s a long shot, and everything would have to go perfectly, but in a moment like this, we should be shooting for the stars.
When Donald Trump was asked whether it would be harder for Republicans to hold the House or the Senate, Trump answered with another non-answer: “I think it’s pretty even. I think that we’re making a lot of progress. When I go there, we win. If I don’t go there, we would not do as well.”
What we know from current polling is that right now, the odds are overwhelmingly strong that he will lose the House. The Senate, which wasn’t supposed to be in play at all, is now a real fight, with viable paths to a Democratic majority. None of this is guaranteed, and it’s important that nobody feels too comfortable in this moment, but if there are free and fair elections, things seem to be looking bad for the President and his enablers, and very good for the Constitution and the country.
He also was able to add in one of his favorite talking points: “I’m asking them to go out and vote because I’m not running. But I’m saying pretend I’m running. We want to pretend I’m running.” We all need to pretend he’s running. Because in a way, he is, or at least his unchecked power is on the ballot. When we vote against MAGA Republicans, we are voting against him, and we are voting to take away his stronghold on our country. That is what we are voting against. What we are voting for is hearings, investigations, oversight, and finally accountability. We’re voting to begin repairing the relationships he’s shattered with our allies, or at least to remind the world that we haven’t been completely taken over. And also that we have absolutely not given up. We are also voting to end the destabilization and the reckless imperialism that Donald Trump has brought to every corner of this planet. So yes, we all must pretend he’s running. Because he is.
After he said to “pretend I’m running,” he didn’t even pause for a second before immediately pointing to the construction site behind him and said, “I hope you like what you’re seeing here. That’s getting all sorts of awards. And the best of all, you see the new crane, the red, the red boom. That’s one of the biggest cranes in the world that lifts up the steel for the roof. Pretty cool, right?” In the middle of answering serious questions affecting the entire world, the President of the United States became fixated on talking about a crane.
He then turned around and faced the reporters who were all shouting questions at him. With a confused look in his eyes and his chest lurched forward, he pointed towards a member of the European press and muttered something about him always asking the same questions, and the reporter replied, “Mr. President, people believe you never get tired.”
What he said was an opening for Donald Trump to deny the very thing millions of people have spent the better part of the year watching. He then looked into the camera and said, “I never get tired. And if I got tired, it would be a big story, I can tell.”
The administration needed that question to be asked on camera because we all keep watching him fall asleep in meetings, slump over in chairs, drift off mid-sentence, and struggle to stay upright. His administration knows this is one of the most dangerous narratives building against him. They also know that their most loyal followers are willing to ignore what they can see with their own eyes as long as someone helps them commit to willful ignorance or just pretend it isn’t actually happening.
This is how authoritarian regimes manage the visible decline of their leaders. In the Soviet Union, aging, frail, and severely declining men were propped up to appear still competent and powerful while Soviet state media broadcast images of these leaders signing documents, greeting officials, and projecting normalcy, while much of the real decision-making shifted behind closed doors. The pattern holds today. The people enabling Donald Trump are trying to preserve the appearance of continuity, reassure his donors and supporters, and buy time while they prepare for what comes next. It’s also why they have J.D. Vance campaigning across the country.
The most alarming moment of Donald Trump’s time talking to reporters came when someone told the President that South Korea says it has not signed off on the Alaska pipeline deal after all and asked whether he had jumped the gun. This was after Trump had announced a new energy agreement involving South Korea. Donald Trump looked confused, like he had no idea what the reporter was talking about. He eventually answered and said, “Well, I didn’t jump the gun. I mean, they were there and they were represented and let’s see. If they don’t want to do it, that’s okay with me. I’ll just charge them more.”
The reporter tried again, reminding him that South Korea said it had never signed the agreement in the first place. Trump’s response was, “Tell them if they don’t sign shortly, I’m going to double it up. Okay.”
Trump looked directly at a reporter and asked them to tell a foreign country he was going to charge them more if they did not sign an agreement. It was completely lost on him that reporters report the news. They don’t negotiate between countries. The President of the United States actually asked a reporter to deliver a threat to a sovereign nation.
This is not some hostile government he’s threatening either. This is South Korea, one of our most important allies in the Pacific, a democracy we have defended for more than seventy years because its stability is essential to deterring one of the world’s most dangerous dictatorships just across its northern border. We need that alliance, and we need the American bases within its borders.
After that, multiple reporters tried to ask about a diesel deal with Europe, and Donald Trump confirmed that he would not be imposing an export ban and that because of steps being taken, we are going to have a “lot of oil very shortly.” Then, without fail, he returned to one of his favorite talking points: “As soon as Iran ends, which won’t be long, not going to be long, you’re going to have oil go down to the price it was before, maybe even lower than I got it at the beginning.”
This all stemmed from his threat of a diesel export ban that would have devastated European families heading into winter, families who depend on diesel to heat their homes, get to work, and simply make it through the cold months. He is now waving it away as though it was never serious in the first place. But it was serious enough to terrify an entire continent. That is how Donald Trump negotiates. He uses fuel as leverage, basic human needs as bargaining chips, and then acts as though he never meant what he said. This is un-American. It is not how we treat our allies, and it is not how we should treat our fellow human beings.
His impromptu press conference ended after he was asked about New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointing Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor in the Cornell University rape case. Trump answered by saying, “Well, Letitia James is a corrupt person. She’s totally corrupt and I can’t imagine it.” Then came the most unconscionable part: “I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake.”
The President of the United States said he felt bad for the men accused of committing horrific crimes against a woman who reported being sexually assaulted. He said nothing about the courage it took for her to come forward or the trauma she has endured. He felt badly for the men being investigated. That was his first reaction.
We are now just 32 days away from the most pivotal election in modern American history. We are not just voting for our country, we are voting for the entire world because what Donald Trump does echoes far past our borders. But we also have to temper our expectations because even when we take back the House, and possibly the Senate, he is not going quietly. He will push through executive orders at a pace we haven’t seen. The people behind him, the ones who are smarter and more calculating than he is, who are already parading J.D. Vance across the country as his eventual replacement, have everything to lose too. They are planning for their own survival. We need to be ready for whatever is to come. We need to protect our access to vote, and then protect the actual count of our ballots, while also preparing for an extended fight to make sure the new Congress is actually seated.
Just after midnight this morning, Donald Trump posted this on Truth Social: “America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it. President Donald J. Trump.”
America does belong to those who love it. This country belongs to us. And in 32 days, we’re going to prove it. That’s why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day:
My oldest has been traveling more for work, flying back and forth up to Northern California and then back down to San Diego. Her flight tonight was delayed, and that was after she had arrived at the airport hours early trying to catch an earlier flight. When she finally was in her seat, this was on the screen in front of her. It’s a picture facing south to Torrey Pines and one of the most beautiful stretches of the coast. It is also right above our favorite places to go hiking.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from the White House, Oct. 2, 2026: YouTube Video
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/nyregion/letitia-james-cornell-rape-prosecutor.html
He is obviously unwell and his sycophants will continue to prop him up. They are too frightened of losing their cushy jobs and opportunities for corruption to acknowledge what we all see.
In some states, Mail in ballots are showing up in mail boxes. The voting has begun.