At 4:36 this afternoon, the President of the United States began panicking on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews after he was asked why his final in-person rally was abruptly canceled. With the cameras broadcasting live, Donald Trump lost control of himself and attacked a reporter in one of the most revealing fits of rage of his presidency to date.
Trying to understand why rallies would be canceled with so little notice and at such a pivotal stage of the campaign, the reporter asked, “Mr. President, you’ve been doing a lot of travel. We’ve been doing a lot of travel with you. How are you feeling? How’s your health?”
Donald Trump responded in part with “Good. I think very good. I think you see that we had a great rally. That was a great rally… we’re going to have a strong Tuesday night. That’s my opinion.”
The reporter followed up with, “So you not going to Kansas has nothing to do with you being sick of traveling?” And that is when Donald Trump started to melt down out of nowhere, saying, “Oh, you’re sick to ask that question. You are sick. Who you with?” The reporter, Jacob Bogage, said, “I’m with Reuters, sir.”
The President snapped, pointing to Bogage, “You are a sick guy. Reuters is terrible, by the way. Can you imagine? Look at this. Look at this guy. He’s way out of shape. Look at how badly -- he comes to me,” and then Donald Trump tried to recreate what had just happened seconds before for all the same people who were standing there, forgetting they saw the entire exchange.
Bogage responded, “Well, we just want to make sure you’re doing well.”
Trump then picked up the attack again with increasing agitation and sweat pooling on his forehead and face. “I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell.”
His anger overflowing, the president barked at the entire group of reporters, “Thank you, everyone,” and turned to walk away.
That exchange alone would have been disturbing enough, especially coming from the President of the United States of America just five days before one of the most consequential midterm elections in modern history. But it’s what it revealed that is the most concerning. It wasn’t just a bad moment for him. It was the complete breakdown we witnessed as he resorted to primal reactions, seemingly unable to respond with any sort of logic, that should make all of us recognize just how much danger our country is in.
Taken together with everything else that happened today, we may be approaching an inflection point. Or perhaps the most dangerous days of his presidency have already begun, even before he enters what could become his complete sitting-duck era.
When Trump exploded like that, it was only about his Saturday rally in Kansas being canceled. Hours later, he canceled his Sunday rally in Dubuque, Iowa, as well. That means tomorrow’s rally in Florida will be his final in-person midterm event. The White House said he would “connect with Americans through more than 20 tele-rallies” before Election Day, leaving us with a multitude of questions about what is really happening. Why the sudden cancellations? And why is he now relying on the safety of a phone or screen when he has spent so much time seeking the excitement and adoration of the crowds at his live events?
He’s pulling back. But to what? And why now? He is 80 years old. He has held 25 rallies since October 1. In the past few weeks, he has appeared visibly drained, speaking in a hoarse voice and making strange vocal sounds mid-speech. Exhaustion would be understood and almost expected for someone even half his age. But there is another possibility that is deeply concerning, one that we all need to be paying close attention to over the next five days and beyond. Because desperate men do desperate things, and Donald Trump is as desperate as they come. These coming days may end up mattering more than we realize.
Just today, we were confronted with multiple serious warnings, including one that came directly from Senator Chris Murphy, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and attended a classified briefing on the Iran war. In a statement posted today on X, Murphy warned, “Trump is reportedly planning to restart war with Iran after the election. Some of us have been briefed on the war plan. And while I cannot disclose any details, I can say this: the plan is insane. It will not achieve objectives and will set off a new cycle of escalation.” His warning followed remarks he made yesterday at the Middle East Institute, where he went further, warning that the plan “will lead to devastating escalation and the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law.”
We also learned that the Pentagon is reportedly reinforcing missile defenses, repositioning troops, and preparing additional warships and aircraft. They have even moved a barge of surface-to-air missile systems to the Intracoastal Waterway outside Mar-a-Lago.
Eight days ago, on October 21, the U.S. Army conducted a mass battlefield burial exercise at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Bulldozers dug simulated burial trenches, and 130 chaplains and religious support personnel practiced burial services under combat conditions. The military said it was preparation for “large-scale combat operations.”
Add all of this to countries across Europe telling their citizens to stockpile supplies and prepare for the possibility of armed aggression, with some urging two weeks of self-sufficiency, and reports that our own military bases are being prepared to survive 90 days of self-sufficiency. Then consider Donald Trump canceling the rest of his public appearances this weekend with our elections just five days away. Taken together, this is an extremely uncertain and dangerous time for our country and the world.
There was another piece to the puzzle that happened earlier in the day, during a separate exchange with the press before Donald Trump left for South Carolina. A reporter asked about the firing of Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia, the Pentagon’s top military planner, a three-star combat veteran with 32 years of service who held the position of Director for Strategy, Plans and Policy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the office known as J5, responsible for some of the most sensitive strategic planning in the entire military. Sylvia was abruptly fired by Pete Hegseth amid accusations that he leaked classified information about the war in Iran and Russia’s war in Ukraine to journalists. Pentagon officials claimed that he failed multiple polygraphs and referred the case to the Justice Department for possible prosecution. Two Pentagon sources disputed those claims to CBS News, raising serious questions about whether this was a legitimate security action or a politically motivated purge. Sylvia is the second general Hegseth has removed from the J5 position in just over a year. The allegations are serious, but they remain allegations, and the timing of his removal is especially concerning given what the Trump administration is reportedly preparing for in the coming days.
Donald Trump, the commander in chief, clearly had no idea who he was talking about. Hearing the name “Sylvia,” he assumed the general was a woman. “She’s got problems,” the President said. “She is going to have big problems. She did, we’re very much looking for leakers and she’s going to have big problems. Long-term problems.”
Brett Sylvia is a 54-year-old man and a three-star general. Someone who has dedicated his life to the military and his country, and the commander in chief of the United States military, publicly threatening him with serious consequences while apparently not even knowing who he was talking about. It raises a much bigger question about what is happening inside this administration, who is actually making these decisions, and how much Donald Trump even knows.
And his firing comes at the exact moment when the Pentagon is reportedly preparing for possible military action against Iran after the midterms. The office responsible for strategic military planning has been gutted, and the man who authorized it can’t identify the general by gender. He’s not commanding the military. He’s performing command while someone else moves the pieces.
I was on my walk with Pete when all of this news was breaking at once. I kept looking down at my phone and seeing one alarming news story after the other, and I kept thinking the same thing over and over: I just hope enough people are seeing this. I hope it’s reaching the ones who are still on the fence and need a reason to show up on Tuesday. Hopefully this is the thing that makes them want to vote against everyone aligned with Donald Trump and his cabinet of destroyers.
Just as I was deep in that thought, I looked up, and a person walking toward us had their ballot in their hand. Filled out and ready to be mailed or dropped off. Then another one passed, and then another. People aren’t just voting here in California; it’s happening everywhere. More than 39 million Americans have already voted. Georgia shattered its first-day early voting record for a midterm by more than 53,000 voters. States across the country are reporting turnout running ahead of both 2018 and 2022 at the same point. People are showing up, but today also carried a different kind of weight, because we learned that we lost someone who spent his life reminding us why showing up matters.
Yesterday, Sir Patrick Stewart passed away, a man who spent his entire career playing characters defined by the very qualities our president pretends to have: moral clarity, principled leadership, calm under pressure, and the ability to command a room without degrading everyone in it. Sir Patrick embodied them as well. Stewart didn’t just play a leader on screen. He wanted to become an American citizen specifically so he could fight Donald Trump and what he was doing to this country. In 2017, he announced that he was applying for citizenship so he could oppose the president and his policies. He despised the “self-interest” of politicians and believed young people should be given every chance to express their beliefs at the ballot box. He understood that democracy was not something we could simply take for granted, and he used his voice to remind Americans of the responsibility we have to protect it. Years ago, he posted on social media with the reminder that “Your country needs YOU (to vote).”
Even as he watched what was happening to this country, he never surrendered to the negativity. When asked if he was optimistic about humanity’s future, he answered, “I always have been. Always. Even at the most dismaying of times.” He wisely said, “I know it feels like two steps forward and one step back, but we are making progress.” Those words mean even more tonight than when he wrote them. Because even in our darkest moments, when it feels like we are losing everything we have fought so hard for, we cannot forget how far we have come, how many people are still fighting, and how much power we have when we refuse to give up on each other or the future of our country. In five days, we will have our votes counted and leave no doubt that America belongs to “We the People” and not Donald Trump and his enablers. 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: I was thinking back to two years ago, walking on the beach below this spot, and how much it feels like just yesterday and also decades ago. These past 24 months have been the slowest, fastest months I have ever lived. I hate how much living we have lost during this time. I recently heard an interview with Jenifer Lewis where she talked about how important it is, especially during these hard times, to remember to live while we are living. That really stuck with me. The MAGA cult members and Trump’s enablers are not losing sleep over the state of our country. They are going about their lives while so many of us are carrying the weight of what is happening every single day. I know we can’t just stop caring, and I wouldn’t want us to. But we have to find a way to keep living, too. We cannot let Donald Trump steal the next two years of our lives the way he has stolen so much of the last two. We have already given up so much time, peace, and moments we will never get back. We have to keep resisting, paying attention, and doing everything we can to save our country. But we also have to find joy in the middle of all of this. We have to take the walks, spend time with the people we love, laugh when something is funny, and allow ourselves to be happy without feeling guilty about it. Because the life we are fighting so hard to protect is the same life we deserve to be living right now.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Departure from Joint Base Andrews, Oct. 29, 2026: YouTube Video
President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Oct. 29, 2026: YouTube Video
https://www.rawstory.com/confused-trump-2678165434/
https://www.militarytimes.com/?p=168199
https://sos.ga.gov/news/georgians-shatter-first-day-early-voting-record
https://deadline.com/2026/10/patrick-stewart-dead-1237208580/
Well said, Ms. Reese.
Heather, once again, thank you for this comprehensive column. After reading, I felt more hopeful that the Trump administration will be packing their bags and leaving Washington before they are kicked (actual, not imaginative) out of their destructive roles.
I’m curious as to why the Republican Party is allowing their leader to discombobulate before our eyes. Are they hoping for his departure to a mental repair facility?
And while Trump and his party bring shame on themselves, and even the “better angels” (Abrahm Lincoln, a Republican at the time is credited with the quote), I am grateful for your stiffening of our backs and raising our confidence in the upcoming contests. I’ll happily hop onto to your “hope for America” bandwagon, but at the same time, pray.
Because of the writings of you, and other talented and responsible journalists, readers “recognize just how much danger our country is in.” Your description of a mass battlefield burial exercise at Fort Bragg is frightening. But if we imagine Trump and his enablers as the eventual occupants of the trenches, I will be mollified.