0:00

Your task will not be an easy one. Your

0:02

enemy is well trained, well equipped and

0:04

battle heart. There is not

0:07

a liberal America and a conservative

0:09

America. There is the United

0:11

States of America. And

0:16

what do you call it when your candidate cancels

0:19

events over and over and over again, 18 days

0:22

before a presidential election? What

0:25

do you call it when they cancel the 60 Minutes interview?

0:28

What do you call it when they cancel a CNBC interview? What

0:32

do you call it when they cancel a CNN interview? What

0:34

do you call it when they cancel a debate with their opponent,

0:36

the vice president of the United States of America? What

0:40

do you call it when you cancel a CNN town hall? When

0:44

you cancel an NBC interview? And

0:48

what do you call it when you cancel an

0:50

interview as the Republican nominee for president with the

0:52

National Rifle Association? You

0:55

know what you call it? You call it a secret. Something's

0:58

wrong with Donald Trump. Something's

1:01

very badly broken about Donald Trump. His team knows

1:03

it. He knows it. They're

1:06

desperately trying to play this out for the next 18 days

1:08

so that no one else finds out. But you know what?

1:11

It's hard to miss the elephant in the room. Look,

1:19

we all know what's going on. Donald

1:22

Trump is mentally and physically collapsing. His moral

1:24

collapse happens. Moral collapse happened years ago, so

1:26

don't worry about that part. We

1:30

saw him for over 30 minutes

1:33

earlier this week staring into

1:35

space at an event, playing

1:38

music, swaying back and forth. Totally

1:48

out of it. Not present. Not

1:50

mentally there. We

1:53

are seeing it in every single interview.

1:56

We saw it this week at the Chicago

1:59

Economic Forum interview. to

6:00

commerce, to labor, to

6:02

FEMA. This is why they're canceling these

6:04

events. He's too

6:06

tired. He's too sick. His brain is too

6:09

broken. And he can't keep doing this. He

6:12

has lost a fundamental

6:14

edge. You know, there's

6:18

an old Fitzgerald phrase about

6:20

bankruptcy. Ask somebody, how do you

6:22

go bankrupt? Oh, well, slowly and

6:24

then all at once. How

6:27

did Donald Trump go mentally bankrupt? And

6:29

then October. He

6:33

has for the last two weeks displayed

6:35

an acute, immediate,

6:37

severe mental decline. His

6:41

family should frankly have him withdraw from

6:43

the race and get

6:45

him some immediate medical attention. This

6:48

is elder abuse at this point, folks. It's

6:51

ugly. It's sad. And I don't

6:53

feel bad for Donald Trump for any reason. You

6:57

can't ignore the

6:59

fact that for their

7:01

own financial and political and personal gain, that

7:04

family is pretending Donald Trump is OK and he is not

7:06

OK. He's really,

7:08

really not OK. And

7:10

as with everything in the Trump universe,

7:13

any time they make an accusation, OK,

7:15

any accusation you ever hear, corrupt,

7:21

pedophile, criminal, thief,

7:24

whatever they say, it's

7:26

always projection 100 percent of

7:28

the time. So

7:31

what do you know? How do you know Trump is scared of this issue? Seven

7:35

separate tweets this week or communications at

7:37

these things where he said, oh, my

7:40

cognitive is better than hers. She

7:42

needs to take a cognitive test, not me. I

7:45

have better cognitive skills. She's got cognitive

7:47

trouble. Let me tell you something, folks. Even

7:51

if you're a MAGA, even

7:53

if you're a true Trump believer, you

7:56

know in your heart that that

7:58

is a line of bullshit. so

8:00

wide and stinky as to defy

8:02

most zoning laws in every non-rural

8:05

county in America. It's

8:07

just garbage and you know it. He's

8:10

the one who's slipping. He's projecting in

8:12

a way that is just terrible. Donald

8:15

Trump may not know who he is part

8:18

of the time now. I really believe

8:20

that. I really believe he has lost the ability to

8:23

focus on anything

8:26

outside of this greatest hits tape that plays in

8:28

his head all the time. He's

8:31

making stuff up. He's

8:33

engaging in weirdo conspiracy theories and

8:35

wistful thinking and all that I

8:38

think comes down to a fundamental mental disease

8:40

or disorder. Of course, I'm not a

8:42

doctor. I don't play one on TV either, but

8:45

this guy's broken and you know it.

8:48

You know he's broken. You know he's fucked

8:50

up. You know

8:52

from the performances that this guy

8:55

is a fundamentally ill

8:57

person. And again, I don't

9:00

have a lot of pity for Donald Trump, but

9:02

I don't want to see any elder person abuse. I don't

9:04

want to see any senior get abused like this, but

9:07

yet they keep putting him on the road. Now

9:09

the senior staff is taking them off these campaign

9:11

events and they're telling him, oh

9:13

Donald, they had to cancel, but they're not. They

9:17

are canceling these things because they're

9:19

afraid of what he's going to say. They

9:22

know every day that he says something, he

9:24

said every day he says something out

9:27

there, he's hurting his campaign. He's

9:29

decreasing his chances of victory. He's

9:32

breaking one more small

9:34

parcel here, small parcel of their voters off

9:36

of the Trump coalition. Because

9:39

remember, what was the predicate of Trump in

9:41

16? Three

9:44

big things. One

9:46

was that he was so rich he was

9:48

incorruptible and he would drain the Washington swamp.

9:50

He would clean it all out. It all

9:52

would be better if Trump got there and

9:54

imposed his two-fisted management on DC. The

9:58

second was that he was aggressive

10:00

and entertaining and was

10:02

a strong alpha male.

10:06

And there's a cohort of the Republican Party,

10:08

male and some female that really liked that.

10:11

They liked the whole swaggering act. They

10:15

liked the contradiction of a guy who

10:17

wears more makeup than RuPaul, higher heels

10:19

than most women, a girdle,

10:24

and does his hair for more

10:26

hours during the day than

10:28

I spend eating food and I

10:31

eat food. That

10:35

was always an irony. They loved that sort of like

10:38

macho character he played. That's

10:40

gone now. He seems weak and frail

10:43

and smaller. He seems like

10:45

an old lost creature now. He doesn't seem

10:47

like the guy that was dominating the stage

10:49

in 2016. And

10:51

you saw it with Harris during their debate

10:53

where she just owned him. She's much smaller

10:55

than he is, but she just owned

10:58

him. Her physicality was much

11:00

more confident and powerful. And

11:04

the number one thing they loved about Trump was he was the

11:06

avatar of all their anger. And

11:09

they blamed it on economic anxiety, which is

11:11

of course English for

11:14

racism and oppositional

11:16

defiant disorder and hatred and

11:18

a whole variety of bullshit

11:21

grievances that they claim are the center of

11:23

their lives and yet are really meaningless in

11:25

almost every way. He

11:28

can't deliver any of that now. He

11:31

can't deliver being the angel of their

11:33

vengeance. He's out there threatening to

11:35

put his political opponents in jail, but

11:37

he won't be the president for very

11:39

long. J.D. Vance will

11:41

be the president. And J.D.

11:43

doesn't, I'm not a fan of J.D. Vance,

11:46

but it's hard to see him pulling

11:48

off and having the power

11:50

over so many of the Republican-based voters to

11:53

insist that elected officials follow his lead on

11:56

something like that, something that egregious. He

12:01

can't pull off the

12:05

powerful stage figure, the big entertainer,

12:07

the macho character. He can't do

12:09

it anymore. It doesn't work.

12:12

It is so fundamentally disconnected from who

12:15

you see now. And

12:18

finally, you look

12:21

at this guy's answers. You look at the way he's

12:23

wandering all over the map. And

12:25

there are voters now being able to project forward. Remember,

12:29

one of the great delusions of

12:31

maga is, I don't like Trump very

12:33

much, but I do like his policies.

12:36

It's always been horseshit, of course. But

12:39

it's harder now to see them, to see

12:43

Trump executing what they

12:45

want. You look at

12:47

Trump today and you think Trump could pull off another deal like he

12:49

did for his tax bill? No way. You

12:52

look at Trump today and you think that Donald Trump's going

12:54

to negotiate with anybody from another country? They're

12:56

going to go in there and throw gummy bears on

12:59

the table and they'll sit there licking it for an

13:01

hour. This

13:03

guy is now easily overcome by

13:05

inanimate objects. He's got the

13:07

IQ of a toaster of them. So

13:10

voters aren't able to see that

13:12

idea that Trump's going to go

13:14

in and lead or protect America

13:16

or negotiate good deals or

13:19

implement much of anything that

13:21

would benefit them. And a lot of Republican voters,

13:24

they are slipping from Trump because they feel

13:26

that way. He also is

13:28

saying things that are outrageous and truly

13:31

off the chain. Like this week, he

13:34

claimed to be the father of IVF. Oh,

13:36

I want to talk about IVF. I'm

13:38

the father of IVF. I

13:42

want to hear this question. I

13:47

miss the part where Donald Trump was

13:49

a scientific researcher or a

13:52

gynecologist. He may want to be

13:54

an amateur gynecologist, but that's a whole grotesque thing

13:56

about Trump in general. But

13:59

as you go forward into the... next couple of weeks. And

14:01

we're, we're, the clock's running down guys. 18 days, 18

14:03

days. And

14:07

you're going to see a real tension inside the

14:09

Trump campaign. Kelly

14:11

and Conway knew when they pulled Trump off

14:13

the trail in

14:16

2016 that it helped him. When

14:18

voters imagined who they thought Trump was and

14:22

didn't get to see him every day, his numbers went

14:24

up. I

14:27

don't think that he can do that this time, even

14:29

though his staff desperately wants him off the road, they

14:32

don't want him out talking. They don't want him

14:34

out doing these shenanigans. But man,

14:37

he is kind of, he's in a tight wedge

14:39

right now. It is beautiful. I

14:41

am thrilled by how painful this

14:43

is going to be for the Trump team. The

14:46

other reason, by the way, that

14:49

this decline is so important because

14:52

it is a decline folks. You can't deny it.

14:55

You cannot look inside your heart and say, Oh yes,

14:57

Donald Trump is more spry, smart,

15:01

verbally, acute, mentally

15:03

present, intellectually ready for

15:05

the job of president. He's just as good

15:08

as Kamala Harris is without

15:12

going back and recognizing what the trap that

15:14

Trump finds himself in came from three

15:19

years ago, shortly after the election.

15:21

Hang on a second. This

15:28

spice must flow. Three

15:30

years ago, shortly after

15:33

the election, the

15:35

Trump team started saying

15:38

Joe Biden is too old. Joe

15:40

Biden is too old. Joe Biden is not

15:42

all there. Joe Biden is elderly.

15:44

Joe Biden forgets things. Joe Biden can't

15:47

remember to stay on topic. Joe Biden

15:49

is weak. Joe Biden is not the

15:51

man he was. The

15:54

reason this trap was set was

15:57

brilliant. strategically

16:00

the right thing for the Republicans to try

16:02

to do it put

16:04

Biden in a terrible box where any stumble

16:07

became a story to

16:09

wit the debate But

16:13

that trap once Biden left the race

16:15

was still laying around out there in the tall grass Donald

16:19

Trump walked into it He

16:21

walked into it He put his foot in it and his dick

16:23

in it and he rolled around in the trap and

16:26

now it sprung You

16:29

Set a standard Donald you and your team you

16:32

said someone who was too old to

16:35

do the things that you claimed

16:37

were necessary Could

16:39

never be president again Well,

16:42

Joe Biden made a great sacrifice and left

16:44

this race Kamala

16:46

Harris is about 60 years old

16:48

little younger a Physically

16:51

fit mentally aware and acute ready

16:54

to lead ready to govern ready

16:56

to connect with people and know what they're saying Ready

17:01

to understand What's

17:03

going on around her? ready

17:05

to articulate policies that actually exist in the

17:07

real world as opposed to your glacellalia

17:10

of of bizarro world

17:13

Economic ideas your canticles of

17:15

bullshit all of it. She's

17:18

the exact opposite She's much

17:20

more competent much more capable. It's why she gets

17:22

better ratings than you do on Fox tunnel Because

17:25

even they have to acknowledge it even

17:27

they want the star power and

17:30

so That

17:32

trap that's holding him down so

17:35

terribly right now is what

17:38

he built for himself Couldn't

17:40

happen to alert a less deserving person

17:43

You're gonna see more of the decline in the

17:45

next 18 days. It is gonna it is gonna

17:47

be painful to watch You're

17:49

gonna see her pressing him harder and harder

17:51

to engage with her. It's gonna be painful

17:54

to watch You're

17:56

gonna see him lie and wheel around every

17:58

idea in the son and try to throw

18:00

everything at the wall. He's

18:04

aware enough that the trouble he's in, that

18:06

he feels he has to. He's

18:08

right. He does have to. But it's not

18:10

going to go easy. It's not going to go well. And

18:13

that folks is going to end

18:15

up with Donald Trump, I believe, losing this election. Now

18:19

with that, I want to wrap up this episode of

18:21

the elephant in the room and ask you very kindly

18:23

to do a couple of things for me here at

18:25

the very end of the campaign season. The

18:28

Lincoln Project is still trying to fund and

18:31

round out our final investments in

18:33

Pennsylvania. You go to LincolnProject.us slash

18:35

donate if you want to help with that campaign.

18:37

You can see the ads there as well that

18:39

were running in Pennsylvania to persuade Republican voters right

18:42

now. That would be amazing. Secondly,

18:46

we're going to be putting out a lot of

18:48

information and a lot of content for you to

18:50

keep your head clear, your eyes clear, your head

18:52

up, and your mind

18:54

engaged with what's really going on in the campaign over

18:56

the next 18 days. You're going to probably see more

18:58

of me than you want. But

19:00

if you would be so kind, I would love for

19:02

you to go to our YouTube channel and subscribe to

19:05

follow us on threads. Follow us on the

19:07

Elon Musk health site. We still fight it

19:09

out there every day. But

19:12

in YouTube especially, that's where a lot of this

19:14

content is going to pop out. If you want

19:17

to also follow my sub stack at therickwelson.substack.com.

19:19

I write a lot of stuff there that's not

19:21

just Lincoln Project, a little beyond that. But

19:24

all of these things in the last two

19:26

and a half weeks of this campaign are

19:29

going to rely on us sticking together, being

19:31

on message, being disciplined, being focused, being ready

19:33

to fight every single day. I would

19:35

be honored if you would do those things and I

19:37

will talk to you again next Friday and we

19:39

will visit another elephant in the room. The

19:45

Lincoln Project podcast is a Lincoln

19:47

Project production. Executive produced by

19:50

Whitney Hayes, Ben Howe, and Joseph Warner

19:52

Chaney. And edited by Whitney Hayes and

19:54

Jeff Taylor.