2023 GOP Presidential Debate Bingo Cards

Donald Trump's recent sit-down with Time Magazine for a wide-ranging interview under the title "If He Wins" provides clues that he has become increasingly "unfit" to hold office again, according to a professor from Arizona State University.

In his Substack column, author and scholar Steven Beschloss claimed every voter should be alarmed by the former president's answers, including suggestions that he is not averse to violence similar to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot if he fails to win re-election in 2024.

Posing the question over whether Trump is "unfit" to serve in the Oval Office again, he added the former president is now "dangerously unfit."

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Writing that Trump told Time reporter Eric Cortellessa of his desire to "pardon January 6 insurrectionists, deploy the National Guard in American cities at will, give police immunity from prosecution, close the White House office responsible for pandemic preparedness, and permit red states to monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute abortion ban violators," Beschloss claimed Trump's replies should raise red flags about his mental state.

Noting a close reading of the Time transcript reveals, "a deeply untrustworthy man untethered from reality, swarming in lies, absorbed by grievance, unable to grapple with policy nuance and dependent on empty slogans to motivate himself," he added, "None of this is surprising, but when you read through the hours of interview material, you can see just how shallow his thinking is, how unreliable are his pronouncements and equivocations, how utterly ill-equipped he is to confront the complexities of our modern world — and, really, how crazy it is that serious people are forced to take this man seriously."

According to Beschloss, Trump seems to believe "his rejection of factual reality is a badge of honor."

With that in mind, he warned, "It will take more than divine intervention to ensure a man like this never sees the inside of the Oval Office again. It will take all of us — and tens of millions of others who decide that they will vote and do everything they can to ensure the survival of American democracy, the promise of America, basic human decency and the primacy of factual reality."

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New York Judge Juan Merchan slapped former President Donald Trump with a $9,000 contempt of court fine on Tuesday for repeatedly violating the gag order in his Manhattan hush money trial to publicly attack witnesses and jurors — and warned him that a stay on Rikers Island could be in his future if he continues on his current path.

This led some commenters on social media to praise the judge — but many others urged him to stop showing so much restraint on Trump, who has already been fined multiple times for similar violations in his civil trials.

"BREAKING: Judge Merchan fines Trump for violating gag order 9 times," wrote political influencer Ed Krassenstein on X. "Trump has officially been held in contempt of court. But I'm sure that MAGA will claim that it's because the judge is biased and because Trump is being politically targeted, right? When will Republicans ever just say, 'Trump made a mistake?'"

"The $9,000 Trump has to pay for violating his gag order is good but isn’t going to stop him," wrote political podcaster "JoJoFromJerz." "I don’t see how he makes it through this trial without spending some time in the pokey."

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MSNBC political analyst Tim O'Brien had a sober assessment. "Trump will see Justice Merchan’s $9,000 fine for violating the gag order as a reasonable cost for the ability to continue attacking the judge, court and rule of law," he wrote. "It won’t stop him."

"If any of us violated a gag order so many times, we would be in custody," wrote legal expert and commentator John Collins.

Georgia State University constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis thinks this is an ominous sign for the former president.

"Judge Merchan makes plain by holding Donald Trump in contempt that the New York gag order is a blanket one covering any statements about witnesses, jurors, (or potential jurors earlier in the process)," he wrote.

"He has little room to run to the media: a danger zone for undisciplined Trump."